cl-bbs

An anonymous textboard (BBS) engine written in Common Lisp. It is a high-performance, modern clone of the original MIT Scheme SchemeBBS (which ran behind dis.4chan.org and world4ch /prog/).

Features

• Seamless SchemeBBS Layout: Displays threads, index lists, and posts inside definition lists (<dl>, <dt>, <dd>) exactly conforming to the original SchemeBBS style.
• Single Trailing Forms: Conforms to the original textboard paradigm where a single posting form is rendered at the very end of the thread (no per-post forms).
• Comprehensive Formatting Support:
  • Bold: **text** -> <b>text</b>
  • Italic: __text__ -> <i>text</i>
  • Monospace: `text` -> <code>text</code> (Uses the standard backtick notation)
  • Spoilers: ~~text~~ -> <del>text</del>
  • Blockquotes: Lines starting with > are rendered as <blockquote> blocks.
  • Post References: >>7 are dynamically hyperlinked to jump anchors inside the thread page.
  • Direct Image Link Previews: Direct links to images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .bmp) are automatically converted into elegant clickable image previews.
  • Standard URLs: Standard URLs are automatically formatted as standard hyperlinks.
• Dynamic Board Headers: Centered and left-aligned board listing headers (e.g. [ foo | prog ]) are scanned and displayed dynamically at the top of every page.
• Theme Preferences (Cookies): Choose between multiple themes (default, classic, dark, mona, no) on the /board/preferences page. Selections are stored inside browser cookies (theme) and persistent.
• Zero JavaScript Required: The application is completely server-rendered.
• Local Qlot Sandbox: Locked sandbox dependencies pinned via qlfile to ensure backwards compatibility across environments.
• 29-Assertion Test Suite: Comprehensive test coverage verifying cookies, routing pipelines, and formatting rules.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

You must have Roswell and Qlot installed:

# Install Roswell
# (Follow Roswell platform instructions)

# Install Qlot
ros install qlot

Installation

Clone the repository and install dependencies locally:

# Fetch and lock dependencies locally
qlot install

Running the Server with Docker

You can easily run the server inside a Docker container. The application will listen for incoming traffic natively on port 8222 and persist data using a mounted volume.

Using Docker CLI

To start the server explicitly via the docker run command:

docker run --rm -it \
  -p 8222:8222 \
  -v ./data:/cl-bbs/data \
  ryukinix/cl-bbs:latest

This ensures the container attaches its internal 8222 port to your host and mounts your local ./data directory directly, protecting threads and posts between restarts.

Using Docker Compose

Alternatively, you can create a docker-compose.yml file to organize your configuration declaratively for smoother container management:

services:
  cl-bbs:
    image: ryukinix/cl-bbs:latest
    container_name: cl-bbs
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8222:8222"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/cl-bbs/data

Then launch it using:

docker compose up -d

Running the Server Locally

If you prefer to run it transparently without Docker, start the Hunchentoot/Clack server natively:

make server

The server will boot and listen locally on port 8222.

Running Tests

Execute the automated Parachute test suite:

make check

Configuration

You can configure the server using environment variables:

• SBBS_DATADIR: The directory where board S-expression database files are stored (default: data/).
• SBBS_LOCKED_BOARDS: A comma-separated list of boards that should be locked in read-only mode. New threads cannot be created and comments/replies cannot be posted to these boards (e.g., SBBS_LOCKED_BOARDS=foo,bar). The posting forms will also be hidden on the frontend of these boards.
• SBBS_ADMIN_USER: The username for the admin panel (default: admin).
• SBBS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: The password for the admin panel (default: superchanner).

Software Stack

• Lisp: Common Lisp (SBCL) loaded via Roswell.
• Web Server: Hunchentoot, Clack, Lack.
• HTML Templating: cl-who (HTML generation).
• Data Store: S-expression files saved inside plain-text files under data/sexp/.