README.rst 17 KB

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  1. =========================================================
  2. Synapse |support| |development| |license| |pypi| |python|
  3. =========================================================
  4. .. contents::
  5. Introduction
  6. ============
  7. Matrix is an ambitious new ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and
  8. VoIP. The basics you need to know to get up and running are:
  9. - Everything in Matrix happens in a room. Rooms are distributed and do not
  10. exist on any single server. Rooms can be located using convenience aliases
  11. like ``#matrix:matrix.org`` or ``#test:localhost:8448``.
  12. - Matrix user IDs look like ``@matthew:matrix.org`` (although in the future
  13. you will normally refer to yourself and others using a third party identifier
  14. (3PID): email address, phone number, etc rather than manipulating Matrix user IDs)
  15. The overall architecture is::
  16. client <----> homeserver <=====================> homeserver <----> client
  17. https://somewhere.org/_matrix https://elsewhere.net/_matrix
  18. ``#matrix:matrix.org`` is the official support room for Matrix, and can be
  19. accessed by any client from https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html or
  20. via IRC bridge at irc://irc.freenode.net/matrix.
  21. Synapse is currently in rapid development, but as of version 0.5 we believe it
  22. is sufficiently stable to be run as an internet-facing service for real usage!
  23. About Matrix
  24. ============
  25. Matrix specifies a set of pragmatic RESTful HTTP JSON APIs as an open standard,
  26. which handle:
  27. - Creating and managing fully distributed chat rooms with no
  28. single points of control or failure
  29. - Eventually-consistent cryptographically secure synchronisation of room
  30. state across a global open network of federated servers and services
  31. - Sending and receiving extensible messages in a room with (optional)
  32. end-to-end encryption
  33. - Inviting, joining, leaving, kicking, banning room members
  34. - Managing user accounts (registration, login, logout)
  35. - Using 3rd Party IDs (3PIDs) such as email addresses, phone numbers,
  36. Facebook accounts to authenticate, identify and discover users on Matrix.
  37. - Placing 1:1 VoIP and Video calls
  38. These APIs are intended to be implemented on a wide range of servers, services
  39. and clients, letting developers build messaging and VoIP functionality on top
  40. of the entirely open Matrix ecosystem rather than using closed or proprietary
  41. solutions. The hope is for Matrix to act as the building blocks for a new
  42. generation of fully open and interoperable messaging and VoIP apps for the
  43. internet.
  44. Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix from the core
  45. development team at matrix.org, written in Python/Twisted. It is intended to
  46. showcase the concept of Matrix and let folks see the spec in the context of a
  47. codebase and let you run your own homeserver and generally help bootstrap the
  48. ecosystem.
  49. In Matrix, every user runs one or more Matrix clients, which connect through to
  50. a Matrix homeserver. The homeserver stores all their personal chat history and
  51. user account information - much as a mail client connects through to an
  52. IMAP/SMTP server. Just like email, you can either run your own Matrix
  53. homeserver and control and own your own communications and history or use one
  54. hosted by someone else (e.g. matrix.org) - there is no single point of control
  55. or mandatory service provider in Matrix, unlike WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts,
  56. etc.
  57. We'd like to invite you to join #matrix:matrix.org (via
  58. https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html), run a homeserver, take a look
  59. at the `Matrix spec <https://matrix.org/docs/spec>`_, and experiment with the
  60. `APIs <https://matrix.org/docs/api>`_ and `Client SDKs
  61. <https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html#client-sdks>`_.
  62. Thanks for using Matrix!
  63. Support
  64. =======
  65. For support installing or managing Synapse, please join |room|_ (from a matrix.org
  66. account if necessary) and ask questions there. We do not use GitHub issues for
  67. support requests, only for bug reports and feature requests.
  68. .. |room| replace:: ``#synapse:matrix.org``
  69. .. _room: https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org
  70. Synapse Installation
  71. ====================
  72. .. _federation:
  73. * For details on how to install synapse, see `<INSTALL.md>`_.
