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<title>LandChad.net: Web Guides for Internet Landchads!</title>
<description>Tutorials on minimalist webpage creation and server maintenance.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
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<item>
<title>Server-Side Scripting with CGI</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/cgi.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/cgi.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 Jul 2021 14:29:44 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Server-Side Scripting with CGI</h1></header>
    
    <main>
        <p>
        The basic website tutorial here describes how to set up a static
        website &mdash; one that just serves HTML files saved on your server,
        and until you change something manually, the same content will be served
        each time a given page is requested. This is perfectly enough for most
        personal website needs. This is how blogs should be implemented, instead
        of relying on bloatware like WordPress!
        </p>
        <p>
        But sometimes you genuinely <i>do</i> need something more. You need your
        website to serve different contents depending on the time, on who the
        requester is, on the contents of a database, or maybe process user input
        from a form.
        </p>
        <h2>CGI</h2>
        <p>
        CGI, or the Common Gateway Interface, is a specification to allow you,
        the server owner, to program your web server using pretty much any
        programming language you might know. The specification is almost as old
        as the Internet itself and for a long time CGI scripting was the primary
        method of creating dynamic websites.
        </p>
        <p>
        CGI is a very simple specification indeed. You write a script in your
        favorite language, the script receives input about the request in
        environment variables, and whatever you print to the standard output
        will be the response. Most likely, though, you will want to use a
        library for your language of choice that makes a lot of this
        request/response handling simpler (e.g. parsing query parameters for
        you, setting appropriate headers, etc.).
        </p>
        <h3>Limitations of CGI</h3>
        <p>
        While in theory you could implement any sort of functionality with CGI
        scripts, it's going to get difficult managing a lot of separate scripts
        if they're supposed to be working in tandem to implement a dynamic
        website. If you want to build a full out web application, you'd probably
        be better off learning a web framework than gluing together Perl
        scripts.
        </p>
        <p>
        That said, just as most of the web could be replaced with static
        websites, much of the remaining non-static web could be replaced with a
        few simple scripts, rather than bloated Ruby on Rails or Django
        applications.
        </p>
        <h2>Let's write a CGI script!</h2>
        <p>
        We'll implement a simple example CGI script. I'll use Ruby for this
        tutorial, but you'll be able to follow along even if you don't know
        Ruby, just treat it as pseudocode then find a CGI library for your
        language.
        </p>
        <h3>The working example</h3>
        <p>
        Our working example will be the Lazy Calculator. Yeah, you're probably
        tired of seeing calculator examples in every programming tutorial, but
        have you ever implemented one that takes the weekends off?
        </p>
        <p>
        Here's how it will work. When in a browser you submit a request to your
        website like
        </p>
        <pre><code>example.com/calculator.html?a=10&amp;b=32</code></pre>
        <p>
        you will receive a page with the result of the addition of 10 and 32:
        42.
        </p>
        <p>
        <i>Unless</i> you send your request on a weekend. Then the website will
        respond with
        </p>
        <pre><code>I don't get paid to work on weekends! Come back Monday.</code></pre>
        <p>
        This example will show a few things that CGI scripts can do that you
        wouldn't have been able to get using just file hosting in your
        web server:
        <ul>
          <li> getting inputs from the user; </li>
          <li>
            getting external information (here just the system time, but you
            could imagine instead connecting to a database);
          </li>
          <li> using the above to create dynamic output. </li>
        </ul>
        <h3>The code</h3>
        <p>
        Here's an implementation of the lazy calculator as a Ruby CGI script:
        </p>
        <pre><code>#!/bin/env ruby
require 'cgi'
require 'date'
cgi = CGI.new
today = Date::today
a = cgi["a"].to_i
b = cgi["b"].to_i
if today.saturday? || today.sunday?
  cgi.out do
    "I don't get paid to work on weekends! Come back Monday."
  end
else
  cgi.out do
    (a + b).to_s
  end
end</code></pre>
        <p>
        Let's go through what's happening here.
        </p>
        <h3>The shebang line</h3>
        <p>
        CGI works by pointing your web server to an executable program. A Ruby
        or Python script by itself is not immediately executable by a computer.
        But on Unix-like systems you can specify the program that will be able
        to execute your file in its first line if it starts with <code>#!</code>
        (known as the shebang; read more about it on
        <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix)">Wikipedia</a>).
        </p>
        <p>
        So if you're going to be using a scripting language, you'll probably
        need the appropriate shebang line at the top of your script. If you use
        a compiled language, you'll just point your web server to the compiled
        executable binary.
        </p>
        <h3>Query parameters</h3>
        <p>
        The next interesting lines of code are where we set the variables
        <code>a</code> and <code>b</code>. Here we are getting user inputs from
        the request.
        </p>
        <p>
        In the example request we mentioned above
        (<code>example.com/calculator.html?a=10&amp;b=32</code>), the part
        starting from the question mark, <code>?a=10&amp;b=32</code>, is the
        <i>query string</i>. This is how users can submit parameters with their
        web requests. Usually these parameters are set by e.g. a form on your
        website, but in our simple example we'll be just manually manipulating
        the URL.
        </p>
        <p>
        The query string contains key-value pairs. The Ruby CGI library makes
        them available in the <code>CGI</code> object it provides. We just need
        to index it with the desired key, and we'll get the corresponding value.
        </p>
        <h3>Wrapping it up</h3>
        <p>
        The remaining parts of the code should be pretty self-explanatory. We
        get today's date, check if it's a Saturday or a Sunday, and depending on
        that, we instruct the CGI library to output either the answer, or a
        "come back later" message. 
        </p>
        <p>
        The Ruby library by default returns an HTML response, so we really
        should have wrapped our outputs in some <code>html</code>,
        <code>body</code>, etc. tags. Alternatively, we could have specified
        that the response is just plain text with
        </p>
        <pre><code>cgi.out 'text/plain' do</code></pre>
        <p>
        In general, your CGI library will probably have ways of specifying all
        sorts of HTTP response headers, like status code, content type, etc.
        </p>
        <h2>Making it work</h2>
        <p>
        We have a CGI script, now let's point our web server to it.
        </p>
        <h3>Installing FastCGI</h3>
        <p>
        If you're using Nginx, install <code>fcgiwrap</code>:
        </p>
        <pre><code>apt install fcgiwrap</code></pre>
        <p>
        This installs the necessary packages for Nginx to use FastCGI &mdash; a
        layer between your web server and CGI script that allows for faster
        handling of scripts than if the web server had to handle it all by
        itself.
        </p>
        <p>
        Other web servers will probably have a similarly simple way of enabling
        FastCGI, or you can look into other methods for launching CGI scripts.
        </p>
        <h3>Nginx configuration</h3>
        <p>
        In the configuration file for your website, add something like the
        following:
        </p>
<pre><code>location /calculator.html {
  include fastcgi_params;
  fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/local/bin/lazy-calculator.rb;
  fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
  fastcgi_pass unix:/run/fcgiwrap.socket;	
}</code></pre>
        <p>
        <code>fastcgi_param</code> directives specify various parameters for
        FastCGI. <code>SCRIPT_FILENAME</code> should point to your executable.
        For <code>QUERY_STRING</code>, we just copy Nginx's
        <code>$query_string</code> variable. You might want to pass other
        information to your CGI script as well, see for example
        <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/nginx/FastCGI">the Debian wiki</a> for
        a more detailed example, including pointing to an entire directory of
        CGI scripts, rather than adding each one by hand to your web server
        config.
        </p>
        <h2>Contribution</h2>
        <ul>
            <li>Martin Chrzanowski -- <a href="https://m-chrzan.xyz">website</a>, <a href="https://m-chrzan.xyz/donate.html">donate</a></li>
        </ul>
    </main>
	
]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>XMPP Server (Prosody)</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/xmpp.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/xmpp.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Jul 2021 22:58:21 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>XMPP Server (Prosody)</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/xmpp.svg" alt="XMPP Logo and Icon">
        <p>XMPP is a fantastically simple protocol that's usually used as a messenger.
        It's highly extensible,
        better than IRC,
        lighter and more decentralized and Matrix
        and Telegram and normie social media can't hold a candle to it.
        </p>
        <p>
        XMPP is so decentralized and extensible that there are many <em>different</em> XMPP servers.
        Here, let's set up an <a href="https://prosody.im/">Prosody</a> XMPP server.
        </p>
        <h2>Installation</h2>
        <p>
        Prosody is in the Debian repositories, so we can easily install it on our server with the following command:
        </p>
        <pre><code>apt install prosody</code></pre>
<h2>Configuration</h2>
<p>
The Prosody configuration file is in <code>/etc/prosody/prosody.cfg.lua</code>.
To set it all up, we will be changing several things.
</p>
<h3>Setting Admins</h3>
<p>
Let's go ahead and set who our admin(s) will be.
Find the line that says <code>admins = { }</code> and to this we can specify one or more server admins.
</p>
<pre><code># To add one admin:
admins = { "chad@example.org" }
# We can add more than one by separating them by commas. (This file is written in Lua.)
admins = { "chad@example.org", "chadmin@example.org" }</code></pre>
<p>
Note that we have not created these accounts yet, we will do this <a href=#user>below</a>.
</p>
<h3>Set the Server URL</h3>
<p>
Find the line <code>VirtualHost "localhost"</code> and replace <code>localhost</code> with your domain.
In our case, we will have <code>VirtualHost "example.org"</code>
</p>
<h3>Multi-User Chats</h3>
<p>
Most people will probably want the ability to have chats with more than two users.
This is easily enough to enable.
In the config file, add the following:
</p>
<pre><code>Component "<strong>chat.example.org</strong>" "muc"
    modules_enabled = { "muc_mam" }
    restrict_room_creation = "admin"</code></pre>
<p>
On the first line, you must have a separate subdomain for your multi-user chats.
I use the <code>chat.</code> subdomain, but some use <code>muc.</code>.
Anything if possible.
</p>
<p>
The second line is important because it prevents non-admins from creating and squatting rooms on your server.
The only situation where you might not want that is if you indend to open a general public chat system for people you don't know.
</p>
<aside>
<p>
Read more about the <code>muc</code> plugin on the Prosody documentation page <a href="https://prosody.im/doc/modules/mod_muc">here</a>.
</p>
</aside>
<h3>End-to-end Encryption</h3>
<p>
Importantly, we'll want end-to-end encryption enabled for user privacy.
</p>
<p>
Find the array beginning with <code>modules_enabled</code>.
This includes a list of modules to be used.
Add
<code>"omemo_all_access";</code> to that list.
Additionally, be sure to change the module <code>pep</code> to <code>pep_simple</code> or this will cause a conflict.</p>
<p>
This module is not installed by default,
but you can easily download it by running the following command on the command prompt
to download and install the module to the correct directory.
</p>
<pre class=wide><code>curl -sL https://hg.prosody.im/prosody-modules/raw-file/785389a2d2b3/mod_omemo_all_access/mod_omemo_all_access.lua &gt; /usr/lib/prosody/modules/mod_omemo_all_access.lua</code></pre>
<h3>Other things to check</h3>
<p>Check the config file for other settings you might want to change.
For example, if you want to run a general public XMPP server, you can allow anyone to create an account by changing <code>allow_registration</code> to <code>true</code>.
</p>
<h2>Certificates</h2>
<p>
Obviously, we want to have client-to-server and server-to-server encryption.
Nowadays, use can use Certbot to generate certificates and use a convenient command below <code>prosodyctl</code> to import them.
</p>
<p>
<strong>If you have multi-user chat enabled, be sure to get a certificate for that subdomain as well.</strong>
Include the <code>--nginx</code> option assuming you have an Nginx server running.
