gochan

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