[GH-ISSUE #1366] Docs: self-hosted ntfy serve command line arguments #964

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opened 2026-05-07 00:29:11 +02:00 by BreizhHardware · 2 comments

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:11 +02:00

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Originally created by @lowjoel on GitHub (Jun 9, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1366

🐞 Describe the bug

The self-hosted installation docs use command line flags for providing arguments, but the Serve command exits with status code 1 when any arguments are specified

💻 Components impacted

server

💡 Screenshots and/or logs

no arguments expected, see 'ntfy serve --help' for help

🔮 Additional context

In the installation docs I wrongly spotted the Docker command line arguments (not seeing the Kubernetes link) and used the arguments there (for the persistent cache docs).

The serve handler however doesn't seem to like arguments even though the flags have them defined. I think maybe we should not stop flags to be specified on ntfy serve and instead allow them to override (config, env vars, and command line args). I think it's just removing that conditional, but I'm not familiar with the urfave/cli library.

Originally created by @lowjoel on GitHub (Jun 9, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1366 :lady_beetle: **Describe the bug**  The self-hosted installation docs use command line flags for providing arguments, but the Serve command exits with status code 1 when any arguments are specified :computer: **Components impacted**  server :bulb: **Screenshots and/or logs**  ```$ kubectl logs -n ntfy ntfy-0 no arguments expected, see 'ntfy serve --help' for help ``` :crystal_ball: **Additional context**  In the [installation docs](https://docs.ntfy.sh/install/#__tabbed_7_5) I wrongly spotted the Docker command line arguments (not seeing the Kubernetes link) and used the arguments there (for the persistent cache docs). The [serve](https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/blob/main/cmd/serve.go#L128) handler however doesn't seem to like arguments even though the flags have them defined. I think maybe we should not stop flags to be specified on `ntfy serve` and instead allow them to override (config, env vars, and command line args). I think it's just removing that conditional, but I'm not familiar with the urfave/cli library.

BreizhHardware

2026-05-07 00:29:11 +02:00

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BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:11 +02:00

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@wunter8 commented on GitHub (Jun 9, 2025):

Just a few lines above your link to the serve.go file:

Config options can be overridden using the command line options.

And this shows how you can pass config options to the serve command:

ntfy serve --listen-http :8080 # Starts server with alternate port`

I have run ntfy serve with config arguments like this many times.

What command did you run that failed?

@wunter8 commented on GitHub (Jun 9, 2025): Just a few lines above your link to the serve.go file: > Config options can be overridden using the command line options. And this shows how you can pass config options to the serve command: > ntfy serve --listen-http :8080 # Starts server with alternate port` I have run `ntfy serve` with config arguments like this many times. What command did you run that failed?

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:12 +02:00

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@lowjoel commented on GitHub (Jun 10, 2025):

D'oh.

          args:
            - "serve"
            - "--cache-file"
            - "/var/cache/ntfy/cache.db"
            - "--attachment-cache-dir"
            - "/var/cache/ntfy/attachments"
            - "--auth-file"
            - "/var/lib/ntfy/user.db"
            -

The blank line at the end was the problem. I actually rewrote all the args to use env vars instead, but I guess this reset my "days since last YAML incident" counter back to 0...

@lowjoel commented on GitHub (Jun 10, 2025): D'oh. ```yaml args: - "serve" - "--cache-file" - "/var/cache/ntfy/cache.db" - "--attachment-cache-dir" - "/var/cache/ntfy/attachments" - "--auth-file" - "/var/lib/ntfy/user.db" - ``` The blank line at the end was the problem. I actually rewrote all the args to use env vars instead, but I guess this reset my "days since last YAML incident" counter back to 0...

BreizhHardware referenced this issue

2026-05-07 01:02:18 +02:00

[PR #964] [MERGED] Update docker compose example #1480