mirror of
https://github.com/element-hq/synapse
synced 2024-08-19 05:40:58 +00:00
279 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
279 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
Quick Start
|
|
===========
|
|
|
|
Matrix is an ambitious new ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and
|
|
VoIP[1]. The basics you need to know to get up and running are:
|
|
|
|
- Chatrooms are distributed and do not exist on any single server. Rooms
|
|
can be found using names like ``#matrix:matrix.org`` or
|
|
``#test:localhost:8080`` or they can be ephemeral.
|
|
|
|
- Matrix user IDs look like ``@matthew:matrix.org`` (although in the future
|
|
you will normally refer to yourself and others using a 3PID: email
|
|
address, phone number, etc rather than manipulating Matrix user IDs)
|
|
|
|
The overall architecture is::
|
|
|
|
client <----> homeserver <=================> homeserver <-----> client
|
|
e.g. matrix.org:8080 e.g. mydomain.net:8080
|
|
|
|
To get up and running:
|
|
|
|
- To simply play with an **existing** homeserver you can
|
|
just go straight to http://matrix.org/alpha.
|
|
|
|
- To run your own **private** homeserver on localhost:8080, install synapse
|
|
with ``python setup.py develop --user`` and then run one with
|
|
``python synapse/app/homeserver.py`` - you will find a webclient running
|
|
at http://localhost:8080 (use a recent Chrome, Safari or Firefox for now,
|
|
please...)
|
|
|
|
- To make the homeserver **public** and let it exchange messages with
|
|
other homeservers and participate in the overall Matrix federation, open
|
|
up port 8080 and run ``python synapse/app/homeserver.py --host
|
|
machine.my.domain.name``. Then come join ``#matrix:matrix.org`` and
|
|
say hi! :)
|
|
|
|
For more detailed setup instructions, please see further down this document.
|
|
|
|
[1] VoIP currently in development
|
|
|
|
|
|
About Matrix
|
|
============
|
|
|
|
Matrix specifies a set of pragmatic RESTful HTTP JSON APIs as an open standard,
|
|
which handle:
|
|
|
|
- Creating and managing fully distributed chat rooms with no
|
|
single points of control or failure
|
|
- Eventually-consistent cryptographically secure[2] synchronisation of room
|
|
state across a global open network of federated servers and services
|
|
- Sending and receiving extensible messages in a room with (optional)
|
|
end-to-end encryption[3]
|
|
- Inviting, joining, leaving, kicking, banning room members
|
|
- Managing user accounts (registration, login, logout)
|
|
- Using 3rd Party IDs (3PIDs) such as email addresses, phone numbers,
|
|
Facebook accounts to authenticate, identify and discover users on Matrix.
|
|
- Placing 1:1 VoIP and Video calls (in development)
|
|
|
|
These APIs are intended to be implemented on a wide range of servers, services
|
|
and clients, letting developers build messaging and VoIP functionality on top of
|
|
the entirely open Matrix ecosystem rather than using closed or proprietary
|
|
solutions. The hope is for Matrix to act as the building blocks for a new
|
|
generation of fully open and interoperable messaging and VoIP apps for the
|
|
internet.
|
|
|
|
Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix from the core
|
|
development team at matrix.org, written in Python/Twisted for clarity and
|
|
simplicity. It is intended to showcase the concept of Matrix and let folks see
|
|
the spec in the context of a codebase and let you run your own homeserver and
|
|
generally help bootstrap the ecosystem.
|
|
|
|
In Matrix, every user runs one or more Matrix clients, which connect through to
|
|
a Matrix homeserver which stores all their personal chat history and user
|
|
account information - much as a mail client connects through to an IMAP/SMTP
|
|
server. Just like email, you can either run your own Matrix homeserver and
|
|
control and own your own communications and history or use one hosted by someone
|
|
else (e.g. matrix.org) - there is no single point of control or mandatory
|
|
service provider in Matrix, unlike WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts, etc.
|
|
|
|
Synapse ships with two basic demo Matrix clients: webclient (a basic group chat
|
|
web client demo implemented in AngularJS) and cmdclient (a basic Python
|
|
commandline utility which lets you easily see what the JSON APIs are up to).
|
|
|
|
We'd like to invite you to take a look at the Matrix spec, try to run a
|
|
homeserver, and join the existing Matrix chatrooms already out there, experiment
|
|
with the APIs and the demo clients, and let us know your thoughts at
|
|
https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues or at matrix@matrix.org.
|
|
|
|
Thanks for trying Matrix!
|
|
|
|
[2] Cryptographic signing of messages isn't turned on yet
|
|
|
|
[3] End-to-end encryption is currently in development
|
|
|
|
|
|
Homeserver Installation
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
First, the dependencies need to be installed. Start by installing
|
|
'python2.7-dev' and the various tools of the compiler toolchain.
|
|
N.B. synapse requires python 2.x where x >= 7
|
|
|
|
Installing prerequisites on ubuntu::
|
|
|
|
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.7-dev libffi-dev
|
|
|
|
Installing prerequisites on Mac OS X::
|
|
|
|
$ xcode-select --install
|
|
|
|
The homeserver has a number of external dependencies, that are easiest
|
|
to install by making setup.py do so, in --user mode::
|
|
|
|
$ python setup.py develop --user
|
|
|
|
You'll need a version of setuptools new enough to know about git, so you
|
|
may need to also run:
|
|
|
|
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
|
|
$ sudo pip install --upgrade setuptools
|
|
|
|
If you don't have access to github, then you may need to install ``syutil``
|
|
manually by checking it out and running ``python setup.py develop --user`` on it
|
|
too.
