⚠️ Mastodon admins! There's a setting called "content...

⚠️ Mastodon admins!

There's a setting called "content cache retention period" that you should leave blank. If you put any numbers in there, it can start permanently breaking threads on your server.

This feature is NOT intended for general use on normal servers.

Thread all about it here:

➡️ https://social.growyourown.services/@homegrown/111376516797327772

There's a pull request on Github for moving this to a "danger zone":

➡️ https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/27733

Added a page to fedi.tips:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/mastodon-admins-leave-the-content-cache-retention-period-blank/

#FediAdmin #MastoAdmin

Screenshot of Mastodon admin settings page with the content retention period setting highlighted, and left blank to avoid causing server problems.

Like 11 March at 15:15 | Open on social.growyourown.services

24 comments

yianiris

Can you build mastodon disabling this option all together, or till upstream changes it?

@FediTips

11 March at 15:30 | Open on kafeneio.social

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@yianiris

If you leave it blank it will disable the option.

11 March at 15:30 | Open on social.growyourown.services

James Wu

@FediTips @yianiris I think they meant one meta level up, i.e. disable the existence of this input box which are not meant for general servers

11 March at 18:55 | Open on social.ridetrans.it

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@analogist @yianiris

I guess you could remove it if you have the coding knowledge?

I'm not sure why it is there at all to be honest, as it's dangerous and 99.99% of servers will never need it.

11 March at 20:29 | Open on social.growyourown.services

yianiris

I took a look at a tarball and the git (near 1GB), I didn't readily see traditional configuration options, but I am not very familiar with rubi and rust.

@FediTips @analogist

11 March at 22:44 | Open on kafeneio.social

Troy

@FediTips I dunno id rather not cache stuff forever. Perhaps the real solution is to treat it like a cache correctly - that is to re fetch the data if it’s needed at a later point. If the data isn’t accessed for a month why waste the space?

11 March at 15:36 | Open on opencoaster.net

Michael Stanclift

@troy @FediTips there are tootctl commands that can be run to cleanup the database in a way that isn't disruptive to user interactions.

11 March at 15:43 | Open on vmst.io

Nemo_bis 🌈

@vmstan @troy Indeed. I use a variant of these:
https://ricard.dev/improving-mastodons-disk-usage/

12 March at 7:25 | Open on mamot.fr

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@troy

This particular setting isn't intended for controlling how long you cache stuff on an ordinary server. Please see the links for technical details of what it actually is.

You can use the other settings on the same page for controlling your cache. The media cache setting would be especially useful for reducing storage.

11 March at 15:43 | Open on social.growyourown.services

Troy

@FediTips thanks for trying to tell me what it does but I am fully aware of what it does, how it works and the side effects.

11 March at 16:11 | Open on opencoaster.net

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@troy

My understanding is that this setting isn't really a cache because the data can't be fetched later. That's why the pull request includes renaming it.

11 March at 16:12 | Open on social.growyourown.services

yianiris

If a server only use a short cache and remove old content then what people contribute in public is trashed. That would be a good reason to not participate. Waste of time.

Otherwise we can publish material in pastebin.com

@troy @FediTips

11 March at 16:22 | Open on kafeneio.social

Troed Sångberg

@FediTips Thanks - seems I have had that set to 7 days for some reason. Blanked it out now.

11 March at 15:36 | Open on masto.sangberg.se

Roni Laukkarinen

@troed @FediTips Oof. All the replies to your posts have been deleted after 7 days. I too had this setting on for like a year, for 90 days the posts were intact, older than that had 0 replies. Hundreds of replies gone. Poof. Forever.

https://mementomori.social/@rolle/110666750672216100

#MastoAdmin

11 March at 21:18 | Open on mementomori.social

Fedi.Tips 🎄

@rolle @troed

Mastodon's devs really should have hidden this option. It just causes damage in almost all cases.

12 March at 9:35 | Open on social.growyourown.services

Jippi 🇩🇰

@FediTips @rolle @troed calling it a Cache is also straight up wrong - a cache can always be rebuilt - it’s just there to make things faster. That’s definitely what is going on here though