README.rst 38 KB

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  1. .. contents::
  2. Introduction
  3. ============
  4. Matrix is an ambitious new ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and
  5. VoIP. The basics you need to know to get up and running are:
  6. - Everything in Matrix happens in a room. Rooms are distributed and do not
  7. exist on any single server. Rooms can be located using convenience aliases
  8. like ``#matrix:matrix.org`` or ``#test:localhost:8448``.
  9. - Matrix user IDs look like ``@matthew:matrix.org`` (although in the future
  10. you will normally refer to yourself and others using a third party identifier
  11. (3PID): email address, phone number, etc rather than manipulating Matrix user IDs)
  12. The overall architecture is::
  13. client <----> homeserver <=====================> homeserver <----> client
  14. https://somewhere.org/_matrix https://elsewhere.net/_matrix
  15. ``#matrix:matrix.org`` is the official support room for Matrix, and can be
  16. accessed by any client from https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html or
  17. via IRC bridge at irc://irc.freenode.net/matrix.
  18. Synapse is currently in rapid development, but as of version 0.5 we believe it
  19. is sufficiently stable to be run as an internet-facing service for real usage!
  20. About Matrix
  21. ============
  22. Matrix specifies a set of pragmatic RESTful HTTP JSON APIs as an open standard,
  23. which handle:
  24. - Creating and managing fully distributed chat rooms with no
  25. single points of control or failure
  26. - Eventually-consistent cryptographically secure synchronisation of room
  27. state across a global open network of federated servers and services
  28. - Sending and receiving extensible messages in a room with (optional)
  29. end-to-end encryption[1]
  30. - Inviting, joining, leaving, kicking, banning room members
  31. - Managing user accounts (registration, login, logout)
  32. - Using 3rd Party IDs (3PIDs) such as email addresses, phone numbers,
  33. Facebook accounts to authenticate, identify and discover users on Matrix.
  34. - Placing 1:1 VoIP and Video calls
  35. These APIs are intended to be implemented on a wide range of servers, services
  36. and clients, letting developers build messaging and VoIP functionality on top
  37. of the entirely open Matrix ecosystem rather than using closed or proprietary
  38. solutions. The hope is for Matrix to act as the building blocks for a new
  39. generation of fully open and interoperable messaging and VoIP apps for the
  40. internet.
  41. Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix from the core
  42. development team at matrix.org, written in Python/Twisted. It is intended to
  43. showcase the concept of Matrix and let folks see the spec in the context of a
  44. codebase and let you run your own homeserver and generally help bootstrap the
  45. ecosystem.
  46. In Matrix, every user runs one or more Matrix clients, which connect through to
  47. a Matrix homeserver. The homeserver stores all their personal chat history and
  48. user account information - much as a mail client connects through to an
  49. IMAP/SMTP server. Just like email, you can either run your own Matrix
  50. homeserver and control and own your own communications and history or use one
  51. hosted by someone else (e.g. matrix.org) - there is no single point of control
  52. or mandatory service provider in Matrix, unlike WhatsApp, Facebook, Hangouts,
  53. etc.
  54. We'd like to invite you to join #matrix:matrix.org (via
  55. https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html), run a homeserver, take a look
  56. at the `Matrix spec <https://matrix.org/docs/spec>`_, and experiment with the
  57. `APIs <https://matrix.org/docs/api>`_ and `Client SDKs
  58. <https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html#client-sdks>`_.
  59. Thanks for using Matrix!
  60. [1] End-to-end encryption is currently in beta: `blog post <https://matrix.org/blog/2016/11/21/matrixs-olm-end-to-end-encryption-security-assessment-released-and-implemented-cross-platform-on-riot-at-last>`_.
  61. Synapse Installation
  62. ====================
  63. Synapse is the reference python/twisted Matrix homeserver implementation.
  64. System requirements:
  65. - POSIX-compliant system (tested on Linux & OS X)
  66. - Python 2.7
  67. - At least 1GB of free RAM if you want to join large public rooms like #matrix:matrix.org
  68. Installing from source
  69. ----------------------
  70. (Prebuilt packages are available for some platforms - see `Platform-Specific
  71. Instructions`_.)
  72. Synapse is written in python but some of the libraries it uses are written in
  73. C. So before we can install synapse itself we need a working C compiler and the
  74. header files for python C extensions.