  74. * For specific details on how to configure Synapse for federation see `docs/federate.md <docs/federate.md>`_
  75. Connecting to Synapse from a client
  76. ===================================
  77. The easiest way to try out your new Synapse installation is by connecting to it
  78. from a web client.
  79. Unless you are running a test instance of Synapse on your local machine, in
  80. general, you will need to enable TLS support before you can successfully
  81. connect from a client: see `<INSTALL.md#tls-certificates>`_.
  82. An easy way to get started is to login or register via Element at
  83. https://app.element.io/#/login or https://app.element.io/#/register respectively.
  84. You will need to change the server you are logging into from ``matrix.org``
  85. and instead specify a Homeserver URL of ``https://<server_name>:8448``
  86. (or just ``https://<server_name>`` if you are using a reverse proxy).
  87. If you prefer to use another client, refer to our
  88. `client breakdown <https://matrix.org/docs/projects/clients-matrix>`_.
  89. If all goes well you should at least be able to log in, create a room, and
  90. start sending messages.
  91. .. _`client-user-reg`:
  92. Registering a new user from a client
  93. ------------------------------------
  94. By default, registration of new users via Matrix clients is disabled. To enable
  95. it, specify ``enable_registration: true`` in ``homeserver.yaml``. (It is then
  96. recommended to also set up CAPTCHA - see `<docs/CAPTCHA_SETUP.md>`_.)
  97. Once ``enable_registration`` is set to ``true``, it is possible to register a
  98. user via a Matrix client.
  99. Your new user name will be formed partly from the ``server_name``, and partly
  100. from a localpart you specify when you create the account. Your name will take
  101. the form of::
  102. @localpart:my.domain.name
  103. (pronounced "at localpart on my dot domain dot name").
  104. As when logging in, you will need to specify a "Custom server". Specify your
  105. desired ``localpart`` in the 'User name' box.
  106. ACME setup
  107. ==========
  108. For details on having Synapse manage your federation TLS certificates
  109. automatically, please see `<docs/ACME.md>`_.
  110. Security Note
  111. =============
  112. Matrix serves raw user generated data in some APIs - specifically the `content
  113. repository endpoints <https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/latest.html#get-matrix-media-r0-download-servername-mediaid>`_.
  114. Whilst we have tried to mitigate against possible XSS attacks (e.g.
  115. https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/1021) we recommend running
  116. matrix homeservers on a dedicated domain name, to limit any malicious user generated
  117. content served to web browsers a matrix API from being able to attack webapps hosted
  118. on the same domain. This is particularly true of sharing a matrix webclient and
  119. server on the same domain.
  120. See https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/1977 and
  121. https://developer.github.com/changes/2014-04-25-user-content-security for more details.
  122. Upgrading an existing Synapse
  123. =============================
  124. The instructions for upgrading synapse are in `UPGRADE.rst`_.
  125. Please check these instructions as upgrading may require extra steps for some
  126. versions of synapse.
  127. .. _UPGRADE.rst: UPGRADE.rst
  128. .. _reverse-proxy:
  129. Using a reverse proxy with Synapse
  130. ==================================
  131. It is recommended to put a reverse proxy such as
  132. `nginx <https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html>`_,
  133. `Apache <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_proxy_http.html>`_,
  134. `Caddy <https://caddyserver.com/docs/quick-starts/reverse-proxy>`_ or
  135. `HAProxy <https://www.haproxy.org/>`_ in front of Synapse. One advantage of
  136. doing so is that it means that you can expose the default https port (443) to
  137. Matrix clients without needing to run Synapse with root privileges.
  138. For information on configuring one, see `<docs/reverse_proxy.md>`_.
  139. Identity Servers
  140. ================
  141. Identity servers have the job of mapping email addresses and other 3rd Party
  142. IDs (3PIDs) to Matrix user IDs, as well as verifying the ownership of 3PIDs
  143. before creating that mapping.
