Docker

Netatalk comes with a Dockerfile and entry point script for running a
containerized AFP server and AppleTalk services.

Out of the box, exactly two users, and two shared volumes are supported in this
container. One of the shared volumes is a Time Machine backup volume by default.
If you need a different setup, please use the manual configuration option.

Make sure you have Docker Engine installed, then build the netatalk container:

docker build -t netatalk:latest .

Alternatively, pull a pre-built Docker image from Docker Hub.

How to Run

Once you have the netatalk image on your machine with Docker Engine, run it with
docker run or docker compose.

To enable full functionality including Zeroconf service discovery and AppleTalk,
use the host network driver.

For a hardened deployment, use the bridge network driver and expose port 548 for
AFP. However, this means that you will have to manually specify the IP address
in the client when connecting to the file server.

It is recommended to set up either a bind mount, or a Docker managed volume for
persistent storage. Without this, the shared volume be stored in volatile
storage that is lost upon container shutdown.

For Docker Compose, you can use the sample docker-compose.yml file that is
distributed with this source code.

Below follows a sample docker run command. Substitute /path/to/share with an
actual path on your file system with appropriate permissions, AFP_USER and
AFP_PASS with the appropriate user and password, and ATALKD_INTERFACE with the
network interface to use for AppleTalk.

You also need to set the timezone with TZ to the IANA time zone ID for your
location, in order to get the correct time synchronized with the Timelord time
server.

docker run --rm \
  --network host \
  --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
  --volume "/path/to/share:/mnt/afpshare" \
  --volume "/path/to/backup:/mnt/afpbackup" \
  --volume "/var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus" \
  --env AFP_USER= \
  --env AFP_PASS= \
  --env AFP_GROUP=afpusers \
  --env ATALKD_INTERFACE= \
  --env TZ= \
  --name netatalk netatalk:latest

Constraints

In order to use Zeroconf service discovery as well as the AppleTalk transport
layer, the host network driver and NET_ADMIN capabilities are mandatory.

Additionally, we rely on the host's DBUS for Zeroconf, achieved with a bind
mount such as /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus. The left hand side of the bind mount
is the host machine, and the right hand side is the container. The host machine
path may have to be changed to match the location of DBUS on the host machine.

On certain host OSes, notably Ubuntu: if the Apparmor security policy restricts
D-Bus messages, enable the unconfined security option.

Example for the docker compose yaml configuration file:

    security_opt:
      - apparmor=unconfined

See the Docker AppArmor security profiles documentation for further details.

The container is hard coded to output afpd (the Netatalk file server daemon)
logs to the container's stdout, with default log level info. Logs from the
AppleTalk daemons are sent to the syslog.

Printing

The CUPS administrative web app is running on port 631 in the container, which
is exposed to the host machine by default when using the host network driver.
This is used to configure CUPS compatible printers for printing from an old Mac
or Apple IIGS.

You may have to restart papd (or the entire container) after adding a CUPS
printer for it to be picked up as an AppleTalk printer.

Environment Variables

Mandatory

These are required to set the credentials used to authenticate with the file
server.

| Variable | Description | | --- | --- | | AFP_USER | Primary user of the shared
volumes | | AFP_PASS | Password to authenticate with the primary user | |
AFP_GROUP | Group that owns the shared volume dirs |

Mandatory for AppleTalk

| Variable | Description | | --- | --- | | ATALKD_INTERFACE | The network
interface to use for AppleTalk | | TZ | The timezone to use for the container;
must be a IANA time zone ID |

Optional

| Variable | Description |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| AFP_UID | Specify user id of AFP_USER | | AFP_GID | Specify group id of
AFP_GROUP | | AFP_USER2 | Username for the secondary user | | AFP_PASS2 |
Password for the secondary user | | SERVER_NAME | The name of the server (AFP
and Zeroconf) | | SHARE_NAME | The name of the primary shared volume | |
SHARE2_NAME | The name of the secondary shared (Time Machine) volume | |
AFP_LOGLEVEL | The verbosity of logs; default is "info" | | AFP_MIMIC_MODEL |
Use a custom modern AFP icon, such as Tower or RackMount | | AFP_LEGACY_ICON |
Use a custom legacy AFP icon, such as daemon or sdcard | | INSECURE_AUTH | When
non-zero, enable the "ClearTxt" and "Guest" UAMs | | DISABLE_TIMEMACHINE | When
non-zero, the secondary shared volume is a regular volume | | MANUAL_CONFIG |
When non-zero, enable manual management of config files | | ATALKD_OPTIONS | A
string with options to append to atalkd.conf | | AFP_DROPBOX | Enable dropbox
mode; turns secondary user into guest with read only access to the second shared
volume |