  75. Installing prerequisites on Ubuntu or Debian::
  76. sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.7-dev libffi-dev \
  77. python-pip python-setuptools sqlite3 \
  78. libssl-dev python-virtualenv libjpeg-dev libxslt1-dev
  79. Installing prerequisites on ArchLinux::
  80. sudo pacman -S base-devel python2 python-pip \
  81. python-setuptools python-virtualenv sqlite3
  82. Installing prerequisites on CentOS 7 or Fedora 25::
  83. sudo yum install libtiff-devel libjpeg-devel libzip-devel freetype-devel \
  84. lcms2-devel libwebp-devel tcl-devel tk-devel redhat-rpm-config \
  85. python-virtualenv libffi-devel openssl-devel
  86. sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
  87. Installing prerequisites on Mac OS X::
  88. xcode-select --install
  89. sudo easy_install pip
  90. sudo pip install virtualenv
  91. brew install pkg-config libffi
  92. Installing prerequisites on Raspbian::
  93. sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.7-dev libffi-dev \
  94. python-pip python-setuptools sqlite3 \
  95. libssl-dev python-virtualenv libjpeg-dev
  96. sudo pip install --upgrade pip
  97. sudo pip install --upgrade ndg-httpsclient
  98. sudo pip install --upgrade virtualenv
  99. Installing prerequisites on openSUSE::
  100. sudo zypper in -t pattern devel_basis
  101. sudo zypper in python-pip python-setuptools sqlite3 python-virtualenv \
  102. python-devel libffi-devel libopenssl-devel libjpeg62-devel
  103. Installing prerequisites on OpenBSD::
  104. doas pkg_add python libffi py-pip py-setuptools sqlite3 py-virtualenv \
  105. libxslt
  106. To install the synapse homeserver run::
  107. virtualenv -p python2.7 ~/.synapse
  108. source ~/.synapse/bin/activate
  109. pip install --upgrade pip
  110. pip install --upgrade setuptools
  111. pip install https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/tarball/master
  112. This installs synapse, along with the libraries it uses, into a virtual
  113. environment under ``~/.synapse``. Feel free to pick a different directory
  114. if you prefer.
  115. In case of problems, please see the _`Troubleshooting` section below.
  116. There is an offical synapse image available at
  117. https://hub.docker.com/r/matrixdotorg/synapse/tags/ which can be used with
  118. the docker-compose file available at `contrib/docker <contrib/docker>`_. Further information on
  119. this including configuration options is available in the README on
  120. hub.docker.com.
  121. Alternatively, Andreas Peters (previously Silvio Fricke) has contributed a
  122. Dockerfile to automate a synapse server in a single Docker image, at
  123. https://hub.docker.com/r/avhost/docker-matrix/tags/
  124. Also, Martin Giess has created an auto-deployment process with vagrant/ansible,
  125. tested with VirtualBox/AWS/DigitalOcean - see
  126. https://github.com/EMnify/matrix-synapse-auto-deploy
  127. for details.
  128. Configuring synapse
  129. -------------------
  130. Before you can start Synapse, you will need to generate a configuration
  131. file. To do this, run (in your virtualenv, as before)::
  132. cd ~/.synapse
  133. python -m synapse.app.homeserver \
  134. --server-name my.domain.name \
  135. --config-path homeserver.yaml \
  136. --generate-config \
  137. --report-stats=[yes|no]
  138. ... substituting an appropriate value for ``--server-name``. The server name
  139. determines the "domain" part of user-ids for users on your server: these will
  140. all be of the format ``@user:my.domain.name``. It also determines how other
  141. matrix servers will reach yours for `Federation`_. For a test configuration,
  142. set this to the hostname of your server. For a more production-ready setup, you
  143. will probably want to specify your domain (``example.com``) rather than a
  144. matrix-specific hostname here (in the same way that your email address is
  145. probably ``user@example.com`` rather than ``user@email.example.com``) - but
  146. doing so may require more advanced setup - see `Setting up
  147. Federation`_. Beware that the server name cannot be changed later.
  148. This command will generate you a config file that you can then customise, but it will
  149. also generate a set of keys for you. These keys will allow your Home Server to
  150. identify itself to other Home Servers, so don't lose or delete them. It would be
  151. wise to back them up somewhere safe. (If, for whatever reason, you do need to
  152. change your Home Server's keys, you may find that other Home Servers have the
  153. old key cached. If you update the signing key, you should change the name of the
  154. key in the ``<server name>.signing.key`` file (the second word) to something
  155. different. See `the spec`__ for more information on key management.)
  156. .. __: `key_management`_
  157. The default configuration exposes two HTTP ports: 8008 and 8448. Port 8008 is
  158. configured without TLS; it should be behind a reverse proxy for TLS/SSL
  159. termination on port 443 which in turn should be used for clients. Port 8448
  160. is configured to use TLS with a self-signed certificate. If you would like
  161. to do initial test with a client without having to setup a reverse proxy,
  162. you can temporarly use another certificate. (Note that a self-signed
  163. certificate is fine for `Federation`_). You can do so by changing
  164. ``tls_certificate_path``, ``tls_private_key_path`` and ``tls_dh_params_path``
  165. in ``homeserver.yaml``; alternatively, you can use a reverse-proxy, but be sure
  166. to read `Using a reverse proxy with Synapse`_ when doing so.
  167. Apart from port 8448 using TLS, both ports are the same in the default
  168. configuration.
