# Database problem: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist (PostgreSQL)

**URL:** <https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Created:** [30 April 2023 00:25 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333 "2023-04-30T00:25:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/dec6dc/32.png) [@lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/u/lgfqmljk7)\
**Post date:** [30 April 2023 00:25 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/1 "2023-04-30T00:25:20Z")

</div>

So, I have a postgres server running already in a docker container. And I’ve created dll for vikunja to connect to with the following:

```auto
create schema if not exists vikunja_ddl authorization vikunja;
GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE prod TO vikunja;

ALTER SCHEMA vikunja_ddl owner to vikunja;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA vikunja_ddl TO vikunja;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA vikunja_ddl TO vikunja;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA vikunja_ddl TO vikunja; 
ALTER ROLE vikunja SET search_path TO vikunja_ddl;

```

Then I have the following docker container for vikunja to connect to the database:

```auto
version: '3'
services:
  api:
    image: vikunja/api
    container_name: vikunja
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET: le_secret
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_FRONTENDURL: http://my.domain.com/
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: postgres
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_HOST: postgres
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_PASSWORD: DB_PW
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_DATABASE: prod
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_USER: vikunja   
      PUID: $USRID 
      PGID: $GRPID
    ports:
      - 3456:3456
    volumes:
      - $BASE_DIR/config/files:/app/vikunja/files
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - vikunja-ntwk
      - nginx-ntwk
      - postgres-ntwk

```

```auto
  frontend:
    image: vikunja/frontend
    container_name: vikunja-frontend
    ports:
      - 80:80
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - vikunja-ntwk
      - nginx-ntwk

networks:
  vikunja-ntwk:
    driver: bridge
    name: vikunja-ntwk
  nginx-ntwk:
    external: true
  postgres-ntwk:
    external: true

```

(I had to split the above up else it wouldn’t format correctly, but it’s one `docker-compose.yaml` file)

So far, so good. when I run `docker compose up` I get the following errors:

```auto
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: /docker-entrypoint.d/ is not empty, will attempt to perform configuration
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Looking for shell scripts in /docker-entrypoint.d/
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/20-envsubst-on-templates.sh
vikunja-frontend | 20-envsubst-on-templates.sh: Running envsubst on /etc/nginx/templates/default.conf.template to /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/30-tune-worker-processes.sh
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/50-injector.sh
vikunja-frontend | info: API URL is /api/v1
vikunja-frontend | info: Sentry enabled: false
vikunja-frontend | info: started at 2023-04-30T00:17:39+00:00
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/60-ipv6-disable.sh
vikunja-frontend | /docker-entrypoint.sh: Configuration complete; ready for start up
vikunja | info: creating the new user vikunja with 1010:1010
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:40 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:40.312245194Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 0
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:41 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:42.044766229Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 0
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:43 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:43.817891028Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 0
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:45 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:45.577791509Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 0
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:47 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:47.360838984Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 1
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:49 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:49.88167938Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 1
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:17:53 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:17:54.045653715Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 1
vikunja | usermod: no changes
vikunja | 2023/04/30 00:18:01 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.
vikunja | 2023-04-30T00:18:01.352389231Z: CRITICAL	▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation "tasks" does not exist
vikunja exited with code 1

```

So, what the heck is going on? Can vikunja only connect to the publich schema in postgres instead of another schema? Is this a bug? Did I fat finger something, what’s going? Some help will be greatly appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\
**Post date:** [2 May 2023 08:50 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/2 "2023-05-02T08:50:28Z")

</div>

This looks like the initial creation of tables did not work. Can you enable db debug logging to see if any queries were executed in the db?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/dec6dc/32.png) [@lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/u/lgfqmljk7)\
**Post date:** [2 May 2023 12:39 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/3 "2023-05-02T12:39:40Z")

</div>

adding the following fields to my docker-compose.yaml

```auto
      VIKUNJA_LOG_DATABASE: stdout
      VIKUNJA_LOG_DATABASELEVEL: INFO

```

and got the following output:

> vikunja | 2023/05/02 12:32:31 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.604166381Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 001 [SQL] SELECT tablename FROM pg\_tables WHERE schemaname = $1 [public] - 12.849061ms  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.622905495Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 002 [SQL] SELECT column\_name, column\_default, is\_nullable, data\_type, character\_maximum\_length, description,  
> vikunja | CASE WHEN p.contype = ‘p’ THEN true ELSE false END AS primarykey,  
> vikunja | CASE WHEN p.contype = ‘u’ THEN true ELSE false END AS uniquekey  
> vikunja | FROM pg\_attribute f  
> vikunja | JOIN pg\_class c ON c.oid = f.attrelid JOIN pg\_type t ON t.oid = f.atttypid  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN pg\_attrdef d ON d.adrelid = c.oid AND d.adnum = f.attnum  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN pg\_description de ON f.attrelid=de.objoid AND f.attnum=de.objsubid  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN pg\_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN pg\_constraint p ON p.conrelid = c.oid AND f.attnum = ANY (p.conkey)  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN pg\_class AS g ON p.confrelid = g.oid  
> vikunja | LEFT JOIN INFORMATION\_SCHEMA.COLUMNS s ON s.column\_name=f.attname AND c.relname=s.table\_name  
> vikunja | WHERE n.nspname= s.table\_schema AND c.relkind = ‘r’::char AND c.relname = $1 AND s.table\_schema = $2 AND f.attnum \> 0 ORDER BY f.attnum; [migration public] - 18.685907ms  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626046354Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 003 [SQL] SELECT indexname, indexdef FROM pg\_indexes WHERE tablename=$1 AND schemaname=$2 [migration public] - 3.088657ms  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626305117Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 004 [SQL] SELECT count(_) FROM “migration” WHERE “id” IN ($1) [SCHEMA\_INIT] - 199.944µs  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626504987Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 005 [SQL] SELECT count(_) FROM “migration” - 162.812µs  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626699098Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 006 [SQL] SELECT count(\*) FROM “migration” WHERE “id” IN ($1) [20190324205606] - 165.278µs  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626713549Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 007 Remove reminders\_unix from tasks  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.62692064Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 008 [SQL] ALTER TABLE tasks DROP COLUMN reminders\_unix - 176.23µs  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T12:32:31.626935294Z: CRITICAL ▶ migration/Migrate 009 Migration failed: migration 20190324205606 failed: pq: relation “tasks” does not exist

