Fossil

<title>Fossil Forums</title>

<h2>Introduction</h2>

As of Fossil 2.7, Fossil includes a built-in discussion forum feature.

Any project complex enough to be managed by Fossil can probably benefit

from having a discussion forum. Even if your project has a discussion
forum already, there are further benefits that stem from using Fossil's
built-in forum feature:


  *  Third-party discussion forum and mailing list software tends to be
     difficult to install, set up, and administer.  Fossil Forums aim to

     be as close to zero-configuration as is practical.

  *  Posts are stored in the Fossil repository using the same





     [./fileformat.wiki | block chain technology] that Fossil uses to
     store your check-ins, wiki documents, etc. Posts sync to cloned
     repositories in a tamper-proof fashion.

  *  Because of Fossil's [./delta_format.wiki | delta compression
     technology], discussions add little to the size of a cloned
     repository. Ten years of the SQLite project's discussions —
     averaging 2 or 3 dozen posts per day — compress down to just

     35&nbsp;MB of space in a Fossil Forums repository.


  *  Fossil Forums use [https://sqlite.org/fts3.html | SQLite's powerful
     FTS4 full-text search engine]. If your project currently uses a
     mailing list for discussions, this means you are no longer reliant
     upon third-party mailing list archive services to provide a useful
     search engine for your discussions.












  *  Because Fossil is a [./concepts.wiki | distributed version control
     system], project members can search your forum archive while
     disconnected from the network where the central Fossil instance
     runs. Your past discussions are potentially just as valuable as a
     wiki document or checkin comment: there is no good reason why you
     should have to wait to get back on the Internet or back to the
     office before you can search for past posts.

  *  When you search the forum archives via the Fossil web interface,
     you get only one result for each matching post. When you search a
     mailing list's archives using a standard web search engine, you
     might get a result from the project site's own mail archive plus
     one from Nabble, one from Gmane, one from The Mail Archive...








  *  Because forum posts are normal Fossil artifacts, you can interlink
     them with other Fossil artifacts using short internal links: link
     to forum threads from a [./tickets.wiki | ticket], link to a wiki
     document from a forum post, etc. These links are internal and
     managed by Fossil itself, so links never become invalid simply



     because your third-party forum software or mailing list search
     engine changed its URL scheme.



  *  The forum uses the same role-based access control mechanism as
     Fossil uses for all other accesses.






  *  Since Fossil has an [./fileformat.wiki | open and well-documented
     file format], your discussion archives are truly that:
     <em>archives</em>. You are no longer dependent on a third-party

     piece of software or service sticking around. Should you choose to
     stop using Fossil, you can easily extract your discussion traffic
     for transfer to another system.

  *  Posts can be marked up using Fossil's existing [/md_rules |
     Markdown] and [/wiki_rules | Wiki] markup languages. No longer must
     you choose to restrict your discussion forums to plain text only


     (good for security) or to allow HTML-formatted MIME email (good for
     complex discussions). Fossil Forums provide <em>enough</em>
     formatting without giving up security.





  *  Fossil forums integrate with third-party

     [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent | message transfer agents]
     such as Postfix, Exim, and Sendmail.  If you've got mail service
     configured on the server hosting your Fossil instance, it can send

     notifications of new posts to interested forum users, complete with

     message content for those that prefer to visit the forum only when
     they need to post something.

  *  Because Fossil accepts forum posts only via the web UI, it is
     inherently [./antibot.wiki | protected against bots].












<h2>Setting up a Fossil Forum</h2>

<h3>Permissions</h3>

Fossil forums use the same role-based access control mechanism as
for normal Fossil repository logins.

There are several dedicated forum-related capability bits you can grant

<title>Fossil Forums</title>

<h2>Introduction</h2>

As of Fossil 2.7, Fossil includes a built-in discussion forum feature.

Any project complex enough to benefit from being managed by Fossil and
which has more than one user can probably also benefit from having a
discussion forum. Even if your project has a discussion forum already,

there are many benefits to using Fossil's built-in forum feature, some
of which you cannot get by using third-party alternatives:

  *  <b>Easy to administer:</b> Third-party discussion forum and mailing
     list software tends to be difficult to install, set up, and
     administer. The Fossil forum feature aims to be as close to
     zero-configuration as is practical.


  *  <b>Malefactor resistant:</b> Because Fossil accepts forum posts
     only via the web UI, it is inherently [./antibot.wiki | protected
     against bots].

  *  <b>Distributed and Tamper-Proof:</b> Posts are stored in the Fossil
     repository using the same [./fileformat.wiki | block chain technology]
     that Fossil uses to store your check-ins, wiki documents, etc.
     Posts sync to cloned repositories in a tamper-proof fashion.

