Improve API_IPS configuration process

[xendarboh]

DatabaseAPI IPs are read directly from the .env file, creating challenges within a docker container context as the docker image must be built with the configuration.

The latest searchseco/controller Docker Image on Docker Hub currently has an error within it's .env file:

docker pull searchseco/controller
docker run -ti --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash searchseco/controller
root@cea3c05c0d8b:/# cat /controller/build/.env 
API_IPS=API_IPS=131.211.31.176?8003,131.211.31.179?8003,131.211.31.183?8003

So running the container fails:

docker run --rm --name controller-container -e github_token=xxxxx -e worker_name=xxxxx searchseco/controller
2022-09-14 06:55:01.644 (   0.006s) [controller      ]           commands.cpp:516   INFO| Starting a worker node with 4 cpu cores
2022-09-14 06:55:01.644 (   0.006s) [controller      ]         networking.cpp:196    ERR| E019 - No IPs found in .env file. IPs should be in format API_IPS=ip1?port1,ip2?port2

It would be useful to be able to set the API_IPS at runtime, for example:

docker run --rm --name controller-container -e github_token=xxxxx -e worker_name=xxxxx -e "API_IPS=138.201.216.223?8003,95.217.155.82?8003" searchseco/controller

A potential solution could use a bash script as the Dockerfile ENTRYPOINT to intercept configuration from the environment and write it to the .env file before calling searchseco start.

[slingerbv]

First and foremost: Thank you! We were looking at this bug for a long time and couldn't figure it out. It's looking like it's fixed now.

But why would we make the IPs scriptable? Our fear has always been that someone starts inefficiently running their own DB cluster, making our work moot ;-).

[xendarboh]

I'm still getting to know the project to suggest solutions more supportive of the intentions.

As it is now, for a developer (or whoever) to build and use the docker image themselves, they must configure API_IPS so that implies it should be configured. And they have to figure out what values to use for API_IPS to connect to the official DB... I ran and extracted them from the published image, messy. So, perhaps an improvement would be to more completely remove it from awareness of others; either include it in the .env file under git control and remove it as a required step within the README, or update README to explain what value to use there, or something else. ?

As open source, humans will do what humans will do and maybe they don't have an incentive to run their own DB cluster unless the official one itself was deemed too inefficient, or too centralized, etc. Seems most would want to connect to the official DB so this issue could be about making that more effortless to do by default.

[slingerbv]

Wait, wouldn't this be very easy? Shall I put a bounty on it?

[slingerbv]

So... It's already implemented or should I put a bounty on it?