</p>
<pre><code>certbot -d <strong>chat.example.org</strong> --nginx</code></pre>
<p>
Once you have the certificates for encryption, run the following to import them into Prosody.
</p>
<pre><code>prosodyctl --root cert import /etc/letsencrypt/live/</code></pre>
<p>
Note that you might get an error that a certificate has not been found if your <code>muc</code> subdomain and your main domain share a certificate.
It should still work, this is just notifying you that no specific
</p>
<p>
For user privacy, we will definitely want to install and enable encryption with OMEMO.
</p>
<h2 id=user>Creating users/admins manually</h2>
<p>
Let's manually create the admin user we prepared for above.
Note that you can indeed do this in your XMPP client if you have not disabled registration, but this is how it is done on the command line:
</p>
<pre><code>prosodyctl adduser <strong>chad@example.org</strong></code></pre>
<p>This will prompt you to create a password as well.</p>
<h2>Make changes active</h2>
<p>
With any system service, use <code>systemctl reload</code> or <code>systemctl restart</code> to make the new settings active:
</p>
<pre><code>systemctl restart prosody</code></pre>
<h2>Using your Server!</h2>
<p>
Once your server is set up, you just need an XMPP client to use your new and secure chat system.
</p>
<ul>
    <li>GNU/Linux: <a href="https://dino.im/">Dino</a> or <a href="https://gajim.org/">Gajim</a></li>
    <li>Windows: <a href="https://gajim.org/">Gajim</a> also runs on Windows.</li>
    <li>Android: <a href="https://conversations.im/">Conversations.im</a></li>
    <li>Mac/iOS: <a href="https://monal.im/">Monal IM</a> or <a href="https://siskin.im/">Siskin</a> for iOS alone</li>
    <li>command-line (GNU/Linux, MacOS, Windows): <a href="https://profanity-im.github.io/">Profanity</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://xmpp.org/software/clients.html">See a more complete list kept by XMPP</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Install whichever of these clients you want on your computer or phone and you can log into your new XMPP server with the account you made.
Note that if you enabled public registration, anyone can create an account on your server through one of these clients.
</p>
<h3>Account addresses</h3>
<p>
XMPP account addressed look just like email addresses: <code><strong>username@example.org</strong></code>.
You can message any account on any XMPP server on the internet with that format.
</p>
<h3>Note on MUCs (multi-user chats)</h3>
<p>
Remember that MUCs are kept on a separate subdomain that we created and should've gotten a certificate for above, for example, <code><strong>muc.example.org</strong></code>.
Chatrooms are created and referred to in the following format: <code><strong>#chatroomname@muc.example.org</strong></code>.
</p>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Setting up RSS Bridge</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/rss-bridge.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/rss-bridge.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2021 18:11:15 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Setting up RSS Bridge</h1></header>

    <main>
        <p>RSS Bridge is a useful utility you can use to help you avoid the big tech sites, like Facebook and Twitter, which instead of the feed you usually would see, will be a based and minimalist RSS feed. </p>
        <p>You'll need a server or VPS. Nearly any Operating system is supported but for this tutorial I'm gonna presume you're using a Debian-based OS. You'll also need a domain name pointing to your server's IP address <a href="https://landchad.net/dns.html">which is explained in this tutorial.</a>
        </p>
<h2>Installation</h2>
<h3>Setting Up and Configuring</h3>
<p>First things first you'll need to make sure that you've hardened you SSH so that password authentication is disabled and you'll also want to setup Fail2Ban.
There's a great tutorial on how to do this <a href="https://landchad.net/sshkeys.html">which can be read here.</a>
</p>
<p>
Next we'll install the required packages:
</p>
<pre><code>apt install -y curl unzip nginx certbot php-fpm php-mysql php-cli php7.3-mbstring php7.3-curl php7.3-xml php7.3-sqlite3 php7.3-json</code></pre>
<p>We now have to create the website configuration file. Create/open the a file below:</p>
<pre><code>nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/rss-bridge</code></pre>
<p>And add the following content:</p>
<pre><code>server {
    root /var/www/rss-bridge;
    index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
    server_name rss-bridge.<strong>example.org</strong>;
    location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    location ~ \.php$ {
            include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock;
    }
    location ~ /\.ht {
            deny all;
    }
}
</code></pre>
<p>After you have saved the file, you need to create a symlink so the server actually will read the file.</p>
<pre><code>ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/rss-bridge /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/rss-bridge</code></pre>
<p>Then we have to create the folder where the service will reside in.</p>
<pre><code>mkdir -p /var/www/rss-bridge
cd /var/www/rss-bridge
</code></pre>
<p>Lets download the latest version of RSS-Bridge in the directory.</p>
<p>The newest version can be found <a href="https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge/releases">here</a>, at the time of writing that is "RSS-Bridge 2021-04-25."</p>
    <pre><code>wget https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge/archive/refs/tags/<strong>2021-04-25.zip</strong></code></pre>
<p>Unzip the file:</p>
<pre><code>unzip <strong>2021-04-25.zip</strong></code></pre>
<p>This will create a directory called rss-bridge-version-number, we now want to move all the file contents of the newly created directory to the one we are in</p>
<pre><code>mv <strong>rss-bridge-2021-04-25</strong>/* .
rm -rf <strong>rss-bridge-2021-04-25 2021-04-25.zip</strong>
</code></pre>
<p>Now all we need to do is grant read/write permissions and reload the web server.</p>
<pre><code>chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/rss-bridge
systemctl reload nginx
</code></pre>
<p>That's it, you should now have a working rss-bridge installed. But you should definately get an SSL certifcate installed <a href="https://landchad.net/certbot.html">which is done briefly here</a>.</p>
<ul>
    <li><a href="https://handskemager.xyz">handskemager.xyz</a></li>
    <li>Bitcoin: <code class=crypto>bc1qhfjgwjzksf2auqjefwpvq20wvyugq3lhqgkxvu</code></li>
    <li>Monero: <code class=crypto>88cPx6Gzv5RWRRJLstUt6hACF1BRKPp1RMka1ukyu2iuHT7iqzkNfMogYq3YdDAC8AAYRqmqQMkCgBXiwdD5Dvqw3LsPGLU</code></li>
</ul>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Rsync: Upload and Sync Files and Websites</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/rsync.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/rsync.html</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 03 Jul 2021 08:58:29 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
<header><h1>Rsync: Upload and Sync Files and Websites</h1></header>
<main>
    <p>rsync is a simple way to copy files and folders between your local computer and server.</p>
    <p>It not only makes file-transfer easy, but it allows you to build and maintain your website offline, then easily upload it to the proper directory on your server so you don't need to constantly be logged into your server to modify your site.</p>
<h2 id="installing-rsync">Installing rsync</h2>
<p>Run the following on your server <em>and</em> on your local machine.</p>
<pre><code>apt install rsync</code></pre>
<h2 id="uploading-files-with-rsync">Uploading files with rsync</h2>
<p>From your local machine you can upload files to your server like this:</p>
<pre><code>rsync -ruvzP <strong>/path/to/file</strong> <strong>root@example.org:/path/on/the/server</strong></code></pre>
<p>You will be prompted for the root password and then uploading will commence.</p>
<p>If you omit <strong>root@</strong>, rsync will not attempt to log in as root, but whatever your local username is.</p>
<h3>Options to rsync</h3>
<p>In this command, we give several options to rsync:</p>
<ul>
    <li><code>-r</code> &ndash; run recurssively (include directories)</li>
    <li><code>-u</code> &ndash; update files (do not reupload files that are not changed since last upload)</li>
    <li><code>-v</code> &ndash; visual, show files uploaded</li>
    <li><code>-z</code> &ndash; compress files for upload</li>
    <li><code>-P</code> &ndash; if uploading a large file and upload breaks, pick up where we left off rather than reuploading the entire file</li>
</ul>
<p>Avoid using the commonly used <code>-a</code> option when uploading. It changes can transfer your local machine's user and group permissions to your server, which might cause breakage.</p>
<h3>Scriptability</h3>
<p>It's a good idea to build your website offline, then make an rsync script or bash alias like the one above to upload the edited files when you have made updates.</p>
<h3>Password-less authentication</h3>
<p>To avoid having to manually input your password each upload, you can set up <a href="sshkeys.html">SSH keys</a> to securely idenitify yourself and computer as a trusted.</p>
<h3>Picky trailing slashes</h3>
<p>rsync is very particular about trailing slashes. This is useful, but can be confusing to some new users. Suppose we run the following wanting to mirror our offline copy of our website in the directory we use on our server (<code>/var/www/websitefiles/</code>):</p>
<pre><code>rsync -ruvzP ~/<strong>websitefiles/</strong> root@example.org:/var/www/<strong>websitefiles/</strong></code></pre>
<p>This will <em>not actually do quite what we want</em>. It will take our local <code>websitefiles</code> directory and put it <em>inside</em> <code>websitefiles</code> on the remote machine, ending up with: <code>/var/www/websitefiles/websitefiles</code>.</p>
<p>Instead, remove the trailing slash from the remote server location:</p>
<pre><code>rsync -ruvzP ~/<strong>websitefiles/</strong> root@example.org:/var/www/<strong>websitefiles</strong></code></pre>
<p><code>websitefiles/</code> has been replaced with <code>websitefiles</code>, and this will do what we want.</p>
<h2 id="downloading-file-with-rsync">Downloading files with rsync</h2>
<p>You may just as easily download files and directories from your server with rsync:</p>
<pre><code>rsync -urvzP <strong>root@example.org:/path/to/file</strong> <strong>/path/to/file</strong></code></pre>
<h2 id="contribution">Contribution</h2>
<ul><li>el3ctr0lyte: <a href="https://github.com/el3ctr0lyte">github</a>, XMR: <code class=crypto>86DBJdiG83ZDea6kJgsbVN5tMae5ScfuhJ3PihEMTHatCrGEw2gctyUB92V2fz4R4YhwRaQeAGL5M4gPRXvVvtkULJi4ayk</code></li><li>Substantial revisions by <a href="https://lukesmith.xyz">Luke</a></li></ul>
</main>
]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Setup a Pleroma Server</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/pleroma.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/pleroma.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:14:32 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Setup a Pleroma Server</h1></header>

    <main>
        <p>Hopefully by now you won't have to be sold on the invasive practices that social media companies conduct. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter aquire so much data on users that they often know more about you than you know about yourself.
The simple solution to this is to not use social media. However, that just isn't an option for most people. So the next best thing is to setup a self-hosted and federalised social media site so that you have full control over your data.
I've previously made<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7mVsLSsotU"> a video showing all the steps in depth if you want to check it out.</a> If you run into any issues I suggest you look at the video.
</p>
        <p>You'll need a server or VPS. Nearly any Operating system is supported but for this tutorial I'm gonna presume you're using a Debian-based OS. You'll also need a domain name pointing to your server's IP address <a href="https://landchad.net/dns.html">which is explained in this tutorial.</a>
        </p>
<h2>Installation</h2>
<h3>Setting Up and Configuring</h3>
<p>First things first you'll need to make sure that you've hardened you SSH so that password authentication is disabled and you'll also want to setup Fail2Ban.
There's a great tutorial on how to do this <a href="https://landchad.net/sshkeys.html">which can be read here.</a>
</p>
<p>
Next we'll install the required packages:
</p>
<pre><code>apt install -y curl unzip libncurses5 postgresql postgresql-contrib nginx certbot libmagic-dev</code></pre>
<p>
You can manually configure postgreSQL to suit your system better. <a href="https://docs-develop.pleroma.social/backend/configuration/postgresql/">Check out the documentation here</a> and then run the below command:
</p>
<pre><code>systemctl restart postgresql</code></pre>
<h3>Installing the Pleroma App</h3>
<h4>First as the root user</h4>
<p>
Pleroma is not in the Debian app repositories, so we will install it manually.