  169. Registering a user
  170. ------------------
  171. You will need at least one user on your server in order to use a Matrix
  172. client. Users can be registered either `via a Matrix client`__, or via a
  173. commandline script.
  174. .. __: `client-user-reg`_
  175. To get started, it is easiest to use the command line to register new users::
  176. $ source ~/.synapse/bin/activate
  177. $ synctl start # if not already running
  178. $ register_new_matrix_user -c homeserver.yaml https://localhost:8448
  179. New user localpart: erikj
  180. Password:
  181. Confirm password:
  182. Make admin [no]:
  183. Success!
  184. This process uses a setting ``registration_shared_secret`` in
  185. ``homeserver.yaml``, which is shared between Synapse itself and the
  186. ``register_new_matrix_user`` script. It doesn't matter what it is (a random
  187. value is generated by ``--generate-config``), but it should be kept secret, as
  188. anyone with knowledge of it can register users on your server even if
  189. ``enable_registration`` is ``false``.
  190. Setting up a TURN server
  191. ------------------------
  192. For reliable VoIP calls to be routed via this homeserver, you MUST configure
  193. a TURN server. See `<docs/turn-howto.rst>`_ for details.
  194. IPv6
  195. ----
  196. As of Synapse 0.19 we finally support IPv6, many thanks to @kyrias and @glyph
  197. for providing PR #1696.
  198. However, for federation to work on hosts with IPv6 DNS servers you **must**
  199. be running Twisted 17.1.0 or later - see https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1002
  200. for details. We can't make Synapse depend on Twisted 17.1 by default
  201. yet as it will break most older distributions (see https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/1909)
  202. so if you are using operating system dependencies you'll have to install your
  203. own Twisted 17.1 package via pip or backports etc.
  204. If you're running in a virtualenv then pip should have installed the newest
  205. Twisted automatically, but if your virtualenv is old you will need to manually
  206. upgrade to a newer Twisted dependency via:
  207. pip install Twisted>=17.1.0
  208. Running Synapse
  209. ===============
  210. To actually run your new homeserver, pick a working directory for Synapse to
  211. run (e.g. ``~/.synapse``), and::
  212. cd ~/.synapse
  213. source ./bin/activate
  214. synctl start
  215. Connecting to Synapse from a client
  216. ===================================
  217. The easiest way to try out your new Synapse installation is by connecting to it
  218. from a web client. The easiest option is probably the one at
  219. https://riot.im/app. You will need to specify a "Custom server" when you log on
  220. or register: set this to ``https://domain.tld`` if you setup a reverse proxy
  221. following the recommended setup, or ``https://localhost:8448`` - remember to specify the
  222. port (``:8448``) if not ``:443`` unless you changed the configuration. (Leave the identity
  223. server as the default - see `Identity servers`_.)
  224. If using port 8448 you will run into errors until you accept the self-signed
  225. certificate. You can easily do this by going to ``https://localhost:8448``
  226. directly with your browser and accept the presented certificate. You can then
  227. go back in your web client and proceed further.
  228. If all goes well you should at least be able to log in, create a room, and
  229. start sending messages.
  230. (The homeserver runs a web client by default at https://localhost:8448/, though
  231. as of the time of writing it is somewhat outdated and not really recommended -
  232. https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1527).
  233. .. _`client-user-reg`:
  234. Registering a new user from a client
  235. ------------------------------------
  236. By default, registration of new users via Matrix clients is disabled. To enable
  237. it, specify ``enable_registration: true`` in ``homeserver.yaml``. (It is then
  238. recommended to also set up CAPTCHA - see `<docs/CAPTCHA_SETUP.rst>`_.)
  239. Once ``enable_registration`` is set to ``true``, it is possible to register a
  240. user via `riot.im <https://riot.im/app/#/register>`_ or other Matrix clients.
  241. Your new user name will be formed partly from the ``server_name`` (see
  242. `Configuring synapse`_), and partly from a localpart you specify when you
  243. create the account. Your name will take the form of::
  244. @localpart:my.domain.name
  245. (pronounced "at localpart on my dot domain dot name").
  246. As when logging in, you will need to specify a "Custom server". Specify your
  247. desired ``localpart`` in the 'User name' box.
  248. Security Note
  249. =============
  250. Matrix serves raw user generated data in some APIs - specifically the `content
  251. repository endpoints <https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/latest.html#get-matrix-media-r0-download-servername-mediaid>`_.
  252. Whilst we have tried to mitigate against possible XSS attacks (e.g.
  253. https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/1021) we recommend running
  254. matrix homeservers on a dedicated domain name, to limit any malicious user generated
  255. content served to web browsers a matrix API from being able to attack webapps hosted
  256. on the same domain. This is particularly true of sharing a matrix webclient and
  257. server on the same domain.
  258. See https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web/issues/1977 and
  259. https://developer.github.com/changes/2014-04-25-user-content-security for more details.
