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README.rst 16 KB

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  1. ================
  2. Synapse |shield|
  3. ================
  4. .. |shield| image:: https://img.shields.io/matrix/synapse:matrix.org?label=support&logo=matrix
  5. :alt: (get support on #synapse:matrix.org)
  6. :target: https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org
  7. .. contents::
  8. Introduction
  9. ============
  10. Matrix is an ambitious new ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and
  11. VoIP. The basics you need to know to get up and running are:
  12. - Everything in Matrix happens in a room. Rooms are distributed and do not
  13. exist on any single server. Rooms can be located using convenience aliases
  14. like ``#matrix:matrix.org`` or ``#test:localhost:8448``.
  15. - Matrix user IDs look like ``@matthew:matrix.org`` (although in the future
  16. you will normally refer to yourself and others using a third party identifier
  17. (3PID): email address, phone number, etc rather than manipulating Matrix user IDs)
  18. The overall architecture is::
  19. client <----> homeserver <=====================> homeserver <----> client
  20. https://somewhere.org/_matrix https://elsewhere.net/_matrix
  21. ``#matrix:matrix.org`` is the official support room for Matrix, and can be
  22. accessed by any client from https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html or
  23. via IRC bridge at irc://irc.freenode.net/matrix.
  24. Synapse is currently in rapid development, but as of version 0.5 we believe it
  25. is sufficiently stable to be run as an internet-facing service for real usage!
  26. About Matrix
  27. ============
  28. Matrix specifies a set of pragmatic RESTful HTTP JSON APIs as an open standard,
  29. which handle:
  30. - Creating and managing fully distributed chat rooms with no
  31. single points of control or failure
  32. - Eventually-consistent cryptographically secure synchronisation of room
  33. state across a global open network of federated servers and services
  34. - Sending and receiving extensible messages in a room with (optional)
  35. end-to-end encryption
  36. - Inviting, joining, leaving, kicking, banning room members
  37. - Managing user accounts (registration, login, logout)
  38. - Using 3rd Party IDs (3PIDs) such as email addresses, phone numbers,
  39. Facebook accounts to authenticate, identify and discover users on Matrix.
  40. - Placing 1:1 VoIP and Video calls
  41. These APIs are intended to be implemented on a wide range of servers, services
  42. and clients, letting developers build messaging and VoIP functionality on top
  43. of the entirely open Matrix ecosystem rather than using closed or proprietary
  44. solutions. The hope is for Matrix to act as the building blocks for a new
  45. generation of fully open and interoperable messaging and VoIP apps for the
  46. internet.
  47. Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix from the core
  48. development team at matrix.org, written in Python/Twisted. It is intended to
  49. showcase the concept of Matrix and let folks see the spec in the context of a
  50. codebase and let you run your own homeserver and generally help bootstrap the
  51. ecosystem.
  52. In Matrix, every user runs one or more Matrix clients, which connect through to
  53. a Matrix homeserver. The homeserver stores all their personal chat history and
  54. user account information - much as a mail client connects through to an
  55. IMAP/SMTP server. Just like email, you can either run your own Matrix
  56. homeserver and control and own your own communications and history or use one
  57. hosted by someone else (e.g. matrix.org) - there is no single point of control
  58. or mandatory service provider in Matrix, unlike WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts,
  59. etc.
  60. We'd like to invite you to join #matrix:matrix.org (via
  61. https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html), run a homeserver, take a look
  62. at the `Matrix spec <https://matrix.org/docs/spec>`_, and experiment with the
  63. `APIs <https://matrix.org/docs/api>`_ and `Client SDKs
  64. <https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html#client-sdks>`_.
  65. Thanks for using Matrix!
  66. Support
  67. =======
  68. For support installing or managing Synapse, please join |room|_ (from a matrix.org
  69. account if necessary) and ask questions there. We do not use GitHub issues for
  70. support requests, only for bug reports and feature requests.
  71. .. |room| replace:: ``#synapse:matrix.org``
  72. .. _room: https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org
  73. Synapse Installation
  74. ====================
  75. .. _federation:
  76. * For details on how to install synapse, see `<INSTALL.md>`_.
  77. * For specific details on how to configure Synapse for federation see `docs/federate.md <docs/federate.md>`_
  78. Connecting to Synapse from a client
  79. ===================================
  80. The easiest way to try out your new Synapse installation is by connecting to it
  81. from a web client.
  82. Unless you are running a test instance of Synapse on your local machine, in
  83. general, you will need to enable TLS support before you can successfully
  84. connect from a client: see `<INSTALL.md#tls-certificates>`_.
  85. An easy way to get started is to login or register via Element at
  86. https://app.element.io/#/login or https://app.element.io/#/register respectively.
  87. You will need to change the server you are logging into from ``matrix.org``
  88. and instead specify a Homeserver URL of ``https://<server_name>:8448``
  89. (or just ``https://<server_name>`` if you are using a reverse proxy).
  90. If you prefer to use another client, refer to our
  91. `client breakdown <https://matrix.org/docs/projects/clients-matrix>`_.