|
|
|
|
If you get errors about ``sodium.h`` being missing, you may also need to
|
|
manually install a newer PyNaCl via pip as setuptools installs an old one. Or
|
|
you can check PyNaCl out of git directly (https://github.com/pyca/pynacl) and
|
|
installing it. Installing PyNaCl using pip may also work (remember to remove any
|
|
other versions installed by setuputils in, for example, ~/.local/lib).
|
|
|
|
This will run a process of downloading and installing into your
|
|
user's .local/lib directory all of the required dependencies that are
|
|
missing.
|
|
|
|
Once this is done, you may wish to run the homeserver's unit tests, to
|
|
check that everything is installed as it should be::
|
|
|
|
$ python setup.py test
|
|
|
|
This should end with a 'PASSED' result::
|
|
|
|
Ran 143 tests in 0.601s
|
|
|
|
PASSED (successes=143)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upgrading an existing homeserver
|
|
================================
|
|
|
|
Before upgrading an existing homeserver to a new version, please refer to
|
|
UPGRADE.rst for any additional instructions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Setting up Federation
|
|
=====================
|
|
|
|
In order for other homeservers to send messages to your server, it will need to
|
|
be publicly visible on the internet, and they will need to know its host name.
|
|
You have two choices here, which will influence the form of your Matrix user
|
|
IDs:
|
|
|
|
1) Use the machine's own hostname as available on public DNS in the form of its
|
|
A or AAAA records. This is easier to set up initially, perhaps for testing,
|
|
but lacks the flexibility of SRV.
|
|
|
|
2) Set up a SRV record for your domain name. This requires you create a SRV
|
|
record in DNS, but gives the flexibility to run the server on your own
|
|
choice of TCP port, on a machine that might not be the same name as the
|
|
domain name.
|
|
|
|
For the first form, simply pass the required hostname (of the machine) as the
|
|
--host parameter::
|
|
|
|
$ python synapse/app/homeserver.py --host machine.my.domain.name
|
|
|
|
For the second form, first create your SRV record and publish it in DNS. This
|
|
needs to be named _matrix._tcp.YOURDOMAIN, and point at at least one hostname
|
|
and port where the server is running. (At the current time synapse does not
|
|
support clustering multiple servers into a single logical homeserver). The DNS
|
|
record would then look something like::
|
|
|
|
_matrix._tcp IN SRV 10 0 8448 machine.my.domain.name.
|
|
|
|
At this point, you should then run the homeserver with the hostname of this
|
|
SRV record, as that is the name other machines will expect it to have::
|
|
|
|
$ python synapse/app/homeserver.py --host my.domain.name --port 8448
|
|
|
|
You may additionally want to pass one or more "-v" options, in order to
|
|
increase the verbosity of logging output; at least for initial testing.
|
|
|
|
For the initial alpha release, the homeserver is not speaking TLS for
|
|
either client-server or server-server traffic for ease of debugging. We have
|
|
also not spent any time yet getting the homeserver to run behind loadbalancers.
|
|
|
|
Running a Demo Federation of Homeservers
|
|
----------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
If you want to get up and running quickly with a trio of homeservers in a
|
|
private federation (``localhost:8080``, ``localhost:8081`` and
|
|
``localhost:8082``) which you can then access through the webclient running at
|
|
http://localhost:8080. Simply run::
|
|
|
|
$ demo/start.sh
|
|
|
|
Running The Demo Web Client
|
|
===========================
|
|
|
|
The homeserver runs a web client by default at http://localhost:8080.
|
|
|
|
If this is the first time you have used the client from that browser (it uses
|
|
HTML5 local storage to remember its config), you will need to log in to your
|
|
account. If you don't yet have an account, because you've just started the
|
|
homeserver for the first time, then you'll need to register one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Registering A New Account
|
|
-------------------------
|
|
|
|
Your new user name will be formed partly from the hostname your server is
|
|
running as, and partly from a localpart you specify when you create the
|
|
account. Your name will take the form of::
|
|
|
|
@localpart:my.domain.here
|
|
(pronounced "at localpart on my dot domain dot here")
|
|
|
|
Specify your desired localpart in the topmost box of the "Register for an
|
|
account" form, and click the "Register" button. Hostnames can contain ports if
|
|
required due to lack of SRV records (e.g. @matthew:localhost:8080 on an internal
|
|
synapse sandbox running on localhost)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Logging In To An Existing Account
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Just enter the ``@localpart:my.domain.here`` Matrix user ID and password into
|
|
the form and click the Login button.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Identity Servers
|
|
================
|
|
|
|
The job of authenticating 3PIDs and tracking which 3PIDs are associated with a
|
|
given Matrix user is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam
|
|
if it is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data. Meanwhile
|
|
the job of publishing the end-to-end encryption public keys for Matrix users is
|
|
also very security-sensitive for similar reasons.
|
|
|
|
Therefore the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is
|
|
farmed out to a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix
|
|
Identity Servers' such as ``sydent``, whose role is purely to authenticate and
|
|
track 3PID logins and publish end-user public keys.
|
|
|
|
It's currently early days for identity servers as Matrix is not yet using 3PIDs
|
|
as the primary means of identity and E2E encryption is not complete. As such,
|
|
we're not yet running an identity server in public.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Where's the spec?!
|
|
==================
|
|
|
|
For now, please go spelunking in the ``docs/`` directory to find out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Building Internal API Documentation
|
|
===================================
|
|
|
|
Before building internal API documentation install spinx and
|
|
sphinxcontrib-napoleon::
|
|
|
|
$ pip install sphinx
|
|
$ pip install sphinxcontrib-napoleon
|
|
|
|
Building internal API documentation::
|
|
|
|
$ python setup.py build_sphinx
|
|
|