I have to join in on the documentation part.
Just upgraded to version 10 (Pro), in the documentation theres in the upgrade notes a hint that it’s upgraded to elasticsearch 8, but the docker-compose file for the initial setup still contains version. Also didn’t find any hint about elasticsearch enabling ssl which needs to be disabled with an env war otherwise seafile won’t work with elasticsearch.
This I only noticed looking at the manual process for reindxing the v7 indexes where a container is manually started containing this env setting.
And I often have the same feeling that the docs are all over the place, sometimes I google and find old things and now have 10 tabs open just for this upgrade.
So this is indeed a bit of a pain for every upgrade.
How do you reinstall a broken Docker-Host in contrast to proxmox or ESXi?
Thanks for the notification. We will focus on provide better document in the future.
I think mostly the documentation is an issue. There is no way to collaborate, and easily submit changes.
Also no revision and history management. Further, it would be easier to have one documentation and not separate by edition (CE & Pro). Just a tag/ mark in which version a feature is supported and a comparison table in the introduction section, as a overview.
Separation between guide/ how-to and feature documentation, the mix is confusing and leads to the “LEGO” feeling.
It’s nice to have it Seafile-hosted, but Seafile currently lacks the ability for a decent modern software/ application documentation, IMHO (“use/ find the right tool for the job - hammer for nails, even if something else might work.”)
Things listed by @Morgennebel can be provided by the community, because most of us have those things solved in any way.
From my perspective, the biggest issue is, “how to contribute” - I haven’t looked long, but I have not found a way or mention how the community could contribute. And the forum is not the place for configs, built’s, or PR & issue tracking.
That starts with documentation, a community repository where things like docker/ container .compose files, examples for traefik/ nginx can be maintained, and a reliable way to commit PRs.
From what I read in the forum, there are many experienced users, I imagine who would contribute. The way to do it, are currently a little bit neglected.
That also would have a lot of benefits - it takes pressure of the Dev’s, but they stay in control through PR/ issue management and the quality of the software Seafile (all miscellaneous assets, i.e. documentation, example files, different ways of distribution belong to a software package) would improve.
This is one thing that bothers me as well. My partner and me are sharing certain folders pertaining to our family/house and coming from Dropbox, we were used to having a single library including the shared folders. With Seafile however (as much as I appreciate the stability and ease of use once it runs) there is the main library and all shared folders are separate libraries - quite confusing…
Ubuntu is but one distribution in many. What happens if you happen to be running another one? The documentation really does hold the product back if you happen to want to install it manually.
I’ve been trying and failing to get v10.x installed on a clean OS install on a VM for weeks now mainly so it might help upgrading v9.x systems which is proving a nightmare. It’s not urgent yet - until v9 becomes EOL but “easy” is not a word I’m using right now.
Here’s a very good example. Documentation is supposed to cover Centos v8 which is EOL itself but it might actually run v10.x.
Going through the instructions (which jump all over the place), you get this:
yum install python3 python3-setuptools python3-pip python3-devel mysql-devel gcc -y
On the latest Centos v8 ISO, this installs Python 3.6.8. The very next instruction is this (along with other modules):
pip3 install pymysql pillow==9.3.*
Except pillow v9.3 requires Python 3.7 or later so it fails with Python 3.6.8. It’s this like of version nightmare that gives Linux a rather bad reputation. I’m sure somebody will come along and say “Well you need to learn more about Linux”.
It’s probably why the internet is full of articles along the lines of “Installing package XYZ on Linux flavour ABC, running database server IJK and web server NMO”.
I’m pretty good at documentation and tend to keep pretty details install logs. But I guess it’s a big job to keep documentation up to date. Not that this is an uncommon problem.
Hi
I have been using Seafile since version 6, so for several years, A little over a year ago, I installed Nextcloud on a dedicated server and today I completely switch to Nextcloud, I would delete my last Seafile instance in few hours.
Seafile is a very good synchronization and sharing software, but today our needs have evolved, and I needed to be able to group them in one place, a calendar for each user, a calendar, task, note etc., and in addition everything synchronizable with tablets, smartphones and Nextcloud was the solution, a clean interface, smooth web updates with maintenance page instead of stopping the server, just see my uptime in photo, I didn’t have never had that with Seafile. In any case I thank the creators of Seafile and wish you good luck, I keep my account on the forum, maybe one day I will come back “home” 
It’s a shame because Seafile for many “just need to share files” requirements is a good choice. Except the documentation really is letting it down. I’m still struggling to get Seafile v10 working on a clean Centos v8 install which is blocking my last two clients from upgrading from v9.
A couple of my clients ended going down the Nextcloud route as well. It’s a much bigger application and both clients only use the file share bit.
Seafile AFAIK still scores highly in one area compared to Nextcloud and that’s the ability to quickly restore back to a point in time. In case of ransomware, this is an attractive feature. Microsoft 365 OneDrive/SharePoint has the same feature. Not sure Nextcloud does - you’d have to restore the server entirely which is far slower/riskier.
But one does get the feeling that Seafile is declining as Nextcloud rises 
Well, this is a Seafile-forum. Of course we all prefer Seafile over other solutions.
However, it should be alarming when the fanboys getting upset 
Seafile uses Python, which has a more complicated dependency problem compared to PHP.
I suggest you switch to the docker based deployment, which should make upgrade from one version to another much easier.