apache/answer · error

connect database failed: %w

Error message

connect database failed: %w

What it means

ResetPassword wraps a failure from initDatabase(config.Data.Database.Driver, config.Data.Database.Connection), i.e. the CLI could not open a connection to the configured database (driver not supported or connection failed).

Source

Thrown at internal/cli/reset_password.go:79

	charsetSpecial,
}

type ResetPasswordOptions struct {
	Email    string
	Password string
}

func ResetPassword(ctx context.Context, dataDirPath string, opts *ResetPasswordOptions) error {
	path.FormatAllPath(dataDirPath)

	config, err := conf.ReadConfig(path.GetConfigFilePath())
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("read config file failed: %w", err)
	}

	db, err := initDatabase(config.Data.Database.Driver, config.Data.Database.Connection)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("connect database failed: %w", err)
	}
	defer func() {
		_ = db.Close()
	}()

	cache, cacheCleanup, err := data.NewCache(config.Data.Cache)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("initialize cache failed: %w", err)
	}
	defer cacheCleanup()

	dataData, dataCleanup, err := data.NewData(db, cache)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("initialize data layer failed: %w", err)
	}
	defer dataCleanup()

	userRepo := user.NewUserRepo(dataData)

View on GitHub (pinned to 3b9f137061)

Solutions

1. Verify database.driver and database.connection values in the config file.
2. Confirm the database is running and reachable (ping/port test).
3. Check username/password and that the driver name is one the app supports.

Example fix

// before
connection = "postgres://app:secret@db-host:5432/appdb"
// after (verify reachability, correct host/port)
connection = "postgres://app:secret@127.0.0.1:5432/appdb"

addr, err := net.LookupHost("db-host")
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("db host unresolvable") }
conn, err := net.DialTimeout("tcp", "db-host:5432", 3*time.Second)
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("db port closed: %w", err) }
conn.Close()

if err := cli.ResetPassword(ctx, dataDir, opts); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "connect database failed") {
        log.Fatalf("verify DB driver/connection in config: %v", err)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Database driver string invalid (not mysql/postgres/sqlite3) or the connection DSN is unreachable — wrong host/port, DB down, bad credentials.

Common situations: Config points at a DB container that isn't running, credentials rotated, DNS/hostname typo, unsupported driver value in config.

Understand the failure class

Background: ECONNREFUSED and "connection refused" / "could not connect to server" errors: what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 44 libraries.

Related errors

• get config failed: %w
• get config failed: %w
• config not found by id: %d
• config not found by key: %s
• update site info failed: %w

AI-assisted analysis of apache/answer@3b9f137061 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/eda890fd8388ac99. Report an issue: GitHub.