# getwtxt
[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt)
[](https://travis-ci.com/getwtxt/getwtxt)
twtxt registry written in Go!
[twtxt](https://github.com/buckket/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` file and a 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.
\[ [Installation](#installation) \]
\[ [Configuration](#configuration) \]
\[ [Using the Registry](#using-the-registry) \]
\[ [Benchmarks](#benchmarks) \]
\[ [Other Documentation](#other-documentation) \]
\[ [Notes](#notes) \]
## Features
* Easy to set up and maintain
* Uses an in-memory cache to serve requests
* Pushes to a database at a configurable interval for persistent storage
* `leveldb (default)`
* `sqlite3`
* More database support is in development
* Run directly facing the internet or behind `Caddy` / `nginx`
A public instance is currently available:
* [twtxt.tilde.institute](https://twtxt.tilde.institute)
## Installation
While I've included macOS builds in Travis CI, I have only
personally tested getwtxt on Linux, specifically:
* `Debian 9, 10/Testing, Sid`
* `Ubuntu Server 18.04LTS, 18.10, 19.04`
Build dependencies are minimal, and only include:
* `gnu make`
* `go >= 1.11`
`git` is not required if you download the sources via the
[`Releases`](https://github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt/releases) tab
Now, on with the directions. First, fetch the sources using `git`
and jump into the directory.
```
$ git clone git://github.com/getwtxt/getwtxt.git
...
$ cd getwtxt
```
Optionally, use the `go` tool to test and benchmark the files in `svc`.
If you choose to run the tests, be sure to return to the main directory afterwards.
```
$ cd svc && go test -v -bench . -benchmem
...
...
PASS
$ cd ..
```
Use `make` to initiate the build and install process.
```
$ make
...
$ sudo make install
```
## Configuration
\[ [Proxying](#proxying) \] \[ [Starting getwtxt](#starting-getwtxt) \]
To configure getwtxt, you'll first need to open `/usr/local/getwtxt/getwtxt.yml`
in your favorite editor and modify any values necessary. There are comments in the
file explaining each option.
If you desire, you may additionally modify the template in
`/usr/local/getwtxt/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. Don't forget to change
the 5 instances of `twtxt.example.com` to the (sub)domain you'll be using to access the registry,
generate SSL/TLS certificates using `letsencrypt`, and change the port in `proxy_pass` to whichever
port you specified when modifying the configuration file. Currently, it's set to the default port `9001`
```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 $remote_addr;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9001;
}
}
server {
if ($host = twtxt.example.com) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
listen 80;
server_name twtxt.example.com;
return 404;
}
```
### Starting getwtxt
Once you have everything configured to your needs, use `systemctl` to enable it
to run on system boot, then start the service.
```
$ sudo systemctl enable getwtxt
...
$ sudo systemctl start 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. Additionally, all
queries support the `?page=N` parameter, where `N` is a positive integer, that will retrieve page
`N` of results in groups of twenty.
The example API calls can also be found on the landing page of any getwtxt instance, assuming
the admin has not customized the landing page.
* [twtxt.tilde.institute](https://twtxt.tilde.institute)
### 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
```
### Get All Tweets
```
$ 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!
...
...
```
### 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!
```
### Get 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
```
### Get all tweets with mentions
Mentions are placed within a status using the format `@<nickname http://url/twtxt.txt>`
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.tilde.institute/api/plain/mentions'
foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt 2019-02-28T11:06:44.000Z @<foo_barrington https://example3.com/twtxt.txt> Hey!! Are you still working on that project?
bar https://mxmmplm.com/twtxt.txt 2019-02-27T11:06:44.000Z @<foobar https://example2.com/twtxt.txt> How's your day going, bud?
foo_barrington https://example3.com/twtxt.txt 2019-02-26T11:06:44.000Z @<foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt> Did you eat my lunch?
```
### Query tweets by mention URL
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.tilde.institute/api/plain/mentions?url=https://foobarrington.co.uk/twtxt.txt'
foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt 2019-02-26T11:06:44.000Z @<foo_barrington https://foobarrington.co.uk/twtxt.txt> Hey!! Are you still working on that project?e
```
### Get all Tags
```
$ curl 'https://twtxt.example.com/api/plain/tags'
foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt 2019-03-01T09:33:04.000Z No, seriously, I need #help
foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt 2019-03-01T09:32:12.000Z Seriously, I love #programming!
foo https://example.com/twtxt.txt 2019-03-01T09:31:02.000Z I love #programming!
```
### 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!
```
## 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% 19574/s 10s
Done!
Statistics Avg Stdev Max
Reqs/sec 19905.42 3597.45 27879.77
Latency 5.02ms 3.43ms 80.11ms
HTTP codes:
1xx - 0, 2xx - 200000, 3xx - 0, 4xx - 0, 5xx - 0
others - 0
Throughput: 34.56MB/s
```
## Other Documentation
In addition to what is provided here, additional information, particularly regarding the configuration
file, may be found by running getwtxt with the `-m` or `--manual` flags. You will likely want to pipe the output
to `less` as it is quite long.
```
$ ./getwtxt -m | less
$ ./getwtxt --manual | less
```
If you need to remove getwtxt from your system, navigate to the source directory
you acquired using `git` during the installation process and run the appropriate
`make` hook:
```
$ sudo make uninstall
```
## Notes
twtxt Information
* [twtxt.readthedocs.io](https://twtxt.readthedocs.io)
twtxt Client Repo
* [buckket/twtxt](https://github.com/buckket/twtxt) (Includes links to additional related projects. See `Contributions`)
Registry Specification
* [twtxt.readthedocs.io/.../registry.html](https://twtxt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/registry.html)