LIRC-docker

This repository arose from my own needs to run LIRC with HomeAssistant, but I didn't want to install LIRC. I have prepared two containers:

Only LIRC installed: can be used the same as if you had LIRC on your system, hosted in dockerhub at scmanjarrez/lirc
LIRC + MQTT: Have a MQTT client alongside LIRC. It subscribes a topic and run irsend using payload data, hosted in dockerhub at scmanjarrez/lirc:mqtt

Preparation steps

You need to enable the kernel driver for IR in case you're running the container in a raspberry pi (my case).

Add the following line to your /boot/firmware/config.txt or /boot/config.txt (depending of your OS)

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=17 # receiver
dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=18 # transmitter

Common notes

You need to run the container as --privileged so it can have access to required dependencies (e.g. devices). You also need to bind the configuration file to be used:

docker run --rm --privileged -v ./path2cfg:/usr/etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/cfg_name <container> <command>

I have tried lot of methods to avoid the usage of --privileged without much success (I'm not too versed about linux internals). Let me know if you find a way to give the minimal permissions to the container 🙂

LIRC

docker run --rm --privileged \
    -v ./path2cfg:/usr/etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/cfg_name \
    scmanjarrez/lirc <command>

docker run --rm --privileged \
    -v ./leds.lircd.conf:/usr/etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/leds.lircd.conf \
    scmanjarrez/lirc irsend SEND_ONCE leds KEY_ON

LIRC & MQTT

You need to define a set of environment variables so MQTT client can connect to broker and subscribe to the topic:

docker run --rm --privileged \
    -v ./path2cfg:/usr/etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/cfg_name \
    -e MQTT_HOST=<broker_hostname/ip> \
    -e MQTT_PORT=<broker_port/ip> \
    -e MQTT_USER=<user> \
    -e MQTT_PASS=<passwd> \
    -e MQTT_TOPIC=<topic> \
    scmanjarrez/lirc:mqtt

docker run --rm --privileged \
    -v ./leds.lircd.conf:/usr/etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/leds.lircd.conf \
    -e MQTT_HOST=mqtt \
    -e MQTT_PORT=1884 \
    -e MQTT_USER=hass \
    -e MQTT_PASS=strong_password \
    -e MQTT_TOPIC=lirc \
    scmanjarrez/lirc:mqtt

Note: You can skip any environment, the default value will be used instead:
MQTT_HOST: localhost
MQTT_PORT: 1883
MQTT_USER: None # No authentication required ("allow_anonymous true" if using eclipse-mosquitto)
MQTT_PASS: None
MQTT_TOPIC: lirc

The payload must be a json with the following format:

{
  "rc": "remote-name",
  "key": "key-name, without KEY_"
}

{
  "rc": "leds",
  "key": "ON"
}

docker compose

This is a small example for running with HomeAssistant, I'm using the default topic of the container to send messages: lirc

{"rc": "leds", "key": "ON"}