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Setting up Your Development Environment - Mattermost

Set up your development environment for building, running, and testing the Mattermost server.

Note: If you’re developing plugins, see the plugin developer setup documentation.

For minimum software requirements, see the following table:

Software	Minimum Version
Docker	17.12.0+
Docker Compose	1.21.0+
Go	1.18.0+

Install and configure Docker CE: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/.

Note: MM-9791 introduced using docker-compose to manage containers. To preserve your data on upgrade, execute the following steps.

First, backup from any existing containers:
```
mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 --column-statistics=0 -u mmuser -p mattermost_test > mm_mysql_backup.sql
pg_dump -U mmuser -W -d mattermost_test -h 127.0.0.1 > mm_postgres_backup.bak
```
Then after upgrading and starting the new docker-compose managed containers, restore the data:
```
mysql -u mmuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 mattermost_test < mm_mysql_backup.sql
psql -U mmuser -W -h 127.0.0.1 -f mm_postgres_backup.bak mattermost_test
```
If you don’t migrate your data, the new, docker-compose-managed containers will start out empty. To remove the old containers – destroying any existing data – use make clean-old-docker.
Download and install homebrew: https://brew.sh/.
Install Go:
```
brew install go
```
Update your shell’s initialization script (e.g. .bashrc or .zshrc) and add the following:
```
ulimit -n 8096
```
Fork https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-server

Clone the Mattermost source code from your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/mattermost-server.git

Start the server:
```
cd mattermost-server
make run-server
```
Note: If you see lot of nc: bad address 'elasticsearch' messages, eventually exiting with the message Service elasticsearch:9200 did not start within 300 seconds. Aborting..., increase the memory available for the Docker Engine by going to Docker’s preferences -> Advanced.

Note: If you see an error which says Failed to ping DB, it’s probably due to a conflict between the PostgreSQL service in Docker and the one which is running system-wide. You can stop the system-wide server temporarily by running brew services stop postgres in your terminal, then restart the Docker service.
Test your environment:
```
curl http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
make stop-server
```
If successful, the curl step will return a JSON object:
```
{"AndroidLatestVersion":"","AndroidMinVersion":"","DesktopLatestVersion":"","DesktopMinVersion":"","IosLatestVersion":"","IosMinVersion":"","status":"OK"}
```
Note: Browsing directly to http://localhost:8065/ will display a 404 Not Found until the web app is configured. See [Web App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/webapp/developer-setup” >}}) and [Mobile App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/mobile/developer-setup” >}}) for additional setup.

The stop-server make target does not stop all the docker containers started by run-server. To stop the running docker containers:
```
make stop-docker
```

Install and configure Docker CE:
```
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)
docker login
```
If you prefer to perform these steps manually:
- https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/
- https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/linux-postinstall/
Note: MM-9791 introduced using docker-compose to manage containers. To preserve your data on upgrade, execute the following steps.

First, backup from any existing containers:
```
mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 --column-statistics=0 -u mmuser -p mattermost_test > mm_mysql_backup.sql
pg_dump -U mmuser -W -d mattermost_test -h 127.0.0.1 > mm_postgres_backup.bak
```
Then after upgrading and starting the new docker-compose managed containers, restore the data:
```
mysql -u mmuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 mattermost_test < mm_mysql_backup.sql
psql -U mmuser -W -h 127.0.0.1 -f mm_postgres_backup.bak mattermost_test
```
If you don’t migrate your data, the new, docker-compose-managed containers will start out empty. To remove the old containers and destroy any existing data use make clean-old-docker.

Install docker-compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/latest/download/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Install Go (modify installation to latest Go version from https://golang.org/dl/):

