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Installing IRVis

IRVis runs on your own computer inside a single Docker container. The container holds MySQL, the IRVis web application, and (optionally) nginx. Each time it starts, it fetches the current IRVis source from GitHub and builds it, so you always run the latest version of the application.

1. What you need

• macOS or Linux: nothing beyond a terminal. If Docker is missing, the start script offers to install it, and asks before changing anything on your system.
• Windows: install and start Docker Desktop first, then use either Git Bash or a WSL2 Linux terminal. The scripts do not run in Command Prompt or PowerShell.
• curl on your PATH. It ships with macOS, most Linux distributions and Git Bash.
• An internet connection the first time you start IRVis.

2. Unzip the download

The download is a zip file named irvis-docker-1.0.0.zip. Unzip it wherever you keep software:

• macOS: double-click the zip in Finder.
• Windows: right-click the zip and choose Extract All. If you use WSL2, unzip it from inside your WSL terminal instead, into your Linux home directory.
• Linux, WSL2 or any terminal:

unzip irvis-docker-1.0.0.zip

This creates a folder named irvis-docker-1.0.0. Rename it to irvis-docker:

mv irvis-docker-1.0.0 irvis-docker

The folder name matters. Docker names the IRVis database after the folder, so a fixed name keeps your accounts and data when you upgrade to a newer release later.

3. Start IRVis

Open a terminal in the folder and run the start script:

cd irvis-docker
scripts/run.sh

If you get Permission denied (common after extracting on Windows), run bash scripts/run.sh instead.

The script:

1. checks that Docker and Docker Compose are installed and running, and offers to install or start them if not;
2. picks a free port, starting at 8080;
3. builds and starts the container (the first start takes several minutes);
4. waits for IRVis to respond;
5. opens IRVis in your web browser.

Log in with user admin and password admin123. To use a different admin account, copy .env.example to .env and edit it before the first start; the admin account is created only once, when the database is new.

4. Stop IRVis

scripts/stop.sh              # stop, keep the database
scripts/stop.sh --wipe-db    # stop and delete the database

5. Upgrade to a new release

1. Stop IRVis with scripts/stop.sh.
2. Download and unzip the new release.
3. Replace the contents of your irvis-docker folder with the new files, keeping your .env file, and start IRVis again.

Optional: web mode

To serve IRVis through nginx, closer to a real deployment, start it with:

scripts/run.sh web

Windows notes

• Git Bash: the script cannot install Docker on Windows, so start Docker Desktop before running scripts/run.sh.
• WSL2: if the script cannot reach Docker, open Docker Desktop, go to Settings > Resources > WSL Integration, enable your Linux distribution, and run scripts/run.sh again.

Full technical details are in the irvis-docker repository.