  260. Platform-Specific Instructions
  261. ==============================
  262. Debian
  263. ------
  264. Matrix provides official Debian packages via apt from https://matrix.org/packages/debian/.
  265. Note that these packages do not include a client - choose one from
  266. https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now.html (or build your own with one of our SDKs :)
  267. Fedora
  268. ------
  269. Synapse is in the Fedora repositories as ``matrix-synapse``::
  270. sudo dnf install matrix-synapse
  271. Oleg Girko provides Fedora RPMs at
  272. https://obs.infoserver.lv/project/monitor/matrix-synapse
  273. OpenSUSE
  274. --------
  275. Synapse is in the OpenSUSE repositories as ``matrix-synapse``::
  276. sudo zypper install matrix-synapse
  277. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
  278. ----------------------------
  279. Unofficial package are built for SLES 15 in the openSUSE:Backports:SLE-15 repository at
  280. https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Backports:/SLE-15/standard/
  281. ArchLinux
  282. ---------
  283. The quickest way to get up and running with ArchLinux is probably with the community package
  284. https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/matrix-synapse/, which should pull in most of
  285. the necessary dependencies. If the default web client is to be served (enabled by default in
  286. the generated config),
  287. https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/python2-matrix-angular-sdk/ will also need to
  288. be installed.
  289. Alternatively, to install using pip a few changes may be needed as ArchLinux
  290. defaults to python 3, but synapse currently assumes python 2.7 by default:
  291. pip may be outdated (6.0.7-1 and needs to be upgraded to 6.0.8-1 )::
  292. sudo pip2.7 install --upgrade pip
  293. You also may need to explicitly specify python 2.7 again during the install
  294. request::
  295. pip2.7 install https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/tarball/master
  296. If you encounter an error with lib bcrypt causing an Wrong ELF Class:
  297. ELFCLASS32 (x64 Systems), you may need to reinstall py-bcrypt to correctly
  298. compile it under the right architecture. (This should not be needed if
  299. installing under virtualenv)::
  300. sudo pip2.7 uninstall py-bcrypt
  301. sudo pip2.7 install py-bcrypt
  302. During setup of Synapse you need to call python2.7 directly again::
  303. cd ~/.synapse
  304. python2.7 -m synapse.app.homeserver \
  305. --server-name machine.my.domain.name \
  306. --config-path homeserver.yaml \
  307. --generate-config
  308. ...substituting your host and domain name as appropriate.
  309. FreeBSD
  310. -------
  311. Synapse can be installed via FreeBSD Ports or Packages contributed by Brendan Molloy from:
  312. - Ports: ``cd /usr/ports/net-im/py-matrix-synapse && make install clean``
  313. - Packages: ``pkg install py27-matrix-synapse``
  314. OpenBSD
  315. -------
  316. There is currently no port for OpenBSD. Additionally, OpenBSD's security
  317. settings require a slightly more difficult installation process.
  318. 1) Create a new directory in ``/usr/local`` called ``_synapse``. Also, create a
  319. new user called ``_synapse`` and set that directory as the new user's home.
  320. This is required because, by default, OpenBSD only allows binaries which need
  321. write and execute permissions on the same memory space to be run from
  322. ``/usr/local``.
  323. 2) ``su`` to the new ``_synapse`` user and change to their home directory.
  324. 3) Create a new virtualenv: ``virtualenv -p python2.7 ~/.synapse``
  325. 4) Source the virtualenv configuration located at
  326. ``/usr/local/_synapse/.synapse/bin/activate``. This is done in ``ksh`` by
  327. using the ``.`` command, rather than ``bash``'s ``source``.
  328. 5) Optionally, use ``pip`` to install ``lxml``, which Synapse needs to parse
  329. webpages for their titles.
  330. 6) Use ``pip`` to install this repository: ``pip install
  331. https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/tarball/master``
  332. 7) Optionally, change ``_synapse``'s shell to ``/bin/false`` to reduce the
  333. chance of a compromised Synapse server being used to take over your box.
  334. After this, you may proceed with the rest of the install directions.
  335. NixOS
  336. -----
  337. Robin Lambertz has packaged Synapse for NixOS at:
  338. https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/misc/matrix-synapse.nix
  339. Windows Install
  340. ---------------
  341. Synapse can be installed on Cygwin. It requires the following Cygwin packages:
  342. - gcc
  343. - git
  344. - libffi-devel
  345. - openssl (and openssl-devel, python-openssl)
  346. - python
  347. - python-setuptools
  348. The content repository requires additional packages and will be unable to process
  349. uploads without them:
  350. - libjpeg8
  351. - libjpeg8-devel
  352. - zlib
  353. If you choose to install Synapse without these packages, you will need to reinstall
  354. ``pillow`` for changes to be applied, e.g. ``pip uninstall pillow`` ``pip install
  355. pillow --user``
  356. Troubleshooting:
  357. - You may need to upgrade ``setuptools`` to get this to work correctly:
  358. ``pip install setuptools --upgrade``.
