Plausible server can't start with mounted directory instead of volume

[vitonsky]

Past Issues Searched

• I have searched open and closed issues to make sure that the bug has not yet been reported

Issue is a Bug Report

• This is a bug report and not a feature request, nor asking for self-hosted support

Using official Plausible Cloud hosting or self-hosting?

Self-hosting

Describe the bug

I just tried to up new server with default config from https://github.com/plausible/community-edition/blob/20385b05aa8e5645c88fc1a526360608e0fba324/compose.yml

It works fine by default, but if i change volumes to next config:

    volumes:
      - ${DATA_DIR}/plausible-data:/var/lib/plausible

I got error ** (MatchError) no match of right hand side value (see log below for details).

I don't want to have docker volume instead of directory, since it make backup process is difficult for my setup.

I double checked, it works fine with docker volumes, but don't start if i flush all data and apply this patch to my config

       plausible_events_db:
         condition: service_healthy
     volumes:
-      - plausible-data:/var/lib/plausible
+      - ${DATA_DIR}/plausible-data:/var/lib/plausible
       # - ./geoip:/var/www/geoip
     ulimits:
       nofile:
@@ -61,10 +61,6 @@ services:
     networks:
       - analytics
 
-
-volumes:
-  plausible-data:
-
 networks:
   analytics:
     name: analytics

I tried to create directory with owner 1000:1000, it does not help.

