gochan/config.md

Configuration

See gochan.example.json for an example gochan.json.

Make sure gochan has read-write permission for DocumentRoot and LogDir and read permission for TemplateDir

Fields in the table marked as board options can be overridden on individual boards by adding them to board.json, which gochan looks for in the board directory or in the same directory as gochan.json.

Field	Type	Board option	Default	Info
ListenAddress	string	No		ListenAddress is the IP address or domain name that the server will listen on
Port	int	No	80	Port is the port that the server will listen on
UseFastCGI	bool	No	false	UseFastCGI tells the server to listen on FastCGI instead of HTTP if true
DocumentRoot	string	No		DocumentRoot is the path to the directory that contains the served static files
TemplateDir	string	No		TemplateDir is the path to the directory that contains the template files
LogDir	string	No		LogDir is the path to the directory that contains the log files. It must be writable by the server and will be created if it doesn't exist
Plugins	[]string	No		Plugins is a list of paths to plugins to be loaded on startup. In Windows, only .lua plugins are supported. In Unix, .so plugins are also supported, but they must be compiled with the same Go version as the server and must be compiled in plugin mode
WebRoot	string	No	/	WebRoot is the base URL path that the server will serve files and generated pages from.
SiteHost	string	No		SiteHost is the publicly accessible domain name or IP address of the site, e.g. "example.com" used for anti-spam checking
CheckRequestReferer	bool	No	true	CheckRequestReferer tells the server to validate the Referer header from requests to prevent CSRF attacks.
LogLevelStr	string	No	info	LogLevel determines the minimum level of log event to output. Any events lower than this level will be ignored. Valid values are "trace", "debug", "info", "warn", "error", "fatal", and "panic".
RandomSeed	string	No		RandomSeed is a random string used for generating secure tokens. It will be generated if not set and must not be changed
DBtype	string	No		DBtype is the type of SQL database to use. Currently supported values are "mysql", "postgres", and "sqlite3"
DBhost	string	No		DBhost is the hostname or IP address of the SQL server, or the path to the SQLite database file. To connect to a MySQL database, set DBhost to "x.x.x.x:3306" (replacing x.x.x.x with your database server's IP or domain) or a different port, if necessary. You can also use a UNIX socket if you have it set up, like "unix(/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock)". To connect to a PostgreSQL database, set DBhost to the IP address or hostname. Using a UNIX socket may work as well, but it is currently untested.
DBname	string	No		DBname is the name of the SQL database to connect to
DBusername	string	No		DBusername is the username to use when authenticating with the SQL server
DBpassword	string	No		DBpassword is the password to use when authenticating with the SQL server
DBprefix	string	No		DBprefix is the prefix to add to table names in the database. It is not requried but may be useful if you need to share a database. Once you set it and do the initial setup, do not change it, as gochan will think the tables are missing and try to recreate them.
DBTimeoutSeconds	int	No	15	DBTimeoutSeconds sets the timeout for SQL queries in seconds, 0 means no timeout.
DBMaxOpenConnections	int	No	10	DBMaxOpenConnections is the maximum number of open connections to the database connection pool.
DBMaxIdleConnections	int	No	10	DBMaxIdleConnections is the maximum number of idle connections to the database connection pool.
DBConnMaxLifetimeMin	int	No	3	DBConnMaxLifetimeMin is the maximum lifetime of a connection in minutes.
FirstPage	[]string	No	["index.html", "firstrun.html", "1.html"]	FirstPage is a list of possible filenames to look for if a directory is requested
Username	string	No		Username is the name of the user that the server will run as, if set, or the current user if empty or unset. It must be a valid user on the system if it is set
CookieMaxAge	string	No	1y	CookieMaxAge is the parsed max age duration of cookies, e.g. "1 year 2 months 3 days 4 hours" or "1y2mo3d4h".
StaffSessionDuration	string	No	3mo	StaffSessionDuration is the parsed max age duration of staff session cookies, e.g. "1 year 2 months 3 days 4 hours" or "1y2mo3d4h".
SiteName	string	No	Gochan	SiteName is the name of the site, displayed in the title and front page header
SiteSlogan	string	No		SiteSlogan is the community slogan displayed on the front page below the site name
MaxRecentPosts	int	No	15	MaxRecentPosts is the number of recent posts to display on the front page
RecentPostsWithNoFile	bool	No	false	RecentPostsWithNoFile determines whether to include posts with no file in the recent posts list
EnableAppeals	bool	No	true	EnableAppeals determines whether to allow users to appeal bans
MinifyHTML	bool	No	true	MinifyHTML tells the server to minify HTML output before sending it to the client
MinifyJS	bool	No	true	MinifyJS tells the server to minify JavaScript and JSON output before sending it to the client
GeoIPType	string	No		GeoIPType is the type of GeoIP database to use. Currently only "mmdb" is supported, though other types may be provided by plugins
GeoIPOptions	map[string]any	No		GeoIPOptions is a map of options to pass to the GeoIP plugin
Captcha	CaptchaConfig	No		Captcha options for spam prevention. Currently only hcaptcha is supported
FingerprintVideoThumbnails	bool	No	false	FingerprintVideoThumbnails determines whether to use video thumbnails for image fingerprinting. If false, the video file will not be checked by fingerprinting filters
FingerprintHashLength	int	No	16	FingerprintHashLength is the length of the hash used for image fingerprinting
InheritGlobalStyles	bool	Yes	true	InheritGlobalStyles determines whether to use the global styles in addition to the board's styles, as opposed to only the board's styles
Styles	[]Style	Yes		Styles is a list of Gochan themes with Name and Filename fields, choosable by the user
DefaultStyle	string	Yes	pipes.css	DefaultStyle is the filename of the default style to use for the board or the site. If it is not set, the first style in the Styles list will be used
