Frequently Asked Questions

Which database backend is recommended to use?

Use PostgreSQL if you can, it gets more testing. Considering performance, in my experience, TT-RSS performs better under PostgreSQL on similar hardware.

I'm using PGSQL and tt-rss is kinda slow. What's up?

PostgreSQL by default is usually configured very conservatively which can cause slowdowns when running TT-RSS, especially on large databases. You'll have to tweak PGSQL configuration to give it some more resources. The exact configuration depends on your hardware so you are adviced to read PGSQL documentation and decide for yourself. Some relevant configuration options are shared_buffers, work_mem and effective_cache_size.

By the way, any help on optimizing SQL in tt-rss is always welcome.

How can I schedule feed updates even when I'm not reading them? As a cron job, for example?

Please read UpdatingFeeds.

Those update methods are making my head spin. Which one to choose?

Please read UpdatingFeeds.

I made a patch for TT-RSS, what do I do now?

Jolly good. You are free to hack on TT-RSS, but there are some guidelines if you want me to commit your stuff in the upstream later:

  • Patch should be made against darcs head version or at least fresh snapshot;
  • Huge monolithic patches are frowned upon. Small, one per logical change patches are great.
  • Please don't send patches in the email body. Attach the diffs.
  • Please don't use editors which expand tabs or mangle the source in any other way. I won't be able to apply the resulting diffs to trunk.

I want to use one installation of TT-RSS on several virtual hosts, using different databases, paths, etc.

The easy way would be to define local to instance configuration parameters in config.php like this: 

...global definitions go here...

if ($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] == "vhost1.org") {
   define(DB_NAME, 'vhost1');
   define(ICON_URL, '/vhost1/icons');
   ...other local definitions...
}

The disadvantage is that you'll have to point all virtual hosts to the same DocumentRoot in Apache. Also, each instance will need an entire database if you don't want to share data, because at the moment there is no support for table prefixes in the configuration. Other than that, it would probably work just fine.

See also: this forum thread

How can I add feed to tt-rss just by requesting some URL (from browser extension, etc.)?

(Forum thread) 

PATH_TO_TTRSS/backend.php?op=pref-feeds&subop=add&quiet=1&feed_url=YOUR_FEED_URL

I need to get the number of unread articles in the most simple way. Ideas?

(Forum thread)

Required version: 1.2.2 

PATH_TO_TTRSS/backend.php?op=getUnread&login=LOGIN

No password required. In single user mode, use "admin" for login.

How to restrict access to the tt-rss page?

You'll have to enable multiuser mode in config.php to get account management and password protection. In single user mode, you can use external mechanism like .htaccess to protect tt-rss directory. Due to design limitations of tt-rss, you won't be able to restrict write access while leaving read access public - it's all or nothing.

Can you give an example of an init.d script to launch update daemon?

Please read UpdatingFeeds.

How do I migrate tt-rss between MySQL or PGSQL? Is there any way to export the database in a neutral format?

Please see this forum thread.