First create the Pleroma user by running the below command:
</p>
<pre><code>useradd -m -s /bin/bash -d /opt/pleroma pleroma</code></pre>
<p>
Then, still as root, we will create the required directories and give the Pleroma user ownership of them.
</p>
<pre><code>mkdir -p /var/lib/pleroma/uploads
chown -R pleroma /var/lib/pleroma
mkdir -p /var/lib/pleroma/static
chown -R pleroma /var/lib/pleroma
mkdir -p /etc/pleroma
chown -R pleroma /etc/pleroma</code></pre>
<h4>Now, as the new Pleroma user</h4>
<p>
Now run <code>su -l pleroma</code> to login as the Pleroma user.
Now use the <code>curl</code> command below to download the Pleroma software and unzip it.
</p>
<pre><code>curl 'https://git.pleroma.social/api/v4/projects/2/jobs/artifacts/stable/download?job=<strong>amd64</strong>' -o /tmp/pleroma.zip
unzip /tmp/pleroma.zip -d /tmp/</code></pre>
<aside><p>Note that we are downloading the <strong>amd64</strong> version here. If you know you have a different CPU architecture, replace that with whatever your architecture is.</p></aside>
<pre><code>mv /tmp/release/* /opt/pleroma
rmdir /tmp/release
rm /tmp/pleroma.zip
./bin/pleroma_ctl instance gen --output /etc/pleroma/config.exs --output-psql /tmp/setup_db.psql</code></pre>
<p>We need to briefly return to the root user so we can run the following command (via the postgres user) to set up the database.
Type <code>ctrl-d</code> or run <code>exit</code> to return to the root user, then run:
</p>
<pre><code>su postgres -s $SHELL -lc "psql -f /tmp/setup_db.psql"</code></pre>
<p>Then return to the pleroma user with <code>su -l pleroma</code> and we will test to see that Pleroma can run:</p>
<pre><code>./bin/pleroma_ctl migrate
./bin/pleroma daemon</code></pre>
<p>
That will initialize Pleroma. It might take as long as a minute to get started, so wait a bit, then run the following:
</p>
<pre><code>curl http://localhost:4000/api/v1/instance</code></pre>
<p>If everything is working, this command will give you a long line of messy output. If it is not, you will get a connection error message.
Once it is working successfully, stop the Pleroma daemon and we will interface Pleroma with the web server.</p>
<pre><code>./bin/pleroma stop</code></pre>
<h3>Setup and Configure Nginx</h3>
<p>
Return again to the root user. Let's copy Pleroma's Nginx configuration file from the template given in the installation and enable it:
</p>
<pre><code>cp /opt/pleroma/installation/pleroma.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-available/pleroma.conf
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pleroma.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/pleroma.conf</code></pre>
<p>Edit the <code>etc/nginx/sites-available/pleroma.conf</code> file and replace <strong>example.tld</strong> with your domain name.</p>
<p>
We now have to get a SSL certificate to enable encryption, since we have a model configuration that already includes SSL information,
just check the brief <a href="standalone.html">the standalone certificate page</a> to get the needed certificate.
Once you've got your cert setup, copy over the Nginx configuration with the below command:
</p>
<p>
Once everything, including your Cerbot certificate is ready, simply reload Nginx with this command:
</p>
<pre><code>systemctl reload nginx</code></pre>
<h3>Setting up the service</h3>
<p>
Pleroma itself runs on a SystemD service similar to other things running on your server like Nginx. To start the service up run the below commands:
</p>
<pre><code>cp /opt/pleroma/installation/pleroma.service /etc/systemd/system/pleroma.service
systemctl start pleroma
systemctl enable pleroma</code></pre>
<p>
If everything worked then when you go to your domain in the web browser you should see a bare-bones Pleroma instance.
</p>
<h3>Creating an Admin User</h3>
<p>You'll be able to create new accounts on the Pleroma instance in the login section on the website but the easiest way to setup an admin account is with the CLI. Simply run the below command replaced with your username:
</p>
<pre><code>su -l pleroma
./bin/pleroma_ctl user new <strong>username</strong> <strong>username</strong>@<strong>example.org</strong> --admin</code></pre>
<p>
If you run into any issues then <a href="https://docs-develop.pleroma.social/backend/installation/otp_en/">feel free to checkout the documentation</a> or send me an email or message. My details are below.
</p>
<ul>
    <li><a href="https://biasedriot.co">biasedriot.co</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCehh50T6qtDpt_kEUF33GJw">youtube</a></li>
    <li>Bitcoin: <code class=crypto>1Dmn9jEtWAhdLk1HHWkUVNeDdAaBCwNajm</code></li>
    <li>Monero: <code>84Y4FZiTbLeR5qc1fBrBhB1yq5agKtEdoixq2w1ysXJv486MiBCz3czGT15bqeXDPpdLoNyF93inxY3BCk6g8mrDMNKoArS</code></li>
</ul>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Certbot on Standalone Domains and Subdomains</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/standalone.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/standalone.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:14:29 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Certbot on Standalone Domains and Subdomains</h1></header>

    <main>
        <p>The command <code>certbot --nginx</code> will take an unencrypted website on an Nginx configuration file, get a certificate for it and change the configuration to use that certificate and thus HTTPS.</p>
        <p>Sometimes, however, you are given an Nginx configuration template that already has encryption/HTTPS, so running the automated <code>certbot --nginx</code> is not possible, as it will simply give an error saying that the certicate that Nginx is looking for doesn't already exist and thus the Nginx config is broken.</p>
        <p>So suppose you want to get a certificate for <strong>pleroma.example.org</strong> because you are installing Pleroma and the configuration file presupposes a certificate.
        In this case you would want to run this:</p>
        <pre><code>systemctl stop nginx
certbot certonly --standalone -d <strong>pleroma.example.org</strong>
systemctl start nginx</code></pre>
        <p>What we do here is temporarily turn of Nginx, then run a <code>certonly</code> subcommand that generates a certificate for the domain without changing or caring about the Nginx configuration. Then we reactivate Nginx, thus turning back on our webserver.</p>
        <p>The reason we deactivate Nginx is that it uses the ports that Certbot will want to bind to, and thus we must temporarily turn Nginx off to let Certbot use those ports. (What it actually does is spin up a dummy webserver that doesn't need to think about the Nginx configuration.)</p>
        <p>This is just a little note of something that might confuse people, but the three commands above should suffice. If your site is still managed by Nginx, it should still be able to renew with simple <code>certbot renew --nginx</code> without a problem.</p>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Using UFW as a Firewall</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/ufw.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/ufw.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:58:11 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Using UFW as a Firewall</h1></header>

    <main>
		<p>
			<strong>Uncomplicated Firewall</strong> (UFW) is a front-facing program for the more involved <code>iptables</code> firewall program installed in most GNU/Linux distributions.
			We can use <code>ufw</code> to restrict machines on the internet to only access the services (SSH, websites etc) you want them to, but it can also be used to prevent programs on the computer itself from accesing parts of the internet it shouldn't.
		</p>
		<h2 id="how-to-get-it">How to Get It</h2>
		<p>Log into your server by pulling up a terminal and typing:</p>
		<pre><code>ssh root@<strong>example.org</strong></code></pre>
		<p>
			This command will attempt to log into your server and run a remote shell.
			If you leave the settings default, it should prompt you for your password, and you can just copy or type in the password from Vultr's site.
		</p>
		<p>
        Some VPS providers automatically install <code>ufw</code>, but if you do not have it installed already, install it in the typical way:
		</p>
		<pre><code>apt install ufw</code></pre>
		<h2 id="first-time-setup">First-Time Setup</h2>
		<p>You can check the status of <code>ufw</code> right now by running:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw status</code></pre>
		<p>Without any changes, it should report back <code>Status: inactive</code>. Let's set it up so that only connections to SSH (standardized at port 22) are allowed in, and then enable the firewall:</p>
		<aside>
			<strong>Careful!</strong> Enabling <code>ufw</code> without allowing SSH will block you from remoting to your server.
			Double-check that you have allowed SSH, and if you have changed the default SSH port, put in <em>that</em> number instead.
		</aside>
		<pre><code>ufw default deny incoming # block all incoming connections by default
ufw allow in ssh # or: ufw allow in 22
ufw enable</code></pre>
		<aside>
			<code>ufw</code> has an internal list of protocols applications, and the ports used by them.
			In this case, it knwos SSH is on port 22.
			We'll go more in detail how to view all protocols <code>ufw</code> knows about.
			By default, when you allow an incoming port, it allows that port both on IPv4 and IPv6.
		</aside>
		<p>
			With the firewall enabled and allowing only SSH in, all other ports are prortected from incoming requests.
			To view all your rules, run:
		</p>
		<pre><code>ufw status verbose</code></pre>
		<p>A firewall that allows to connect to SSH and their website may look like:</p>
		<pre><code>Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), deny (routed)
New profiles: skip
To                           Action      From
--                           ------      ----
22 (SSH)                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
80,443/tcp (WWW Full)        ALLOW IN    Anywhere
22 (SSH (v6))                ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)
80,443/tcp (WWW Full (v6))   ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)</code></pre>
		<p>If you want to delete e.g. the 'WWW Full' rule, run:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw delete allow in 'WWW Full'
ufw reload</pre></code>
		<h2 id="enabling-common-services">Enabling Common Services</h2>
		<p>
			You have blocked all incoming ports but SSH, which means no outsiders would be able to access other services, like an email server or your website.
			You should look at the ports your services are open on and enable them individually.
			Here is a list of a few common services:
		</p>
        <h3>Opening Port Numbers</h3>
        <p>Suppose you install <a href="gemini.html">a Gemini server</a>, which must broadcast on port 1965. By default <code>ufw</code> blocks all incoming connections on all ports, so whenever you install a new service like this you will have to tell <code>ufw</code> to enable the desired port:</p>
        <pre><code>ufw allow 1985</code></pre>
		<h3>Websites: HTTP and HTTPS</h3>
        <p>HTTP uses port 80 and HTTPS uses port 443. We can enable them like this:</p>
        <pre><code>ufw allow 80
ufw allow 443</code></pre>
        <p>But <code>ufw</code> additionally knows the typical ports of common serives, so you can also run this:</p>
        <pre><code>ufw allow http
ufw allow https</code></pre>
        <p>And that will do the same thing. There are also other abbreviations for common port lists:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw allow in 'WWW Full'</code></pre>
        <p>To see these other "apps" that <code>ufw</code> knows by default, run <code>ufw app list</code></p>
		<h3>Email: IMAP, POP3, and SMTP</h3>
		<pre><code>ufw allow in IMAPS
ufw allow in POP3
ufw allow in SMTP
ufw allow in 'Postfix SMTPS'
ufw allow in 'Mail Submission'</pre></code>
		<h2 id="fine-tuning-rules">Fine-Tuning Rules</h2>
		<p>Instead of denying all ports by default, you may want to deny (ignores incoming requests) or reject (explicitly tells requests they're not allowed):</p>
		<pre><code>ufw default allow in
ufw deny in <strong>PORT</strong>
ufw reject in <strong>PORT</strong>
ufw reload</code></pre>
		<p>You can add rules to comments to remember what they are there for:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw allow in <strong>PORT</strong> comment 'Secret SSH'
ufw reload
ufw status verbose</code></pre>
		<p>Output:</p>
		<pre><code>To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
<strong>PORT</strong>                       ALLOW IN    Anywhere                   # Secret SSH
<strong>PORT</strong> (v6)                  ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)              # Secret SSH</pre></code>
		<p>To deny outgoing ports:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw deny out <strong>PORT</strong></code></pre>
		<p>Ratelimiting is useful to protect against brute-force login attacks, like in SSH. Only IPv4 is supported for now. Enable it by running:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw limit <strong>PORT</strong>/tcp</code></pre>
		<p>To blocklist IP addresses:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw deny from <strong>IP_ADDRESS</strong></code></pre>
		<p>To read more what you can do with <code>ufw</code>, run:</p>
		<pre><code>man ufw</code></pre>
		<h2 id="recovering-from-losing-ssh">Recovering SSH</h2>
		<p>
			If you have accidentally firewalled yourself from logging on your computer, you can recover access by using your VPS's virtual console.
