Databases

The BBS keeps its users, messages, mail, file records, FidoNet and news state, tokens and keys in one database: SQLite (the default, one file, nothing to run), PostgreSQL (12 or later), MySQL (8.0 or later) or MariaDB (10.11 or later; 10.6 with a difference, below). File areas' files are kept on disk in every case (files_dir). 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
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 makes its tables (and adds columns later versions bring) when it starts, or with bbs init. The database (PostgreSQL's, or MySQL's) must be there, and the user own it or have CREATE in it; on PostgreSQL the BBS also makes a collation, nocase, for names that match in any case.

Logs and bbs check show the address with its password as xxxxx. The configuration file has it in the clear: keep it 0640, the BBS's group's.

What differs

Little, by design: the BBS writes its SQL once, and each engine is given its own forms of what differs (ids, placeholders, upserts, booleans, 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

copies the configured database, every table, into a new, empty one (made as bbs init would), keeping ids, then says so; then set database = to the new one. The BBS should be stopped while it copies. It goes any way: SQLite to PostgreSQL, MySQL to SQLite, PostgreSQL to MySQL.

Backups

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

See also: Configuration, Running, Development