APBoard v3 · Documentation
Documentation

Everything you need to install, configure and run APBoard. Explained in full, even for complete beginners.

APBoard › Documentation › Update APBoard

Update APBoard

Updates replace the application files and may run database migrations automatically on the next request. Always back up your data before you update.

Back up first

A backup is your way back if a release, a server command or a migration fails. Back up the database, uploads and configuration before every update.

1. What must be backed up

  • The MariaDB or MySQL database.
  • public/shared/uploads/, because it contains user uploaded files and cached remote avatars.
  • For Docker, deploy/.env.
  • For plain installations, config.php.
  • Any custom stylesets, templates or local changes.

2. Docker update

Run these commands from the APBoard repository root and then from deploy/. Replace the path with your own installation path.

bash 
cd /home/apboard/forum/deploy
docker compose exec db mariadb-dump -u root -p"$APBOARD_DB_ROOT_PASSWORD" "$APBOARD_DB_NAME" > apboard-backup.sql

cd /home/apboard/forum
git pull

cd deploy
docker compose up -d --build --remove-orphans
docker compose ps

The app container starts with the current code. It recreates asset links, updates Composer dependencies if needed and writes config.php from .env. APBoard checks update/migrations/ during normal application startup and records completed migrations in the apb_migrations table.

3. Plain web server update

Download the new release ZIP, extract it into a temporary directory and copy it over the existing installation. Keep your existing config.php and uploads.

bash 
mysqldump -u apboard -p apboard > apboard-backup.sql
cp /var/www/apboard/config.php ./config.php.backup
tar -czf uploads-backup.tar.gz -C /var/www/apboard public/shared/uploads

cd /tmp
unzip apboard-v3-new.zip -d apboard-new

sudo rsync -av \
  --exclude='config.php' \
  --exclude='public/shared/uploads/' \
  /tmp/apboard-new/ /var/www/apboard/

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/apboard

Open the forum in your browser after copying the files. APBoard runs pending migrations during startup. There is no artisan command in APBoard.

4. Check after updating

  • Open the homepage.
  • Log in as administrator.
  • Open one board, one topic and the admin area.
  • Create a test post if possible.
  • Check the web server or Docker logs for errors.

5. If something goes wrong

Stop and keep the evidence. Copy the exact error message, the APBoard version or Git commit, and the last log lines. Restore the file backup and database backup only if you need to return to the old version.

bash 
# Docker logs
cd /home/apboard/forum/deploy
docker compose logs --tail 200 app
docker compose logs --tail 200 db

# Apache logs on a plain server
sudo tail -200 /var/log/apache2/apboard_error.log
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