            On Vultr, this is on your VPS's menu. To the right of the server name, It is the leftmost icon that looks like a monitor.
		</p>
		<a href="pix/ssh-01.png"><img src="pix/ssh-01.png" alt="View Console"></a>
		<p>Log in through there, and disable ufw by typing:</p>
		<pre><code>ufw disable</code></pre>
		<h2 id="further-reading">Further Reading</h2>
		<ul>
			<li><a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UncomplicatedFirewall">Ubuntu Wiki: UncomplicatedFirewall</a></li>
			<li><a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gufw">Gufw (Graphical UFW)</a></li>
			<li><code>man ufw</code></li>
		</ul>
		<strong>Contributor</strong> - <a href="https://shunter.xyz">shunter.xyz</a>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Creating Your Own Chat Server With IRC</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/irc.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/irc.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:28:32 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Creating Your Own Chat Server With IRC</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/irc.svg">
        <p>
          Creating your own chat server for you and your friends is easy, and you don't have to rely on a complicated system to get started.
          IRC is an old but gold protocol, and has clients for basically every operating system made since the 80s, with many powerful modern ones on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
        </p>
        <p>
          Having a chat server for you and your friends makes it impossible for a group of arbitrarily appointed moderators to deplatform you for wrong-think, and gives you greater freedom of communication.
        </p>
        <h2 id="installing">Installing an IRCd</h2>
        <p>
          An IRCd is short for "IRC daemon", which just means an IRC server.
          The most easy IRCd to setup is <a href="https://ergo.chat/">Ergo</a>.
        </p>
        <p>
          The first thing you need to do is create a new user for the server to be run by.
          This is good practice for installing software/servers manually, as it give you more fine-grained control over which permissions the application has.
        </p>
<pre><code>useradd -m ergo -s /bin/bash</code></pre>
        <p>
          Next, we want to switch to our newly created <code>ergo</code> user and create the server directory.
        </p>
<pre><code>sudo -i -u ergo
mkdir server</code></pre>
        <p>
          You can find the latest release of Ergo on its GitHub <a href="https://github.com/ergochat/ergo/releases/latest">latest release</a> page.<br>
          There are several platforms available, but you want to choose Linux, most likely <code>linux-x86_64</code>.<br>
          Once you have selected the correct package, copy its URL and replace <code><i>&lt;release url&gt;</i></code> with the package URL (still as the <code>ergo</code> user):
        </p>
<pre><code>wget https://github.com/ergochat/ergo/releases/download/v2.7.0/ergo-2.7.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xf ergo-2.7.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
mv ergo-2.7.0-linux-x86_64/*
rm -r ergo-2.7.0-linux-x86_64*</code></pre>
        <p>Executing <code>ls -l</code> should now yield something like this:</p>
<pre><code>-rw-r--r-- 1 ergo ergo  118825 Jun  8 00:51 CHANGELOG.md
-rw-r--r-- 1 ergo ergo    1983 May 31 01:48 README
-rw-r--r-- 1 ergo ergo   41440 Jun  8 00:42 default.yaml
drwxr-xr-x 2 ergo ergo    4096 Jul  1 09:01 docs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ergo ergo 9654272 Jun  8 00:53 ergo
-rw-r--r-- 1 ergo ergo    1753 May 31 01:48 ergo.motd
drwxr-xr-x 2 ergo ergo   12288 Jul  1 09:01 languages
-rw-r--r-- 1 ergo ergo   39722 Jun  8 00:42 traditional.yaml</code></pre>
        <p>If you see something similar to the above, that means Ergo is installed, although not quite ready to run yet.</p>
        <h2 id="configuring">Configuring Ergo</h2>
        <p>
          Now that Ergo is installed, you want to configure it to fit the needs of your group.<br>
          The configuration in this section is tailored towards a small group of people, and less for a possibly large network,
          but it should work for any size of group.
        </p>
        <p>
          First thing, make sure you're still using the <code>ergo</code> user, and are in the <code>~/server</code> directory.<br>
          If you aren't, you can run the following to get back there:
        </p>
<pre><code>sudo -i -u ergo
cd ~/server</code></pre>
        <p>
          Next, generate certificate files for TLS:
        </p>
        <pre><code>./ergo mkcerts</code></pre>
        <p>
          Ergo comes with a default configuration file with detailed documentation that can be used to guide you through the configuration process.
          This guide will help you setup the server for a typical use-case, but if you see any settings that you would like to change along the way,
          go ahead and change them, as long as you know what you're doing.
        </p>
        <p>To start configuring, we need to copy some files:</p>
<pre><code>cp default.yaml ircd.yaml
cp ergo.motd ircd.motd</code></pre>
        <p>
          The next steps involve editing the newly copied <code>ircd.yaml</code> file. If you do not know how to edit text files from the comment line,
          you can use <code>nano</code>, which is very simple, using arrow keys to navigate, <code>CTRL+O</code> to save, and <code>CTRL+X</code> to exit.<br>
          Another option is <code>vim</code>, which is a much more powerful text editor, but has a learning curve. It is only recommended for this guide if you already know it.<br>
          Lastly, you can copy the <code>ircd.yaml</code> file to a text editor on your computer and edit it with a GUI text editor of your choice.
          If that is what you choose to do, you may want to just download the file from <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ergochat/ergo/master/default.yaml">Ergo's GitHub</a>,
          edit it on your computer, clear the <code>ircd.yaml</code> file on the server, and then paste the contents from your computer into the blank file.<br>
          No matter how you do it, the next steps assume you can edit the configuration file.
        </p>
        <p>
          <b>Note</b>:<br>
          The options highlighted in this section are not a complete overview of all options.
          Instead, the options shown are the ones which are most relevant to a small network.<br>
          You should read over the configuration file yourself if you are curious about everything you can change.
        </p>
        <h3 id="configuring-names">Network and server names</h3>
        <p>
          One of the first properties in the config file is network name.
          You can change this to whatever you like, as it will show up as the name when you connect to the server.
        </p>
<pre><code># network configuration
network:
    # name of the network
    name: "Land-Chat"</code></pre>
        <p>Change the server name to your server's domain name.</p>
<pre><code># server configuration
server:
    # server name
    name: "example.org"</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-password">Network password</h3>
        <p>
          The next step is optional, depending on if you want your network password protected or not.
          The benefit of password protection is fairly obvious; nobody can connect to your network unless you gave them the password.
          If you're wanting to run a public network which anyone can join and create a channel, you want to skip this, but for personal setups,
          it is highly recommended.
        </p>
        <p>Generate a password to use by executing the following:</p>
        <pre><code>./ergo genpasswd</code></pre>
        <p>
          It will ask you to enter a password and confirm it, then you will be given a hashed password.<br>
          Copy this password, and paste it into the following field (also removing the <code>#</code> before the <code>password:</code> line):
        </p>
<pre><code># password to login to the server, generated using `ergo genpasswd`:
password: "<i>&lt;your hashed password&gt;</i>"</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-motd">Message of the day (MotD)</h3>
        <p>Change the MotD (<b>M</b>essage <b>o</b>f <b>t</b>he <b>D</b>ay) file to the one you copied earlier:</p>
<pre><code># motd filename
# if you change the motd, you should move it to ircd.motd
motd: ircd.motd</code></pre>
        <p>Feel free to edit <code>ircd.motd</code> to your heart's content. Its contents will be sent to clients when they connect to the network.</p>
        <h3 id="configuring-ip-limits">IP limits</h3>
        <p>
          For security purposes, you might want to limit the amount of client connections per IP.
          For a private network, 4 is likely the maximum amount of connections you will have per IP, so that is a safe value.<br>
          If your network is password protected, this is less of an issue, since the only people connecting will be people who have the password.
          The following is the default, but you can change it to be whichever value you like:
        </p>
<pre><code># IP-based DoS protection
ip-limits:
    # whether to limit the total number of concurrent connections per IP/CIDR
    count: true
    # maximum concurrent connections per IP/CIDR
    max-concurrent-connections: 16</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-ip-cloaking">IP cloaking</h3>
        <p>
          Traditionally, IRC networks expose users' IP addresses to everyone. This is not a good practice for privacy, however.
          With Ergo, IP cloaking is enable by default. You can enable or disable it if you like, and change how it looks to users.<br>
          In this case, <code>netname</code> was changed to <code>"chad"</code>.
        </p>
<pre><code># IP cloaking hides users' IP addresses from other users and from channel admins
# (but not from server admins), while still allowing channel admins to ban
# offending IP addresses or networks. In place of hostnames derived from reverse
# DNS, users see fake domain names like pwbs2ui4377257x8.irc. These names are
# generated deterministically from the underlying IP address, but if the underlying
# IP is not already known, it is infeasible to recover it from the cloaked name.
# If you disable this, you should probably enable lookup-hostnames in its place.
ip-cloaking:
    # whether to enable IP cloaking
    enabled: true
    # whether to use these cloak settings (specifically, `netname` and `num-bits`)
    # to produce unique hostnames for always-on clients. you can enable this even if
    # you disabled IP cloaking for normal clients above. if this is disabled,
    # always-on clients will all have an identical hostname (the server name).
    enabled-for-always-on: true
    # fake TLD at the end of the hostname, e.g., pwbs2ui4377257x8.irc
    # you may want to use your network name here
    netname: "chad"</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-hexchat-password">Password enforcement adjustments for HexChat (and possibly other clients)</h3>
        <p>
          Ergo offers account registration to allow users to do things like use history and bouncer features, register channels, etc.<br>
          In clients such as HexChat, server password may conflict with account passwords, so the following setting should be enable if you wish to use accounts with clients such as HexChat.<br>
          Note that this could under some circumstances be considered a security hazard, as a user with an account does not need to know the server password to connect,
          although that user would have needed to register an account before the server had a password, and then a password would need to have been set after the fact, so this can be considered a very small concern if your setup always has had a password.<br>
          Also keep in mind that this setting has no effect if your network does not even have a password at all.
        </p>
<pre><code># some clients (notably Pidgin and Hexchat) offer only a single password field,
# which makes it impossible to specify a separate server password (for the PASS
# command) and SASL password. if this option is set to true, a client that
# successfully authenticates with SASL will not be required to send
# PASS as well, so it can be configured to authenticate with SASL only.
skip-server-password: true</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-multiclient">Multiclient, always-on clients, history, etc</h3>
        <p>
          Traditionally, IRC servers have no message history, and once you close your client, you cannot receive messages, and are not shown to be online at all.
          Ergo includes functionality to allow users to both receive history, and keep their clients "online" even after they have left.
          It also allows multiple clients to connect to the same account.<br>
          If you are running a private network for friends, you should set <code>always-on</code> and <code>auto-away</code> to <code>opt-out</code>,
          to have all users with accounts to appear as if they are online at all times, and be able to receive messages when they are offline.<br>
          For a public network, keep everything as their default values, since you probably do not want randoms having this by default.<br>
          If for some reason you do not want any of these features at all, you can set <code>enabled</code> to <code>false</code>, but this is not recommended.
