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This is a guide for installing Mealie on Debian. Using the officially supported Docker image will likely be easier, this is just fun.

Prepare the Environment¶

• Make sure the system is up to date:
  

  apt update && apt upgrade
  

• Install some prerequisites:
  

  apt install nodejs npm python3 python3-dev python3-venv python3-pip python3-cryptography git curl build-essential libpq-dev libwebp-dev libsasl2-dev libldap2-dev libssl-dev gnupg gnupg2 gnupg1 debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https libbluetooth-dev libbz2-dev libc6-dev libexpat1-dev libffi-dev libgdbm-dev liblzma-dev libncursesw5-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev libxslt1-dev libxml2-dev libjpeg-dev make tk-dev uuid-dev wget xz-utils zlib1g-dev rustc
  

• Create a user for mealie:
  

  useradd -u 911 -U -d /app -s /bin/bash abc
  mkdir /app
  mkdir /opt/poetry
  mkdir /opt/pysetup
  chown abc:abc /app
  chown abc:abc /opt/pysetup
  chown abc:abc /opt/poetry
  su - abc
  

• Set a few environment variables:
  

  echo 'export PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 ' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=off' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=on' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PIP_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT=100' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export POETRY_HOME="/opt/poetry"' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export POETRY_VIRTUALENVS_IN_PROJECT=true' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export POETRY_NO_INTERACTION=1' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PYSETUP_PATH="/opt/pysetup"' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export VENV_PATH="/opt/pysetup/.venv"' >> ~/.bashrc
  source ~/.bashrc
  

• Install python poetry:
  

  cd $PYSETUP_PATH
  curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-poetry/poetry/master/install-poetry.py | python3 -
  

• Add local bin execution path:
  

  echo 'export PATH="/opt/poetry/bin:/opt/pysetup/.venv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
  source ~/.bashrc
  

Install Mealie¶

• Download mealie:
  

  mkdir -p /app/git && cd /app/git
  git clone https://github.com/hay-kot/mealie.git
  

Frontend¶

• Setup the frontend directory:
  

  /app
  cp git/mealie/frontend/package*.json .
  npm install
  cp -r git/mealie/frontend/* .
  npm run build
  

Backend¶

• Create and prep a temporary build directory:
  

  cd $PYSETUP_PATH
  cp /app/git/mealie/poetry.lock .
  cp /app/git/mealie/pyproject.toml .
  

• Build mealie venv:
  

  poetry install -E pgsql --no-dev
  

• Build mealie backend:
  

  cd /app
  cp -r git/mealie .
  cp mealie/poetry.lock .
  cp mealie/pyproject.toml .
  sh /opt/pysetup/.venv/bin/activate
  poetry install
  

• Initialize the database:
  

  poetry run python /app/mealie/db/init_db.py
  poetry run python /app/mealie/services/image/minify.py
  

• Run the api server:
  

  cp /app/git/mealie/gunicorn_conf.py /app/
  uvicorn mealie.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000
  

nxing proxy¶

• Install nginx;
  

  apt install nginx
  

systemd service¶

• Create the mealie systemd unit file:
  

  sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mealie.service
  

  • Add the following:
    

    [Service]
    PermissionsStartOnly = true
    User = abc
    Group = abc
    WorkingDirectory = /app
    ExecStart = /usr/bin/sh -c 'cd /app && sh /opt/pysetup/.venv/bin/activate && /opt/pysetup/.venv/bin/uvicorn mealie.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9000'
    PrivateTmp = true
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy = multi-user.target
    

• Set the unit file permissions and reload systemd:
  

  chmod 755 /etc/systemd/system/mealie.service
  systemctl daemon-reload
  

• Start and enable mealie at boot:
  

  systemctl enable mealie
  systemctl start mealie
  

Resources

• https://github.com/hay-kot/mealie
• https://hay-kot.github.io/mealie/contributors/developers-guide/starting-dev-server/
• https://hay-kot.github.io/mealie/documentation/getting-started/install/