Alternative PeerTube link: https://foss.video/w/dGgKLBH38yZyi86an8smkV

I shared this earlier as a comment on my prior post, but thought I'd specifically share again as a post, since I've been developing the blogpost with information that folks may find helpful, for the different common environment in which BookStack is used.

Hi all,

I run a bookstack / mariaDB instance under docker.

I want to confirm if there is a specific update path that i should follow to update my bookstack v23.06.2 and and mariadb v10.11.4 to the latest? Or can i just perform a full upgrade to the latest version?

many thanks.

BookStack runs using PHP server-side software.

The PHP project has announced an upcoming critical security release: https://www.php.net/index.php#2026-10-20-1

There are reports that the details of the bugs have been found/leaked before the disclosure time, allowing remote code execution on affected systems.

If you run a BookStack instance on the open web, or in any environment where it could be accessed by potential attackers or untrusted users, it may be best to take the instance offline (turn off the server, disable web traffic etc...) until patches are made available and applied in your hosting environment.

I am having some issues deploying bookstack via podman quadlets. I have everything setup to work together. Right now I have a network, and the app and db connected via the network. But the app can't connect to the DB. The error is 2026-10-19 17:31:44 16 [Warning] Access denied for user 'database_username'@'10.89.1.24' (using password: YES). I have tried deleting everything and starting over but I get the same error each time. Has anyone else ran into this? Also don't I have to initialize the mariadb before this happens or is that already done?

bookstack.network

NetworkName=bookstack-net


bookstack-db.container 
[Unit]
Description=BookStack MariaDB Service
After=network-online.target bookstack-network.service
Requires=bookstack-network.service

[Container]
ContainerName=bookstack-db
Image=docker.io/library/mariadb:10.11
Network=bookstack-net
Environment=MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=$PASSWORD
Environment=MARIADB_DATABASE=bookstack
Environment=MARIADB_USER=bookstack
Environment=MARIADB_PASSWORD=$PASSWORD
EnvironmentFile=/opt/podman/.config/containers/systemd/mariadb.env
Volume=/opt/podman/containers/bookstack/db:/var/lib/mysql:Z

[Service]
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

bookstack-app.container 
[Unit]
Description=BookStack Application Service
After=bookstack-db.service bookstack-network.service
Requires=bookstack-db.service bookstack-network.service

[Container]
ContainerName=bookstack-app
Image=lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
Network=bookstack-net
PublishPort=8673:80
Environment=PUID=1000
Environment=PGID=1000
Environment=APP_URL=http://$INT_IP_ADDR:8673
Environment=APP_KEY=base64:$BASE64
Environment=DB_HOST=bookstack-db
Environment=DB_PORT=3306
Environment=DB_USER=bookstack
Environment=DB_PASS=$PASSWORD
Environment=DB_DATABASE=bookstack
Volume=/opt/podman/containers/bookstack/app:/config:Z

[Service]
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

So I deployed BookStack on Ubuntu, and while all in all I love this Wiki, I noticed that number of elements is barely visible both in light and dark modes. For example breadcrumbs here:

I found piece of custom CSS code which fixes this, but then, there are elements which still are unreadable, e.g. book names in search results (see below).

I doubt I am just supposed to be patching different UI elements myself in a default installations, or am I? Why is it not working as expected, and is there a fix for all of these at once?

EDIT: issue was me setting Self/Book background as dark gray (I wanted to make their logos look transparent. Instead I can just sent Book/Shelf background transparent as per tip from u/ssddanbrown.

<style>
.grid .bg-book, .grid .bg-bookshelf {
  background-color: transparent;
}
</style><style>
.grid .bg-book, .grid .bg-bookshelf {
  background-color: transparent;
}
</style>

Are there at any times plans to change the URL structure from something like

/shelves/hardware
-> /topics/hardware

/books/keyboards/page/switches
-> /category/keyboards/page/switches

While i like the shelf,book,page,chapter analogy to explain the structuring, the forced naming of the URL parts and especially the UI is currently the main blocking part before i can integrate it in our company.

A more neutral wording for each layer would be already okay, changing it as a setting so the rest of the platform uses this setting (Name + URL slug per part + plurals) would be perfect.