  *  <b>Space Efficient:</b> Because of Fossil's [./delta_format.wiki |
     delta compression technology], discussions add little to the size
     of a cloned repository. Ten years of the SQLite project's
     discussions — averaging about 2 dozen posts per day — compress down
     to [/forumpost/9b6f3f36bdb | just 35&nbsp;MB of space] in a Fossil
     forum repository.

  *  <b>Built-in Full-Text Search:</b> Fossil forums use
     [https://sqlite.org/fts3.html | SQLite's powerful FTS4 engine] to
     handle searches. If your project currently uses a mailing list for
     discussions, this means you are no longer reliant upon third-party
     mailing list archive services to provide a useful search engine for

     your discussions. If you are running a private Fossil repository,
     you may not even have the <em>option</em> of delegating this useful
     service to a third-party; Fossil provides this service out of the
     box.

  *  <b>One Result Per Matching Post:</b> When you search the forum
     archives via the Fossil web interface, you get only one result for
     each matching post. When you search for project information via a
     standard web search engine, you might get a result from the project
     site's own mail archive plus one from Nabble, one from Gmane, one
     from The Mail Archive...

  *  <b>Search Off-Line:</b> Because Fossil is a [./concepts.wiki |
     distributed version control system], project members can search
     your forum archive while disconnected from the network where the
     central Fossil instance runs. Your past discussions are potentially
     just as valuable as a wiki document or checkin comment: there is no
     good reason why you should have to wait to get back on the Internet
     or back to the office before you can search for past posts.






  *  <b>Contribute Off-Line:</b> Fossil forum posts work like any other
     insertion into the repository, so a user can create new threads and
     reply to existing ones while off-line, then sync their
     contributions to the server they cloned from when back on-line.
     Yes, you can post to the forum from inside a tent, miles from the
     nearest wifi router or cellular data tower.

  *  <b>Interlink with Other Fossil-Managed Artifacts:</b> Because forum
     posts are normal Fossil artifacts, you can interlink them with
     other Fossil artifacts using short internal links: link to forum
     threads from a [./tickets.wiki | ticket], link to a wiki document
     from a forum post, etc.

     
  *  <b>Durable Links:</b> Once you create a valid internal artifact
     link in Fossil, it <em>remains</em> valid, durably. With
     third-party forum software and mailing list search engines, your

     links are only valid until the third-party component changes its
     URL scheme or disappears from the web.

  *  <b>Role-Based Access Control:</b> The forum uses the same

     [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-based_access_control | RBAC
     system] that Fossil uses to control all other repository accesses.
     The Fossil forum feature simply adds several new fine-grained
     capability bits to the existing system.

  *  <b>Enduring, Open File Format:</b> Since Fossil has an
     [./fileformat.wiki | open and well-documented file format], your
     discussion archives are truly that: <em>archives</em>. You are no

     longer dependent on the lifetime and business model of a
     third-party piece of software or service. Should you choose to stop
     using Fossil, you can easily extract your discussion traffic for
     transfer to another system.

  *  <b>Lightweight Markup:</b> Posts can be marked up using Fossil's
     existing [/md_rules | Markdown] and [/wiki_rules | Wiki] markup

     processors. No longer must you choose between two bad options: to
     restrict posts to plain text only or to allow wild-west
     HTML-formatted MIME email. Fossil's lightweight markup language


     formatting features give you a middle path, providing your users
     enough formatting power to communicate complex ideas well without
     providing so much power as to risk
     [https://wonko.com/post/html-escaping | security problems].


  *  <b>Easy Notification Emails:</b> Fossil's forum feature integrates
     with popular [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_transfer_agent
     | message transfer agents] (MTAs) such as Postfix, Exim, and

     Sendmail. It is easy to configure Fossil to send notifications of
     new posts to interested forum users via your Fossil server's
     existing MTA.  Notification emails include the complete message
     content for the benefit of those that prefer to visit the forum
     only when they need to post something.
     


  *  <b>Talks to Everyone:</b> Because Fossil delegates email handling
     to your existing MTA, it does not need to implement the
     [http://sqlite.1065341.n5.nabble.com/Many-ML-emails-going-to-GMail-s-SPAM-tp98685p98722.html
     | roughly two dozen]
     [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments | RFCs] needed
     to properly support SMTP email in this complex world we've built.
     As well, this design choice means you do not need to do duplicate
     configuration, such as to point Fossil at your server's TLS
     certificate private key in order to support users behind mail
     servers that require STARTTLS encryption.


<h2>Setting up aFossil Forum</h2>

<h3>Permissions</h3>

Fossil forums use the same role-based access control mechanism as
for normal Fossil repository logins.

There are several dedicated forum-related capability bits you can grant