Hi All, I’m running a Discourse container using the Bitnami image. The issue I experience there that all templates use example.com for the %{base_url} variable and I don’t seem to be able to change this. I created a support ticket at Bitnami but while searching I never can find anywhere on the internet anything about the base_url variable. https://github.com/bitnami/containers/issues/31597 Can anyone help me clearing this out ? I’m very confused about this variable.

We do not support installs using Bitnami images here. The recommendation is to install Discourse following the standard install guide if you want support.

I understand but that is in the base not my question: Where does %{base_url} come from or where is it based under ? I cannot even find that in the Discourse documentation or forum.

How do I change the %{base_url} from example.com to my own domainname so my email-templates are parsed like they should ?

It sounds like something has gone wrong with your install if this isn’t being populated with the correct domain. As has been mentioned, it may be easier for you to follow the standard install and restore a backup if you’ve still not managed to track down what’s gone wrong.

Why is it beïng populated and not just set as a variable ?

It seems you need to edit the Docker Compose YAML before pulling it: containers/bitnami/discourse/docker-compose.yml at main · bitnami/containers · GitHub (lines 31 and 51)

Is the Bitnami container also compiling Discourse completely new when updating it, like the official one? The variable seems to be defined here: lib/discourse.rb 26b7f8a result << ":#{ENV["UNICORN_PORT"] || 3000}" if Rails.env.development? && SiteSetting.port.blank? result end def self.base_url_no_prefix "#{base_protocol}://#{current_hostname_with_port}" end def self.base_url base_url_no_prefix + base_path end def self.route_for(uri) unless uri.is_a?(URI) uri = begin URI(uri) rescue ArgumentError, URI::Error end The current_hostname variable is set here: lib/discourse.rb 26b7f8a begin `hostname`.strip rescue => e warn_exception(e, message: "hostname command is not working") "unknown_host" end end end # Get the current base URL for the current site def self.current_hostname SiteSetting.force_hostname.presence || RailsMultisite::ConnectionManagement.current_hostname end def self.base_path(default_value = "") ActionController::Base.config.relative_url_root.presence || default_value end def self.base_uri(default_value = "") deprecate("Discourse.base_uri is deprecated, use Discourse.base_path instead") base_path(default_value) The force_hostname variable is declared in the site settings template here: config/site_settings.yml e002a24 default: 10 hidden: true max_create_multipart_per_minute: default: 10 hidden: true max_complete_multipart_per_minute: default: 10 hidden: true developer: force_hostname: hidden: true default: "" port: hidden: true default: "" enable_chunked_encoding: hidden: true client: true default: true long_polling_base_url: As it is hidden, it cannot be changed in admin settings. As other site settings, I assume it would be stored in the database. I searched a database dump of our instance and force_hostname is not set or even declared. In our official discourse container YAML we have DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME assigned, but I guess this is a global setting, not a site setting, so this seems to be enforced differently. current_hostname seems to be obtained from the current connecting, i.e. dynamic. But I cannot see where exactly it is defined, probably an external module/gem: lib/freedom_patches/rails_multisite.rb 6417173 # frozen_string_literal: true module RailsMultisite class ConnectionManagement def self.safe_each_connection self.each_connection do |db| begin yield(db) if block_given? rescue PG::ConnectionBad, PG::UnableToSend, PG::ServerError break if !defined?(RailsFailover::ActiveRecord) break if db == RailsMultisite::ConnectionManagement::DEFAULT reading_role = :"#{db}_#{ActiveRecord.reading_role}" spec = RailsMultisite::ConnectionManagement.connection_spec(db: db) I’m not sure what the Bitnami container does with the DISCOURSE_HOST setting, so at least you could search your database for force_hostname until we find out more about how DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME from official container is stored and enforced.

Thank you for your support so far! I was, comparing to you findings, also thinking about config my install as single multisite. This could maybe make it work, but it’s indeed a matter of trying to sort things out where I have the feeling that Bitnami doesn’t change anything on Discourse itself; so why this issue indeed. I need to check my dump’s.

[image] MichaIng: force_hostname Not able to find this in my Database Dumps.

Where is %{base_url} coming from?

Product Support Self-hosting

di-rect May 1, 2023, 7:43am 8

I know, but changing it after the first run doesn’t fix it, so I wonder if it needs to be done from the first run as I like to know if it sets this host(name) staticly or not.

Topic		Replies	Views
Base_url and base_uri Product Support	1	1674	July 7, 2019
Change a self-hosted discourse server from http to https Self-hosting	2	573	June 18, 2022
I got example.com links. Where do they come from? Product Support	8	1363	December 16, 2020
Trying to install Discourse on portainer but it's not pulling the base container Self-hosting unsupported-install	8	1477	May 16, 2025
How to change URL associated with Activate Account button Product Support	4	1763	January 22, 2020

Where is %{base_url} coming from?

Related topics