construct/README.md

# This — is The **Construct**

<img align="right" src="https://i.imgur.com/TIf8kEC.png" />

#### Internet Relay Chat daemon: *Matrix Construct*

IRCd was a free and open source server which facilitated real-time communication over the
internet. It was started by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988 at the University of Oulu and [its
derivatives](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/IRCd_software_implementations.png)
underpinned the major IRC networks for decades.

Due to its age and stagnation since the mid-2000's, a growing number of proprietary cloud services
are now filling the vacuum of innovation. In 2014 a new approach was proposed to reinvigorate
real-time communication for free and open source software: a *federation of networks* known as
*the matrix*.

**IRCd has been rewritten to implement the [Federation](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/)**.

This is the opportunity to take back control of your communication and relegate the
opaque siloes to being just another provider to the federation.
Though not syntactically backwards-compatible with the legacy IRC protocol, it is easily
translated as a superset. Similar to the legacy IRC protocol's origins, it wisely leverages
technologies in vogue for its day to aid the virility of implementations. A vibrant and
growing ecosystem [already exists](https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html).

**This is the Construct** — the first Matrix server written in C++. It is designed to be
fast and highly scalable, and to be community developed by volunteer contributors over
the internet. This mission strives to make the software easy to understand, modify, audit,
and extend. It remains true to its roots with its modular design and having minimal
requirements. Even though all of the old code has been rewritten, the same spirit and
_philosophy of its predecessors_ is still obvious throughout.

## Installation

Getting up and running with Construct is easy. A deployment can scale from as little as
a low-end virtual machine running a stock linux distribution to a large load balanced
cluster operating in synchrony over a network.


#### Dependencies

- **Boost** (1.61 or later)
Replacing libratbox with the rich and actively developed libraries.

- **RocksDB** (based on LevelDB):
A lightweight and embedded database superseding sqlite3.

- **Sodium** (NaCl crypto):
Provides ed25519 required for the Matrix Federation.

- **OpenSSL** (libssl/libcrypto):
Provides HTTPS TLS / X.509 / etc.

##### Additional dependencies

- **zlib** or **lz4** or **snappy** (Compression library):
Provides compression for the database, etc.

- **libmagic** (Optional)
Content MIME type recognition.

- **GNU C++ compiler**, **automake**, **autoconf**, **autoconf2.13**,
**autoconf-archive**, **libtool**, **shtool**

##### Planned dependencies

- **Adobe GIL** (Optional)
Image resizing & manipulation for the media system.

- **libmozjs** (Optional JavaScript embedding):
The matrix room is directly represented as a javascript object. :art:

- **libpbc** (Pairing Based Cryptography):
Heads up! Heavy items are falling from the ivory tower!

- **libgmp** (Custom Maths):
Experimental Post-Quantum Ideal Lattice Cryptography. :open_mouth:

*Notes*:
- libircd requires a platform capable of loading dynamic shared objects at runtime.


#### Platforms

[![Construct](https://img.shields.io/SemVer/v5.0.0-dev.png)](https://github.com/jevolk/charybdis/tree/master)

| <sub> Continuously Integrated Host </sub>   | <sub> Compiler </sub>    | <sub> Third party </sub> | <sub> Status </sub> |
|:------------------------------------------- |:------------------------ |:------------------------ |:------------------- |
| <sub> Linux Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial </sub>      | <sub> GCC 6       </sub> | <sub> Boost 1.61 </sub>  | [![POSIX Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/jevolk/charybdis.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/jevolk/charybdis) |


### Building from git (production)

```
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install
```


#### Building from git (DEVELOPER PREVIEW INSTRUCTIONS)

*This is only intended to allow development with dependencies that have not made
their way to mainstream systems yet.* **Not for release.**

The developer preview will install Construct in a specific directory isolated from the
system. It will avoid using system libraries by downloading and building the dependencies
from the submodules we have pinned here and build them the way we have configured. You may
need to set the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` to the built libraries and/or maintain an intact build
directory.

```
./autogen.sh
mkdir build
```

- The install directory may be this or another place of your choosing.
- If you decide elsewhere, make sure to change the `--prefix` in the `./configure`
statement below.

```
CXX=g++-6 ./configure --prefix=$PWD/build --enable-debug --with-included-boost=shared --with-included-rocksdb=shared
```

- Many systems alias `g++` to an older version. To be safe, specify a version manually
in `CXX`. This will also build the submodule dependencies with that version.
- The `--with-included-*` will fetch, configure **and build** the dependencies included
as submodules. Include `=shared` for now until static libraries are better handled.

```
make
make install
```

## Developers

[![](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-BSD-brightgreen.svg)]() [![](https://img.shields.io/badge/PRs-welcome-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square)]()

 * Generate doxygen using `/usr/bin/doxygen tools/doxygen.conf` the target
 directory is doc/html. Browse to doc/html/index.html

## Plan

<img align="right" src="https://i.imgur.com/mHGxDyC.png" />

#### Roadmap for service

- [x] Phase One
- Matrix clients using HTTPS.

- [ ] Phase Two
- Legacy IRC networks using TS6 protocol.

- [ ] Phase Three
- Legacy IRC clients using RFC1459 / RFC2812 legacy grammars.


#### Roadmap for innovation

- [x] Phase Zero: **Core libircd**
- Utils; Modules; Userspace contexts; Format strings; JSON; Database; Networking; HTTP; etc...

- [x] Phase One: **Matrix Protocol**
- Core VM; Core modules; Protocol endpoints; Angular/JS client.

- [ ] Phase Two: **Construct Clustering**
- Kademlia sharding of events database; Maymounkov's erasure codes over shards.

- [ ] Phase Three: **Graduate Seminar**
- Tromer/Virza's zkSNARK applied to JavaScript XDR evaluation verifying the distributed
execution of a matrix room using MNT pairing curves.

- [ ] Phase Four: **Dissertation Defense**
- Phase Three _with RingLWE_; GPU accelerated matrix multiplication for
the number theoretic transform...

- [ ] Phase Five: **Habilitation**
- Phase Four _under fully homomorphic encryption_.


### IRCd Library

This library can be embedded by developers creating their own server or those
who simply want to use the library of routines it provides.

Including libircd headers will not include any other headers beyond those in
the standard library, with minimal impact on your project's compile complexity.
The prototypical embedding of `libircd` is `construct` found in the
`construct/` directory.

- Can be embedded in your application with very minimal overhead.

- Runs only one server at a time.

- Is asynchronous and single-threaded✝.

- Introduces its own userspace threading.

- Leverages fast & safe formal grammars.

See the `include/ircd/` and `ircd/` directories for more information.