  359. - You may encounter errors indicating that ``ffi.h`` is missing, even with
  360. ``libffi-devel`` installed. If you do, copy the ``.h`` files:
  361. ``cp /usr/lib/libffi-3.0.13/include/*.h /usr/include``
  362. - You may need to install libsodium from source in order to install PyNacl. If
  363. you do, you may need to create a symlink to ``libsodium.a`` so ``ld`` can find
  364. it: ``ln -s /usr/local/lib/libsodium.a /usr/lib/libsodium.a``
  365. Troubleshooting
  366. ===============
  367. Troubleshooting Installation
  368. ----------------------------
  369. Synapse requires pip 1.7 or later, so if your OS provides too old a version you
  370. may need to manually upgrade it::
  371. sudo pip install --upgrade pip
  372. Installing may fail with ``Could not find any downloads that satisfy the requirement pymacaroons-pynacl (from matrix-synapse==0.12.0)``.
  373. You can fix this by manually upgrading pip and virtualenv::
  374. sudo pip install --upgrade virtualenv
  375. You can next rerun ``virtualenv -p python2.7 synapse`` to update the virtual env.
  376. Installing may fail during installing virtualenv with ``InsecurePlatformWarning: A true SSLContext object is not available. This prevents urllib3 from configuring SSL appropriately and may cause certain SSL connections to fail. For more information, see https://urllib3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/security.html#insecureplatformwarning.``
  377. You can fix this by manually installing ndg-httpsclient::
  378. pip install --upgrade ndg-httpsclient
  379. Installing may fail with ``mock requires setuptools>=17.1. Aborting installation``.
  380. You can fix this by upgrading setuptools::
  381. pip install --upgrade setuptools
  382. If pip crashes mid-installation for reason (e.g. lost terminal), pip may
  383. refuse to run until you remove the temporary installation directory it
  384. created. To reset the installation::
  385. rm -rf /tmp/pip_install_matrix
  386. pip seems to leak *lots* of memory during installation. For instance, a Linux
  387. host with 512MB of RAM may run out of memory whilst installing Twisted. If this
  388. happens, you will have to individually install the dependencies which are
  389. failing, e.g.::
  390. pip install twisted
  391. On OS X, if you encounter clang: error: unknown argument: '-mno-fused-madd' you
  392. will need to export CFLAGS=-Qunused-arguments.
  393. Troubleshooting Running
  394. -----------------------
  395. If synapse fails with ``missing "sodium.h"`` crypto errors, you may need
  396. to manually upgrade PyNaCL, as synapse uses NaCl (https://nacl.cr.yp.to/) for
  397. encryption and digital signatures.
  398. Unfortunately PyNACL currently has a few issues
  399. (https://github.com/pyca/pynacl/issues/53) and
  400. (https://github.com/pyca/pynacl/issues/79) that mean it may not install
  401. correctly, causing all tests to fail with errors about missing "sodium.h". To
  402. fix try re-installing from PyPI or directly from
  403. (https://github.com/pyca/pynacl)::
  404. # Install from PyPI
  405. pip install --user --upgrade --force pynacl
  406. # Install from github
  407. pip install --user https://github.com/pyca/pynacl/tarball/master
  408. Running out of File Handles
  409. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  410. If synapse runs out of filehandles, it typically fails badly - live-locking
  411. at 100% CPU, and/or failing to accept new TCP connections (blocking the
  412. connecting client). Matrix currently can legitimately use a lot of file handles,
  413. thanks to busy rooms like #matrix:matrix.org containing hundreds of participating
  414. servers. The first time a server talks in a room it will try to connect
  415. simultaneously to all participating servers, which could exhaust the available
  416. file descriptors between DNS queries & HTTPS sockets, especially if DNS is slow
  417. to respond. (We need to improve the routing algorithm used to be better than
  418. full mesh, but as of June 2017 this hasn't happened yet).
  419. If you hit this failure mode, we recommend increasing the maximum number of
  420. open file handles to be at least 4096 (assuming a default of 1024 or 256).
  421. This is typically done by editing ``/etc/security/limits.conf``
  422. Separately, Synapse may leak file handles if inbound HTTP requests get stuck
  423. during processing - e.g. blocked behind a lock or talking to a remote server etc.
  424. This is best diagnosed by matching up the 'Received request' and 'Processed request'
  425. log lines and looking for any 'Processed request' lines which take more than
  426. a few seconds to execute. Please let us know at #matrix-dev:matrix.org if
  427. you see this failure mode so we can help debug it, however.
  428. ArchLinux
  429. ~~~~~~~~~
  430. If running `$ synctl start` fails with 'returned non-zero exit status 1',
  431. you will need to explicitly call Python2.7 - either running as::
  432. python2.7 -m synapse.app.homeserver --daemonize -c homeserver.yaml
  433. ...or by editing synctl with the correct python executable.
