melotools/monero repository overview

⁠Supported tags

• latest (This is the most recent Monero master branch commit.)
• 850edfe4199458314346e2910550b33663310f42 (This is a specific Monero master branch commit, specified by commit hash.)
• most_recent_tag (This is the most recent Monero tag.)
• v0.17.1.5 (This is a specific Monero tag.)

For running monerod or monero-wallet-rpc or monero-wallet-cli in a docker container.

This daemon is built from source: monero project⁠.

• Monero stable for stagenet/mainnet: Use version tags like v0.17.1.5.
• testnet: Use the master tag.
  • Generally, it is recommended to use master branch when working on testnet.
  • Of course, latest can also be used with mainnet and stagenet.
• The latest docker image is based on master branch.
• Monero tools can also be used through the Tor network, see Tor software below.

readline is finally compiled into the binaries, so using monero-wallet-cli is way more convenient.

⁠system and binary information

⁠default configuration

• docker container user running monero
  • USER_ID can be used to set the user who runs monero
    • -e USER_ID=1000
  • The container can also be started with --user 1000
    • No existing user is used then
  • Running monero as root is not possible (USER_ID defaults to 1000).
    • Of course, you can still disable the entrypoint with --entrypoint="" and run as root with -u 0 ...
• monerod and monero-wallet-rpc
  • --log-level=$LOG_LEVEL (default: 0) (also monero-wallet-cli)
  • --confirm-external-bind
  • --rpc-bind-ip=$RPC_BIND_IP (default: 0.0.0.0)
  • --rpc-bind-port=$RPC_BIND_PORT (default: 28081)
  • --rpc-login $RPC_USER:$RPC_PASSWD (default RPC_USER: "", default RPC_PASSWD: "")
    • For authentication, please see below.
• only monerod
  • --p2p-bind-ip=$P2P_BIND_IP (default: 0.0.0.0)
  • --p2p-bind-port=$P2P_BIND_PORT (default: 28080)
• only monero-wallet-rpc and monero-wallet-cli
  • --daemon-host=$DAEMON_HOST (default: 127.0.0.1)
  • --daemon-port=$DAEMON_PORT (default: 28081)
  • --password=$WALLET_PASSWD (default: "")
    • For wallet password, please see below.
• Adapt default configuration using environment variables:
  • -e LOG_LEVEL=3
  • -e RPC_USER=user
  • -e RPC_PASSWD=passwd
  • -e RPC_BIND_IP=127.0.0.1
  • -e RPC_BIND_PORT=18081
  • -e P2P_BIND_IP=0.0.0.0
  • -e P2P_BIND_PORT=18080
  • -e DAEMON_HOST=localhost (assuming daemon is running locally)
  • -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 (assuming daemon listens on port 18081)
• Using monerod, monero-wallet-rpc and monero-wallet-cli with torsocks:
  • -e USE_TORSOCKS=YES (default: NO)
• Running the Tor proxy (tor) within the container:
  • -e USE_TOR=YES (default: NO)
• Log files:
  • The size of log files is limited to around 5.1 MB.
  • The number of log files is capped at 3.
  • By using --max-log-file-size 5242880 --max-log-files 3 in the entrypoint script.

⁠hint:

• The IPs, the daemon or RPC are binding to, need to be 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1 within a docker container.
• The path /monero in the docker container is a volume and can be mapped to a path on the client.

Check the repository for docker-compose templates. They show configuration examples of monerod and monero-wallet-rpc, respectively.

⁠authentication

Authentication can be activated for monerod and monero-wallet-rpc.

If the environment variables RPC_USER and RPC_PASSWD are set, the container's entrypoint script adds the option --rpc-login $RPC_USER:$RPC_PASSWD.

If you don't provide user and password, you have two options:

• Add --disable-rpc-login when starting the container to remove authentication.
• Use the default user monero, password is a randomly generated string. In this case, the login information is written into a file:

  # log message on starting monero-walet-rpc
  WARN 	wallet.rpc	src/wallet/wallet_rpc_server.cpp:225	RPC username/password is stored in file monero-wallet-rpc.38083.login
  # example output
  monero:6xsMGa/BPkHJJvf0y+fYRg==root@78b746205a4b
  

  Copy
  • You can get the information like this:

  docker exec rpc_user cat /monero/monero-wallet-rpc.38083.login
  

  Copy

Example requesting the rpc:

    curl -u user:password --digest http://localhost:18081

It is always recommended to use RPC authentication.

