mirror of
https://github.com/matrix-construct/construct
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244 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
244 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# This — is The **Construct**
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<img align="right" src="https://i.imgur.com/TIf8kEC.png" />
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#### Internet Relay Chat daemon: *Matrix Construct*
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IRCd was a free and open source server which facilitated real-time communication over the
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internet. It was started by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988 at the University of Oulu and [its
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derivatives](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/IRCd_software_implementations.png)
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underpinned the major IRC networks for decades.
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Due to its age and stagnation since the mid-2000's, a growing number of proprietary cloud services
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are now filling the vacuum of innovation. In 2014 a new approach was proposed to reinvigorate
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real-time communication for free and open source software: a *federation of networks* known as
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*the matrix*.
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**IRCd has been rewritten to implement the [Federation](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/)**.
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This is the opportunity to take back control of your communication and relegate the
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opaque cloud services to being just another provider to the federation.
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Though not syntactically backwards-compatible with the legacy IRC protocol, it is easily
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translated as a superset. Similar to the legacy IRC protocol's origins, it wisely leverages
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technologies in vogue for its day to aid the virility of implementations. A vibrant and
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growing ecosystem [already exists](https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html).
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**This is the Construct** — the first Matrix server written in C++. It is designed to be
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fast and highly scalable, and to be community developed by volunteer contributors over
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the internet. This mission strives to make the software easy to understand, modify, audit,
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and extend. It remains true to its roots with its modular design and having minimal
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requirements. Even though all of the old code has been rewritten, the same spirit and
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_philosophy of its predecessors_ is still obvious throughout.
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## Installation
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Getting up and running with Construct is easy. A deployment can scale from as little as
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a low-end virtual machine running a stock linux distribution to a large load balanced
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cluster operating in synchrony over a network.
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#### Dependencies
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- **Boost** (1.61 or later)
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Replacing libratbox with the rich and actively developed libraries.
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- **RocksDB** (based on LevelDB):
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A lightweight and embedded database superseding sqlite3.
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- **Sodium** (NaCl crypto):
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Provides ed25519 required for the Matrix Federation.
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- **OpenSSL** (libssl/libcrypto):
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Provides HTTPS TLS / X.509 / etc.
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##### Additional dependencies
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- **zlib** or **lz4** or **snappy** (Compression library):
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Provides compression for the database, etc.
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- **GNU C++ compiler**, **automake**, **autoconf**, **autoconf2.13**,
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**autoconf-archive**, **libtool**, **shtool**
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##### Planned dependencies
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- **libmozjs** (Optional JavaScript embedding):
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The matrix room is directly represented as a javascript object. :art:
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- **libpbc** (Pairing Based Cryptography):
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Heads up! Heavy items are falling from the ivory tower!
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- **libgmp** (Custom Maths):
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Experimental Post-Quantum Ideal Lattice Cryptography. :open_mouth:
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*Notes*:
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- libircd requires a platform capable of loading dynamic shared objects at runtime.
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#### Platforms
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[](https://github.com/jevolk/charybdis/tree/master)
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| <sub> Continuously Integrated Host </sub> | <sub> Compiler </sub> | <sub> Third party </sub> | <sub> Status </sub> |
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|:------------------------------------------- |:------------------------ |:------------------------ |:------------------- |
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| <sub> Linux Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial </sub> | <sub> GCC 6 </sub> | <sub> Boost 1.61 </sub> | [](https://travis-ci.org/jevolk/charybdis) |
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### Building from git (production)
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```
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./autogen.sh
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./configure
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make
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sudo make install
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```
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#### Building from git (DEVELOPER PREVIEW INSTRUCTIONS)
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*This is only intended to allow development with dependencies that have not made
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their way to mainstream systems yet.* **Not for release.**
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The developer preview will install Construct in a specific directory isolated from the
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system. It will avoid using system libraries by downloading and building the dependencies
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from the submodules we have pinned here and build them the way we have configured. You may
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need to set the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` to the built libraries and/or maintain an intact build
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directory.
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```
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./autogen.sh
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mkdir build
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```
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- The install directory may be this or another place of your choosing.
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- If you decide elsewhere, make sure to change the `--prefix` in the `./configure`
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statement below.
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```
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CXX=g++-6 ./configure --prefix=$PWD/build --enable-debug --with-included-boost=shared --with-included-rocksdb=shared
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```
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- Many systems alias `g++` to an older version. To be safe, specify a version manually
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in `CXX`. This will also build the submodule dependencies with that version.
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- The `--with-included-*` will fetch, configure **and build** the dependencies included
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as submodules. Include `=shared` for now until static libraries are better handled.
