From 2313b972a38170df5421839b911f942cb8ea4af3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Markus Heiser <markus.heiser@darmarit.de>
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2025 12:33:16 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] [fix] engines: base URL can be a list or a string, but its
 not None!

The code injection and monkey patching examine the names in the module of the
engine; if a variable there starts without an underscore and has the value None,
then this variable needs to be configured. This outdated concept does not fit
engines that may have multiple URLs. At least not as long as the value of the
base URL (list) is None.

The default is now an empty list instead of None

Signed-off-by: Markus Heiser <markus.heiser@darmarit.de>
---
 searx/engines/invidious.py | 2 +-
 searx/engines/piped.py     | 2 +-
 searx/engines/pixiv.py     | 2 +-
 searx/engines/yacy.py      | 2 +-
 4 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/searx/engines/invidious.py b/searx/engines/invidious.py
index 817c1d4ab..c62143ffc 100644
--- a/searx/engines/invidious.py
+++ b/searx/engines/invidious.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ paging = True
 time_range_support = True
 
 # base_url can be overwritten by a list of URLs in the settings.yml
-base_url: list | str = []
+base_url: list[str] | str = []
 
 
 def init(_):
diff --git a/searx/engines/piped.py b/searx/engines/piped.py
index 564753494..e9585eae1 100644
--- a/searx/engines/piped.py
+++ b/searx/engines/piped.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ categories = []
 paging = True
 
 # search-url
-backend_url: list[str] | str | None = None
+backend_url: list[str] | str = []
 """Piped-Backend_: The core component behind Piped.  The value is an URL or a
 list of URLs.  In the latter case instance will be selected randomly.  For a
 complete list of official instances see Piped-Instances (`JSON
diff --git a/searx/engines/pixiv.py b/searx/engines/pixiv.py
index abf316228..b1e7bf452 100644
--- a/searx/engines/pixiv.py
+++ b/searx/engines/pixiv.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ categories = ['images']
 
 # Search URL
 base_url = "https://www.pixiv.net/ajax/search/illustrations"
-pixiv_image_proxies: list = []
+pixiv_image_proxies: list[str] = []
 
 
 def request(query, params):
diff --git a/searx/engines/yacy.py b/searx/engines/yacy.py
index e8ba1292a..6566dd0f6 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yacy.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yacy.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ search_type = 'text'
 ``video`` are not yet implemented (Pull-Requests are welcome).
 """
 
-base_url: list[str] | str | None = None
+base_url: list[str] | str = []
 """The value is an URL or a list of URLs.  In the latter case instance will be
 selected randomly.
 """