  144. **They are not where accounts or credentials are stored - these live on home
  145. servers. Identity Servers are just for mapping 3rd party IDs to matrix IDs.**
  146. This process is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam if it
  147. is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data. In the longer
  148. term, we hope to create a decentralised system to manage it (`matrix-doc #712
  149. <https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/712>`_), but in the meantime,
  150. the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is farmed out to
  151. a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix Identity
  152. Servers' such as `Sydent <https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent>`_, whose role
  153. is purely to authenticate and track 3PID logins and publish end-user public
  154. keys.
  155. You can host your own copy of Sydent, but this will prevent you reaching other
  156. users in the Matrix ecosystem via their email address, and prevent them finding
  157. you. We therefore recommend that you use one of the centralised identity servers
  158. at ``https://matrix.org`` or ``https://vector.im`` for now.
  159. To reiterate: the Identity server will only be used if you choose to associate
  160. an email address with your account, or send an invite to another user via their
  161. email address.
  162. Password reset
  163. ==============
  164. Users can reset their password through their client. Alternatively, a server admin
  165. can reset a users password using the `admin API <docs/admin_api/user_admin_api.rst#reset-password>`_
  166. or by directly editing the database as shown below.
  167. First calculate the hash of the new password::
  168. $ ~/synapse/env/bin/hash_password
  169. Password:
  170. Confirm password:
  171. $2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  172. Then update the ``users`` table in the database::
  173. UPDATE users SET password_hash='$2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
  174. WHERE name='@test:test.com';
  175. Synapse Development
  176. ===================
  177. Join our developer community on Matrix: [#synapse-dev:matrix.org](https://matrix.to/#/#synapse-dev:matrix.org)
  178. Before setting up a development environment for synapse, make sure you have the
  179. system dependencies (such as the python header files) installed - see
  180. `Installing from source <INSTALL.md#installing-from-source>`_.
  181. To check out a synapse for development, clone the git repo into a working
  182. directory of your choice::
  183. git clone https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse.git
  184. cd synapse
  185. Synapse has a number of external dependencies, that are easiest
  186. to install using pip and a virtualenv::
  187. python3 -m venv ./env
  188. source ./env/bin/activate
  189. pip install -e ".[all,test]"
  190. This will run a process of downloading and installing all the needed
  191. dependencies into a virtual env. If any dependencies fail to install,
  192. try installing the failing modules individually::
  193. pip install -e "module-name"
  194. Once this is done, you may wish to run Synapse's unit tests to
  195. check that everything is installed correctly::
  196. python -m twisted.trial tests
  197. This should end with a 'PASSED' result (note that exact numbers will
  198. differ)::
  199. Ran 1337 tests in 716.064s
  200. PASSED (skips=15, successes=1322)
  201. Running the Integration Tests
  202. =============================
  203. Synapse is accompanied by `SyTest <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest>`_,
  204. a Matrix homeserver integration testing suite, which uses HTTP requests to
  205. access the API as a Matrix client would. It is able to run Synapse directly from
  206. the source tree, so installation of the server is not required.
  207. Testing with SyTest is recommended for verifying that changes related to the
  208. Client-Server API are functioning correctly. See the `installation instructions
  209. <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest#installing>`_ for details.
  210. Troubleshooting
  211. ===============
  212. Need help? Join our community support room on Matrix:
  213. `#synapse:matrix.org <https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org>`_
  214. Running out of File Handles
  215. ---------------------------
  216. If synapse runs out of file handles, it typically fails badly - live-locking
  217. at 100% CPU, and/or failing to accept new TCP connections (blocking the
  218. connecting client). Matrix currently can legitimately use a lot of file handles,
  219. thanks to busy rooms like #matrix:matrix.org containing hundreds of participating
  220. servers. The first time a server talks in a room it will try to connect
  221. simultaneously to all participating servers, which could exhaust the available
  222. file descriptors between DNS queries & HTTPS sockets, especially if DNS is slow
  223. to respond. (We need to improve the routing algorithm used to be better than
  224. full mesh, but as of March 2019 this hasn't happened yet).
  225. If you hit this failure mode, we recommend increasing the maximum number of
  226. open file handles to be at least 4096 (assuming a default of 1024 or 256).