  92. If all goes well you should at least be able to log in, create a room, and
  93. start sending messages.
  94. .. _`client-user-reg`:
  95. Registering a new user from a client
  96. ------------------------------------
  97. By default, registration of new users via Matrix clients is disabled. To enable
  98. it, specify ``enable_registration: true`` in ``homeserver.yaml``. (It is then
  99. recommended to also set up CAPTCHA - see `<docs/CAPTCHA_SETUP.md>`_.)
  100. Once ``enable_registration`` is set to ``true``, it is possible to register a
  101. user via a Matrix client.
  102. Your new user name will be formed partly from the ``server_name``, and partly
  103. from a localpart you specify when you create the account. Your name will take
  104. the form of::
  105. @localpart:my.domain.name
  106. (pronounced "at localpart on my dot domain dot name").
  107. As when logging in, you will need to specify a "Custom server". Specify your
  108. desired ``localpart`` in the 'User name' box.
  109. ACME setup
  110. ==========
  111. For details on having Synapse manage your federation TLS certificates
  112. automatically, please see `<docs/ACME.md>`_.
  113. Security Note
  114. =============
  115. Matrix serves raw user generated data in some APIs - specifically the `content
  116. repository endpoints <https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/latest.html#get-matrix-media-r0-download-servername-mediaid>`_.
  117. Whilst we have tried to mitigate against possible XSS attacks (e.g.
  118. https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/1021) we recommend running
  119. matrix homeservers on a dedicated domain name, to limit any malicious user generated
  120. content served to web browsers a matrix API from being able to attack webapps hosted
  121. on the same domain. This is particularly true of sharing a matrix webclient and
  122. server on the same domain.
  123. See https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/issues/1977 and
  124. https://developer.github.com/changes/2014-04-25-user-content-security for more details.
  125. Upgrading an existing Synapse
  126. =============================
  127. The instructions for upgrading synapse are in `UPGRADE.rst`_.
  128. Please check these instructions as upgrading may require extra steps for some
  129. versions of synapse.
  130. .. _UPGRADE.rst: UPGRADE.rst
  131. .. _reverse-proxy:
  132. Using a reverse proxy with Synapse
  133. ==================================
  134. It is recommended to put a reverse proxy such as
  135. `nginx <https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html>`_,
  136. `Apache <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_proxy_http.html>`_,
  137. `Caddy <https://caddyserver.com/docs/quick-starts/reverse-proxy>`_ or
  138. `HAProxy <https://www.haproxy.org/>`_ in front of Synapse. One advantage of
  139. doing so is that it means that you can expose the default https port (443) to
  140. Matrix clients without needing to run Synapse with root privileges.
  141. For information on configuring one, see `<docs/reverse_proxy.md>`_.
  142. Identity Servers
  143. ================
  144. Identity servers have the job of mapping email addresses and other 3rd Party
  145. IDs (3PIDs) to Matrix user IDs, as well as verifying the ownership of 3PIDs
  146. before creating that mapping.
  147. **They are not where accounts or credentials are stored - these live on home
  148. servers. Identity Servers are just for mapping 3rd party IDs to matrix IDs.**
  149. This process is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam if it
  150. is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data. In the longer
  151. term, we hope to create a decentralised system to manage it (`matrix-doc #712
  152. <https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/712>`_), but in the meantime,
  153. the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is farmed out to
  154. a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix Identity
  155. Servers' such as `Sydent <https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent>`_, whose role
  156. is purely to authenticate and track 3PID logins and publish end-user public
  157. keys.
  158. You can host your own copy of Sydent, but this will prevent you reaching other
  159. users in the Matrix ecosystem via their email address, and prevent them finding
  160. you. We therefore recommend that you use one of the centralised identity servers
  161. at ``https://matrix.org`` or ``https://vector.im`` for now.
  162. To reiterate: the Identity server will only be used if you choose to associate
  163. an email address with your account, or send an invite to another user via their
  164. email address.
  165. Password reset
  166. ==============
  167. Users can reset their password through their client. Alternatively, a server admin
  168. can reset a users password using the `admin API <docs/admin_api/user_admin_api.rst#reset-password>`_
  169. or by directly editing the database as shown below.
  170. First calculate the hash of the new password::
  171. $ ~/synapse/env/bin/hash_password
  172. Password:
  173. Confirm password:
  174. $2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  175. Then update the ``users`` table in the database::
  176. UPDATE users SET password_hash='$2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
  177. WHERE name='@test:test.com';
  178. Synapse Development
  179. ===================
  180. Before setting up a development environment for synapse, make sure you have the
  181. system dependencies (such as the python header files) installed - see
  182. `Installing from source <INSTALL.md#installing-from-source>`_.
  183. To check out a synapse for development, clone the git repo into a working
  184. directory of your choice::
  185. git clone https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse.git
  186. cd synapse
  187. Synapse has a number of external dependencies, that are easiest
  188. to install using pip and a virtualenv::
  189. virtualenv -p python3 env
  190. source env/bin/activate
  191. python -m pip install --no-use-pep517 -e ".[all]"
  192. This will run a process of downloading and installing all the needed
  193. dependencies into a virtual env.
