A modular, open-source search engine for our world.

Pelias is a geocoder powered completely by open data, available freely to everyone.

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What is Pelias?

Pelias is a search engine for places worldwide, powered by open data. It turns addresses and place names into geographic coordinates, and turns geographic coordinates into places and addresses. With Pelias, you’re able to turn your users’ place searches into actionable geodata and transform your geodata into real places.

We think open data, open source, and open strategy win over proprietary solutions at any part of the stack and we want to ensure the services we offer are in line with that vision. We believe that an open geocoder improves over the long-term only if the community can incorporate truly representative local knowledge.

Pelias in Docker

This repository contains a framework for downloading/preparing and building the Pelias Geocoder using Docker and Docker Compose.

Projects

Example projects are included in the projects directory.

We recommend you start with the portland-metro example as a first-time user: it has lower disk and time requirements and can be used to help you familiarize yourself with the process.

Once you have successfully completed a small build you can use this as a base to create your own projects or move on to larger projects.

Prerequisites

You will need to have a modern version of docker and a modern version of docker compose installed before continuing. If you are not using the latest version, please mention that in any bugs reports.

This project supports Linux and Mac OSX operatings systems. Windows is currently not supported.

Permissions

In order to ensure security, Pelias docker containers, and the pelias helper script, will not run as a root user!

Be sure you are running as a non-root user and that this user can execute docker commands. See the Docker documentation article Manage Docker as a non-root user to do this.

Requirements for Linux

• Install util-linux using your distribution's package manager
  • Alpine Linux: sudo apk add util-linux
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install util-linux

Requirements for Mac OSX

• install GNU coreutils with Homebrew: brew install coreutils.
• Max-out Docker computing resources( Memory-RAM and CPUs-Cores ) dedicated to Docker in Docker > Preferences > Advanced.

System requirements

Scripts can easily download tens of GB of geographic data, so ensure you have enough free disk space!

At least 8GB RAM is required.

How long will it take?

You should be able to get started with the default Portland-metro area build in under an hour with a fast internet connection.

On a machine with ~32 CPU cores, a full planet build can be done in under a day with the right settings.

The interpolation build (pelias prepare interpolation), which is single threaded will take 6+ days for the full planet. We generally recommend skipping it when you are first getting started.

For more info on time estimates and hardware requirements for large build see our full planet considerations documentation.

Quickstart build script

The following shell script can be used to quickly get started with a Pelias build.

#!/bin/bash
set -x

# change directory to the where you would like to install Pelias
# cd /path/to/install

# clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/pelias/docker.git && cd docker

# install pelias script
# this is the _only_ setup command that should require `sudo`
sudo ln -s "$(pwd)/pelias" /usr/local/bin/pelias

# cd into the project directory
cd projects/portland-metro

# create a directory to store Pelias data files
# see: https://github.com/pelias/docker#variable-data_dir
# note: use 'gsed' instead of 'sed' on a Mac
mkdir ./data
sed -i '/DATA_DIR/d' .env
echo 'DATA_DIR=./data' >> .env

# run build
pelias compose pull
pelias elastic start
pelias elastic wait
pelias elastic create
pelias download all
pelias prepare all
pelias import all
pelias compose up

# optionally run tests
pelias test run

Installing the Pelias helper script

This repository makes use of a helper script to make basic management of the Pelias Docker images easy.

If you haven't done so already, you will need to ensure the pelias command is available on your path.

You can find the pelias file in the root of this repository.

Advanced users may have a preference how this is done on their system, but a basic example would be to do something like:

# change directory to the where you would like to install Pelias
# cd /path/to/install

# clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/pelias/docker.git && cd docker

# install pelias script
sudo ln -s "$(pwd)/pelias" /usr/local/bin/pelias

Once the command is correctly installed you should be able to run the following command to confirm the pelias command is available on your path:

which pelias

Resolving PATH issues

If you are having trouble getting this to work then quickly check that the target of the symlink is listed on your $PATH:

tr ':' '\n' <<< "$PATH"

If you used the ln -s command above then the directory /usr/local/bin should be listed in the output.