  227. This is typically done by editing ``/etc/security/limits.conf``
  228. Separately, Synapse may leak file handles if inbound HTTP requests get stuck
  229. during processing - e.g. blocked behind a lock or talking to a remote server etc.
  230. This is best diagnosed by matching up the 'Received request' and 'Processed request'
  231. log lines and looking for any 'Processed request' lines which take more than
  232. a few seconds to execute. Please let us know at #synapse:matrix.org if
  233. you see this failure mode so we can help debug it, however.
  234. Help!! Synapse is slow and eats all my RAM/CPU!
  235. -----------------------------------------------
  236. First, ensure you are running the latest version of Synapse, using Python 3
  237. with a PostgreSQL database.
  238. Synapse's architecture is quite RAM hungry currently - we deliberately
  239. cache a lot of recent room data and metadata in RAM in order to speed up
  240. common requests. We'll improve this in the future, but for now the easiest
  241. way to either reduce the RAM usage (at the risk of slowing things down)
  242. is to set the almost-undocumented ``SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR`` environment
  243. variable. The default is 0.5, which can be decreased to reduce RAM usage
  244. in memory constrained enviroments, or increased if performance starts to
  245. degrade.
  246. However, degraded performance due to a low cache factor, common on
  247. machines with slow disks, often leads to explosions in memory use due
  248. backlogged requests. In this case, reducing the cache factor will make
  249. things worse. Instead, try increasing it drastically. 2.0 is a good
  250. starting value.
  251. Using `libjemalloc <http://jemalloc.net/>`_ can also yield a significant
  252. improvement in overall memory use, and especially in terms of giving back
  253. RAM to the OS. To use it, the library must simply be put in the
  254. LD_PRELOAD environment variable when launching Synapse. On Debian, this
  255. can be done by installing the ``libjemalloc1`` package and adding this
  256. line to ``/etc/default/matrix-synapse``::
  257. LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjemalloc.so.1
  258. This can make a significant difference on Python 2.7 - it's unclear how
  259. much of an improvement it provides on Python 3.x.
  260. If you're encountering high CPU use by the Synapse process itself, you
  261. may be affected by a bug with presence tracking that leads to a
  262. massive excess of outgoing federation requests (see `discussion
  263. <https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/3971>`_). If metrics
  264. indicate that your server is also issuing far more outgoing federation
  265. requests than can be accounted for by your users' activity, this is a
  266. likely cause. The misbehavior can be worked around by setting
  267. ``use_presence: false`` in the Synapse config file.
  268. People can't accept room invitations from me
  269. --------------------------------------------
  270. The typical failure mode here is that you send an invitation to someone
  271. to join a room or direct chat, but when they go to accept it, they get an
  272. error (typically along the lines of "Invalid signature"). They might see
  273. something like the following in their logs::
  274. 2019-09-11 19:32:04,271 - synapse.federation.transport.server - 288 - WARNING - GET-11752 - authenticate_request failed: 401: Invalid signature for server <server> with key ed25519:a_EqML: Unable to verify signature for <server>
  275. This is normally caused by a misconfiguration in your reverse-proxy. See
  276. `<docs/reverse_proxy.md>`_ and double-check that your settings are correct.
  277. .. |support| image:: https://img.shields.io/matrix/synapse:matrix.org?label=support&logo=matrix
  278. :alt: (get support on #synapse:matrix.org)
  279. :target: https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org
  280. .. |development| image:: https://img.shields.io/matrix/synapse-dev:matrix.org?label=development&logo=matrix
  281. :alt: (discuss development on #synapse-dev:matrix.org)
  282. :target: https://matrix.to/#/#synapse-dev:matrix.org
  283. .. |license| image:: https://img.shields.io/github/license/matrix-org/synapse
  284. :alt: (check license in LICENSE file)
  285. :target: LICENSE
  286. .. |pypi| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/matrix-synapse
  287. :alt: (latest version released on PyPi)
  288. :target: https://pypi.org/project/matrix-synapse
  289. .. |python| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/matrix-synapse
  290. :alt: (supported python versions)
  291. :target: https://pypi.org/project/matrix-synapse