⁠wallet password

The wallet password can be configured for monero-wallet-cli and monero-wallet-rpc.

If the environment variable WALLET_PASSWD is set, the container's entrypoint script adds the option --password $WALLET_PASSWD.

If you don't provide a wallet password that way:

• You could set --password-file wallet.passwd and add a file containing the wallet password to the mounted voume.

It is always recommended to use a wallet password.

⁠raw commands

It is also possible to deactivate the entrpoint script.

This way, it is possible to define and configure e.g. the monero-wallet-rpc yourself:

docker run --rm -d --net host -v <path/to/and/including/wallet_folder>:/monero --entrypoint="" melotools/monero monero-wallet-rpc --log-level 2 --daemon-host node.melo.tools --daemon-port 18081 --confirm-external-bind --rpc-login user:passwd --rpc-bind-ip 0.0.0.0 --rpc-bind-port 18083 --wallet-file wallet --password-file wallet.passwd

⁠monerod

Without any additional command

docker run --rm -it melotools/monero

monerod starts with the above default configuration plus the following option:

• --check-updates disabled

Any additional monerod parameters can be passed as command:

docker run --rm -d -p 18081:18081 -v <path/to/and/including/.bitmonero>:/monero melotools/monero --data-dir /monero

Not specifying a host port in -p <host_port>:<container_port> docker will automatically assign a free port on the host.

docker run --rm -d -p 18081 -v <path/to/and/including/.bitmonero>:/monero melotools/monero --data-dir /monero

However, this only works for the common Monero network ports:

• 18080
• 18081
• 28080
• 28081
• 38080
• 38081

⁠user

Run monerod as different user (uid != 1000 && uid != 0). This is useful if deployed to several systems (AWS ec2-user: uid=500).

Abbreviated command:

docker run --rm -d -p 18081:18081 -e USER_ID=500 -v <host>:<container> melotools/monero <options>

⁠hint

The path /monero is supposed to be used as --data-dir configuration for monerod. Here the synchronized blockchain data is stored. So when mounted, /monero should contain the files from within .bitmonero.

⁠monero-wallet-rpc

When used as monero-wallet-rpc the full command is necessary as command to docker run:

Passing the pasword as environment variable:

docker run --rm -d --net host -e DAEMON_HOST=node.melo.tools -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 -e RPC_BIND_PORT=18083 -e RPC_USER=user -e RPC_PASSWD=passwd -e WALLET_PASSWD=securePasswd -v <path/to/and/including/wallet_folder>:/monero melotools/monero monero-wallet-rpc  --wallet-file wallet

Using a password file:

docker run --rm -d --net host -e DAEMON_HOST=node.melo.tools -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 -e RPC_BIND_PORT=18083 -e RPC_USER=user -e RPC_PASSWD=passwd -v <path/to/and/including/wallet_folder>:/monero melotools/monero monero-wallet-rpc  --wallet-file wallet --password-file wallet.passwd

⁠user

Run monero-wallet-rpc as different user (uid != 1000 && uid != 0). This is useful if deployed to several systems (AWS ec2-user: uid=500).

Abbreviated command:

docker run --rm -d --net host -e DAEMON_HOST=node.melo.tools -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 -e RPC_BIND_PORT=18083 -e USER_ID=500 -v <host>:<container> melotools/monero monero-wallet-rpc <options>

⁠rpc

monero-wallet-rpc starts with the above default configuration plus additional options passed in the actual docker run command, like -e RPC_BIND_PORT=18083.

⁠hint

The path /monero is supposed to contain the actual wallet files. So when mounted, /monero should contain the files from within e.g. ~/Monero/wallets/my_wallet/.

