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The serve command starts the oForum web server. This is the default command—running oforum without arguments is equivalent to oforum serve.

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Usage

oforum serve
# or simply
oforum

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Startup Sequence

When you start the server, oForum performs the following operations:
  1. Load environment - Reads .env file if present
  2. Validate configuration - Checks for required DATABASE_URL
  3. Run migrations - Automatically applies pending database migrations
  4. Connect to database - Establishes PostgreSQL connection
  5. Start web server - Begins listening for HTTP requests
Migrations run automatically on startup. You don’t need to run oforum migrate separately unless you want to apply migrations without starting the server.

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Environment Variables

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DATABASE_URL
string
required
PostgreSQL connection string.
DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost:5432/oforum?sslmode=disable
If DATABASE_URL is not set, the server will exit with an error message:
✗ DATABASE_URL is required

Set it in .env or as an environment variable.
Run oforum init to generate a .env file.
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PORT
string
default:"8080"
Port number for the HTTP server.
PORT=3000

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Examples

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Start with Default Port (8080)

oforum
Output: 
Migrations applied successfully
Starting server on :8080

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Start on Custom Port

PORT=3000 oforum serve

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Start with Inline Database URL

DATABASE_URL="postgres://user:[email protected]:5432/oforum" oforum

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Production Deployment

Create a systemd service file:
/etc/systemd/system/oforum.service
[Unit]
Description=oForum
After=network.target postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=oforum
WorkingDirectory=/opt/oforum
EnvironmentFile=/opt/oforum/.env
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/oforum serve
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Enable and start: 
sudo systemctl enable oforum
sudo systemctl start oforum

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Stopping the Server

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Graceful Shutdown

Press Ctrl+C to send SIGINT. The server will:
  • Stop accepting new connections
  • Close the database connection
  • Exit cleanly

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Force Quit

Press Ctrl+C twice or send SIGKILL: 
kill -9 <pid>
Force killing may leave database connections open. Use graceful shutdown when possible.

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Server Features

The server starts with:
  • Gzip compression - Automatic response compression
  • HTML minification - Reduced page sizes
  • Session management - Cookie-based authentication
  • Ban checking - Automatic banned user filtering
  • Template rendering - Go templates with custom functions
  • Static routes - Homepage, posts, user profiles, admin panel
  • SEO routes - robots.txt, sitemap.xml, llms.txt

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Troubleshooting

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Port Already in Use

Error: 
Failed to start server: listen tcp :8080: bind: address already in use
Solution: Use a different port or stop the conflicting service: 
# Find process using port 8080
lsof -i :8080

# Start on different port
PORT=8081 oforum

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Database Connection Failed

Error: 
Failed to connect to database: connection refused
Solution: Verify PostgreSQL is running and DATABASE_URL is correct: 
# Test connection
psql "$DATABASE_URL"

# Check PostgreSQL status
sudo systemctl status postgresql

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Migration Failed

Error: 
Migration failed: <error message>
Solution: Run migrations manually to see detailed error: 
oforum migrate
See migrate for troubleshooting migration issues.

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Logs

The server logs to stdout. In production, redirect to a log file: 
oforum serve >> /var/log/oforum/server.log 2>&1
Or use systemd journal: 
journalctl -u oforum -f

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