If the symlink target path is not listed, then you will either need to add its location to your $PATH or create a new symlink which points to a location which is already on your $PATH.

Configure Environment

The pelias command looks for an .env file in your current working directory, this file contains information specific to your local environment.

If this is your first time, you should change directories to an example project before continuing:

cd projects/portland-metro

Ensure that your current working directory contains the files: .env, docker-compose.yml and pelias.json before continuing.

Variable: DATA_DIR

The only mandatory variable in .env is DATA_DIR.

This path reflects the directory Pelias will use to store downloaded data and use to build it's other microservices.

You must create a new directory which you will use for this project, for example:

mkdir /tmp/pelias

Then use your text editor to modify the .env file to reflect your new path, it should look like this:

COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=pelias
DATA_DIR=/tmp/pelias

You can then list the environment variables to ensure they have been correctly set:

pelias system env

Variables: COMPOSE_*

The compose variables are optional and are documented here: https://docs.docker.com/compose/env-file/

Note: changing the COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME variable is not advisable unless you know what you are doing. If you are migrating from the deprecated pelias/dockerfiles repository then you can set COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=dockerfiles to enable backwards compatibility with containers created using that repository.

Variable: DOCKER_USER

This variable is no longer used, and will be ignored. If you still have it in your .env file, you can safely remove it.

CLI commands

The following is a list of all supported CLI commands.

$ pelias

Usage: pelias [command] [action] [options]

  compose   pull                     update all docker images
  compose   logs                     display container logs
  compose   ps                       list containers
  compose   top                      display the running processes of a container
  compose   exec                     execute an arbitrary docker compose command
  compose   run                      execute a docker compose run command
  compose   up                       start one or more docker compose service(s)
  compose   kill                     kill one or more docker compose service(s)
  compose   down                     stop all docker compose service(s)
  download  wof                      (re)download whosonfirst data
  download  oa                       (re)download openaddresses data
  download  osm                      (re)download openstreetmap data
  download  tiger                    (re)download TIGER data
  download  transit                  (re)download transit data
  download  all                      (re)download all data
  elastic   drop                     delete elasticsearch index & all data
  elastic   create                   create elasticsearch index with pelias mapping
  elastic   start                    start elasticsearch server
  elastic   stop                     stop elasticsearch server
  elastic   status                   HTTP status code of the elasticsearch service
  elastic   wait                     wait for elasticsearch to start up
  elastic   info                     display elasticsearch version and build info
  elastic   stats                    display a summary of doc counts per source/layer
  import    wof                      (re)import whosonfirst data
  import    oa                       (re)import openaddresses data
  import    osm                      (re)import openstreetmap data
  import    polylines                (re)import polylines data
  import    transit                  (re)import transit data
  import    csv                      (re)import csv data
  import    all                      (re)import all data
  prepare   polylines                export road network from openstreetmap into polylines format
  prepare   interpolation            build interpolation sqlite databases
  prepare   placeholder              build placeholder sqlite databases
  prepare   all                      build all services which have a prepare step
  system    check                    ensure the system is correctly configured
  system    env                      display environment variables
  system    update                   update the pelias command by pulling the latest version

Compose commands

The compose commands are available as a shortcut to running docker compose directly, they will also ensure that your environment is correctly configured.

See the docker compose documentation for more info: https://docs.docker.com/compose/overview/

pelias compose pull                     update all docker images
pelias compose logs                     display container logs
pelias compose ps                       list containers
pelias compose top                      display the running processes of a container
pelias compose exec                     execute an arbitrary docker compose command
pelias compose run                      execute a docker compose run command
pelias compose up                       start one or more docker compose service(s)
pelias compose kill                     kill one or more docker compose service(s)
pelias compose down                     stop all docker compose service(s)

Download commands

The download commands will fetch and update geographic data from source.

