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`utils/lxc.sh`

With the use of Linux Containers (LXC) we can scale our tasks over a stack of containers, what we call the: lxc suite. The lxc-searxng.env is loaded by default, every time you start the lxc.sh script (you do not need to care about).

further reading

Contents

Install LXD

Before you can start with containers, you need to install and initiate LXD once:

$ snap install lxd
$ lxd init --auto

To make use of the containers from the SearXNG suite, you have to build the LXC suite containers <lxc.sh help> initial. But be warned, this might take some time:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh build

hint

If you have issues with the internet connectivity of your containers read section internet connectivity docker.

A cup of coffee later, your LXC suite is build up and you can run whatever task you want / in a selected or even in all LXC suite containers <lxc.sh help>.

Internet Connectivity & Docker

further read

There is a conflict in the iptables setup of Docker & LXC. If you have docker installed, you may find that the internet connectivity of your LXD containers no longer work.

Whenever docker is started (reboot) it sets the iptables policy for the FORWARD chain to DROP [ref]:

$ sudo -H iptables-save | grep FORWARD
:FORWARD ACCEPT [7048:7851230]
:FORWARD DROP [7048:7851230]

A handy solution of this problem might be to reset the policy for the FORWARD chain after the network has been initialized. For this create a file in the if-up section of the network (/etc/network/if-up.d/iptable) and insert the following lines:

#!/bin/sh
iptables -F FORWARD
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

Don't forget to set the execution bit:

sudo chmod ugo+x /etc/network/if-up.d/iptable

Reboot your system and check the iptables rules:

$ sudo -H iptables-save | grep FORWARD
:FORWARD ACCEPT [7048:7851230]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [7048:7851230]

SearXNG LXC suite

The intention of the SearXNG LXC suite is to build up a suite of containers for development tasks or buildhosts <Setup SearXNG buildhost> with a very small set of simple commands. At the end of the --help output the SearXNG suite from the lxc-searxng.env is introduced:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh --help
...
LXC suite: searxng
  Suite includes installation of SearXNG
  images:     ubu2004 ubu2204 fedora35 archlinux
  containers: searxng-ubu2004 searxng-ubu2204 searxng-fedora35 searxng-archlinux

As shown above there are images and containers build up on this images. To show more info about the containers in the SearXNG LXC suite call show suite. If this is the first time you make use of the SearXNG LXC suite, no containers are installed and the output is:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh show suite

LXC suite (searxng-*)
=====================

+------+-------+------+------+------+-----------+
| NAME | STATE | IPV4 | IPV6 | TYPE | SNAPSHOTS |
+------+-------+------+------+------+-----------+

WARN:  container searxng-ubu2004 does not yet exists
WARN:  container searxng-ubu2204 does not yet exists
WARN:  container searxng-fedora35 does not yet exists
WARN:  container searxng-archlinux does not yet exists

If you do not want to run a command or a build in all containers, you can build just one. Here by example in the container that is build upon the archlinux image:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh build searxng-archlinux
$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux pwd

Otherwise, to apply a command to all containers you can use:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh build
$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd -- ls -la .

Running commands

Inside containers, you can run scripts from the toolboxing or run what ever command you need. By example, to start a bash use:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux bash
INFO:  [searxng-archlinux] bash
[root@searxng-archlinux SearXNG]#

Good to know

Each container shares the root folder of the repository and the command utils/lxc.sh cmd handle relative path names transparent:

$ pwd
/share/SearXNG

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux pwd
INFO:  [searxng-archlinux] pwd
/share/SearXNG

The path /share/SearXNG will be different on your HOST system. The commands in the conatiner are executed by the root inside of the container. Compare output of:

$ ls -li Makefile
47712402 -rw-rw-r-- 1 markus markus 2923 Apr 19 13:52 Makefile

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux ls -li Makefile
INFO:  [searxng-archlinux] ls -li Makefile
47712402 -rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 2923 Apr 19 11:52 Makefile
...

Since the path /share/SearXNG of the HOST system is wrapped into the container under the same name, the shown Makefile (inode 47712402) in the ouput is always the identical /share/SearXNG/Makefile from the HOST system. In the example shown above the owner of the path in the container is the root user of the conatiner (and the timezone in the container is different to HOST system).

Install suite

further read

working in containers
FORCE_TIMEOUT <FORCE_TIMEOUT>

To install the complete SearXNG suite <lxc-searxng.env> into all LXC containers leave the container argument empty and run:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh build
$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh install suite

To build & install suite only in one container you can use by example:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh build searxng-archlinux
$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh install suite searxng-archlinux

The command above installs a SearXNG suite (see installation scripts). To install a nginx <installation nginx> reverse proxy (or alternatively use apache <installation apache>):

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd -- FORCE_TIMEOUT=0 ./utils/searxng.sh install nginx

Same operation just in one container of the suite:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux FORCE_TIMEOUT=0 ./utils/searxng.sh install nginx

The FORCE_TIMEOUT <FORCE_TIMEOUT> environment is set to zero to run the script without user interaction.

To get the IP (URL) of the SearXNG service in the containers use show suite command. To test instances from containers just open the URLs in your WEB-Browser:

$ sudo ./utils/lxc.sh show suite | grep SEARXNG_URL

[searxng-ubu2110]      SEARXNG_URL          : http://n.n.n.170/searxng
[searxng-ubu2004]      SEARXNG_URL          : http://n.n.n.160/searxng
[searxnggfedora35]     SEARXNG_URL          : http://n.n.n.150/searxng
[searxng-archlinux]    SEARXNG_URL          : http://n.n.n.140/searxng

Clean up

If there comes the time you want to get rid off all the containers and clean up local images just type:

$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh remove
$ sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh remove images

Setup SearXNG buildhost

You can install the SearXNG buildhost environment into one or all containers. The installation procedure to set up a build host<buildhosts> takes its time. Installation in all containers will take more time (time for another cup of coffee). :

sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd -- ./utils/searxng.sh install buildhost

To build (live) documentation inside a archlinux container:

sudo -H ./utils/lxc.sh cmd searxng-archlinux make docs.clean docs.live
...
[I 200331 15:00:42 server:296] Serving on http://0.0.0.0:8080

To get IP of the container and the port number live docs is listening:

$ sudo ./utils/lxc.sh show suite | grep docs.live
...
[searxng-archlinux]  INFO:  (eth0) docs.live:  http://n.n.n.140:8080/

Command Help

The --help output of the script is largely self-explanatory:

../utils/lxc.sh --help

SearXNG suite config

The SearXNG suite is defined in the file utils/lxc-searxng.env:

../../utils/lxc-searxng.env

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utils/lxc.sh