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```
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make
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make install
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```
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## Developers
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[]() []()
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* Generate doxygen using `/usr/bin/doxygen tools/doxygen.conf` the target
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directory is doc/html. Browse to doc/html/index.html
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## Plan
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<img align="right" src="https://i.imgur.com/mHGxDyC.png" />
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#### Roadmap for service
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- [x] Phase One
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- Matrix clients using HTTPS.
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- [ ] Phase Two
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- Legacy IRC networks using TS6 protocol.
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- [ ] Phase Three
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- Legacy IRC clients using RFC1459 / RFC2812 legacy grammars.
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#### Roadmap for innovation
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- [x] Phase Zero: **Core libircd**
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- Utils; Modules; Userspace contexts; Format strings; JSON; Database; Networking; HTTP; etc...
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- [x] Phase One: **Matrix Protocol**
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- Core VM; Core modules; Protocol endpoints; Angular/JS client.
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- [ ] Phase Two: **Construct Clustering**
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- Kademlia sharding of events database; Maymounkov's erasure codes over shards.
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- [ ] Phase Three: **Graduate Seminar**
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- Tromer/Virza's zkSNARK applied to JavaScript XDR evaluation verifying the distributed
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execution of a matrix room using MNT pairing curves.
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- [ ] Phase Four: **Dissertation Defense**
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- Phase Three _with RingLWE_; GPU accelerated matrix multiplication for
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the number theoretic transform...
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- [ ] Phase Five: **Habilitation**
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- Phase Four _under fully homomorphic encryption_.
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### IRCd Library
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The purpose of `libircd` is to facilitate the execution of a server which
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handles requests from end-users. The library hosts a set of pluggable modules
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which may introduce the actual application features (or the "business logic")
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of the server. These additional modules are found in the `modules/` directory;
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This library can be embedded by developers creating their own server or those
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who simply want to use the library of routines it provides.
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##### libircd can be embedded in your application with very minimal overhead.
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Linking to libircd from your executable allows you to customize and extend the
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functionality of the server and have control over its execution, or, simply use
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library routines provided by the library without any daemonization. Including
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libircd headers will not include any other headers beyond those in the standard
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library, with minimal impact on your project's compile complexity. The
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prototypical embedding of `libircd` is `construct` found in the `construct/`
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directory.
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##### libircd runs only one server at a time.
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Keeping with the spirit of simplicity of the original architecture, `libircd`
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continues to be a "singleton" object which uses globals and keeps actual server
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state in the library itself. In other words, **only one IRC daemon can exist
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within a process's address space at a time.** Whether or not this was a pitfall
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of the original design, it has emerged over the decades as a very profitable
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decision for making IRCd an accessible open source internet project.
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##### libircd is single-threaded✝
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The library is based around the `boost::asio::io_service` event loop. It is
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still an asynchronous event-based system. We process one event at a time;
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developers must not block execution. While the `io_service` can be run safely
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on multiple threads by the embedder's application, libircd will use a single
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`io_service::strand`.
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This methodology ensures there is an _uninterrupted execution_ working through
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a single event queue providing service. If there are periods of execution
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which are computationally intense like parsing, hashing, cryptography, etc: this
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is absorbed in lieu of thread synchronization and bus contention. Scaling this
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system is done through running multiple instances which synchronize at the
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application level.
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✝ However, don't start assuming a truly threadless execution for the entire
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address space. If there is ever a long-running background computation or a call
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to a 3rd party library which will do IO and block the event loop, we may use an
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additional `std::thread` to "offload" such an operation. Thus we do have
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a threading model, but it is heterogeneous.
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##### libircd introduces userspace threading✝
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IRCd presents an interface introducing stackful coroutines, a.k.a. userspace
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context switching, a.k.a. green threads, a.k.a. fibers. The library avoids callbacks
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as the way to break up execution when waiting for events. Instead, we harken back
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to the simple old ways of synchronous programming where control flow and data are
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easy to follow.
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✝ If there are certain cases where we don't want a stack to linger which may
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jeopardize the c10k'ness of the daemon the asynchronous pattern is still used.
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##### libircd leverages formal grammars
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We utilize the `boost::spirit` system of parsing and printing through formal grammars,
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rather than writing our own parsers manually. In addition, we build several tools
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on top of such formal devices like a type-safe format string library acting as a
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drop-in for `::sprintf()`, but accepting objects like `std::string` without `.c_str()`
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and prevention of outputting unprintable/unwanted characters that may have been
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injected into the system somewhere prior.
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