          Below are the recommended values for a private network (e.g. for friends) where users with accounts will be able to receive messages and history while they are offline.
        </p>
<pre><code># multiclient controls whether Ergo allows multiple connections to
# attach to the same client/nickname identity; this is part of the
# functionality traditionally provided by a bouncer like ZNC
multiclient:
    # when disabled, each connection must use a separate nickname (as is the
    # typical behavior of IRC servers). when enabled, a new connection that
    # has authenticated with SASL can associate itself with an existing
    # client
    enabled: true
    # if this is disabled, clients have to opt in to bouncer functionality
    # using nickserv or the cap system. if it's enabled, they can opt out
    # via nickserv
    allowed-by-default: true
    # whether to allow clients that remain on the server even
    # when they have no active connections. The possible values are:
    # "disabled", "opt-in", "opt-out", or "mandatory".
    always-on: "opt-out"
    # whether to mark always-on clients away when they have no active connections:
    auto-away: "opt-out"
    # QUIT always-on clients from the server if they go this long without connecting
    # (use 0 or omit for no expiration):
    #always-on-expiration: 90d</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-vhosts">VHosts</h3>
        <p>
          IP cloaking was mentioned previously, and somewhat related to that, Ergo includes "vhost" functionality, which allows users to set a custom IP/host string.
          This is mostly for cosmetic value, and does not interfere with operators being able to see actual IP addresses for banning, but if you do not want it enable for some reason, you can disable it.
        </p>
<pre><code># vhosts controls the assignment of vhosts (strings displayed in place of the user's
# hostname/IP) by the HostServ service
vhosts:
    # are vhosts enabled at all?
    enabled: true</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-channels">Channels</h3>
        <p>
          Channels are where everyone on an IRC network talk. By default, anyone can create a channel, and anyone with an account can register one.
          The difference between a normal channel and a registered one is that the registered one will preserve the operator status of the person who created,
          whereas a normal channel's owner will lose operator status if they leave the channel or disconnect from the network.<br>
          There are various settings for channels available, but the defaults are suitable for a private network with trust among users, or where you just want anyone to have the ability to create a channel.
          Below are the default values:
        </p>
<pre><code># channel options
channels:
    # modes that are set when new channels are created
    # +n is no-external-messages and +t is op-only-topic
    # see  /QUOTE HELP cmodes  for more channel modes
    default-modes: +nt
    # how many channels can a client be in at once?
    max-channels-per-client: 100
    # if this is true, new channels can only be created by operators with the
    # `chanreg` operator capability
    operator-only-creation: false
    # channel registration - requires an account
    registration:
        # can users register new channels?
        enabled: true
        # restrict new channel registrations to operators only?
        # (operators can then transfer channels to regular users using /CS TRANSFER)
        operator-only: false
        # how many channels can each account register?
        max-channels-per-account: 15</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-operators">Operators (administrators, etc)</h3>
        <p>
          The IRC term for an administrator or another privileged user is "operator", or "oper" for short.<br>
          Ergo's opers have different permissions that can be granted to them, and are defined in "classes", basically groups of permissions under a name.
          For example, "chat-moderator" and "server-admin" are defined in the default configuration:
        </p>
<pre><code># operator classes
oper-classes:
    # chat moderator: can ban/unban users from the server, join channels,
    # fix mode issues and sort out vhosts.
    "chat-moderator":
        # title shown in WHOIS
        title: Chat Moderator
        # capability names
        capabilities:
            - "kill"
            - "ban"
            - "nofakelag"
            - "roleplay"
            - "relaymsg"
            - "vhosts"
            - "sajoin"
            - "samode"
            - "snomasks"
    # server admin: has full control of the ircd, including nickname and
    # channel registrations
    "server-admin":
        # title shown in WHOIS
        title: Server Admin
        # oper class this extends from
        extends: "chat-moderator"
        # capability names
        capabilities:
            - "rehash"
            - "accreg"
            - "chanreg"
            - "history"
            - "defcon"
            - "massmessage"</code></pre>
        <p>
          The above can be kept with their default values, but you are free to modify them or create any new classes that are appropriate for your setup.<br>
          Next, let's actually create an operator account:
        </p>
<pre><code># ircd operators
opers:
    # default operator named 'gigachad'; log in with /OPER gigachad &lt;password&gt;
    "gigachad":
        # which capabilities this oper has access to
        class: "server-admin"
        # custom whois line
        whois-line: is the server administrator
        # custom hostname
        vhost: "gigachad"
        # normally, operator status is visible to unprivileged users in WHO and WHOIS
        # responses. this can be disabled with 'hidden'. ('hidden' also causes the
        # 'vhost' line above to be ignored.)
        hidden: false
        # modes are modes to auto-set upon opering-up. uncomment this to automatically
        # enable snomasks ("server notification masks" that alert you to server events;
        # see `/quote help snomasks` while opered-up for more information):
        #modes: +is acjknoqtuxv
        # operators can be authenticated either by password (with the /OPER command),
        # or by certificate fingerprint, or both. if a password hash is set, then a
        # password is required to oper up (e.g., /OPER dan mypassword). to generate
        # the hash, use `ergo genpasswd`.
        password: "<i>&lt;your oper password&gt;</i>"</code></pre>
        <p>
          This is a modified version of the default oper entry. The account name is "gigachad", but you can change it to anything.<br>
          Replace <code><i>&lt;your oper password&gt;</i></code> with a password generated by <code>./ergo genpasswd</code>, and you will have a new oper account to use.<br>
          Note that to log into an oper account, clients have to enter <code>/OPER <i>&lt;oper name&gt;</i> <i>&lt;oper password&gt;</i></code> each time they log in.
          This can be automated by most clients by setting the command to be executed when the client logs in.
          In the case of HexChat, you can edit your network and add the command to the <code>Connect commands</code> tab of the menu.<br>
          You can copy everything from <code>"gigachad"</code> to the end of the line, paste it again, and change the name to create another oper account.
          Another, less privileged example of an oper is shown as a comment below the above configuration snippet.
        </p>
        <h3 id="configuring-history">Chat history</h3>
        <p>
          Traditionally, IRC networks do not store, relay, or handle chat history in any way.<br>
          On a privacy standpoint, this is a good thing, since chats are entirely ephemeral and handled by clients.<br>
          On a practicality standpoint, this is a bad thing, since people have to keep a client connected 24/7 to see message history.<br>
          For normalfriends, this can be a big problem, not only because having to stay online 24/7 is just annoying or infeasible,
          but also because they are likely used to chat platforms that handle history for them.<br>
          With this in mind, enabling history is a good idea if you want to move friends over to IRC, and will make things a lot more pleasant for private networks.
        </p>
        <p>
          Ergo's <code>history</code> configuration group is very long, so it is encouraged to read over it yourself.
          This section will go over the most important pieces of that configuration group.
        </p>
        <p>
          History is not endless (unless you want it to be), and the amount that can be stored for channels is configurable:
        </p>
<pre><code># how many channel-specific events (messages, joins, parts) should be tracked per channel?
channel-length: 2048</code></pre>
        <p>
          History is already enabled by default, but that just means it is being collected, not relayed by default.
          To relay history to clients when they connect, change the following to the amount of messages that you think is appropriate:
        </p>
<pre><code># number of messages to automatically play back on channel join (0 to disable):
autoreplay-on-join: 250</code></pre>
        <p>
          History older than a certain time can be configured to be deleted or be inaccessible.
          The default cutoff time is 1 week, but this is configurable as well.
        </p>
<pre><code>
# options to delete old messages, or prevent them from being retrieved
restrictions:
    # if this is set, messages older than this cannot be retrieved by anyone
    # (and will eventually be deleted from persistent storage, if that's enabled)
    expire-time: 1w
</code></pre>
        <p>
          By default, Ergo only stores chat history in memory, so when the server restarts, all history is lost.
          If you wish to have chat history persist beyond restarts, you must store it in a MySQL database:
        </p>
<pre><code># options to store history messages in a persistent database (currently only MySQL).
# in order to enable any of this functionality, you must configure a MySQL server
# in the `datastore.mysql` section.
persistent:
    enabled: true
    # store unregistered channel messages in the persistent database?
    unregistered-channels: true</code></pre>
<br>
<pre><code># connection information for MySQL (currently only used for persistent history):
mysql:
    enabled: false
    host: "localhost"
    port: 3306
    # if socket-path is set, it will be used instead of host:port
    #socket-path: "/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock"
    user: "ergo"
    password: "hunter2"
    history-database: "ergo_history"
    timeout: 3s
    max-conns: 4
    # this may be necessary to prevent middleware from closing your connections:
    #conn-max-lifetime: 180s</code></pre>
        <p>
          For privacy reasons, you may want to allow users to delete their own messages in history, or export their messages to JSON:
        </p>
<pre><code># options to control how messages are stored and deleted:
retention:
    # allow users to delete their own messages from history?
    allow-individual-delete: true
    # if persistent history is enabled, create additional index tables,
    # allowing deletion of JSON export of an account's messages. this
    # may be needed for compliance with data privacy regulations.
    enable-account-indexing: true</code></pre>
        <h3 id="configuring-spam">Spam reduction</h3>
        <p>
          Most IRC networks have measures in place to reduce chat spam. By default, "fakelag" is enabled in Ergo, and that can deal with most aggregious chat spam.<br>
          If you are running a private network where user trust is high, you can disable it so that there are no limits on the speed that messages can be sent.
        </p>
<pre><code># fakelag: prevents clients from spamming commands too rapidly
fakelag:
    # whether to enforce fakelag
    enabled: true
    # time unit for counting command rates
    window: 1s
    # clients can send this many commands without fakelag being imposed
    burst-limit: 5
    # once clients have exceeded their burst allowance, they can send only
    # this many commands per `window`:
    messages-per-window: 2
    # client status resets to the default state if they go this long without
      # sending any commands:
    cooldown: 2s</code></pre>
        <h2 id="using">Starting and using your server</h3>
        <p>
          Now that Ergo is both installed and configured, you can actually start using it!
        </p>
        <h3 id="using-starting">Starting the server</h3>
        <p>
          First thing, make sure you're still using the <code>ergo</code> user, and are in the <code>~/server</code> directory.<br>
          If you aren't, you can run the following to get back there:
        </p>
<pre><code>sudo -i -u ergo
cd server</code></pre>
        <p>
          Starting the server is done in one command:
        </p>
        <pre><code>./ergo run</code></pre>
        <p>
          It will stay online until you close the terminal, or press CTRL+C. Don't worry, the next section goes over how to make it run like a normal server with a SystemD service.<br>
          If you have not already, make sure the port <code>6697</code> is not blocked on your server. If you are using UFW as your firewall,
          you need to run <code>ufw enable 6697</code> (not as the <code>ergo</code> user, of course).<br>
          If you make and configuration changes while the server is running, you can apply them without restarting by typing <code>/rehash</code> as an operator.
        </p>
        <h3 id="using-connecting">Connecting to the server</h3>
        <p>
          To use IRC, you of course need an IRC client. There are many choices available, but the most widely used for Windows and Linux is <a href="https://hexchat.github.io/">HexChat</a>.
          On Mac, you have a slightly nicer option with <a href="https://www.codeux.com/textual/">Textual</a>, although you have to <a href="https://github.com/Codeux-Software/Textual/#building-textual">compile it from source</a> if you want to use it for free.<br>
          A more user-friendly and modern client choice is TheLounge, which is explained in the last section of this guide, if you want to look into it.
