I just finished the migration to Dockhand. I never had to stop a single container.

I copied out all the docker compose files portainer stored for the stacks:

sudo rsync -a /var/lib/docker/volumes/portainer_data/_data/compose/ ~/stacks-backup/

The bonus of doing it this way is permissions, and it also nabs the .env files if you’ve configured vars in the Stacks config (and not directly in the compose file)

Because all the folders were just ID’s, I renamed them:

docker ps -a --format '{{.Label "com.docker.compose.project.working_dir"}}\t{{.Label "com.docker.compose.project"}}' | sort -u | while IFS=$'\t' read -r wd name; do id="${wd##*/}"; [ -n "$id" ] && [ -d ~/stacks-backup/"$id" ] && mv ~/stacks-backup/"$id" ~/stacks-backup/"$name"; done

After that, I ran du -sh against both directories to ensure they match.

Once the rename was done, I settled on moving all my stack configs to /opt/stacks, and added a folder for the compose file for dockhand, because dockhand can manage itself, unlike Portainer. Additionally, I made sure the /opt/stacks folder I moved those files to was mounted by Dockhand in the compose file.

docker compose up -d in the dockhand dir, and then went to the UI.

Configure the env how you want, and have it point at whatever your config was. I am running everything in Ubuntu server, so I just left the default Unix stuff set.

From there, the Stacks UI in Dockhand listed everything, but it knew nothing really about them. Pick a low-impact stack, and open it. You should see a section on the left where you can browse to /opt/stacks, for example, and if you’ve renamed the folders, easily find the yaml. Once loaded, you should see the config on the left. On the right is where you can add your env vars. If you have a .env that moved over, there’s a folder icon at the top you can use to navigate to it and pick it.

I have 18 stacks. Start to finish was approx 1 hour. I have 14 volumes, and those are all present, including the association to the stack they belong to, and everything matches what I see in Portainer, which is still up and running alongside Dockhand.

I hope this all helps you. Realistically, I don’t know if you’ll have an issue with volumes. All mine are managed via docker itself and not portainer, so there was nothing I needed to do there.

Today is a Bandcamp Friday!

Lots of artists also do special things for Bandcamp Friday, like put up signed vinyls for sale.

(Note: This article is from NOV 2025.)

I grew up in this area. This specific area they planned to build in was cleared out starting over a decade ago because the (only) local utility, WE Energies, started buying and demolishing homes. People were getting sick, and the power plant was to blame.

I used to scoff at one of the residents along Hwy 32 there, because they always had signs out criticizing the power plant and citing harassment (google maps street view link) . When all this news broke, suddenly this guy was far less crazy in my eyes.

https://www.wpr.org/energy/meet-racine-county-family-power-plant-neighbor

https://archive.jsonline.com/business/we-energies-quietly-buying-up-sites-near-oak-creek-plant-b99219120z1-249144851.html

https://racinecountyeye.com/2017/11/29/we-energies-to-knock-down-more-homes/

Good on you, Caledonia. There’s enough pollution around there as is. Let the land heal.

I also hope the dev is doing well.

I noticed that the notification server for push notifications has been returning 500’s for days now.

So yeah… unless there’s some info from dev, I’m looking to move on. Unfortunately, no other app compares to Arctic (if Arctic added Piefed support, it would be perfect).

My class in Wisconsin was this way as well. The classroom portion focused heavily on trying to avoid needing to use your gun, but if you have to, do these things.

I theme the name based on the car. It could be the model, or it could be what it is known for.

I had a VW GTI named “Gertie”.

Currently I have a Subaru STI named “Satori”, and a Hyundai Ioniq 5 named “Electra”.

I was doing research on a topic yesterday and Reddit threads 3 to 5 years showed up. So I checked them out. The comments randomly had words and phrases made to look like a hyperlink, but with a magnifying glass at the end, sprinkled around. I’ve never noticed it before yesterday, but honestly if I go there, I’m usually using old.reddit.

So I clicked a few, and they all took me to a Reddit search interface. The best part was they all had no results. So, working as expected.

Where I work, my skip-levels have started debating on whether they want to consider if an engineer uses AI as a factor for reviews, pay raises and incentives, and are tracking who uses it by way of licenses.

It’s a bit ridiculous IMO because they’re essentially saying “we don’t care if slop makes it into the code base, so long as you are using AI, you will remain gainfully employed.”