Circling Skies
602f44b464
We're ready to tackle the new design on the index, so we're going live with the current changes so that we can use it every day and spot any mishaps we might find (while we write the new index subsystem).
127 lines
3.7 KiB
Text
127 lines
3.7 KiB
Text
(*) Introduction
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LOOP is an NNTP server written in Common Lisp.
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(*) Assumptions
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We assume
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- you have SBCL, Quicklisp and git installed
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- you know how to use a TCP server such as
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https://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp.html
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- you know how to manage a daemon with a package such as
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https://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html
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(*) How to install it
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LOOP is not in the Quicklisp repository, so we'll instruct you to
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install it as a local project. Go to
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~/quicklisp/local-projects/
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and say
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$ git clone https://git.atlantida.space/root/loop
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$ cd loop
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$ echo /path/to/loop/home > conf-home
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$ make install
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(*) Running LOOP
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First, try it out.
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$ cd /path/to/loop/home
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$ ./loop.exe
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200 Welcome! I am LOOP 9575ac2. Say ``help'' for a menu.
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quit
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205 Good-bye.
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It runs. Whenever you run loop, make sure you're in its home
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directory because it will look for the file accounts.lisp always
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relatively to the current working directory of the process. The same
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applies if you set up a cron job later on---make sure the job, too,
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sets LOOP's home directory as its current working directory.
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(*) Create your account
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LOOP requires authentication for most things, so you should create an
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account for you right away. Accounts are kept in accounts.lisp in
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your installation directory. Every time you create an account, you
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must specify who is inviting this new account into the loop---because
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we keep a tree of accounts. So say
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./loop --create-account you root
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to create YOU, your account. The root account has no special power;
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it exists solely because a tree of accounts needs a root. It's an
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account like any other, so you could use it yourself. In that case,
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change its password:
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$ ./loop --change-passwd root <secret>
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Okay, account root now has password ``<secret>''.
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(*) How to expose LOOP to the network
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Just run your TCP server of choice. For instance, if you're using
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djb's tcpserver and would like LOOP to listen on port 1024, tell your
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shell
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--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
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$ tcpserver -v -HR 0.0.0.0 1024 ./loop -s
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tcpserver: status: 0/40
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--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
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Using another terminal, telnet to your host on port 1024:
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--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
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$ telnet localhost 1024
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Trying 127.0.0.1...
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Connected to 127.0.0.1.
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Escape character is '^]'.
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200 Welcome! Say ``help'' for a menu.
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quit
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205 Good-bye.
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Connection closed by foreign host.
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--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
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Directories daemon/ and daemon-tls/ in LOOP's source code have sample
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scripts to use with djb's tcpserver and daemontools. If you have
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never done this, it will be better education if you learn to use
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daemontools and ucspi-tcp before going live with a LOOP community.
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It's easy and fun.
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(*) LOOP's REPL
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LOOP is hackable. If you're remotely connected, you can get total
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control over the loop process using the repl command.
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$ telnet example.com 119
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Trying example.com...
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Connected to example.com.
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Escape character is '^]'.
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200 Welcome! Say ``help'' for a menu.
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login you <secret>
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200 Welcome, YOU.
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repl
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LOOP> *client*
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#S(CLIENT :GROUP NIL :ARTICLE 1 :USERNAME YOU :AUTH? YES)
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LOOP> (list-groups)
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(local.control.news local.test)
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LOOP> quit
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200 Okay, no more REPL hacking.
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(*) Cron jobs
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If you'd like to remove inactive accounts, we wrote
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scripts/cron-remove-inactive-users.lisp. Here's our crontab:
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$ crontab -l
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@daily cd /path/to/loop/home && sbcl --script scripts/cron-remove-inactive-users.lisp
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(*) Systems with no installation issues
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We installed LOOP just fine on
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Void GNU/Linux release ``rolling'' with SBCL 2.6.6.void.1
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FreeBSD 14.1, 14.2 with SBCL 2.4.9.
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Debian GNU/Linux 8.11 codename jessie with SBCL 1.2.4.debian.
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