        </p>
        <p>
          Connecting with HexChat is very easy. When you start it, you will see something like this:
        </p>
        <img src="pix/irc/hexchat-network-select.png" alt="HexChat network select">
        <p>
          From there, you should click <code>+ Add</code> and name the server whatever you like (so you can find it on the server list).<br>
          Once you have created a new server and named it, select it and click <code>Edit...</code>.
          A menu will show up like the one below. Change the domain to whatever domain your server is running on,
          and make sure to put in your server password if you set one.
        </p>
        <img src="pix/irc/hexchat-network-edit.png" alt="HexChat network edit menu">
        <p>
          Once you're done editing the network, click <code>(X) Close</code>, select your network from the network list, and click <code>Connect</code>.<br>
          If all is well, you should be connected!
        </p>
        <img src="pix/irc/hexchat-connection-complete.png" alt="HexChat connection complete">
        <p>
          The process is very similar on Textual.<br>
          Create a new network and connect to it. Note that it will ask if you want to connect even though the certificate is unsigned.
          This is due to the self-signed certificates generated for the server, and is not a problem or security vulnerability, it is just a little annoying.
        </p>
        <img src="pix/irc/textual-network-edit.png" alt="Textual network edit menu">
        <h2 id="service">Surviving restarts with a SystemD service</h3>
        <p>
          In the beginning of the last section, Ergo was started by simply running <code>./ergo run</code>, but this is only suitable for testing.
          To have a proper server setup, you need to run it as a service. This can be achieved via a SystemD service.
        </p>
        <p>
          Before creating your service file, make sure you are in <code>~/server</code> as the <code>ergo</code> user.<br>
          Once you have done that, create a file called <code>start.sh</code> with the following content:
        </p>
<pre><code>#!/bin/bash
./ergo run</code></pre>
        <p>Save the file, then mark it as executable:</p>
        <pre><code>chmod +x start.sh</code></pre>
        <p>Now, create a file called <code>ergo.service</code> with the following content:</p>
<pre><code>[Unit]
Description=Ergo IRC server
After=network.target
# If you are using MySQL for history storage, comment out the above line
# and uncomment these two instead (you must independently install and configure
# MySQL for your system):
# Wants=mysql.service
# After=network.target mysql.service
[Service]
Type=simple
User=ergo
WorkingDirectory=/home/ergo/server
ExecStart=/home/ergo/server/start.sh
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=1048576
# Uncomment this for a hidden service:
# PrivateNetwork=true
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</code></pre>
        <p>
          You now have your service file, but it is not installed yet.
          To install it, switch to your normal user, and execute the following lines to install, enable, and start the SystemD service:
        </p>
<pre><code>ln -s /home/ergo/server/ergo.service /etc/systemd/system/ergo.service
systemctl enable ergo
systemctl start ergo</code></pre>
        <p>Ergo is now installed and running as a service, and will automatically start when the system boots.</p>
        <h2 id="registering">Registering accounts and channels</h2>
        <p>
          Account and channel registration were mentioned multiple times in this guide, and are indeed very important parts of the modern IRC ecosystem.
          You can connect to most IRC networks and talk without creating an account, but you will not be able to reserve your nickname or register channels, so it is important to register an account.
        </p>
        <h3 id="registering-accounts">Registering an account with NickServ</h3>
        <p>
          First, make sure you are connected to your IRC network.
          Once you are, type <code>/nickserv help</code> to make sure NickServ (the registration system) is working propertly.<br>
          If all is well, type the following, replacing <code><i>&lt;your password&gt;</i></code> with the password you want to use:
        </p>
        <pre><code>/nickserv register <i>&lt;your password&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>
          At this point, you are now registered!<br>
          The final step is to configure authentication with your client.
        </p>
        <p>In HexChat, all that needs to be done is changing <code>Login method</code> to <code>SASL (username + password)</code>, and entering your NickServ password that you used earlier into the password field:</p>
        <img src="pix/irc/hexchat-sasl.png" alt="HexChat SASL in network edit menu">
        <p>
          In Textual, open up your network in the menu, and click <code>Identity</code> under <code>Server Properties</code>.
          Enter your password in <code>Personal Password</code>, and check <code>Wait for identification before joining channels</code>.
        </p>
        <img src="pix/irc/textual-identity.png" alt="Textual identity menu">
        <p>You will now be logged into your account when you connect to your network.</p>
        <h3 id="registering-channels">Registering channels with ChanServ</h3>
        <p>
          Once you have an account registered, you can register channels with ChanServ.<br>
          To do so, join the channel you want to register, then type the following, replacing <code><i>&lt;your channel&gt;</i></code> with the name of the channel you want to register:
        </p>
        <pre><code>/chanserv register #<i>&lt;your channel&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>
          You are now the channel owner, and are free to appoint operators, administrators, etc for it.
          When you go offline, you won't lose ownership, and you cannot be removed as the owner unless you unregister the channel later.
        </p>
        <h2 id="moderation">Moderation</h2>
        <p>
          Like any chat, there will come a point where you need to use moderation tools to keep things under control.
          Many IRC setup guides do not go over moderation, so it can be stressful when operators need to actually use moderation tools.<br>
          The main difference between IRC and other chat systems in terms of moderation is the difference between channel bans and network bans.
          Channel ban keeps a person out of channel a channel, whereas a network ban keeps a person out of the entire network.
        </p>
        <h3 id="moderation-masks">Understanding masks</h3>
        <p>
          Bans are applied "masks", which are formatted pieces of text that contain a user's nick (username), their realname value, and their IP address or host.<br>
          This is what a mask looks like: <code>nick!~nick-dude@127.0.0.1</code>.<br>
          In bans, asterisks can be used as wildcards, which is useful for banning IP address ranges, patterns of nicknames, or whatever else you can think of.<br>
          A ban on the nick <code>person</code>, for example, would look like this: <code>person!*@*</code>.<br>
          A ban on anyone with the IP address <code>127.0.0.1</code> would look like this: <code>*!*@127.0.0.1</code>
        </p>
        <h3 id="moderation-real-ips">Discovering real IPs</h3>
        <p>
          Even if IP cloaking is enabled on your network, you can still obtain real IP addresses/hosts if you are an operator.
          See the <b>Operators</b> part of the configuration section of this guide on how to become an operator.<br>
          To find out a user's real IP, simply type <code>/whois</code> along with the user's nick, and you will see information about the user, along with their real IP address/host.<br>
          <code>/whois</code> is not a command that is exclusive to operators, but it does not reveal as much information to non-operators.
        </p>
        <h3 id="moderation-network-ban">Banning someone from the network</h3>
        <p>
          Any netword-wide moderation action requires being an operator. See the <b>Operators</b> part of the configuration section of this guide on how to become an operator.<br>
          Banning someone from the network is achieved with the <code>/kline</code> command. To see more info on the command, type <code>/helpop kline</code>.<br>
        </p>
        <p>To ban a nick from the network:</p>
        <pre><code>/kline andkill <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i>!*@*</code></pre>
        <p>To ban an IP address or host from the network:</p>
        <pre><code>/kline andkill *!*@<i>&lt;IP or mask&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>To unban a mask, you can use the <code>/unkline</code> command with the mask you want to unban.</p>
        <h3 id="moderation-channel-ban">Banning someone from a channel</h3>
        <p>
          Channel owners, administrators, and operators can ban people from channels.
          This is not the same as banning someone from the network, since it only has an effect on one channel.
          Additionally, a channel operator is not the same as a network operator.
        </p>
        <p>To ban someone in a channel, type the following in that channel, replacing <code><i>&lt;mask&gt;</i></code> with the user's mask:</p>
        <pre><code>/mode +b <i>&lt;mask&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>
          Note that this will only ban the user, not kick them immediately.
          You will want to run <code>/kick</code> along with the user's nick to also kick them.<br>
          To unban a user, run the command above, but replace the <code>+</code> with a <code>-</code>.<br>
          You can see who is banned in a channel by typing <code>/banlist</code>.
        </p>
        <h3 id="moderation-muting">Muting people in a channel</h3>
        <p>
          By default, anyone can speak in an IRC channel. To change this, you must be a channel owner, administrator, or operator.<br>
          Channels, along with users, have modes, which modify their behavior. There is a special mode for channels called <code>m</code> (moderated) which requires users to be privileged in some way to talk.<br>
          To set a channel as moderated, type the following in the channel:
        </p>
        <pre><code>/mode +m</code></pre>
        <p>
          Now, users must be an owner, administrator, operator, or be voiced to talk in the channel
          This be reversed by typing the command above, but changing the <code>+</code> to a <code>-</code>.<br>
          To voice a user, run the following, replacing <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i> with the user's nick:
        </p>
        <pre><code>/mode +v <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>Unvoice the user by typing the above command, but replacing the <code>+</code> with a <code>-</code>.</p>
        <h3 id="moderation-appointing">Appointing channel administrators and operators</h3>
        <p>
          Assuming you a channel owner, you can appoint both administrators and operators.
          If you are only an operator, you may only appoint operators.<br>
          The difference between administrator and operator is mainly that administrators cannot have their privileges taken away by operators, only owners.
          To appoint an administrator, type the following, replacing <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i> with the user's nick:
        </p>
        <pre><code>/mode +a <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>To appoint an operator, type the following, replacing <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i> with the user's nick:</p>
        <pre><code>/mode +o <i>&lt;nick&gt;</i></code></pre>
        <p>
          You can also use <code>/op</code> and <code>/deop</code> on most clients to appoint and remove an operator.<br>
          To remove administrator or operator status, run either of the above commands, but replace the <code>+</code> with a <code>-</code>.
        </p>
        <h2 id="thelounge">Bringing modern-day features to IRC with TheLounge</h3>
        <p>
          A large downside to IRC as a protocol is just how old it is, and the limitations that exist because of it.
          Other old protocols such as HTTP were built to be content-agnostic and versitile, but IRC was built with a very specific set of features, so it has not held up so well to contemporary chat systems.<br>
          A notable thing that IRC as a protocol is missing is file uploads, and other fancy features that many other chats have.<br>
          With that said, these problems can be fixed by clients, although many clients are still very primitive.
        </p>
        <p>
          <a href="https://thelounge.chat/">TheLounge</a> is a modern self-hosted IRC web client that tries to make IRC as user-friendly as possible.
          It can be the answer to many of the complaints that normalfriends may have about IRC. It runs on anything with a web browser, can be "installed" since it is a PWA (Progressive Web App),
          and is optimized for both desktops and mobile devices. It keeps you logged in even when you are gone, and even supports file uploads and embeds.<br>
          Effectively, it brings IRC up to the standard of most other chat systems.
        </p>
        <p>
          If you would like to setup an instance of TheLounge for you and your friends, you can take a look at their <a href="https://thelounge.chat/docs/install-and-upgrade">installation guide</a>.<br>
          It is a self-hosted web app, so you can run it for multiple people, not just yourself.
