/doc/

getwtxt
twtxt registry written in Gogbmor <ben@gbmor.dev>
summary refs log tree commit diff stats
path: root/README.md
blob: d112058122366ca907299a6a0f979b1bb58628a8 (plain) (blame)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
# getwtxt [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt) [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.com/getwtxt/getwtxt.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.com/getwtxt/getwtxt)

twtxt registry written in Go! 

twtxt is a decentralized microblogging platform "for hackers" based
on text files. The user is "followed" and "mentioned" by referencing the URL to
their `twtxt.txt` (or other text) file and a (not necessarily unique) nickname.
Registries are designed to aggregate several users' statuses into a single location,
facilitating the discovery of new users to follow and allowing the search of statuses
for tags and key words.

Until now, there has primarily been a single registry application available for 
enthusiasts to use to run their own `twtxt` registry. Why not add some diversity
to the landscape?

\[ [Installation](#installation) \] \[ [Configuration](#configuration) \] \[ [Using the Registry](#using-the-registry) \] \[ [Benchmarks](#benchmarks) \] \[ [Notes](#notes) \]

## Features

* Easy to set up and maintain. 
* Uses an in-memory cache to serve requests.
* Pushes to `LevelDB` at a configurable interval for data storage. 
* Run directly facing the internet or behind `Caddy` / `nginx`.

A public instance is currently available:
* [twtxt.tilde.institute](https://twtxt.tilde.institute)

## Installation 

First, fetch the sources using either the `go` tool or using `git` (if you haven't 
set up a `go` development environment and just want to try it out) and jump into
the directory.

```
$ go get github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt
...
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt
```

```
$ git clone git://github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt.git
...
$ cd getwtxt
```

Optionally, use the `go` tool to test and benchmark it:

```
$ go test -v -bench . -benchmem
```

Use the `go` tool to build:

```
$ go build -v
```

## Configuration

\[ [Proxying](#proxying) \] \[ [Starting getwtxt](#starting-getwtxt) \]

To configure `getwtxt`, you'll first need to open `getwtxt.yml` in your favorite
editor and modify any values necessary. There are comments in the file explaining
each option. Additionally, you may run `getwtxt` with the `-m` flag for a short
configuration manual.

```
$ ./getwtxt -m | less
```

If you desire, you may additionally modify the template in `assets/tmpl/index.html`
to customize the page users will see when they pull up your registry instance in
a web browser. The values in the configuration file under `Instance:` are used
to replace text `{{.Like This}}` in the template.

### Proxying

Though `getwtxt` will run perfectly fine facing the internet directly, it does not
understand virtual hosts, nor does it use TLS (yet). You'll probably want to proxy it behind
`Caddy` or `nginx` for this reason. 

`Caddy` is ludicrously easy to set up, and automatically handles `TLS` certificates. Here's the config:

```caddyfile
twtxt.example.com 
proxy / example.com:9001
```

If you're using `nginx`, here's a skeleton config to get you started:

```nginx
server {
    server_name twtxt.example.com;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    listen 0.0.0.0:443 ssl http2;
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/twtxt.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/twtxt.example.com/privkey.pem;
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;
    location / {
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9010;
    }
}
server {
    if ($host = twtxt.example.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }
    listen 80;
    server_name twtxt.example.com;
    return 404;
}
```

### Starting `getwtxt`

Once you've customized the configuration, start it within a `tmux` session (or `screen` works) and detach.
If you're using a configuration file not in one of the expected locations or with a non-default name, 
start `getwtxt` like this:

```
$ ./getwtxt -c /path/to/configuration/file.yml
```

Otherwise, just:

```
$ ./getwtxt
```

## Using the Registry

The following examples will all apply to using `curl` from a `Linux`, `BSD`, or `macOS` terminal.
All timestamps are in `RFC3339` format, per the twtxt registry specification

### Adding a User
Both nickname and URL are required
```
$ curl -X POST 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/users?url=https://mysite.ext/twtxt.txt&nickname=FooJr'

200 OK
```

### Fetch All Statuses
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/tweets'

foo_barrington  https://foo.bar.ext/twtxt.txt  2019-03-01T09:31:02.000Z Hey! It's my first status!
...
...
```

### Fetch All Users
Timestamp reflects when the user was added to the registry.

```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/users'

foo_barrington      https://foo.barrington.ext/twtxt.txt  2017-01-01T09:17:02.000Z
foo_barrington_jr   https://example.com/twtxt.txt         2019-03-01T09:31:02.000Z
...
...
```

### Query Users
Can use either keyword or URL.

```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/users?url=https://example.com/twtxt.txt'

foo               https://example.com/twtxt.txt     2019-05-09T08:42:23.000Z


$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/users?q=foo'

foo               https://example.com/twtxt.txt     2019-05-09T08:42:23.000Z
foobar            https://example2.com/twtxt.txt    2019-03-14T19:23:00.000Z
foo_barrington    https://example3.com/twtxt.txt    2019-05-01T15:59:39.000Z
```

### Query by Tag
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/tags/programming'

foo    https://example.com/twtxt.txt    2019-03-01T09:31:02.000Z    I love #programming!
```

### Query Tweets by Keyword
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/tweets?q=getwtxt'

foo_barrington    https://example3.com/twtxt.txt    2019-04-30T06:00:09.000Z    I just installed getwtxt!
```

## Benchmarks

* [bombardier](https://github.com/codesenberg/bombardier)

```
$ bombardier -c 100 -n 200000 http://localhost:9001/api/plain/tweets

Bombarding http://localhost:9001/api/plain/tweets with 200000 request(s) using 100 connection(s)
 200000 / 200000 [=============================================================] 100.00% 15100/s 13s

Done!

Statistics        Avg      Stdev        Max
  Reqs/sec     15249.12    3526.87   25047.46
  Latency        6.56ms     2.93ms    64.54ms
  HTTP codes:
    1xx - 0, 2xx - 200000, 3xx - 0, 4xx - 0, 5xx - 0
    others - 0
  Throughput:     7.83MB/s
```

## <a name="notes"></a>Notes

twtxt Information
  * [twtxt.readthedocs.io](https://twtxt.readthedocs.io)

Registry Specification
  * [twtxt.readthedocs.io/.../registry.html](https://twtxt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/registry.html)