  434. Upgrading an existing Synapse
  435. =============================
  436. The instructions for upgrading synapse are in `UPGRADE.rst`_.
  437. Please check these instructions as upgrading may require extra steps for some
  438. versions of synapse.
  439. .. _UPGRADE.rst: UPGRADE.rst
  440. .. _federation:
  441. Setting up Federation
  442. =====================
  443. Federation is the process by which users on different servers can participate
  444. in the same room. For this to work, those other servers must be able to contact
  445. yours to send messages.
  446. As explained in `Configuring synapse`_, the ``server_name`` in your
  447. ``homeserver.yaml`` file determines the way that other servers will reach
  448. yours. By default, they will treat it as a hostname and try to connect to
  449. port 8448. This is easy to set up and will work with the default configuration,
  450. provided you set the ``server_name`` to match your machine's public DNS
  451. hostname.
  452. For a more flexible configuration, you can set up a DNS SRV record. This allows
  453. you to run your server on a machine that might not have the same name as your
  454. domain name. For example, you might want to run your server at
  455. ``synapse.example.com``, but have your Matrix user-ids look like
  456. ``@user:example.com``. (A SRV record also allows you to change the port from
  457. the default 8448. However, if you are thinking of using a reverse-proxy on the
  458. federation port, which is not recommended, be sure to read
  459. `Reverse-proxying the federation port`_ first.)
  460. To use a SRV record, first create your SRV record and publish it in DNS. This
  461. should have the format ``_matrix._tcp.<yourdomain.com> <ttl> IN SRV 10 0 <port>
  462. <synapse.server.name>``. The DNS record should then look something like::
  463. $ dig -t srv _matrix._tcp.example.com
  464. _matrix._tcp.example.com. 3600 IN SRV 10 0 8448 synapse.example.com.
  465. Note that the server hostname cannot be an alias (CNAME record): it has to point
  466. directly to the server hosting the synapse instance.
  467. You can then configure your homeserver to use ``<yourdomain.com>`` as the domain in
  468. its user-ids, by setting ``server_name``::
  469. python -m synapse.app.homeserver \
  470. --server-name <yourdomain.com> \
  471. --config-path homeserver.yaml \
  472. --generate-config
  473. python -m synapse.app.homeserver --config-path homeserver.yaml
  474. If you've already generated the config file, you need to edit the ``server_name``
  475. in your ``homeserver.yaml`` file. If you've already started Synapse and a
  476. database has been created, you will have to recreate the database.
  477. If all goes well, you should be able to `connect to your server with a client`__,
  478. and then join a room via federation. (Try ``#matrix-dev:matrix.org`` as a first
  479. step. "Matrix HQ"'s sheer size and activity level tends to make even the
  480. largest boxes pause for thought.)
  481. .. __: `Connecting to Synapse from a client`_
  482. Troubleshooting
  483. ---------------
  484. You can use the federation tester to check if your homeserver is all set:
  485. ``https://matrix.org/federationtester/api/report?server_name=<your_server_name>``
  486. If any of the attributes under "checks" is false, federation won't work.
  487. The typical failure mode with federation is that when you try to join a room,
  488. it is rejected with "401: Unauthorized". Generally this means that other
  489. servers in the room couldn't access yours. (Joining a room over federation is a
  490. complicated dance which requires connections in both directions).
  491. So, things to check are:
  492. * If you are trying to use a reverse-proxy, read `Reverse-proxying the
  493. federation port`_.
  494. * If you are not using a SRV record, check that your ``server_name`` (the part
  495. of your user-id after the ``:``) matches your hostname, and that port 8448 on
  496. that hostname is reachable from outside your network.
  497. * If you *are* using a SRV record, check that it matches your ``server_name``
  498. (it should be ``_matrix._tcp.<server_name>``), and that the port and hostname
  499. it specifies are reachable from outside your network.
  500. Running a Demo Federation of Synapses
  501. -------------------------------------
  502. If you want to get up and running quickly with a trio of homeservers in a
  503. private federation, there is a script in the ``demo`` directory. This is mainly
  504. useful just for development purposes. See `<demo/README>`_.
  505. Using PostgreSQL
  506. ================
  507. As of Synapse 0.9, `PostgreSQL <https://www.postgresql.org>`_ is supported as an
  508. alternative to the `SQLite <https://sqlite.org/>`_ database that Synapse has
  509. traditionally used for convenience and simplicity.
  510. The advantages of Postgres include:
  511. * significant performance improvements due to the superior threading and
  512. caching model, smarter query optimiser
  513. * allowing the DB to be run on separate hardware
  514. * allowing basic active/backup high-availability with a "hot spare" synapse
  515. pointing at the same DB master, as well as enabling DB replication in
  516. synapse itself.