        </p>
        <hr>
        <p><i>Written by <a href="https://termer.net/">Termer</a></i></p>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Setting up Gitea</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/gitea.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/gitea.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:14:22 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Setting up Gitea</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/gitea.svg">
        <p>Gitea allows you to self-host your git repositories similar to <a href="git.html">bare repositories</a>, but comes with additional features that you might know from GitHub, such as issues, pull requests or multiple users. Its advantage over GitLab&mdash;another Free Software GitHub clone&mdash;is that it is much more lightweight and easier to setup.</p>
        <p>Head over to <a href="https://gitea.com">gitea.com</a> to see what it looks like in practice.</p>
        <p>Although Gitea is lighter than Gitlab, if you have a VPS with only 512MB of RAM, you will probably have to upgrade. Gitea is more memory-intensive than having just a bare git repository.</p>
        <h2>Installing Gitea</h2>
        <p>First install a few dependencies:</p>
        <pre><code>apt install curl sqlite3</code></pre>
        <p>Unfortunately, Gitea itself is not in the official Debian repos, so we will add a third-party repository for it.</p>
        <p>Add the repo's gpg key to apt's trusted keys:</p>
        <pre><code>curl -sL -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/morph027-gitea.asc https://packaging.gitlab.io/gitea/gpg.key</code></pre>
        <p>Then add the actual repository to apt:</p>
        <pre><code>echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packaging.gitlab.io/gitea gitea main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/morph027-gitea.list</code></pre>
        <p>Now we can install Gitea:<p>
        <pre><code>apt update
apt install gitea</code></pre>
        <p>Since apt automatically enables and starts the Gitea service, it should already be running on port <code>3000</code> on your server!</p>
        <h2>Setting up a Nginx reverse proxy</h2>
        <p>You should know how to generate SSL certificates and use Nginx by now. Add this to your Nginx config to proxy requests made to your git subdomain to Gitea running on port 3000:</p>
        <pre><code>
server {
	listen 443 ssl;
	listen [::]:443 ssl;
        ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/nginx/<strong>git.example.org</strong>.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/nginx/<strong>git.example.org</strong>.key;
        server_name <strong>git.example.org</strong>;
	location / {
		proxy_pass http://localhost:3000/; # The / is important!
		proxy_redirect off;
		proxy_set_header Host $host;
		proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
		proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
	}
}
        </pre></code>
        <p>And reload Nginx:</p>
        <pre><code>systemctl reload nginx</code></pre>
        <h2>Setting up Gitea</h2>
        <p>If everything worked fine you should now see a setup screen when you go to your configured domain in the browser. The options should be pretty self-explanatory, it is only important to select SQLite3 and to replace the base url and SSH server domain with your own.</p>
        <dl>
            <dt>Database Type:</dt>
            <dd>SQLite3</dd>
            <dt>SSH Server Domain:</dt>
            <dd><strong>git.example.org</strong></dd>
            <dt>Gitea Base URL:</dt>
            <dd><strong>git.example.org</strong></dd>
        </dl>
        <p>These and other settings can be changed in a configuration file later so don't worry about making wrong decisions right now.</p>
        <p>After clicking the install button you should now be able to log into your Gitea instance with the account you just created! Explore the settings for more things to do, such as setting up your SSH keys.</p>
        <p>If Gitea does not load fully and has random errors, it is possible that you need to increase your available memory on your VPS. This can usually be done on your VPS-provider's website without too much trouble.</p>
        <h2>A few extras</h2>
        <h3>Automatically create a new repo on push</h3>
        <p>This is an incredicly useful feature for me. Open up <code>/etc/gitea/app.ini</code> and add <code>DEFAULT_PUSH_CREATE_PRIVATE = true</code> to the <code>repository</code> section like so:</p>
        <img src=pix/gitea-push-create.png>
        <br>
        <p>If you now add a remote to a repository like this</p>
        <pre><code>git remote add origin 'ssh://gitea@git.<strong>example.org</strong>/<strong>username</strong>/<strong>coolproject</strong>.git'</code></pre>
        <p>and push, Gitea will automatically create a private <code>coolproject</code> repository in your account!</p>
        <h3>Change tab-width</h3>
        <p>By default Gitea displays tabs 8 spaces wide, however I prefer 4 spaces. We can change this!</p>
        <pre><code>mkdir -p /var/lib/gitea/custom/templates/custom/</code></pre>
        <p>And write this into <code>/var/lib/gitea/custom/templates/custom/header.tmpl</code>:</p>
        <pre><code>&ltstyle&gt
.tab-size-8 {
	tab-size: 4 !important;
	-moz-tab-size: 4 !important;
}
&lt/style&gt</code></pre>
        <h2>Contribution</h2>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="https://phire.cc">phire</a></li>
        </ul>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Hosting Your Own Git Repositories</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/git.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/git.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:19:51 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Hosting Your Own Git Repositories</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/git.svg">
        <p>
        Once you have your own VPS or other Internet-available server, you can
        start hosting your own git repositories. The goal of this tutorial is
        for you to go from</p>
        <pre><code>git clone github.com/...</code></pre>
        <p>to</p>
        <pre><code>git clone YourLandChadDomainName.xyz/...</code></pre>
        <p>
        so you can cultivate your own homegrown, grass-fed code, rather than
        relying on a centralized proprietary service like GitHub.
        </p>
        <h2>Installing git</h2>
        <p>
        You most likely already have it installed on your server, but if not,
        run:</p>
        <pre><code>apt install git</code></pre>
        <p>
        We don't need any additional software, <code>git</code> itself ships
        with everything needed to host a remote repository!
        </p>
        <h2>Creating bare repositories</h2>
        <p>
        For each repository you want to host, you will need to manually create
        what's called a "bare" repository on your server. These hold all the
        commits and any other git data needed for your repository, but without
        an expanded "index" in which you can just browse all the files of a
        certain commit in the file system.
        </p>
        <p>
        These repositories need to be owned by the <code>git</code> user, and
        you should probably pick a directory where you will store them all. One
        sane choice is under <code>/srv/git/</code>, and we will use this as the
        example directory for the rest of the tutorial, but any other path will
        do as well.
        </p>
        <h3>Become the git user and create the directory</h3>
        <p>
        If you're logged in to your server as root and have <code>git</code>
        installed, you can become the <code>git</code> user by executing
        </p>
        <pre><code>su git</code></pre>
        <p>
        Now navigate to/create your desired directory, for example
        </p>
        <pre><code>cd /srv
mkdir git</code></pre>
        <h3>Create the repo</h3>
        <p>
        Now you can create the bare repository with
        </p>
        <pre><code>git init --bare my-repo.git</code></pre>
        <p>
        By convention, bare repository names end with ".git".
        </p>
        <p>
        Repeat the above command for any other repositories you want to host.
        </p>
        <h2>Syncing local repositories with your server</h2>
        <h3>Set up SSH login for the git user</h3>
        <p>
        You will need to be able to login remotely via <code>ssh</code> as the
        <code>git</code> user we've used before. To do this, you will either
        need to set up a password for the <code>git</code> user by running
        <code>passwd git</code>,
        or copy your public SSH key from your local machine to
        <code>/home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys</code>.
        See the <a href="sshkeys.html">SSH keys instructional</a> for details
        (just log in as <code>git</code> instead of <code>root</code>).
        </p>
        <h3>Syncing a new repository with your server</h3>
        <p>
        If you've just created a new repository on your local machine, you will
        need to tell <code>git</code> where the remote repository is to be able
        to sync with it (using commands like <code>git push</code> or
        <code>git pull</code>). We do this by defining a "remote" for your
        repository.
        </p>
        <p>
        A remote is just a named URL remembered in your repo's configuration. So
        we need a name and a URL. By convention, the "main" remote is called
        "origin". The URL has the format <code>user@host:path</code>, where:
        </p>
        <ul>
          <li>
            <code>user</code> is <code>git</code>, the <code>git</code> user
            we've already worked with before.
          </li>
          <li>
            <code>host</code> is your domain name.
            Alternatively you could even use your server's raw IP address.
          </li>
          <li>
            <code>path</code> is the absolute path to the repository on the
            server, in our example <code>/srv/git/my-repo.git</code>
          </li>
        </ul>
        </p>
        <p>
        So, to create a new remote, run:
        </p>
        <pre><code>git remote add origin git@yourdomain.xyz:/srv/git/my-repo.git</code></pre>
        <p>
        Now you'll be able to run <code>git push origin master</code> to push
        your commits or <code>git pull origin</code> to pull from the remote.
        </p>
        <h3>Syncing an existing repository</h3>
        <p>
        If you've already set up your local repository to sync with a service
        like GitHub it probably already has a remote called "origin". You can
        see your repo's remotes with:
        </p>
        <pre><code>git remote -v</code></pre>
        <p>
        You can follow the above instructions, substituting an arbitrary other
        name other than "origin" to create a differently named remote, e.g.
        </p>
        <pre><code>git remote add vps git@...</code></pre>
        <p>
        Now you'll be able to push/pull with <code>git push vps master</code>
        and <code>git pull vps</code>, respectively.
        </p>
        <p>
        Or, to completely sever ties with your centralized git provider, first
        remove the original origin with:
        <code>git remote remove origin</code>
        and then follow the instructions as above.
        </p>
        <h2>Contribution</h2>
        <ul>
            <li>Martin Chrzanowski -- <a href="https://m-chrzan.xyz">website</a>, <a href="https://m-chrzan.xyz/donate.html">donate</a></li>
        </ul>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Requiring Passwords for Webpages (HTTP Authentication)</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/auth.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/auth.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:19:27 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Requiring Passwords for Webpages</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/auth.svg" alt="access control with nginx"/>
        <p>HTTP basic authentication will allow you to secure parts (or all) of your website with a username and password without the trouble of PHP or Javascript.
        This will work with any Nginx server.
        </p>
        <h2>Installation</h2>
        <p>We will be using the command <code>htpasswd</code> to make username and password pairs.</p>
        <pre><code>apt install apache2-utils</code></pre>
        <aside>
            <p>The apache utils has a small username-password pair encryption tool.</p>
            <p>Like the other on this site, this tutorial is for Nginx, <strong>not</strong> for Apache servers.</p>
        </aside>
        <p>
        Now think of a username and password and remember them.
        </p>
        <pre><code>htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong> <strong>username</strong></code></pre>
        <aside>
            <p>The <code>-c</code> flag creates a file. You can make the path of this file anywhere outside of your webroot.</p>
            <p>Obviously the username is up to you as well.</p>
        </aside>
        <p>
        Type out your password twice to confirm. You can do this as many times as you'd like.
        </p>
        <p>Check out user name password pairs (the password will be securely hashed):</p>
        <pre><code>cat /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong></code></pre>
        <h2>Nginx Config and Auth Basic</h2>
        <p>
        From here, we are going to edit our websites config file in <code>/etc/nginx/sites-enabled</code>.
        Have in mind which folder you'd like to secure. Add something like this:
        </p>
        <pre><code>server {
    #...
    location /<strong>secret-folder </strong> {
        auth_basic "What's the Password?" ;
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong> ;
    }
    #...
}</code></pre>
        <aside>
            <h4>Huh?</h4>
            <p>If you're stuck, try finding the line <code>location / {</code></p>
            <p>Just below this block is where you should add the custom location block</p>
        </aside>
        <p>If you'd like to do the opposite, such as making the entire site private except for a public section, do this:</p>
        <pre><code>server {
    #...
    auth_basic "What's the Password?" ;
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong> ;
    location /<strong>public</strong>/ {
        #...
        auth_basic off ;
    }
    #...
}</code></pre>
        <h3>IP Addresses</h3>
        <p>If passwords aren't enough we can ban an ip or accept one.</p>
        <pre><code>location /api {
    #...
    allow 192.168.1.23:8080 ;
    deny 127.0.0.1 ;
}</code></pre>
        <p>If you want to check both a username and password with an ip address, use the <code>satisfy</code> directive.</p>
        <pre><code>location /api {
    #...
    satify all ;
    allow 192.168.1.23:8080 ;
    deny 127.0.0.1 ;
    auth_basic "What's the Password?" ;
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong> ;
}</code></pre>
        <h3>Complete Example</h3>
        <pre><code>http {
    server {
        listen 80;
        root /var/www/website ;
        #...
        location /<strong>secret-folder</strong> {
            satisfy all ;
            allow 192.168.1.3/24;
            deny 127.0.0.1 ;
            auth_basic "What's the Password?" ;
            auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/<strong>myusers</strong> ;
        }
    }
}</code></pre>
        <p>
        Now check your configuration with <code>nginx -t</code>
        </p>
        <p>Reload nginx and you're good to go!</p>
        <strong>Contributor</strong>  -  <a href="https://tomfasano.xyz" target="_blank">tomfasano.xyz</a>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Cronjobs</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/cron.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/cron.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:19:04 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Using Cronjobs to run scheduled tasks</h1></header>

    <main>
        <p>
        Cron is a service that lets you run scheduled tasks. These tasks are called <strong> cronjobs. </strong> If you have already followed the initial course you will have already used cron when you set up certbot.