It looks like it’s still querying the public schema, but it’s not doing any intilization in the vikunja\_ddl

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\
**Post date:** [2 May 2023 14:24 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/4 "2023-05-02T14:24:28Z")

</div>

Looks like the schema is indeed not changeable. Can you try setting the database to `prod?currentSchema=vikunja_ddl`?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/dec6dc/32.png) [@lgfqmljk7](https://community.vikunja.io/u/lgfqmljk7)\
**Post date:** [2 May 2023 17:13 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/5 "2023-05-02T17:13:24Z")

</div>

Yea, no dice:

> vikunja | 2023/05/02 17:10:18 No config file found, using default or config from environment variables.  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T17:10:18.025596005Z: INFO ▶ [DATABASE] 001 [SQL] SELECT tablename FROM pg\_tables WHERE schemaname = $1 [public] - 6.283006ms  
> vikunja | 2023-05-02T17:10:18.025616985Z: CRITICAL ▶ migration/Migrate 002 Migration failed: pq: unrecognized configuration parameter “currentSchema”

I think, within vikunja the public schema is hard coded, which is fine if the db is standalone and only for vikunja. However, I’ve got a postgres centralized for all my apps, so that I can run jobs across the data the generate.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\
**Post date:** [2 May 2023 18:52 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/6 "2023-05-02T18:52:30Z")

</div>

It looks like this is a little more complicated.

Gitea does it like this: [gitea/sql\_postgres\_with\_schema.go at bf999e406994ab34420fb62e0de7948c8c2116c1 · go-gitea/gitea · GitHub](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/blob/bf999e406994ab34420fb62e0de7948c8c2116c1/models/db/sql_postgres_with_schema.go#L38)

Do you want to send a PR?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![winston0410](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/winston0410/32/1714_2.png) [@winston0410](https://community.vikunja.io/u/winston0410)\
**Post date:** [25 October 2024 20:03 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/7 "2024-10-25T20:03:19Z")

</div>

Checking the sourcecode of Vikunja, it uses `xorm`, even thought `xorm` uses `github.com/lib/pq` for Postgres under the hood, setting `search_path` in the connection string is not enough. I notice xorm also expect schema to be set programmatically, based on this Gitea PR

> <https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/8819/files>
>
> Fixes #5152 
> 
> Currently Gitea does not support using a database schema differe…nt from the default "public". With this PR, a schema different from the default can be specified in \`app.ini\` and during install.

It will just be a one line change: [gitea/models/models.go at 2cdda3ddc76339084fb01c114300a63a6d1b23a8 · guillep2k/gitea · GitHub](https://github.com/guillep2k/gitea/blob/2cdda3ddc76339084fb01c114300a63a6d1b23a8/models/models.go#L135)

So to conclude, I think we just need to accept a new property from config, say `database.schema`, and add that one line into codebase.

@kolaente if you are happy with the above solution, I can create a PR for it

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\
**Post date:** [25 October 2024 20:16 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/8 "2024-10-25T20:16:59Z")

</div>

Sure, I’d happily take a PR!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![winston0410](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/winston0410/32/1714_2.png) [@winston0410](https://community.vikunja.io/u/winston0410)\
**Post date:** [25 October 2024 22:49 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/9 "2024-10-25T22:49:18Z")

</div>

> [@winston0410](#):
>
> Vikunja

Hi, notice permission issue, I guess my account has to be manually enabled?

> [@How to register for Vikunja gitea?](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-register-for-vikunja-gitea/2179):
>
> I have been working on a feature and I’d like to submit a pull request. But when I register for an account at [vikunja/vikunja: The to-do app to organize your life. Public API Roadmap here: - vikunja - Gitea](https://kolaente.dev/vikunja/vikunja) it tells me to contact the site admin.

My account name on gitea is winston0410

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\
**Post date:** [26 October 2024 06:42 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/database-problem-pq-relation-tasks-does-not-exist-postgresql/1333/10 "2024-10-26T06:42:42Z")

</div>

Your account is now enabled.