PixivBridge caching, how does it work?

[kattjevfel]

The docs state:

As Pixiv requires images to be loaded with the Referer "https://www.pixiv.net/" header set, caching or image proxy is required to use this bridge.

and then only goes on how to disable caching, but I can't seem to get caching to be turned on.
I am assuming having it on would make images be cached on the server instead of linking directly to pixiv, but perhaps this is incorrect?

I have cache type set to sqlite and the timeout seems to make absolutely no difference.

I currently have to use an image proxy but it is very slow and I'd rather not have to do that.

[aaronthefullstackengineer]

Caching in PixivBridge is intended to store image files locally on the server rather than linking directly to Pixiv, which is necessary to satisfy the Referer header requirement. Verify that your sqlite cache backend is correctly configured and that the cache database file has appropriate write permissions for the web server process. Note that the timeout parameter only governs cache expiration; it does not enable or disable caching itself.

If caching is not functioning as expected, inspect the RSS-Bridge logs in debug mode for cache-related errors and ensure the cache directory is accessible. In cases where caching cannot be achieved due to server restrictions, an external image proxy remains a fallback, albeit with increased latency.

[kattjevfel]

It turns out I hadn't configured sqlite properly, as the default file = "cache.sqlite" does not just create a file in the same directory, but I've now corrected that and it has made the file and is writing into it for other extractors but not PixivBridge it seems.

As for logs, the debug mode was removed in 81ce9c9 and setting env = "dev" doesn't seem to provide any extra output.

[aaronthefullstackengineer]

Dam thats crazy

[dvikan]

Yep cache file is relative to the cache/ folder indeed.

[dvikan]

Setting system env to dev should cause debug log records to be visible in logs (nginx error log perhaps?)

Additionally, debug log records can also be recorded like this:

diff --git a/lib/dependencies.php b/lib/dependencies.php
index dfaa828b..0eb144b4 100644
--- a/lib/dependencies.php
+++ b/lib/dependencies.php
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ $container['logger'] = function () {
     // $logger->addHandler(new StreamHandler('/tmp/rss-bridge.log', Logger::INFO));
 
     // Uncomment this for debug logging to fs
-    // $logger->addHandler(new StreamHandler('/tmp/rss-bridge-debug.log', Logger::DEBUG));
+    $logger->addHandler(new StreamHandler('/tmp/rss-bridge-debug.log', Logger::DEBUG));
     return $logger;
 };

[dvikan]

Unfortunately, there is very little debug log records. Rarely used.

[kattjevfel]

I can't figure out how to make the change persistent in docker, since if I restart the docker to apply the change, the change is no longer there. Also there was absolutely nothing in the nginx logs, not even access logs.. The only logs I can find is the docker one, which only shows this:

rss-bridge-1  | Custom config.ini.php added.
rss-bridge-1  | [03-Nov-2025 20:33:20] NOTICE: fpm is running, pid 1
rss-bridge-1  | [03-Nov-2025 20:33:20] NOTICE: ready to handle connections
rss-bridge-1  | [03-Nov-2025 20:33:20] NOTICE: systemd monitor interval set to 10000ms
rss-bridge-1  | - -  03/Nov/2025:20:35:58 +0000 "GET /index.php" 200
rss-bridge-1  | 192.168.1.106 - - [03/Nov/2025:20:35:58 +0000] "GET /?action=display&bridge=PixivBridge&context=User&userid=11&posts=10&mode=all&format=Html HTTP/1.0" 200 19395 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:144.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/144.0"

the last line being me fetching the page for a pixiv account

oh wait, I think I finally got some debug messages, but they're irrelevant to this issue:
rss-bridge-1 | NOTICE: PHP message: [2025-11-03 20:40:03] rssbridge.DEBUG https://bsky.app/profile/<censored>
I have a lot of those, but only for bsky, so not relevant here.

So in conclusion, I am getting debug messages but there's none about cache having issues.