  517. For information on how to install and use PostgreSQL, please see
  518. `docs/postgres.rst <docs/postgres.rst>`_.
  519. .. _reverse-proxy:
  520. Using a reverse proxy with Synapse
  521. ==================================
  522. It is recommended to put a reverse proxy such as
  523. `nginx <https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html>`_,
  524. `Apache <https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_proxy_http.html>`_ or
  525. `HAProxy <https://www.haproxy.org/>`_ in front of Synapse. One advantage of
  526. doing so is that it means that you can expose the default https port (443) to
  527. Matrix clients without needing to run Synapse with root privileges.
  528. The most important thing to know here is that Matrix clients and other Matrix
  529. servers do not necessarily need to connect to your server via the same
  530. port. Indeed, clients will use port 443 by default, whereas servers default to
  531. port 8448. Where these are different, we refer to the 'client port' and the
  532. 'federation port'.
  533. The next most important thing to know is that using a reverse-proxy on the
  534. federation port has a number of pitfalls. It is possible, but be sure to read
  535. `Reverse-proxying the federation port`_.
  536. The recommended setup is therefore to configure your reverse-proxy on port 443
  537. to port 8008 of synapse for client connections, but to also directly expose port
  538. 8448 for server-server connections. All the Matrix endpoints begin ``/_matrix``,
  539. so an example nginx configuration might look like::
  540. server {
  541. listen 443 ssl;
  542. listen [::]:443 ssl;
  543. server_name matrix.example.com;
  544. location /_matrix {
  545. proxy_pass http://localhost:8008;
  546. proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
  547. }
  548. }
  549. You will also want to set ``bind_addresses: ['127.0.0.1']`` and ``x_forwarded: true``
  550. for port 8008 in ``homeserver.yaml`` to ensure that client IP addresses are
  551. recorded correctly.
  552. Having done so, you can then use ``https://matrix.example.com`` (instead of
  553. ``https://matrix.example.com:8448``) as the "Custom server" when `Connecting to
  554. Synapse from a client`_.
  555. Reverse-proxying the federation port
  556. ------------------------------------
  557. There are two issues to consider before using a reverse-proxy on the federation
  558. port:
  559. * Due to the way SSL certificates are managed in the Matrix federation protocol
  560. (see `spec`__), Synapse needs to be configured with the path to the SSL
  561. certificate, *even if you do not terminate SSL at Synapse*.
  562. .. __: `key_management`_
  563. * Synapse does not currently support SNI on the federation protocol
  564. (`bug #1491 <https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/1491>`_), which
  565. means that using name-based virtual hosting is unreliable.
  566. Furthermore, a number of the normal reasons for using a reverse-proxy do not
  567. apply:
  568. * Other servers will connect on port 8448 by default, so there is no need to
  569. listen on port 443 (for federation, at least), which avoids the need for root
  570. privileges and virtual hosting.
  571. * A self-signed SSL certificate is fine for federation, so there is no need to
  572. automate renewals. (The certificate generated by ``--generate-config`` is
  573. valid for 10 years.)
  574. If you want to set up a reverse-proxy on the federation port despite these
  575. caveats, you will need to do the following:
  576. * In ``homeserver.yaml``, set ``tls_certificate_path`` to the path to the SSL
  577. certificate file used by your reverse-proxy, and set ``no_tls`` to ``True``.
  578. (``tls_private_key_path`` will be ignored if ``no_tls`` is ``True``.)
  579. * In your reverse-proxy configuration:
  580. * If there are other virtual hosts on the same port, make sure that the
  581. *default* one uses the certificate configured above.
  582. * Forward ``/_matrix`` to Synapse.
  583. * If your reverse-proxy is not listening on port 8448, publish a SRV record to
  584. tell other servers how to find you. See `Setting up Federation`_.
  585. When updating the SSL certificate, just update the file pointed to by
  586. ``tls_certificate_path``: there is no need to restart synapse. (You may like to
  587. use a symbolic link to help make this process atomic.)
  588. The most common mistake when setting up federation is not to tell Synapse about
  589. your SSL certificate. To check it, you can visit
  590. ``https://matrix.org/federationtester/api/report?server_name=<your_server_name>``.
  591. Unfortunately, there is no UI for this yet, but, you should see
  592. ``"MatchingTLSFingerprint": true``. If not, check that
  593. ``Certificates[0].SHA256Fingerprint`` (the fingerprint of the certificate
  594. presented by your reverse-proxy) matches ``Keys.tls_fingerprints[0].sha256``
  595. (the fingerprint of the certificate Synapse is using).
  596. Identity Servers
  597. ================
  598. Identity servers have the job of mapping email addresses and other 3rd Party
  599. IDs (3PIDs) to Matrix user IDs, as well as verifying the ownership of 3PIDs
  600. before creating that mapping.