IncludeGlobalStyles	[]string	Yes		IncludeGlobalStyles is a list of additional CSS files to be loaded on the board pages, or all pages if this is the global configuration.
IncludeScripts	[]IncludeScript	Yes		IncludeScripts is a list of additional scripts to be loaded on the board pages, or all pages if this is the global configuration.
Banners	[]PageBanner	Yes		Banners is a list of banners to display on the board's front page, with Filename, Width, and Height fields
Lockdown	bool	Yes	false	Lockdown prevents users from posting if true
LockdownMessage	string	Yes	This imageboard has temporarily disabled posting. We apologize for the inconvenience	LockdownMessage is the message displayed to users if they try to cretae a post when the site is in lockdown
DateTimeFormat	string	Yes	Mon, January 02, 2006 3:04:05 PM	DateTimeFormat is the human readable format to use for showing post timestamps. See the official documentation for more information.
ShowPosterID	bool	Yes	false	ShowPosterID determines whether to show the generated thread-unique poster ID in the post header (not yet implemented)
EnableSpoileredImages	bool	Yes	true	EnableSpoileredImages determines whether to allow users to spoiler images (not yet implemented)
EnableSpoileredThreads	bool	Yes	true	EnableSpoileredThreads determines whether to allow users to spoiler threads (not yet implemented)
Worksafe	bool	Yes	true	Worksafe determines whether the board is worksafe or not. If it is set to true, threads cannot be marked NSFW (given a hashtag with the text NSFW, case insensitive).
Cooldowns	BoardCooldowns	Yes		Cooldowns is used to prevent spamming by setting the number of seconds the user must wait before creating new threads or replies
RenderURLsAsLinks	bool	Yes	true	RenderURLsAsLinks determines whether to render URLs as clickable links in posts
ThreadsPerPage	int	Yes	20	ThreadsPerPage is the number of threads to display per page
EnableGeoIP	bool	Yes	false	EnableGeoIP shows a dropdown box allowing the user to set their post flag as their country
EnableNoFlag	bool	Yes	false	EnableNoFlag allows the user to post without a flag. It is only used if EnableGeoIP or CustomFlags is true
CustomFlags	[]geoip.Country	Yes		CustomFlags is a list of non-geoip flags with Name (viewable to the user) and Flag (flag image filename) fields
MaxMessageLength	int	Yes	2000	MaxMessageLength is the maximum number of characters allowed in a post
ReservedTrips	map[string]string	Yes		ReservedTrips is used for reserving secure tripcodes. It should be a map of input strings to output tripcode strings. For example, if you have {"abcd":"WXYZ"} and someone posts with the name Name##abcd, their name will instead show up as Name!!WXYZ on the site.
ThreadsPerPage	int	Yes	20	ThreadsPerPage is the number of threads to display per page
RepliesOnBoardPage	int	Yes	3	RepliesOnBoardPage is the number of replies to display on the board page
StickyRepliesOnBoardPage	int	Yes	1	StickyRepliesOnBoardPage is the number of replies to display on the board page for sticky threads
NewThreadsRequireUpload	bool	Yes	false	NewThreadsRequireUpload determines whether to require an upload to create a new thread
EnableCyclicThreads	bool	Yes	true	EnableCyclicThreads allows users to create threads that have a maximum number of replies before the oldest reply is deleted
CyclicThreadNumPosts	int	Yes	500	CyclicThreadNumPost determines the number of posts a cyclic thread can have before the oldest post is deleted
BanColors	map[string]string	Yes		BanColors is a list of colors to use for the ban message with the staff name as the key. If the staff name is not found in the list, the default style color will be used.
BanMessage	string	Yes	USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST	BanMessage is the default message shown on a post that a user was banned for
EmbedWidth	int	Yes	400	EmbedWidth is the width of embedded external media files
EmbedHeight	int	Yes	300	EmbedHeight is the height of embedded external media files
EmbedMatchers	map[string]EmbedMatcher	Yes		EmbedMatchers is a map of site ID keys to objects used to match (via regular expression) URLs and embed them in posts via templates, with an optional image thumbnail if supported. If a URL template is not provided, the video/frame will be embedded directly. If EmbedMatchers is nil, embedding is disabled for the board, or globally if it is in the global configuration.
ImagesOpenNewTab	bool	Yes	true	ImagesOpenNewTab determines whether to open images in a new tab when an image link is clicked
NewTabOnExternalLinks	bool	Yes	true	NewTabOnExternalLinks determines whether to open external links in a new tab
DisableBBcode	bool	Yes	false	DisableBBcode will disable BBCode to HTML conversion if true
AllowDiceRerolls	bool	Yes	false	AllowDiceRerolls determines whether to allow users to edit posts to reroll dice
RejectDuplicateUploads	bool	Yes	false	RejectDuplicateUploads determines whether to reject images and videos that have already been uploaded
ThumbWidth	int	Yes	200	ThumbWidth is the maximum width that thumbnails in the top thread post will be scaled down to
ThumbHeight	int	Yes	200	ThumbHeight is the maximum height that thumbnails in the top thread post will be scaled down to
ThumbWidthReply	int	Yes	125	ThumbWidthReply is the maximum width that thumbnails in thread replies will be scaled down to
ThumbHeightReply	int	Yes	125	ThumbHeightReply is the maximum height that thumbnails in thread replies will be scaled down to
ThumbWidthCatalog	int	Yes	50	ThumbWidthCatalog is the maximum width that thumbnails on the board catalog page will be scaled down to
ThumbHeightCatalog	int	Yes	50	ThumbHeightCatalog is the maximum height that thumbnails on the board catalog page will be scaled down to
AllowOtherExtensions	map[string]string	Yes		AllowOtherExtensions is a map of file extensions to use for uploads that are not images or videos The key is the extension (e.g. ".pdf") and the value is the filename of the thumbnail to use in /static
StripImageMetadata	string	Yes		StripImageMetadata sets what (if any) metadata to remove from uploaded images using exiftool. Valid values are "", "none" (has the same effect as ""), "exif", or "all" (for stripping all metadata)
ExiftoolPath	string	Yes		ExiftoolPath is the path to the exiftool command. If unset or empty, the system path will be used to find it