⁠monero-wallet-cli

When used as monero-wallet-cli the full command is necessary as command to docker run:

docker run --rm -it -e DAEMON_HOST=node.melo.tools -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 -v <path/to/and/including/wallet_folder>:/monero --net host melotools/monero monero-wallet-cli --wallet-file wallet --password-file wallet.passwd

Due to -it (interactive terminal), you will end up within the container and can use the monero-wallet-cli commands.

⁠user

Run monero-wallet-cli as different user (uid != 1000 && uid != 0). This is useful if deployed to several systems (AWS ec2-user: uid=500).

Abbreviated command:

docker run --rm -it --net host -e DAEMON_HOST=node.melo.tools -e DAEMON_PORT=18081 -e USER_ID=500 -v <host>:<container> melotools/monero monero-wallet-cli <options>

⁠hint

The path /monero is supposed to contain the actual wallet files. So when mounted, /monero should contain the files from within e.g. ~/Monero/wallets/my_wallet/.

⁠Tor software

Additional software installed:

• torsocks
• tor

You can find the following information within the docker image:

• /torsocks.txt contains output of torsocks --version
• /tor.txt contains output of tor --version

⁠using torsocks

Every monero docker image comes with torsocks.

To start monerod, monero-wallet-rpc and monero-wallet-cli using torsocks, the environment variable USE_TORSOCKS=YES should be passed into the container. In case you use an external Tor proxy, you should run the monero docker container with --net host (docker cli) or network_mode: "host" (docker-compose), in order to make the host's localhost (and hence the external Tor proxy port) available to torsocks - provided the Tor proxy runs on the host's localhost. Please see below.

The following configuraion file /etc/tor/torsocks.conf is used:

TorAddress 127.0.0.1
TorPort 9050

OnionAddrRange 127.42.42.0/24

AllowInbound 1

The option AllowInbound is set to 1, in order to allow binding the monero daemon to all interfaces (0.0.0.0) - within docker containers.

Please also refer to melotools/tor⁠ for further details.

⁠using the Tor proxy

There are two options:

• a single container containing monero and Tor proxy,
• sparate containers for monero and Tor proxy.

Generally it is more recommended to have one single process within a docker container. separate containers

⁠single image including the Tor proxy

Every monero docker image comes with tor.

The tor proxy is started within the docker image, when the environment variable USE_TOR=YES is set.

Against docker best practices (1 service per container), this monero tor docker image bundles monero tools with the Tor proxy witihn a single docker image.

The following configuraion file /etc/tor/torrc is used:

RunAsDaemon 1
User debian-tor
SOCKSPort 0.0.0.0:9050
## comment for local use with e.g. curl
# SOCKSPolicy "reject *"

HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/daemons/
HiddenServicePort 18081 127.0.0.1:18081
HiddenServicePort 28081 127.0.0.1:28081
HiddenServicePort 38081 127.0.0.1:38081

DataDirectory /var/lib/tor
Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log

In this case the monero daemon ports available in the clearnet, are forwarded by the Tor proxy into the Tor network. The option SOCKSPort is bound to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces), in order to make it run within the docker container. The option HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/daemons/ can be used as docker volume to provide the files hostname and private_key.

After starting the docker container you will find your hostname (.onion address) here:

docker exec <container_name> cat /var/lib/tor/daemons/hostname

Please also refer to melotools/tor⁠ for further details.

⁠separate images

The monero tools and the Tor proxy can also be run in separate containers (from separate images or processes on the host).

In this case, you need to make the host's localhost available within the monero docker container - see above using torsocks.

Please also refer to melotools/tor⁠ for further details.

⁠docker container configuration examples

• serve monerod in the Tor network
  • USE_TOR=YES
  • USE_TORSOCKS=NO
  • Check tor configuration
  • Consider using SOCKSPolicy "reject *"
• run monero-wallet-rpc or monero-wallet-cli over the Tor network
  • running Tor proxy contained in the image
    • USE_TOR=YES
    • USE_TORSOCKS=YES
  • running an external Tor proxy
    • USE_TOR=NO
    • USE_TORSOCKS=YES
  • Check tor configuration

Please also refer to melotools/tor⁠ for further details.