```
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| THE CONSTRUCT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLIC USE. THIS IS FOR DEVELOPERS AND DEMONSTRATION |
| ONLY. IT IS NOT COMPLETE AND REQUIRES EXPERT KNOWLEDGE TO USE. YOU ARE STILL ENCOURAGED TO TRY |
| THIS SOFTWARE AND HELP US, BUT IN AN EXPERIMENTAL SETTING ONLY. |
| |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
```
# This — is The **Construct**
#### 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 for the global federation of networks
**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.
Similar to the legacy IRC protocol's origins, Matrix 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).
## Installation
### Dependencies
- **Boost** (1.66 or later)
Replacing libratbox.
- **RocksDB** Embedded database.
- **Sodium** Curve ed25519 for Federation.
- **OpenSSL** HTTPS TLS / X.509.
- **libmagic** (~Optional~) MIME type recognition.
- **zlib** or **lz4** or **snappy** (Optional) Compression.
##### Build tools
- **GNU C++ compiler**, automake, autoconf, autoconf2.13,
autoconf-archive, libtool.
- A platform capable of loading dynamic shared objects at runtime is required.
### DOWNLOAD
At this phase of development the best thing to do is pull the master branch
and use the latest head.
> The head of the `master` branch is consistent and should be safe to pull
without checking out a release tag. When encountering a problem with the latest
head on `master` that is when a release tag should be sought.
### BUILD
*Please follow the standalone build instructions in the next section until this
notice is removed.*
```
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install
```
Additional documentation for building can be found in [doc/BUILD.md](doc/BUILD.md)
### BUILD (standalone)
*Intended to allow building with dependencies that have not made their way
to mainstream systems.*
```
./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.
```
./configure --prefix=$PWD/build --with-included-boost --with-included-rocksdb
```
- The `--with-included-*` will fetch, configure **and build** the dependencies included
as submodules.
```
make install
```
### SETUP
- For standalone builds you will need to add the included lib directories
in your git repo to the library path:
`export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/src/deps/boost/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH`
`export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/src/deps/rocksdb:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH`
- We will refer to your server as `host.tld`. For those familiar with matrix:
this is your origin and mxid `@user:host.tld` hostpart. If your DNS uses
`matrix.host.tld` that subdomain is not involved when we refer to
`host.tld` unless we explicitly mention to involve it.
1. Execute
```
bin/construct host.tld
````
> There is no configuration file.
> Log messages will appear in terminal concluding with notice `IRCd RUN`.
2. Strike ctrl-c on keyboard
> The command-line console will appear.
3. Create a general listener socket by entering the following command:
- If you have existing TLS certificates, replace those parts of the
command with paths to your certificate and key, respectively. If you
do not, those files will be created and self-signed in the current
directory; another target path may be specified.
```
net listen matrix 0.0.0.0 8448 host.tld.crt host.tld.crt.key
```
> The Matrix Federation Tester should now pass. Browse to
https://matrix.org/federationtester/api/report?server_name=host.tld and
verify `"AllChecksOK": true`
4. Relax restrictions for self-signed certificates.
- We cannot, in good faith, ship this software configured insecurely
by default; therefor we leave this step to you.
```
conf set ircd.net.open.allow_self_signed true
```
> Most federation servers are personal deployments with self-signed
certificates. Setting this option will decrease federation fragmentation.
5. To use a web-based client like Riot, configure the "webroot" directory
to point at Riot's `webapp/` directory by entering the following:
```
conf set ircd.webroot.path /path/to/riot-web/webapp/
mod reload webroot
```
6. Browse to `https://host.tld:8448/` and register a user.
## Developers
[]() []()
Generate doxygen using `/usr/bin/doxygen tools/doxygen.conf` the target
directory is `doc/html`. Browse to `doc/html/index.html`.
## Plan
#### Roadmap for service
- [x] **Phase One**: Matrix clients using HTTPS.
- [ ] **Phase Two**: Legacy IRC network TS6 protocol.
- [ ] **Phase Three**: Legacy IRC clients using RFC1459 / RFC2812 legacy grammars.
#### Roadmap for deployments
The deployment mode is a macro of configuration variables which tune the daemon
for how it is being used. Modes mostly affect aspects of local clients.
- [x] **Personal**: One or few users. Few default restrictions; higher log output.
- [ ] **Company**: Hundreds of users. Moderate default restrictions.
- [ ] **Public**: Thousands of users. Untrusting configuration defaults.
#### Roadmap for innovation
- [x] Phase Zero: **Core libircd**: Utils; Modules; Contexts; JSON; Database; HTTP; etc...
- [x] Phase One: **Matrix Protocol**: Core VM; Core modules; Protocol endpoints; etc...
- [ ] Phase Two: **Construct Cluster**: Kademlia sharding of events; Maymounkov's erasure codes.