Example options for GeoIPOptions:

"GeoIPType": "mmdb",
"GeoIPOptions": {
	"dbLocation": "/usr/share/geoip/GeoIP2.mmdb",
	"isoCode": "en" // optional
}

CustomFlags is an array with custom post flags, selectable via dropdown. The Flag value is assumed to be a file in /static/flags/. Example:

"CustomFlags": [
	{"Flag":"california.png", "Name": "California"},
	{"Flag":"cia.png", "Name": "CIA"},
	{"Flag":"lgbtq.png", "Name": "LGBTQ"},
	{"Flag":"ms-dos.png", "Name": "MS-DOS"},
	{"Flag":"stallman.png", "Name": "Stallman"},
	{"Flag":"templeos.png", "Name": "TempleOS"},
	{"Flag":"tux.png", "Name": "Linux"},
	{"Flag":"windows9x.png", "Name": "Windows 9x"}
]

CaptchaConfig

Field	Type	Info
Type	string	Type is the type of captcha to use. Currently only "hcaptcha" is supported
OnlyNeededForThreads	bool	OnlyNeededForThreads determines whether to require a captcha only when creating a new thread, or for all posts
SiteKey	string	SiteKey is the public key for the captcha service. Usage depends on the captcha service
AccountSecret	string	AccountSecret is the secret key for the captcha service. Usage depends on the captcha service

PageBanner

PageBanner represents the filename and dimensions of a banner image to display on board and thread pages

Field	Type	Info
Filename	string	Filename is the name of the image file to display as seen by the browser
Width	int	Width is the width of the image in pixels
Height	int	Height is the height of the image in pixels

BoardCooldowns

Field	Type	Default	Info
NewThread	int	30	NewThread is the number of seconds the user must wait before creating new threads.
Reply	int	7	NewReply is the number of seconds the user must wait after replying to a thread before they can create another reply.
ImageReply	int	7	NewImageReply is the number of seconds the user must wait after replying to a thread with an upload before they can create another reply.

geoip.Country

Country represents the country data (or custom flag data) used by gochan.

Field	Type	Info
Flag	string	Flag is the country abbreviation for standard geoip countries, or the filename accessible in /static/flags/{flag} for custom flags
Name	string	Name is the configured flag name that shows up in the dropdown box and the image alt text