For example: pelias download tiger will fetch street data from the US Census Bureau and store it in the directory referenced by the DATA_DIR environment variable.

pelias download wof                      (re)download whosonfirst data
pelias download oa                       (re)download openaddresses data
pelias download osm                      (re)download openstreetmap data
pelias download tiger                    (re)download TIGER data
pelias download transit                  (re)download transit data
pelias download all                      (re)download all data

Prepare commands

The prepare commands are used to run any commands which are required to setup/configure or build microservices.

For example: pelias prepare interpolation will build a street address interpolation index.

Note: the order of execution is important, the prepare commands require data, so they must be run after the download commands have fetched the data.

pelias prepare polylines                export road network from openstreetmap into polylines format
pelias prepare interpolation            build interpolation sqlite databases
pelias prepare placeholder              build placeholder sqlite databases
pelias prepare all                      build all services which have a prepare step

Elastic commands

The elastic commands control starting/stopping/configuring elasticsearch.

The special pelias elastic wait command can be used in scripts to block the script execution until elasticsearch is ready to accept connections.

pelias elastic drop                     delete elasticsearch index & all data
pelias elastic create                   create elasticsearch index with pelias mapping
pelias elastic start                    start elasticsearch server
pelias elastic stop                     stop elasticsearch server
pelias elastic status                   HTTP status code of the elasticsearch service
pelias elastic wait                     wait for elasticsearch to start up
pelias elastic info                     display elasticsearch version and build info
pelias elastic stats                    display a summary of doc counts per source/layer

Import commands

The import commands import source data in to elasticsearch.

pelias import wof                      (re)import whosonfirst data
pelias import oa                       (re)import openaddresses data
pelias import osm                      (re)import openstreetmap data
pelias import polylines                (re)import polylines data
pelias import transit                  (re)import transit data
pelias import all                      (re)import all data

System commands

The system commands help debug issues with incorrectly set environment variables.

The pelias system update command can be used to ensure that the pelias command itself is up-to-date by pulling the latest source code from Github.

pelias system check                    ensure the system is correctly configured
pelias system env                      display environment variables
pelias system update                   update the pelias command by pulling the latest version

Test command

The test command runs the fuzzy-tester tests against any test cases in your project.

test      run                      run fuzzy-tester test cases

Optionally cleanup temporary files

Once the build is complete, you can cleanup temporary files that are no longer useful. The numbers in this snippet below are rough estimates for a full planet build.

# These folders can be entirely deleted after the import into elastic search
rm -rf /data/openaddresses #(~43GB)
rm -rf /data/tiger #(~13GB)
rm -rf /data/openstreetmap #(~46GB)
rm -rf /data/polylines #(~2.7GB)

# Within the content of the "interpolation" folder (~176GB) we must
# preserve "street.db" (~7GB) and "address.db" (~25GB), the rest can be deleted
cd /data/interpolation
rm -rf -- !("street.db"|"address.db")

# Within the content of the "placeholder" folder (~1.4GB), we must
# preserve the "store.sqlite3" (~0.9GB) file, the rest can be deleted
cd /data/placeholder
rm -rf -- !("store.sqlite3")

View status of running containers

Once the build is complete, you can view the current status and port mappings of the Pelias docker containers:

pelias compose ps

View logs and debug errors

You can inspect the container logs for errors by running:

pelias compose logs

Example queries

Once all the importers have completed and the Pelias services are running, you can make queries against your new Pelias build:

API

• http://localhost:4000/v1/search?text=portland
• http://localhost:4000/v1/search?text=1901 Main St
• http://localhost:4000/v1/reverse?point.lon=-122.650095&point.lat=45.533467

Placeholder

• http://localhost:4100/demo/#eng

PIP (point in polygon)

• http://localhost:4200/-122.650095/45.533467

Interpolation

• http://localhost:4300/demo/#13/45.5465/-122.6351

Libpostal

• http://localhost:4400/parse?address=1730+ne+26th+ave,+portland,+or