Multi-distro support for the one-line installer (Debian, Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE, Arch)

[JuansesDev]

Problem

The current one-line installer (scripts/setup.sh, served at senddock.dev/install.sh) explicitly refuses to run on anything other than Ubuntu:

[[ "${ID:-}" == "ubuntu" ]] || die "This installer currently only supports Ubuntu..."

Users on Debian, Fedora, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, openSUSE, Arch, or any other distro hit this die-message and have to fall back to the manual Docker Compose path. That path works but loses the value the installer provides: auto Docker install, secret generation, .env creation, and the Watchtower one-click-update wiring.

For the self-hosting audience this matters — power users running their own infrastructure often deliberately avoid Ubuntu. Debian is the most common alternative, but Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / Alma are big in the production-server crowd, and Arch is non-trivial among homelab self-hosters.

Proposal

Expand scripts/setup.sh to detect the distro from /etc/os-release and branch the Docker installation step accordingly. Everything else (secret generation, compose file download, docker compose up, healthcheck loop, Watchtower wiring) is distro-agnostic and stays as-is.

Distros to support, in priority order

Tier	Distros	Why this tier
Tier 1 — must support	Ubuntu (already done), Debian	Apt-based, ~80% of self-host VPSes. Debian shares almost all code paths with Ubuntu — only the Docker repo URL and the ID check differ.
Tier 2 — common production	Fedora, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream	dnf-based, common on enterprise / production servers. One install function covers all five (same package manager, same Docker repo).
Tier 3 — community demand	openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed	zypper-based, smaller share but vocal users.
Tier 4 — homelab / power-user	Arch Linux, Manjaro	pacman-based, niche but loud. Docker is in community repo.
Out of scope	Alpine	musl + busybox cause too many edge cases; users on Alpine are advanced enough to use the Docker Compose path directly.

Implementation sketch

Refactor the existing Docker install block into a per-distro function dispatched by ID / ID_LIKE:

install_docker() {
  case "${ID:-}:${ID_LIKE:-}" in
    *ubuntu*|*debian*)         install_docker_apt ;;
    *fedora*|*rhel*|*centos*|*rocky*|*almalinux*)  install_docker_dnf ;;
    *opensuse*|*suse*)         install_docker_zypper ;;
    *arch*|*manjaro*)          install_docker_pacman ;;
    *) die "Unsupported distro: ${PRETTY_NAME:-unknown}. Use the manual Docker Compose install: https://docs.senddock.dev/self-hosting/installation#option-2-manual-docker-compose-any-linux" ;;
  esac
}

Each helper does the canonical "official Docker docs" steps for that distro:

• apt — add Docker's apt repo for ubuntu or debian (depending on ID), install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin.
• dnf — add Docker's dnf repo (download.docker.com/linux/centos), install the same package set.
• zypper — Docker is in openSUSE's official repos; zypper install -y docker docker-compose.
• pacman — pacman -Syu --noconfirm docker docker-compose (Docker is in community).

In every branch, finish with systemctl enable --now docker and docker --version sanity check.

Other things to fix while in there

• PRETTY_NAME in the error message — make sure it actually prints what was detected ("detected: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"), already done in current code, just verify it survives refactor.
• Idempotency across distros — re-running the script should detect existing Docker on any distro and skip the install path (not just Ubuntu).
• Document supported distros in the script header comment (replace the "for Ubuntu" line) and in docs/self-hosting/installation.md (today only mentions Ubuntu in Option 1).

Acceptance criteria

• Script runs successfully on a fresh VM of: Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, Fedora 40+, Rocky Linux 9, AlmaLinux 9
• Tier 3/4 (openSUSE, Arch) shipped if low-effort but not blocking
• Error message on unsupported distros points to the manual Docker Compose docs URL
• README, landing one-liner tab, and docs/self-hosting/installation.md all updated to list the supported distros (no more "Ubuntu only" caveat where it no longer applies)
• Repeat runs on each supported distro are idempotent (don't reinstall Docker, don't regenerate secrets, don't break existing .env)

Tier

Core — onboarding friction for self-hosters. Locking the installer to one distro is hostile to the audience this product targets.