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz

Update your shell’s initialization script (e.g. .bashrc or .zshrc) and add the following:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
```
Edit /etc/security/limits.conf as an administrator (e.g. sudo) and add the following lines, replacing {username} with your username:
```
{username}  soft  nofile  8096
{username}  hard  nofile  8096
```
Log out and log back in to effect the changes above.
Fork https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-server.

Clone the Mattermost source code from your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/mattermost-server.git

Start the server and test your environment:
```
cd mattermost-server
make run-server
curl http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
make stop-server
```
If successful, the curl step will return a JSON object:
```
{"AndroidLatestVersion":"","AndroidMinVersion":"","DesktopLatestVersion":"","DesktopMinVersion":"","IosLatestVersion":"","IosMinVersion":"","status":"OK"}
```
Note: Browsing directly to http://localhost:8065/ will display 404 Not Found until the web app is configured. See [Web App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/webapp/developer-setup” >}}) and [Mobile App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/mobile/developer-setup” >}}) for additional setup.

The stop-server make target does not stop all the Docker containers started by run-server. To stop the running Docker containers:
```
make stop-docker
```

This is an unofficial guide. Community testing, feedback, and improvements are welcome and greatly appreciated.

Install the Windows Subsystem for Linux: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10.

Note: Docker for Windows expects path to have the format /c/foo/bar, but WSL uses /mnt/c/foo/bar instead.

Run winver and check which version of Windows you have. If you are using 1803 or higher, then you need to create a file /etc/wsl.conf with the following content to make sure your drives are mounted at the root rather than inside /mnt:
```
[automount]
root = /
```
If you are using an older version than 1803, you need to create custom bind points:
```
sudo mkdir /c
sudo mount --bind /mnt/c /c
```
For more on how to properly set up Docker for Windows and WSL see here.
Install and set up Docker:
- Install Docker for Windows: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/.
- Link Windows Subsystem for Linux to Docker for Windows: https://medium.com/@sebagomez/installing-the-docker-client-on-ubuntus-windows-subsystem-for-linux-612b392a44c4.
  - You should end up with the Docker client running on Linux (WSL) sending commands to your Docker Engine daemon installed on Windows.
- Go to Docker Desktop > Settings > Resources > File Sharing and make sure you check the drives where you are going to run mattermost-server from.
Note: MM-9791 introduced using docker-compose to manage containers. To preserve your data on upgrade, execute the following steps.

First, backup from any existing containers:
```
mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 --column-statistics=0 -u mmuser -p mattermost_test > mm_mysql_backup.sql
pg_dump -U mmuser -W -d mattermost_test -h 127.0.0.1 > mm_postgres_backup.bak
```
Then after upgrading and starting the new docker-compose managed containers, restore the data:
```
mysql -u mmuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 mattermost_test < mm_mysql_backup.sql
psql -U mmuser -W -h 127.0.0.1 -f mm_postgres_backup.bak mattermost_test
```
If you don’t migrate your data, the new, docker-compose-managed containers will start out empty. To remove the old containers and destroy any existing data use make clean-old-docker.

Install docker-compose (using bash)

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/latest/download/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Install Go using bash (modify installation to latest Go version from https://golang.org/dl/):

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz

Set up your Go workspace:
1. In PowerShell mkdir d:\Projects\go
2. In bash ln -s "/mnt/d/Projects/go" /home/<Linux User>/go
Update your shell’s initialization script (e.g. .bashrc or .zshrc) and add the following:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
ulimit -n 8096
```
Reload your bash configuration to effect the changes above:
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
Fork Mattermost server on GitHub from https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-server.

Clone the Mattermost source code from your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/mattermost-server.git

Start the server and test your environment:
```
cd mattermost-server
make run-server
curl http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
make stop-server
```
If successful, the curl step will return a JSON object containing "status":"OK".

Note: Browsing directly to http://localhost:8065/ will display 404 Not Found until the web app is configured. See [Web App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/webapp/developer-setup” >}}) and [Mobile App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/mobile/developer-setup” >}}) for additional setup.

The stop-server make target does not stop all the Docker containers started by run-server. To stop the running Docker containers:
```
make stop-docker
```

Troubleshooting:

If you see an error like the input device is not a TTY. If you are using mintty, try prefixing the command with 'winpty', then reinstall Git for Windows and make sure you choose Use Windows' default console window instead of Use MinTTY.

The LDAP Docker container is sometimes slow to start. If you see the following message, either increase the wait time in the make file or run make run twice in a row.

Ldap test user test.one
starting mattermost-openldap
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
ldap_sasl_bind(SIMPLE): Can't contact LDAP server (-1)
Makefile:102: recipe for target 'start-docker' failed

If you see an error like nc: bad address 'postgres' when running make run-serverand PostgreSQL’s container just keeps restarting, check its logs in Docker Desktop. You should see something like:
```
LOG: input in flex scanner failed at file "/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf" line 1
FATAL: configuration file "/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf" contains errors
```
If that’s the case, postgresql.conf is probably a directory rather than a file, which means the volume wasn’t mounted properly, so you are most likely missing some of the configuration changes from step 1 (Linux Subsystem Installation).
If you see an error like ERROR: for mattermost-postgres. Cannot create container for service postgres: status code not OK but 500: {"Message":"Unhandled exception: Drive has not been shared"}, make sure you enabled file sharing for the drive that contains the mattermost-server project.

