The database password we tell people to generate breaks the relay #9

2026-08-31T17:49:12Z

paulhitt commented

2026-08-31 17:49:12 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

openssl rand -base64 32 for POSTGRES_PASSWORD. That password goes into
postgres://flamenet:<password>@db:5432/flamenet unencoded, and base64 emits
/ or + 72.9% of the time — measured over 20k samples, not estimated.

A / ends the URL authority, so the relay dies at start-up with a bare
Code=-1000 and the connection string echoed back — which reads like the
database is unreachable rather than like the password needs escaping.

So roughly three self-hosters in four followed these instructions and got a
relay that would not start, for a reason the error never mentions.

The relay-s own .env.example has carried the correct instruction, and an
explanation of exactly this, for some time. This file disagreed with the file it
tells people to copy — and this is the one they read first.

Found by a job that runs these steps rather than reading them:
paulhitt/flamenet-relay!8.

`openssl rand -base64 32` for `POSTGRES_PASSWORD`. That password goes into `postgres://flamenet:<password>@db:5432/flamenet` **unencoded**, and base64 emits `/` or `+` **72.9% of the time** — measured over 20k samples, not estimated. A `/` ends the URL authority, so the relay dies at start-up with a bare `Code=-1000` and the connection string echoed back — which reads like the database is unreachable rather than like the password needs escaping. So roughly **three self-hosters in four** followed these instructions and got a relay that would not start, for a reason the error never mentions. The relay-s own `.env.example` has carried the correct instruction, and an explanation of exactly this, for some time. This file disagreed with the file it tells people to copy — and this is the one they read first. Found by a job that runs these steps rather than reading them: paulhitt/flamenet-relay!8.

paulhitt commented

2026-08-31 18:47:49 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

mentioned in commit 40fd2f51d4

mentioned in commit 40fd2f51d4c97b349fa31ad47e7752aa81240400

paulhitt (Migrated from gitlab.com) merged commit 40fd2f51d4 into main

2026-08-31 18:47:49 +00:00

paulhitt commented

2026-08-31 19:23:53 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

mentioned in issue flamenet-relay#10

paulhitt commented