Removing of formerly activated/checked containers in the menu.sh script does not result in a correct change of the docker-compose.yml

[AMDFreak2006]

If you want to "uninstall" a container, so that its not longer part of the docker-compose.yml file, you have the possibility to use the menu.sh script, uncheck there the box of the container you don't want any longer. Afterwards you press Enter and a new docker-compose.yml should be generated.
However the generated file still has the old containers and settings in it. Going again into the build menu in the menu.sh script, the check boxes you unchecked before are then also active again.

Current workaround:
The only way to get a correctly generated docker-compose.yml is to navigate to the services folder in the IOTStack installation and delete the docker-compose.save.yml there. Afterwards you can run the menu.sh script again and check/activate all the boxes/needed containers again but let the not wanted containers unchecked.

[Paraphraser]

Yes, it would be a really nice idea if the menu system worked properly for stack maintenance. It's unfortunate but it just doesn't.

As I said in the other issue, it's OK to use the menu to get your first stack running but, after that, a text editor is the best tool.

Just edit ~/IOTstack/docker-compose.yml.

Other than Node-RED which stores a Dockerfile in ~/IOTstack/services/nodered which is where the add-on nodes get defined, you can safely ignore all the rest of the services directory.

Even with the Node-RED Dockerfile, you're better off editing that by hand too. The default structure is inefficient because it generates a separate RUN command for each add-on (which causes extra layers in the local image for Node-RED). Here's mine:

# reference argument - omitted defaults to latest
ARG DOCKERHUB_TAG=latest

# Download base image
FROM nodered/node-red:${DOCKERHUB_TAG}

# reference argument - omitted defaults to null
ARG EXTRA_PACKAGES

# default user is node-red - need to be root to install packages
USER root

# install packages
RUN apk add --no-cache eudev-dev ${EXTRA_PACKAGES}

# switch back to default user
USER node-red

# add-on nodes follow

RUN npm install \ 
  node-red-node-pi-gpiod \
  node-red-dashboard \
  node-red-contrib-influxdb \
  node-red-contrib-boolean-logic \
  node-red-node-tail \
  node-red-configurable-ping \
  node-red-node-email \
  node-red-contrib-boolean-logic-ultimate \
  node-red-contrib-chartjs \
  node-red-contrib-md5 \
  node-red-contrib-moment \
  node-red-contrib-pushsafer \
  @node-red-contrib-themes/theme-collection

That one multi-line RUN npm install command produces a single layer.

It's also more flexible in that you're not constrained to use only the add-on nodes that the IOTstack menu knows about. You can add anything to the list if you manage it by hand.