        </p>
        <h2> What tasks would I want to schedule? </h2>
        <p>
        You can schedule anything! Some examples of what you might have done already include:
        <ul>
            <li> <code> updatedb </code> to update your <code> locate </code> database </li>
            <li> <code> certbot </code> to update renewing of your https certs </li>
        </ul>
        Some tasks that you might <em>want</em> to schedule may include:
        <ul>
            <li> Package updates - if you really just want to leave your server alone you can automated updating packages on your server </li>
            <li> Backups - you may want to backup certain files every day and some every week, this is possible with cron </li>
        </ul>
            <p>
            And many more, anything you can do can be turned into a cronjob.
            </p>
            <h2>Basic Cronjobs</h2>
            <p>
            This the preferred method for personal tasks and scripts, it's also the easiest to get started with. Run the command <code> crontab -e </code> to access your users crontab
            </p>
            <p>
            Once you have figured out the command you want to run you need to figure out how often you want to run it and when. I am going to schedule my system updates once a week on at 3:30 AM on a Monday.
            </p>
            <p>
            We now have to convert this time (Every Monday at 3:30 AM) into a cron time. Cron uses a simple but effective way of scheduling when to run things.
            </p>
            <p>
            Crontab expressions look like this <code> * * * * * command-to-run </code>
            The five elements before the command tell when the command is supposed to be run automatically.
            <p>
            So for our Monday at 3:30AM job we would do the following:
            <p>
            <pre><code> .---------------- minute (0 - 59)
 | .------------- hour (0 - 23)
 | | .---------- day of month (1 - 31)
 | | | .------- month (1 - 12
 | | | | .---- day of week (0 - 6)
 | | | | |
 * * * * *
30 3 * * 1 apt -y update && apt -y upgrade</code></pre>
            <h3>Some notes</h3>
            <ul>
                <li>On the day of the week option, Sunday is 0 and counting up from there, Saturday will be 6.</li>
                <li><code>*</code> designates "everything". Our command above has a <code>*</code> in the day of month and month columns. This means it will run regardless of the day of the month or month.</li>
                <li>The hour option uses 24 hour time. 3 = 3AM, while use 15 for 3PM.</li>
            </ul>
            <h3>More examples</h3>
            <p>
            Let's add another job, our backup job (for the purposes of this our backup command is just called <code> backup</code>) We want to run <code> backup </code> Every evening at 11PM, once we work out the timings for this we can add the to the same file as the above by running <code> crontab -e </code> This would mean our full crontab would look like this:
            <pre><code>0 23 * * * backup</code></pre>
            <h3>Consecutive times</h3>
            <p>
            Suppose we want a command to run every weekday.
            We know we can put <code>1</code> (Monday), but we can also use <code>1-5</code>
            to signify from day 1 (Monday) to day 5 (Friday).
            </p>
            <pre><code>0 6 * * 1-5 echo "Wakey, wakey, wagie!" >> /home/wagie/alarm</code></pre>
            <p>The above <code>echo</code> command runs every Monday through Friday at 6:00AM.</p>
            <h3>Non-consecutive times</h3>
            <p>
            We can also randomly specify non-consecutive arguments with a comma.
            Suppose you have a script you want to run at the midday of the 1st, 15th, and 20th day of every month.
            You can specify that my putting <code>1,15,20</code> for the day of the month argument:
            </p>
            <pre><code>0 12 1,15,20 * * /usr/bin/pay_bills_script</code></pre>
            <h3>"Every X minutes/days/months"</h3>
            <p>We can also easily run a command very several minutes or months, without specifying the specific times:
            </p>
            <pre><code>*/15 * * * * updatedb</code></pre>
            <p>
            This cronjob will run the <code>updatedb</code> command every 15 minutes.
            </p>
            <h3>Beware of this Rookie Mistake Though...</h3>
            <p>
            Suppose you want to run a script once every other month.
            You might be <em>tempted</em> write this:
            </p>
            <pre><code>* * * */2 *</code></pre>
            <p>
            That might <em>feel right</em>, but this script <em>will be running once every minute during that every other month</em>.
            You should specify the first two arguments, because with <code>*</code> it will be running every minute and hour!
            </p>
            <pre><code>0 0 1 */2 *</code></pre>
            <p>This makes the command run <em>only</em> at 0:00 (12:00AM) on the first day of every two months, which is what we really want.</p>
            <p>
            Consult the website <a href="https://crontab.guru">crontab.guru</a> for an intuitive and interactive tester of cronjobs.
            </p>
            <h2>User vs. Root Cronjobs</h2>
            <p>
            It is important to note that user accounts all have different cronjobs.
            If you have a user account <code>chad</code> and edit his crontab with <code>crontab -e</code>,
            the commands you add will be run as the <code>chad</code> user, not <code>root</code> or anyone else.
            </p>
            <p>
            Bear in mind that if you need root access to run a particular command,
            you will usually want to add it as root.
            </p>
            <h2>System-wide cron directories</h2>
            <p>
            <code>crontab -e</code> is the typical interface for adding cronjobs, but it's important to at least know that system-wide jobs are often stored in the file directory.
            Some programs which need cronjobs will automatically install them in the following way.
            </p>
            <p>
            Run the command <code> ls /etc/cron* </code> you should see a list of directories and there contents. The directories should be something like the below
            <ul>
                <li> /etc/cron.d  <em> This is a crontab like the ones that you create with </em> <code> crontab -e </code> </li>
                <li> /etc/cron.hourly </li>
                <li> /etc/cron.daily </li>
                <li> /etc/cron.weekly </li>
                <li> /etc/cron.monthly </li>
            </ul>
            <p>
            The directories cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} are where you can put <strong> scripts </strong> to run at those times. You don't put normal cron entries here. I prefer to use these directories for system wide jobs that don't relate to an individual user.
            </p>
            <h2>Contribution</h2>
            <ul>
                <li>Mark McNally -- <a href="https://mark.mcnally.je">website</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMiInY8BhSUtCarO6uu6i_g">Youtube</a></li>
                <li>Edits and examples by Luke</li>
            </ul>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
<title>Mirror your site over tor</title>
<guid>https://landchad.net/tor.html</guid>
<link>https://landchad.net/tor.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:15:39 -0400</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
    <header><h1>Mirror Your Site Over Tor</h1></header>

    <main>
        <img class=titleimg src="pix/tor.svg" alt="Tor logo">
        <p>
        Now that you have a website, why not offer it on a private alternative such as the onion network?
        </p>
        <h2>Setting up Tor</h2>
        <h3>Installing Tor</h3>
        <p>Firstly we need to add the tor repo's to have the latest up to date version or tor.</p>
        <pre><code>apt install -y apt-transport-https gpg
echo "deb https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org buster main
deb-src https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org buster main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tor.list</code></pre>
	<p>Then we need to add the gpg keys to our keyring</p>
	<pre><code>curl -s https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89.asc | gpg --import
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | apt-key add -</code></pre>
	<p>Now update and install tor</p>
	<pre><code>apt update
apt install tor deb.torproject.org-keyring</code></pre>
        <h3>Enabling Tor</h3>
        <p>Then edit the file <code>/etc/tor/torrc</code>, uncommenting the following lines:</p>
        <pre><code>HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80</code></pre>
        <aside>
            <h4>Optional: Running multiple onion services</h4>
            <p>If you want to forward multiple virtual ports for a single onion
            service, just add more HiddenServicePort lines (replace the 80 with any unoccupied port).
            </p>
            <p>If you want to run multiple onion services from the same Tor client, just add another
            HiddenServiceDir line.</p>
        </aside>
        <p>Now start and enable tor at boot</p>
        <pre><code> systemctl enable --now tor </code></pre>
        <p>If the next command outputs <q>active</q> in green you're golden!</p>
        <pre><code> systemctl status tor</code></pre>
        <p>Now you're server is on the dark web. The following command will give you your onion address:</p>
        <pre><code> cat /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/hostname</code></pre>
        <h2>Adding the Nginx Config</h2>
        <p>
        From here, the steps are almost identical to setting up a normal website configuration file.
        Follow the steps as if you were making a new website on the webserver
        <a href="nginx.html">tutorial</a> up until the server block of code. Instead, paste this:
        </p>
        <pre><code>        server {
            listen 127.0.0.1:80 ;
            root /var/www/<strong>landchad</strong> ;
            index index.html ;
            server_name <strong>your-onion-address</strong>.onion ;
        }</code></pre>
        <aside>
            <h4>Clarification</h4>
            <p>Nginx will listen on port 80 for your <em>server's</em> localhost.</p>
            <p>The <code>root</code> line is the path to whichever website of yours you'd like to mirror.</p>
        </aside>
        <p>
        From here we are almost done, all we have to do is enable the site and reload nginx which is also covered in <a href="nginx.html#enable">the webserver tutorial</a>.
        </p>
        <h3>Update regularly!</h3>
        <p>Make sure to update Tor on a regular basis by running:</p>
        <pre><code>apt update
apt install tor</code></pre>
        <p><strong>Contributor</strong>  -  <a href="https://tomfasano.xyz" target="_blank">tomfasano.xyz</a></p>
    </main>

]]></description>
</item>


<item>
	<title>Cryptocurrency Tutorials Completed</title>
	<guid>https://landchad.net/index.html#crypto</guid>
	<link>https://landchad.net/index.html#crypto</link>
	<pubDate> Tue, 29 Jun 2021 08:10:31 -0400</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[<p>There is now a set of basic tutorials on cryptocurrency wallets and concepts up.
		The goal here is to allow people to receive tips for sites using all free and open source and peer-to-peer technology.</p>

	<p>More tutorials on crypto management and exchanging may be added later, but these focus simply on basic concepts and setting up wallets. They include:</p>

	<ul>
		<li><a href="https://landchad.net/crypto.html">The Case for Crypto for Normal People</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://landchad.net/bitcoin.html">Accepting Bitcoin</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://landchad.net/monero.html">Accepting Monero</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://landchad.net/openalias.html">Setting up OpenAlias for your site</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://landchad.net/bat.html">Enrolling in the Basic Attention Token project</a></li>
	</ul>]]></description>
</item>

<item>
	<title>Welcome to LandChad.net!</title>
	<guid>https://landchad.net</guid>
	<link>https://landchad.net</link>
	<pubDate> Mon, 28 Jun 2021 08:21:44 -0400</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[<p>Welcome to LandChad.net!</p>
<p>This website is for step-by-step tutorials that allow people to host and maintain their own website and other web services on the cheap or free.</p>
<p>There is already a full basic tutorial on website creation on the site <a href="https://landchad.net/index.html#basic">here</a>.
Following the tutorials can take as little as an hour, but will help you set up a VPS, and NginX server and encrypt your new webpage with Certbot.</p>
<p>Next I plan adding general info on HTML and CSS and how to manage a website.</p>
<p>More stuff like running your own email server and more will be added shortly as more articles are finalized.</p>
]]></description>
</item>


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