Databases

The BBS keeps its users, messages, mail, file records, FidoNet and news state, tokens and keys in one database. It can be:

• SQLite, the default: one file, with nothing else to run
• PostgreSQL 12 or later
• MySQL 8.0 or later
• MariaDB 10.11 or later (10.6 works with one difference, described below)

The files in the file areas are always kept on disk (in files_dir), not in the database. The BBS is tested with PostgreSQL 16, MySQL 8.4, and MariaDB 11.4, 10.11 and 10.6.

[general]
database = /var/lib/bbs/bbs.db                                ; SQLite
;database = postgres://bbs:PASSWORD@db.example.org/bbs         ; PostgreSQL
;database = mysql://bbs:PASSWORD@db.example.org:3306/bbs       ; MySQL
;database = mariadb://bbs:PASSWORD@db.example.org:3306/bbs     ; MariaDB

database	Engine
a path (or sqlite:PATH)	SQLite: the file is made (0600) if it is not there
postgres:// or postgresql://	PostgreSQL, in pgx's form: ?sslmode=require, ?search_path=bbs and the like after it
mysql://user:password@host:port/db	MySQL; ?tls=true and go-sql-driver's other options after it
mariadb://..., mariadb:DSN	MariaDB, the same way (the BBS finds MariaDB behind a mysql:// too)
mysql:DSN	MySQL in go-sql-driver's own form, for a unix socket: mysql:bbs:PASSWORD@unix(/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock)/bbs

The BBS creates its tables when it starts, or with bbs init, and adds any columns that later versions bring. On PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB the database itself must already exist, and the BBS's user must own it or have CREATE in it. On PostgreSQL the BBS also creates a collation, nocase, so that names match in any case.

Logs and bbs check show the address with its password replaced by xxxxx. The configuration file holds the password in the clear, so keep the file at mode 0640, owned by the BBS's group.

What differs

Very little, by design. The BBS writes its SQL once, and each engine gets its own form of the parts that differ (ids, placeholders, upserts, booleans, and what counts as a duplicate).

• Names (users, areas, files) match in any case on all three; letters with accents are not their plain letters (René is not Rene). SQLite folds the case of ASCII letters only: RENÉ finds René on PostgreSQL and MySQL, not on SQLite.
• MySQL keeps names, Message-IDs and other indexed text in VARCHAR(255), descriptions and the like in VARCHAR(1024), messages in MEDIUMTEXT (16 MB). The BBS's connection sets the SQL mode it needs (ANSI_QUOTES, strict), whatever the server's default.
• MariaDB is a MySQL to the BBS, but for its collations, which the BBS chooses when it connects: UCA 14.0's (utf8mb4_uca1400_as_ci, 10.10 and later), which match names as MySQL's do. MariaDB 10.6 (out of support since July 2026) has no collation that ignores case but not accents: there names ignore both (René is Rene, and only one of them can be a user). bbs check and the log say which.
• SQLite uses one connection (it takes one writer at a time); the servers up to ten.

Moving to another engine

bbs db copy postgres://bbs:PASSWORD@db.example.org/bbs

This copies every table of the configured database into a new, empty one (set up as bbs init would), keeping the ids. When it is done, set database = to the new one. Stop the BBS while it copies. It works in any direction: SQLite to PostgreSQL, MySQL to SQLite, PostgreSQL to MySQL, and so on.

Backups

bbs backup (or a daily backup set with [backup]'s at) copies the whole database while callers are on, along with the configuration and the files: see Backups. A database server's own tools work as well, such as pg_dump or mysqldump --single-transaction.

See also: Configuration, Running, Development