Host Your Own Reddit Alternative with Lemmy in Docker

What is Lemmy?

Lemmy is an open-source, federated link aggregator similar to Reddit and built with Rust.
  1. Log into the host device
  2. Run the following commands in terminal
    # install docker and docker-compose
    sudo apt install docker docker-compose docker.io
    # create a working directory
    sudo mkdir lemmy && cd lemmy/
    # download the container files
    sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/main/docker/prod/docker-compose.yml
    sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/main/docker/lemmy.hjson
    sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/main/docker/iframely.config.local.js
    # create pictrs directory
    sudo mkdir -p volumes/pictrs
    sudo chown -R 991:991 volumes/pictrs
    # edit docker-compose.yml
    sudo nano docker-compose.yml
  3. Scroll down to the POSTGRES_PASSWORD line and enter a secure password
  4. Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes to docker-compose.yml
  5. Continue with the following command
    sudo nano lemmy.hjson
  6. Press CTRL + W and search for database
  7. Scroll down to the database password and update the value to match the value set in docker-compose.yml earlier
  8. Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes to lemmy.hjson
  9. Run the following command to start the Lemmy Docker container
    sudo docker-compose up -d
  10. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP:1235
  11. Log into Lemmy with the username and password lemmy