  601. **They are not where accounts or credentials are stored - these live on home
  602. servers. Identity Servers are just for mapping 3rd party IDs to matrix IDs.**
  603. This process is very security-sensitive, as there is obvious risk of spam if it
  604. is too easy to sign up for Matrix accounts or harvest 3PID data. In the longer
  605. term, we hope to create a decentralised system to manage it (`matrix-doc #712
  606. <https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/issues/712>`_), but in the meantime,
  607. the role of managing trusted identity in the Matrix ecosystem is farmed out to
  608. a cluster of known trusted ecosystem partners, who run 'Matrix Identity
  609. Servers' such as `Sydent <https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent>`_, whose role
  610. is purely to authenticate and track 3PID logins and publish end-user public
  611. keys.
  612. You can host your own copy of Sydent, but this will prevent you reaching other
  613. users in the Matrix ecosystem via their email address, and prevent them finding
  614. you. We therefore recommend that you use one of the centralised identity servers
  615. at ``https://matrix.org`` or ``https://vector.im`` for now.
  616. To reiterate: the Identity server will only be used if you choose to associate
  617. an email address with your account, or send an invite to another user via their
  618. email address.
  619. URL Previews
  620. ============
  621. Synapse 0.15.0 introduces a new API for previewing URLs at
  622. ``/_matrix/media/r0/preview_url``. This is disabled by default. To turn it on
  623. you must enable the ``url_preview_enabled: True`` config parameter and
  624. explicitly specify the IP ranges that Synapse is not allowed to spider for
  625. previewing in the ``url_preview_ip_range_blacklist`` configuration parameter.
  626. This is critical from a security perspective to stop arbitrary Matrix users
  627. spidering 'internal' URLs on your network. At the very least we recommend that
  628. your loopback and RFC1918 IP addresses are blacklisted.
  629. This also requires the optional lxml and netaddr python dependencies to be
  630. installed. This in turn requires the libxml2 library to be available - on
  631. Debian/Ubuntu this means ``apt-get install libxml2-dev``, or equivalent for
  632. your OS.
  633. Password reset
  634. ==============
  635. If a user has registered an email address to their account using an identity
  636. server, they can request a password-reset token via clients such as Vector.
  637. A manual password reset can be done via direct database access as follows.
  638. First calculate the hash of the new password::
  639. $ source ~/.synapse/bin/activate
  640. $ ./scripts/hash_password
  641. Password:
  642. Confirm password:
  643. $2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  644. Then update the `users` table in the database::
  645. UPDATE users SET password_hash='$2a$12$xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
  646. WHERE name='@test:test.com';
  647. Synapse Development
  648. ===================
  649. Before setting up a development environment for synapse, make sure you have the
  650. system dependencies (such as the python header files) installed - see
  651. `Installing from source`_.
  652. To check out a synapse for development, clone the git repo into a working
  653. directory of your choice::
  654. git clone https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse.git
  655. cd synapse
  656. Synapse has a number of external dependencies, that are easiest
  657. to install using pip and a virtualenv::
  658. virtualenv -p python2.7 env
  659. source env/bin/activate
  660. python synapse/python_dependencies.py | xargs pip install
  661. pip install lxml mock
  662. This will run a process of downloading and installing all the needed
  663. dependencies into a virtual env.
  664. Once this is done, you may wish to run Synapse's unit tests, to
  665. check that everything is installed as it should be::
  666. PYTHONPATH="." trial tests
  667. This should end with a 'PASSED' result::
  668. Ran 143 tests in 0.601s
  669. PASSED (successes=143)
  670. Running the Integration Tests
  671. =============================
  672. Synapse is accompanied by `SyTest <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest>`_,
  673. a Matrix homeserver integration testing suite, which uses HTTP requests to
  674. access the API as a Matrix client would. It is able to run Synapse directly from
  675. the source tree, so installation of the server is not required.
  676. Testing with SyTest is recommended for verifying that changes related to the
  677. Client-Server API are functioning correctly. See the `installation instructions
  678. <https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest#installing>`_ for details.
  679. Building Internal API Documentation
  680. ===================================
  681. Before building internal API documentation install sphinx and
  682. sphinxcontrib-napoleon::
  683. pip install sphinx
  684. pip install sphinxcontrib-napoleon
  685. Building internal API documentation::
  686. python setup.py build_sphinx
  687. Help!! Synapse eats all my RAM!
  688. ===============================
  689. Synapse's architecture is quite RAM hungry currently - we deliberately
  690. cache a lot of recent room data and metadata in RAM in order to speed up
  691. common requests. We'll improve this in future, but for now the easiest
  692. way to either reduce the RAM usage (at the risk of slowing things down)
  693. is to set the almost-undocumented ``SYNAPSE_CACHE_FACTOR`` environment
  694. variable. The default is 0.5, which can be decreased to reduce RAM usage
  695. in memory constrained enviroments, or increased if performance starts to
  696. degrade.
  697. .. _`key_management`: https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/unstable.html#retrieving-server-keys