123 行
5.0 KiB
Markdown
123 行
5.0 KiB
Markdown
# htwtxt – hosted twtxt server
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## Rationale
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[*twtxt*](https://github.com/buckket/twtxt) is a protocol and client for
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decentralized microblogging. Users are expected to provide their feeds as plain
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text files with URLs accessible over the Internet. *htwtxt* is a web server to
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host and grow such text files for users without trivial access to their own web
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space.
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## Features
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- individual twtxt feeds mapped to user accounts with password-protected write
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access
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- no sessions, no cookies: few POST-writable resources (feeds, account data)
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expect credentials, which to store between requests if desired is up to the
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user / browser
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- account registration may be open to the public, or (default) closed (with the
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site operator adding new accounts manually)
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- users may add e-mail addresses and optional security questions to their
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accounts to use for a password reset mechanism (if enabled by site operator)
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- HTTPS / TLS support (if paths to key and certificate files are provided)
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- all HTML+CSS is read from a templates directory, which can be freely chosen at
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server start so as to ease customization of the interface
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## Online demo
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A demo instance with frequent downtimes and public sign-up can be tested at
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<http://test.plomlompom.com:8000> (don't expect any of its feeds' URLs to be
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stable; it's just for testing, and data frequently gets deleted). A somewhat
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more conservatively managed instance can be found at
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<http://htwtxt.plomlompom.com:80/>.
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## Setup and run
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### Setup Go build environment
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With htwtxt written in Go, the setup instructions below expect a Go development
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environment – with a somewhat current [go tool](https://golang.org/cmd/go/)
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installed, and a `$GOPATH` set. (Note that the golang package of version 1.3.3
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that is part of Debian Jessie is a bit too old already.) If your system does not
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have such an environment, here's some hints on how to set it up:
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wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
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sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.5.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
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export GOPATH=~/go
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export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
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(You might want to add the last two lines to your `.bashrc` or whatever usually
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initializes your environment variables. And you might want to replace the
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package pulled by wget by whatever is the newest stable release of Go
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available.)
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### Clone, build, run
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Once your Go build environment is ready, do this:
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git clone https://github.com/plomlompom/htwtxt $GOPATH/src/htwtxt
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go get htwtxt
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mkdir ~/htwtxt
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$GOPATH/bin/htwtxt
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This will build and start the server, which will store login and feed data below
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`~/htwtxt`. An alternate directory may be specified with the `--dir` flag.
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## Tweaking
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### Configure port number and TLS
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By default, htwtxt serves unencrypted HTTP over port 8000. But the executable
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accepts the flag `--port` to provide an alternate port number, and the flags
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`--cert` and `--key` to provide paths to an SSL certificate and key file to run
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htwtxt as an HTTPS server.
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You might encounter the following issue when trying to set a low port number
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(such as the HTTP standard 80, or the HTTPS standard 443):
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ListenAndServe: listen tcp :80: bind: permission denied
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This is [a common privilege problem](http://stackoverflow.com/q/413807) and
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[might be solved](http://stackoverflow.com/a/414258) bis this:
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sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' $GOPATH/bin/htwtxt
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### Public or closed sign-up
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By default, sign up / account creation is not open to the web-browsing public.
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The `--signup` flag must be set explicitely to change that. Alternatively, new
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accounts can be added by starting the program with the `--adduser` flag,
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followed by an argument of the form `NAME:PASSWORD`.
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### Set site owner contact info
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The server serves a `/info` page (from the `info.html` template) that may
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include the site owner's contact info, as given with the `--info` flag.
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### Activate password reset mails
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Feed owners may add e-mail addresses to their login data to authenticate
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themselves to the site operator and receive password reset links when requested.
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The password reset mechanism by mail is inactive by default. To activate it, a
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set of flags `--mailserver`, `--mailport`, `--mailuser` must be set to describe
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a SMTP server and its login from which to send password reset mails to users'
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mail addresses. (The site operator will be prompted for his SMTP login password
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on program start.) Whether this mechanism is trustworthy or not is up to the
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site operator's imagination. Users may set up optional security questions to be
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posed on the password reset links they enable by setting their mail address.
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### Change HTML templates
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By default, HTML templates are read out of `$GOPATH/src/htwtxt/templates/`. An
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alternate directory can be given with the flag `--templates` (it should contain
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template files of the same names as the default ones, however).
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## Copyright, license, version
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htwtxt (c) 2016 Christian Heller a.k.a. [plomlompom](http://www.plomlompom.de),
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with template design input by [Kai Kubasta](http://kaikubasta.de).
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License: Affero GPL version 3, see `./LICENSE`
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Current version number: 1.0
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