Logs

Creating Plausible.Repo database..
Creating Plausible.IngestRepo database..
Creation of Db successful!
Loading plausible..
Starting dependencies..
Starting repos..
list-partitions Done!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
get-sessions-table-settings Done!
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drop-sessions-tmp-table Done!
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create-sessions-tmp-table Done!
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exchange-sessions-tables Done!
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Migration done!
Backfilling legacy site import across 0 sites (DRY RUN: false)...
Finished backfilling sites.
Adjusting end dates of 0 site imports (DRY RUN: false)...
Finished adjusting end dates of site imports.
Finished
truncate-location-data-table Done!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
create-location-data-table Done!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
update-location-data-dictionary Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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add-alias-column Done!
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update-location-data-table-comment Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-1 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-2 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-3 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-4 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-5 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-6 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-7 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-8 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-9 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-10 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-11 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-12 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-13 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-14 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-15 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-16 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-17 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-18 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-19 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-20 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-21 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-22 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-23 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-24 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-25 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-26 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-27 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-28 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-29 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-30 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-31 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-32 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-33 Done!
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acquisition_channel_functions-34 Done!
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acquisition_channel_add_materialized_column Done!
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acquisition_channel_add_materialized_column Done!
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[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 orphaned teams...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Deleted orphaned teams
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 sites without teams...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Backfilled 0 teams.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 users on trial without team...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Created teams for all users on trial without a team.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 guest memberships with mismatched team to remove...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Pruning guest team memberships for 0 teams...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Guest memberships with mismatched team cleared.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 guest memberships to remove...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Pruning guest team memberships for 0 teams...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Guest memberships cleared.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 site memberships without guest membership...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Backfilled missing guest memberships.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 guest memberships with role out of sync...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] All guest memberships are up to date now.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 guest invitations to remove...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Pruning guest team invitations for 0 teams...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Guest invitations cleared.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 site invitations without guest invitation...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Backfilled missing guest invitations.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 guest invitations with role out of sync...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] All guest invitations are up to date now.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 site transfers to remove...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Site transfers cleared.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Found 0 ownership transfers without site transfer...
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] Backfilled missing site transfers.
[2025-05-27 14:23:51Z] All data are up to date now!
[Plausible.DataMigration.BackfillTeamsHourlyRequestLimit] DRY RUN: false
[Plausible.DataMigration.BackfillTeamsHourlyRequestLimit] About to update 0 teams with active enterprise plans...
[Plausible.DataMigration.BackfillTeamsHourlyRequestLimit] Done!
14:23:54.610 [notice] Application tzdata exited: exited in: Tzdata.App.start(:normal, [])
** (EXIT) an exception was raised:
** (MatchError) no match of right hand side value: {:error, {:shutdown, {:failed_to_start_child, Tzdata.EtsHolder, {%File.Error{reason: :enoent, path: "/var/lib/plausible/tzdata_data/release_ets", action: "list directory"}, [{File, :ls!, 1, [file: ~c"lib/file.ex", line: 1700]}, {Tzdata.EtsHolder, :release_files_for_dir, 1, [file: ~c"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex", line: 127]}, {Tzdata.EtsHolder, :make_sure_a_release_is_on_file, 0, [file: ~c"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex", line: 90]}, {Tzdata.EtsHolder, :init, 1, [file: ~c"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex", line: 16]}, {:gen_server, :init_it, 2, [file: ~c"gen_server.erl", line: 2229]}, {:gen_server, :init_it, 6, [file: ~c"gen_server.erl", line: 2184]}, {:proc_lib, :init_p_do_apply, 3, [file: ~c"proc_lib.erl", line: 329]}]}}}}
(tzdata 1.1.3) lib/tzdata/tzdata_app.ex:13: Tzdata.App.start/2
(kernel 10.2.4) application_master.erl:295: :application_master.start_it_old/4
Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ("{application_start_failure,tzdata,{bad_return,{{'Elixir.Tzdata.App',start,[normal,[]]},{'EXIT',{{badmatch,{error,{shutdown,{failed_to_start_child,'Elixir.Tzdata.EtsHolder',{#{reason => enoent,path => <<\"/var/lib/plausible/tzdata_data/release_ets\">>,action => <<\"list directory\">>,'__struct__' => 'Elixir.File.Error','__exception__' => true},[{'Elixir.File','ls!',1,[{file,\"lib/file.ex\"},{line,1700}]},{'Elixir.Tzdata.EtsHolder',release_files_for_dir,1,[{file,\"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex\"},{line,127}]},{'Elixir.Tzdata.EtsHolder',make_sure_a_release_is_on_file,0,[{file,\"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex\"},{line,90}]},{'Elixir.Tzdata.EtsHolder',init,1,[{file,\"lib/tzdata/ets_holder.ex\"},{line,16}]},{gen_server,init_it,2,[{file,\"gen_server.erl\"},{line,2229}]},{gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,\"gen_server.erl\"},{line,2184}]},{proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3,[{file,\"proc_lib.erl\"},{line,329}]}]}}}}},[{'Elixir.Tzdata.App',start,2,[{file,\"lib/tzdata/tzdata_app.ex\"},{line,13}
Crash dump is being written to: erl_crash.dump...2025-05-27T14:23:57.405832148Z Loading plausible..

Expected behavior

My expected behavior is i can apply patch and plausible will start server

Screenshots

No response

Environment

- OS:Ubuntu 24.04

[ruslandoga]

👋 @vitonsky

I tried to create directory with owner 1000:1000, it does not help.

Plausible user is 999 by default

More info: #4275

---

Some similar issues from the past:

• Plausible crashing on startup #4973
• Plausible crashes and ClickHouse raises an exception community-edition#206
• plausible keeps crashing after changing the volume to point to a folder community-edition#209
• Runtime terminating during boot (terminating) community-edition#216
• My Plausible Community Edition is not starting up anymore (reason still unknown) community-edition#220

[vitonsky]

👋 @vitonsky

I tried to create directory with owner 1000:1000, it does not help.

Plausible user is 999 by default

Is this a root cause? If i will change owner to 999:999 will it fix a problem?

[ruslandoga]

If i will change owner to 999:999 will it fix a problem?

999:nogroup :)

[vitonsky]

If i will change owner to 999:999 will it fix a problem?

999:nogroup :)

Thanks. I will try, and write back with results