Getting help

The Doctor

The Overleaf Toolkit comes with a handy doctor script to help with debugging. Run bin/doctor and the script will print information about your host environment, your configuration, and the dependencies the Toolkit needs. This output can also help the Overleaf support team diagnose issues for Server Pro installations.

Users of the Overleaf CEP can open an issue on GitHub.

it is a good idea to include the output of the bin/doctor script in your message.

Consulting with the Doctor

Run the doctor script:

Run doctor

bin/doctor

You will see output similar to the example below.

Example full output

====== Overleaf Doctor ======
- Host Information
    - Linux
    - Output of 'lsb_release -a':
            No LSB modules are available.
            Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
            Description:	Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
            Release:	22.04
            Codename:	jammy
- Dependencies
    - bash
        - status: present
        - version info: 5.1.16(1)-release
    - docker
        - status: present
        - version info: Docker version 28.0.4, build b8034c0
    - docker compose
        - status: present
        - version info: Docker Compose version v2.34.0
    - realpath
        - status: present
        - version info: realpath (GNU coreutils) 8.32
    - perl
        - status: present
        - version info: 5.034000
    - awk
        - status: present
        - version info: mawk 1.3.4 20200120
- Docker Daemon
    - status: up
====== Configuration ======
- config/version
    - status: present
    - version: 5.4.0
- config/overleaf.rc
    - status: present
    - values
        - OVERLEAF_DATA_PATH: data/overleaf
        - OVERLEAF_LOG_PATH: data/overleaf/logs
        - SERVER_PRO: true
        - SIBLING_CONTAINERS_ENABLED: true
            - logged in to quay.io: true
        - MONGO_ENABLED: true
        - REDIS_ENABLED: true
- config/variables.env
    - status: present
    - values
        - OVERLEAF_FILESTORE_BACKEND: fs
        - OVERLEAF_HISTORY_BACKEND: fs

====== Warnings ======
- None, all good
====== End ======

Host Information

The Host Information section contains information about the machine running the Toolkit (for example, Linux distribution and release).

Example Host Information output

- Host Information
    - Linux
    - Output of 'lsb_release -a':
            No LSB modules are available.
            Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
            Description:	Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
            Release:	22.04
            Codename:	jammy

Dependencies

The Dependencies section lists tools required for the Toolkit to work. If a tool is present it will be listed as status: present with version info. If missing it will be listed as status: MISSING! and a warning will be added to the bottom of the doctor output.

Example Dependency output (present)

- docker
    - status: present
    - version info: Docker version 28.0.4, build b8034c0

Example Dependency output (missing)

- docker
    - status: MISSING!

If any dependencies are missing, the Toolkit will almost certainly not work.

Configuration

The Configuration section contains information about files in the config/ directory. For config/overleaf.rc, the doctor prints some key values. Missing files will be listed as status: MISSING! and a warning will be added to the bottom of the doctor output.

Example Configuration output

====== Configuration ======
- config/version
    - status: present
    - version: 5.4.0
- config/overleaf.rc
    - status: present
    - values
        - OVERLEAF_DATA_PATH: /tmp/overleaf
        - SERVER_PRO: false
        - MONGO_ENABLED: false
        - REDIS_ENABLED: true
- config/variables.env
    - status: MISSING!

Notes from the example above:

• OVERLEAF_DATA_PATH set to /tmp/overleaf may not be a safe location for important data.

• MONGO_ENABLED: false means the Toolkit will not provision its own MongoDB; ensure MONGO_URL points to an externally managed MongoDB if needed.

• config/variables.env is missing in the example.

Warnings

The Warnings section summarizes problems discovered by the doctor script. If there are no problems, this section will indicate that.

Example Warnings output

====== Warnings ======
- configuration file variables.env not found
- rc file, OVERLEAF_DATA_PATH not set
====== End =======