Setting up minidlna as a docker container

Minidlna is a server software fully compliant with DLNA/UPnpP clientes. It means it’ll server files to clients over network, for example, your TV. Here’s a quick setup for a docker-compose.yml plug and play into your server:

version: '3'

services:
  dlna:
    image: vladgh/minidlna
    container_name: minidlna
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - /mnt/movies:/media/movies
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      MINIDLNA_MEDIA_DIR: /media
      MINIDLNA_FRIENDLY_NAME: pc

Notice that we’re using a custom image from vladgh, but feel free to choose any other image as you like (there’s quite a few. In this case I’m using one which offers support for arm since I’ll be setting up this into my raspberry pi.

In case you want additional folders, you can setup like this:

    volumes:
      - /mnt/audio:/media/audio
      - /mnt/video:/media/video
    environment:
      MINIDLNA_MEDIA_DIR_1: /media/audio
      MINIDLNA_MEDIA_DIR_2: /media/video
      MINIDLNA_FRIENDLY_NAME: pc

After that start your container as usual:

user@raspberrypi [~/apps/minidlna]
$ docker-compose up -d && docker-compose logs -f
[+] Running 1/1
 ⠿ Container minidlna  Started
minidlna  | === Set user and group identifier
minidlna  | === Set standard configuration
minidlna  | === Set configuration from environment variables
minidlna  | === Set permissions
minidlna  | === Generate scan/rebuild flags
minidlna  | === Start daemon
minidlna  | minidlna.c:1124: warn: Starting MiniDLNA version 1.3.0.
minidlna  | minidlna.c:395: warn: Creating new database at /minidlna/cache/files.db
minidlna  | minidlna.c:1193: warn: HTTP listening on port 8200
minidlna  | scanner.c:731: warn: Scanning /media
minidlna  | scanner.c:820: warn: Scanning /media finished (287 files)!

Checkout minidlna’s documentation for reference.