Install and configure Docker CE:
```
sudo pacman -S docker
sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker
sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo systemctl start docker.service
newgrp docker
```
Note: MM-9791 introduced using docker-compose to manage containers. To preserve your data on upgrade, execute the following steps.

First, backup from any existing containers:
```
mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 --column-statistics=0 -u mmuser -p mattermost_test > mm_mysql_backup.sql
pg_dump -U mmuser -W -d mattermost_test -h 127.0.0.1 > mm_postgres_backup.bak
```
Then after upgrading and starting the new docker-compose managed containers, restore the data:
```
mysql -u mmuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 mattermost_test < mm_mysql_backup.sql
psql -U mmuser -W -h 127.0.0.1 -f mm_postgres_backup.bak mattermost_test
```
If you don’t migrate your data, the new, docker-compose-managed containers will start out empty. To remove the old containers – destroying any existing data – use make clean-old-docker.
Install docker-compose
```
sudo pacman -S docker-compose
```

Install Go:

sudo pacman -S base-devel
sudo pacman -S go

Update your shell’s initialization script (e.g. .bashrc or .zshrc) and add the following:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
```
Edit /etc/security/limits.conf as an administrator (e.g. sudo) and add the following lines, replacing {username} with your username:
```
{username}  soft  nofile  8096
{username}  hard  nofile  8096
```
Logout and login to effect the changes above.
Fork https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-server

Clone the Mattermost source code from your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/mattermost-server.git

Start the server and test your environment:
```
cd mattermost-server
make run-server
curl http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
make stop-server
```
If successful, the curl step will return a JSON object:
```
{"AndroidLatestVersion":"","AndroidMinVersion":"","DesktopLatestVersion":"","DesktopMinVersion":"","IosLatestVersion":"","IosMinVersion":"","status":"OK"}
```
Note: Browsing directly to http://localhost:8065/ will display a 404 Not Found until the web app is configured. See [Web App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/webapp/developer-setup” >}}) and [Mobile App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/mobile/developer-setup” >}}) for additional setup.

The stop-server make target does not stop all the docker containers started by run-server. To stop the running docker containers:
```
make stop-docker
```

Install and configure Docker CE:
```
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)
docker login
```
If you prefer to perform these steps manually:
- https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/centos/
- https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/linux-postinstall/
Note: MM-9791 introduced using docker-compose to manage containers. To preserve your data on upgrade, execute the following steps.

First, backup from any existing containers:
```
mysqldump -h 127.0.0.1 --column-statistics=0 -u mmuser -p mattermost_test > mm_mysql_backup.sql
pg_dump -U mmuser -W -d mattermost_test -h 127.0.0.1 > mm_postgres_backup.bak
```
Then after upgrading and starting the new docker-compose managed containers, restore the data:
```
mysql -u mmuser -p -h 127.0.0.1 mattermost_test < mm_mysql_backup.sql
psql -U mmuser -W -h 127.0.0.1 -f mm_postgres_backup.bak mattermost_test
```
If you don’t migrate your data, the new, docker-compose-managed containers will start out empty. To remove the old containers and destroy any existing data use make clean-old-docker.

Install docker-compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/latest/download/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Install Go (modify installation to latest Go version from https://golang.org/dl/):

sudo yum group install "Development Tools"
sudo yum install -y wget libpng12
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
wget https://dl.google.com/go/go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz

Update your shell’s initialization script (e.g. .bashrc or .zshrc) and add the following:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
```
Edit /etc/security/limits.conf as an administrator (e.g. sudo) and add the following lines, replacing {username} with your username:
```
{username}  soft  nofile  8096
{username}  hard  nofile  8096
```
Log out and log back in to effect the changes above.
Fork https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-server.

Clone the Mattermost source code from your fork:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/mattermost-server.git

Start the server and test your environment:
```
cd mattermost-server
make run-server
curl http://localhost:8065/api/v4/system/ping
make stop-server
```
If successful, the curl step will return a JSON object:
```
{"AndroidLatestVersion":"","AndroidMinVersion":"","DesktopLatestVersion":"","DesktopMinVersion":"","IosLatestVersion":"","IosMinVersion":"","status":"OK"}
```
Note: Browsing directly to http://localhost:8065/ will display 404 Not Found until the web app is configured. See [Web App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/webapp/developer-setup” >}}) and [Mobile App Developer Setup]({{< ref “/contribute/mobile/developer-setup” >}}) for additional setup.

The stop-server make target does not stop all the Docker containers started by run-server. To stop the running Docker containers:
```
make stop-docker
```