  194. Once this is done, you may wish to run Synapse's unit tests, to
  195. check that everything is installed as it should be::
  196. python -m twisted.trial tests
  197. This should end with a 'PASSED' result::
  198. Ran 143 tests in 0.601s
  199. PASSED (successes=143)
  200. Running the Integration Tests
  201. =============================
  202. Synapse is accompanied by `SyTest <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest>`_,
  203. a Matrix homeserver integration testing suite, which uses HTTP requests to
  204. access the API as a Matrix client would. It is able to run Synapse directly from
  205. the source tree, so installation of the server is not required.
  206. Testing with SyTest is recommended for verifying that changes related to the
  207. Client-Server API are functioning correctly. See the `installation instructions
  208. <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest#installing>`_ for details.
  209. Building Internal API Documentation
  210. ===================================
  211. Before building internal API documentation install sphinx and
  212. sphinxcontrib-napoleon::
  213. pip install sphinx
  214. pip install sphinxcontrib-napoleon
  215. Building internal API documentation::
  216. python setup.py build_sphinx
  217. Troubleshooting
  218. ===============
  219. Need help? Join our community support room on Matrix:
  220. `#synapse:matrix.org <https://matrix.to/#/#synapse:matrix.org>`_
  221. Running out of File Handles
  222. ---------------------------
  223. If synapse runs out of file handles, it typically fails badly - live-locking
  224. at 100% CPU, and/or failing to accept new TCP connections (blocking the
  225. connecting client). Matrix currently can legitimately use a lot of file handles,
  226. thanks to busy rooms like #matrix:matrix.org containing hundreds of participating
  227. servers. The first time a server talks in a room it will try to connect
  228. simultaneously to all participating servers, which could exhaust the available
  229. file descriptors between DNS queries & HTTPS sockets, especially if DNS is slow
  230. to respond. (We need to improve the routing algorithm used to be better than
  231. full mesh, but as of March 2019 this hasn't happened yet).
  232. If you hit this failure mode, we recommend increasing the maximum number of
  233. open file handles to be at least 4096 (assuming a default of 1024 or 256).
  234. This is typically done by editing ``/etc/security/limits.conf``
  235. Separately, Synapse may leak file handles if inbound HTTP requests get stuck
  236. during processing - e.g. blocked behind a lock or talking to a remote server etc.
  237. This is best diagnosed by matching up the 'Received request' and 'Processed request'
  238. log lines and looking for any 'Processed request' lines which take more than
  239. a few seconds to execute. Please let us know at #synapse:matrix.org if
  240. you see this failure mode so we can help debug it, however.
  241. Help!! Synapse is slow and eats all my RAM/CPU!
  242. -----------------------------------------------
  243. First, ensure you are running the latest version of Synapse, using Python 3
  244. with a PostgreSQL database.
  245. Synapse's architecture is quite RAM hungry currently - we deliberately
  246. cache a lot of recent room data and metadata in RAM in order to speed up
  247. common requests. We'll improve this in the future, but for now the easiest
  248. way to either reduce the RAM usage (at the risk of slowing things down)
  249. is to set the almost-undocumented ``SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR`` environment
  250. variable. The default is 0.5, which can be decreased to reduce RAM usage
  251. in memory constrained enviroments, or increased if performance starts to
  252. degrade.
  253. However, degraded performance due to a low cache factor, common on
  254. machines with slow disks, often leads to explosions in memory use due
  255. backlogged requests. In this case, reducing the cache factor will make
  256. things worse. Instead, try increasing it drastically. 2.0 is a good
  257. starting value.
  258. Using `libjemalloc <http://jemalloc.net/>`_ can also yield a significant
  259. improvement in overall memory use, and especially in terms of giving back
  260. RAM to the OS. To use it, the library must simply be put in the
  261. LD_PRELOAD environment variable when launching Synapse. On Debian, this
  262. can be done by installing the ``libjemalloc1`` package and adding this
  263. line to ``/etc/default/matrix-synapse``::
  264. LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjemalloc.so.1
  265. This can make a significant difference on Python 2.7 - it's unclear how
  266. much of an improvement it provides on Python 3.x.
  267. If you're encountering high CPU use by the Synapse process itself, you
  268. may be affected by a bug with presence tracking that leads to a
  269. massive excess of outgoing federation requests (see `discussion
  270. <https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/3971>`_). If metrics
  271. indicate that your server is also issuing far more outgoing federation
  272. requests than can be accounted for by your users' activity, this is a
  273. likely cause. The misbehavior can be worked around by setting
  274. ``use_presence: false`` in the Synapse config file.
  275. People can't accept room invitations from me
  276. --------------------------------------------
  277. The typical failure mode here is that you send an invitation to someone
  278. to join a room or direct chat, but when they go to accept it, they get an
  279. error (typically along the lines of "Invalid signature"). They might see
  280. something like the following in their logs::
  281. 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>
  282. This is normally caused by a misconfiguration in your reverse-proxy. See
  283. `<docs/reverse_proxy.md>`_ and double-check that your settings are correct.