feat: auto-create database directory if missing

[modrin]

Problem

When DATABASE_PATH is not set or points to a non-existent directory, TinyAuth v4 fails to start with a confusing error message ("out of memory (14)"). This is problematic in Docker deployments where users expect the application to work out of the box.

Solution

Auto-create the database directory if it doesn't exist and provide a sensible default (/data/tinyauth.db) when DATABASE_PATH is empty. This works seamlessly with any Docker volume configuration.

Changes

• Auto-create database directory using os.MkdirAll (handles multi-level paths)
• Default to /data/tinyauth.db when DATABASE_PATH is empty
• Remove validate:"required" to allow flexibility

Behavior

• No volume: Directory created in container (ephemeral with anonymous volumes)
• Volume mounted: Directory created in volume (persistent)
• Custom path: Directory auto-created at specified path
• Backward compatible: Existing configs continue to work

Testing

✅ Code compiles successfully (tested with Docker build)
✅ Follows existing code patterns
✅ Backward compatible
✅ Handles multi-level directory paths
✅ No linter errors

Related

Related to PR #506 which improves error messages when database cannot be opened. This PR fixes the root cause by auto-creating the directory, preventing the error from occurring in the first place.

Summary by CodeRabbit

Release Notes

• Improvements
  • Database directory will now be automatically created during initialization if it doesn't exist.
  • Database path is now optional with a sensible default location.
  • Updated help documentation to reflect automatic directory creation behavior.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

The changes implement automatic directory creation for database initialization while making the database-path configuration optional. The database path now defaults to "/data/tinyauth.db" if not specified, and the directory is created automatically during service initialization.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Configuration & Validation cmd/root.go, internal/config/config.go	Updated help text for database-path flag to indicate automatic directory creation; removed the validate:"required" constraint from the DatabasePath struct field, making it optional
Database Initialization internal/service/database_service.go	Added imports (fmt, os, filepath); enhanced Init() to set a default database path of "/data/tinyauth.db" if empty, create the directory via os.MkdirAll before opening the database, and handle directory creation errors

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

• internal/service/database_service.go: Verify that os.MkdirAll is called with appropriate permissions and that error handling for directory creation is consistent with the rest of the codebase.
• internal/config/config.go: Confirm that removing the validate:"required" constraint aligns with the new default-path behavior and doesn't introduce unintended validation gaps elsewhere.

Poem

🐰 A path without a home now finds one,
Directories spring forth before the sun,
No required fields to fuss and fight,
Just defaults and creation, snug and tight!
hops contentedly ✨

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	You can run @coderabbitai generate docstrings to improve docstring coverage.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The PR title directly and accurately describes the main change: auto-creating the database directory when it's missing, which is the core objective and primary change across all modified files.

✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 0

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

internal/service/database_service.go (1)

33-44: Init correctly defaults and prepares the DB path; consider DRY’ing the default and tightening perms

The new dbPath handling and MkdirAll call solve the original startup failure when the directory doesn’t exist and give a sensible fallback when the path is empty. This looks functionally solid.

Two non-blocking suggestions:

• Avoid duplicating the default path string: /data/tinyauth.db now lives here and in cmd/root.go. Consider centralizing this in a shared constant (e.g., in a config/common package) so future changes don’t drift.
• Consider stricter directory permissions: since the DB holds auth data, 0700 is usually sufficient and a bit safer than 0755 in multi-user environments:

-	dir := filepath.Dir(dbPath)
-	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0755); err != nil {
+	dir := filepath.Dir(dbPath)
+	if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0700); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create database directory %s: %w", dir, err)
 	}

📜 Review details

Configuration used: CodeRabbit UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5f2ec02 and e9307c5.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• cmd/root.go (1 hunks)
• internal/config/config.go (1 hunks)
• internal/service/database_service.go (2 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (1)

📚 Learning: 2025-08-27T11:02:49.689Z

Learnt from: steveiliop56
Repo: steveiliop56/tinyauth PR: 326
File: internal/service/database_service.go:7-11
Timestamp: 2025-08-27T11:02:49.689Z
Learning: In internal/service/database_service.go, using glebarez/sqlite (modernc) for GORM with sqlite3 (mattn) driver for golang-migrate is a valid pattern that works correctly, despite appearing to be a driver mismatch. The golang-migrate sqlite driver causes panics when used with modernc.org/sqlite backend, so the mixed approach should be maintained.

Applied to files:

• internal/service/database_service.go

🧬 Code graph analysis (1)

internal/service/database_service.go (1)

internal/config/config.go (1)

• Config (17-46)

🔇 Additional comments (2)

internal/config/config.go (1)

40-40: Making DatabasePath non-required aligns with new defaulting behavior

Removing the validate:"required" constraint is consistent with providing a default (/data/tinyauth.db) and having DatabaseService.Init handle an empty path, so config without an explicit database-path will now start successfully instead of failing validation.

cmd/root.go (1)

69-69: Database flag default and description match the new behavior

Using /data/tinyauth.db as the flag default and documenting that the directory will be created if missing is consistent with the new initialization logic and should make Docker usage less surprising.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 0% with 8 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 23.56%. Comparing base (5f2ec02) to head (e9307c5).
⚠️ Report is 1 commits behind head on main.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
internal/service/database_service.go	0.00%	7 Missing ⚠️
cmd/root.go	0.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #510      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   23.62%   23.56%   -0.07%     
==========================================
  Files          36       36              
  Lines        2239     2245       +6     
==========================================
  Hits          529      529              
- Misses       1673     1679       +6     
  Partials       37       37              

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