Recent changes
Wednesday November 04 2026
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Operating PostgreSQL: sequences, case and gotchas Updated Markdown page
Day-to-day knowledge for running Exponential on PostgreSQL - how auto-increment columns map to sequences named table_column_seq, how to correct them after loading data, the sequence rename that sites from 5.x need…
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Setting up PostgreSQL Updated Markdown page
How to prepare PostgreSQL for an Exponential site - the user and a UTF8 database it owns, the pgcrypto extension the driver needs for MD5, the settings block, the installers, and the server-side settings…
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Reading and changing database settings Updated Markdown page
How to read the database settings an Exponential site really uses, find the file each value comes from, change them safely in the override files with exp:ini, and make every process (PHP-FPM, Velocity workers, cronjobs)…
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Restoring a database Updated Markdown page
The procedure for restoring the database of an Exponential site - maintenance mode, stopping Velocity, the restore command per engine, SQLite's .restore against replacing the file, the caches to clear afterwards…
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Schema tools: dump, insert and diff Updated Markdown page
The three command-line schema tools of Exponential - ezsqldumpschema.php to dump a schema and data to .dba or SQL, ezsqlinsertschema.php to load them into any SQL engine, and ezsqldiff.php to compare two schemas with an…
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The built-in search index tables Updated Markdown page
How Exponential's built-in search engine keeps its index in the database - the tables ezsearch_word, ezsearch_object_word_link and ezsearch_search_phrase, delayed indexing through ezpending_actions and indexcontent.php…
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Securing the database Updated Markdown page
The security measures that concern the database of an Exponential site - where the credentials are kept and how to protect them, how the administration and the console mask secrets, passwords on command lines, network…
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The SQL query cache Updated Markdown page
What the optional SQL query cache of Exponential does for a database administrator - modes and storage, what is never cached, how writes invalidate results, why writes made outside Exponential require a clear, how to…
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SQLite files, ownership and permissions Updated Markdown page
The four files of an Exponential SQLite database, which process must be able to write which file, how to set up one common group with the setgid bit and a umask of 0002 so that PHP-FPM, Velocity, cronjobs and console…
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SQLite 3 for database administrators Updated Markdown page
What a database administrator needs to know about SQLite 3, the default database of Exponential 6.0.x - what the eZSQLite3DB driver adds to the library, the four files of a database, the connection PRAGMAs and why each…
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SQLite maintenance: ANALYZE, VACUUM and the WAL file Updated Markdown page
The routine maintenance of an Exponential SQLite database - statistics with ANALYZE and PRAGMA optimize, compaction with VACUUM in maintenance mode, keeping the WAL file in check with journal_size_limit and a TRUNCATE…
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Supported engines and versions Updated Markdown page
The six databases Exponential 6.0.x supports, in the project's official order, with the three version numbers that matter for each (the setup wizard's floor, the practical minimum of the current drivers and the versions…
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The tables a database administrator should know Updated Markdown page
A map of the Exponential kernel's tables for database administrators, grouped by purpose (content, classes, users and permissions, URL aliases, search, sessions, queues, site data, files, shop, audit, mail, API), with…
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The database layer in one page Updated Markdown page
How Exponential reaches its database, explained for database administrators - the eZDB entry point, the driver aliases, the five driver classes, the schema handlers, what is stored in the database and what is not, and…
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The .dba schema format and the shipped schema files Updated Markdown page
What the engine-neutral .dba format is, which schema and data files ship with Exponential (share/db_schema.dba, share/db_data.dba, kernel/sql per engine), how schema handlers registered in dbschema.ini turn them into…
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Troubleshooting database errors Updated Markdown page
A symptom-first table of the database problems an Exponential site meets on each engine - the site looks down, missing tables, read-only SQLite files, lock timeouts, charset question marks, pgcrypto, sequences, MongoDB…
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Upgrades and the SQL update files Updated Markdown page
How Exponential's database update files are organized per engine and version in update/database, which chain a database walks from 3.10 to 6.0.15, the rules for applying them, the 6.12, 7.2 and 7.3 directories that must…
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Database support Updated Markdown page
Which databases Exponential 6.0.x supports and in which order (SQLite first, then PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, Oracle and MySQL), with the versions, PHP extensions, settings, installers, character sets, performance…
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The default administrator password Updated Markdown page
Which administrator login and password a fresh installation starts with, for each way of installing (setup wizard, kickstarter, console install, the shipped database seed, packages), and why it must be changed at once.
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Demo mode FAQ Updated Markdown page
Short answers about demo mode (EXP_DEMO_MODE=1) - what it is for, what it blocks and what it does not, how to switch it on and off, why it cannot come from a setting, which passwords the installers accept, how to tell…