Information for restarting the container

[mirkomaty]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I started the container using the command from the documentation:

docker run -it --shm-size=16g \
  -e PBF_URL=http://download.geofabrik.de/europe/germany-latest.osm.pbf \
  -e REPLICATION_URL=http://download.geofabrik.de/europe/germany-updates/ \
  -e IMPORT_WIKIPEDIA=false \
  -e NOMINATIM_PASSWORD=Haf9LiIp#Pah \
  -v /var/www/nominatim/app/data:/var/lib/postgresql/16/main \
  -v /var/www/nominatim/app/flat:/nominatim/flatnode \
  -p 127.0.0.1:5006:8080 \
  --name nominatim \
  mediagis/nominatim:4.5

But this opens a Terminal Session, which is not, what most people need. So I wanted to restart the container with different parameters. But I wasn't able to start the container based on the data that had already been generated. Every restart of the container seems to rebuild the data.

Describe the solution you'd like
I would appreciate finding a description of parameters that can be used to start the container based on the already existing data. It would also be helpful to know whether you can start the container with --restart-unless-stopped.
Maybe this information already exists somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.

[mirkomaty]

I just stumbled over issue #577. There is obviously a piece of information here that "less-skilled users" (like me) miss. I understand Issue #577 like this: If I start the container on a system and the system needs a reboot, then the entire database is downloaded again and rebuilt. That can't be the final answer?! What am I missing here (and possibly other less-skilled users)?

[leonardehrenfried]

There is no UI included in this container image. A terminal session and an API is all you will receive.

Your command line looks correct and your database state should be saved. I cannot say what the problem is based on your description.

[mirkomaty]

Thanks @leonardehrenfried for your answer. Here seems to be the missing piece of information. After successful import there exists a file import-finished at this location: /var/lib/postgresql/16/main/import-finished. The main folder is mounted to my host system, so everything should be fine. Maybe other people find this information useful, so it might make sense to add it to the documentation.

I don't know why my system rebuilt the import on the first restart, but it could be that I did something wrong here. The file now exists at the share and I hope that with the next restart the data will be used.

A terminal session and an API is all you will receive.

The API is all I need and expected to be there. The terminal session with -it is unnecessary because I can open a terminal for the running container at any time.

Again, thanks for spending your time to answer the question.

[ganeshkrishnan1]

If your system rebuilt the image it means the first import was not successful. On a successful import a new file is created which marks a complete import and then subsequent starts will not require the complete initialization process anymore.

Also docker command above is not ideal on production. Create or use the docker compose file.