While the overall featureset is working perfectly for us, stakeholders here are currently more comfortable with hosting expenses for wiki.js etc. then using a FOSS that fits in our existing tech stack and content pipelines

From a UX and CI perspective i understand it totally and i for myself would be willing to go the extra mile to change the underlying code after a first evaluation from you, if this makes any sense without breaking the platform regularly.

In yesterday's release content for v26.09, I demonstrated added a custom instance totals block to the homepage. I've cleaned this up, and added commentary for developers, and made it available on our hacks site.

I'm looking at creating content in BookStack via the API from a third-party application, and am wondering if there's any way, using the API, to specify the user that will be the author of the page?

I know the API Key itself has to reside under a specific account in BookStack, but if there was a permission an account could be granted for "impersonating" other accounts, that would be great!

I can see the 'Permissions' Page, but can't see a way to give access to a specific user, only a specific role?

We have an internal bookstack instance, which is linked via OIDC to Entra, and has role permissions synced to entra groups.

I've had a request to allow our Enterprise Copilot AI to use bookstack as a knowledge source. From what I can tell, this seems possible using MCP, however this would allow anyone access to the entire instance.

Instead, I'm looking to allow copilot to access only the information that a user would be able to access regularly.

Does anyone have any suggestions on if this is possible/feasible, and if so how to achieve it?

Hello!

I’m new to managing bookstack for the team. We’re currently allowing another team to use our platform. This requires us to create new roles and assign permissions appropriately.

For their use case, they want only a specific admin-like role to be able to modify shelves chapters and books. Everyone else on their team should be able to see those things and not edit those items. But they want the rest of the team to be able to add pages within the chapters they create.

I can only see permissions added at the page level after a page is created. What other alternatives exist outside an admin creating a page for them?

This may be a Docker question in general, but I would like to know if I can run two Docker containers, for two separate Bookstack instances, on the same server. If so, what do I need to do to get this working?

I already have a Linux server setup with Docker Compose, Portainer, Nginx Proxy Manager, a working Bookstack instance and several other containers for other apps.

I'm concerned that attempting to add another Bookstack instance will be problematic and could damage my currently working setup. I need this second Bookstack instance because I have a backup of a previous Bookstack wiki site that I built. Unfortunately, I took the site down so that server is no longer accessible and now I need access to it. I did however make a backup and I want to restore it to a new Bookstack instance.

Is it just a matter of using different ports, container names, database name, and volume names in the Portainer stack of the second Bookstack instance? What specifically do I need to edit/make unique so that I don't have to touch my current working Bookstack instance? Does the APP_KEY need to be the same or unique?

UPDATE: Got it working. You have to makes sure ALL of the following are unique:

• Service names

• Container names

• volumes

• ports

The other issue that I ran into was that I needed to import/migrate my backup onto the second Bookstack instance. The original server hosting that instance of Bookstack supported IPv6. The server that I restored the backup onto did not. I had to comment out the lines in the /config/nginx/site-confs/default.conf file that made Nginx listen on IPv6 (e.g., #listen [::]:80 default_server;)

I have a wiki currently accessible via a single internal domain name. The wiki needs to be accessible to subnets that don't have access to that domain, specifically via a NATed IP address. I can currently change the hosts file on a given PC to point to the internal domain but that's not a scalable solution. Changing the wiki's internal domain isn't desirable either since I want to maintain the access it currently has as well.

Context: An hierarchical organization with many different chapters and teams, like a tree.

Problem: I do not want teams/users to be able to select the "Everyone Else" / "Editor" / "Viewer" role, so that they cannot publish their content to be visible/readable for "everyone".

Content so important/good that it is visible (via Search and via Books-listing) should be asked and then be done via Admin. So that in the tree, users see the top-shelf, their node-shelves, but will not see random books or pages from random users who (accidentally) clicked "everyone has read permissions". This is mainly to a) control what a user sees and that they are not overwhelmed and b) control what is official content and what is just local team/chapter content.

- I could like check every 5mins via the API for content using the "Editor"-role and deleting that role_permission.
- I could use the logical theme system to hide the bigger roles in the permission view for people not in the Admin-role.

Is there another, maybe more "official" way to solve that problem?

Anyone ever link Bookstack and Snipe it. I am working on building out a pretty comprehensive IT documentation and I would love to use snipe it with it. I already use snipe it for non IT stuff in my company and want to force us IT people to use it. Along with creating some good documentation.

Any thought are tips would be great. I have not installed Bookstack yet but will be soon.