About
FChannel is a libre, self-hostable, federated, imageboard platform that utilizes ActivityPub.
There are currently several instances federated with each other, for a full list see: https://fchan.xyz
There is an anon testing FChannel instances on TOR/Loki/I2P. Find more information here: https://fchan.xyz/g/MORL0KUT It is a testing environment, so the instances might come and go.
To Do List
Current things that will be implemented first are: - A way to automatically index new instances into a list so others can discover instances as they come online. - Setting up a server proxy so that clearnet instances can talk to TOR/Loki/I2P instances. - Other improvements will be made over time, first it needs to be as easy as possible for new instances to come online and connect with others reliably.
Try and run your own instances and federate with one of the instances above.
Any contributions or suggestions are appreciated. Best way to give immediate feedback is the XMPP: xmpp:general@rooms.fchannel.org
or Matrix: #fchan:matrix.org
Development
To get started on hacking the code of FChannel, it is recommended you setup your
git hooks by simply running git config core.hooksPath .githooks
.
This currently helps enforce the Go style guide, but may be expanded upon in the future.
Before you make a pull request, ensure everything you changed works as expected,
and to fix errors reported by go vet
and make your code better with
staticcheck
.
Server Installation and Configuration
Minimum Server Requirements
- Go v1.16+
- PostgreSQL
- ImageMagick
- exiv2
Server Installation Instructions
- Ensure you have Golang installed and set a correct
GOPATH
git clone
the software- Copy
config-init
toconfig/config-init
and change the values appropriately to reflect the instance. - Create the database, username, and password for psql that is used in the
config
file. - Build the server with
make
- Start the server with
./fchan
.
Server Configuration
config file
instance:fchan.xyz
Domain name that the host can be located at without www and http://
or https://
instancetp:https://
Transfer protocol your domain is using, should be https if possible. Do not put https://
if you are using http://
instanceport:3000
Port the server is running on locally, on your server.
instancename:FChan
Full name that you want your instances to be called.
instancesummary:FChan is a federated image board instance.
Brief description of your instance.
dbhost:localhost
Database host. Most likely leave as localhost
.
dbport:5432
Port number for database. Most likely leave the default value.
dbname:fchan_server
Database name for psql.
dbuser:admin
Database user that can connect to dbname.
dbpass:password
Database password for dbuser.
torproxy:127.0.0.1:9050
Tor proxy route and port, leave blank if you do not want to support
instancesalt:put your salt string here
Used for secure tripcodes currently.
modkey:3358bed397c1f32cf7532fa37a8778
Set a static modkey instead of one randomly generated on restart.
emailserver:mail.fchan.xyz
emailport:465
emailaddress:contact@fchan.xyz
emailpass:password
emailnotify:email1@so.co, email2@bo.uo
Comma seperated emails To.
Local testing
When testing on a local env when setting the instance
value in the config file you have to append the port number to the local address eg. instance:localhost:3000
with instanceport
also being set to the same port.
If you want to test federation between servers locally you have to use your local ip as the instance
eg. instance:192.168.0.2:3000
and instance:192.168.0.2:4000
adding the port to localhost will not route correctly.
Managing the server
To access the managment page to create new boards or subscribe to other boards, when you start the server the console will output the Mod key
and Admin Login
Use the Mod key
by appending it to your server's url, https://fchan.xyz/[Mod key]
once there you will be prompted for the Admin Login
credentials.
You can manage each board by appending the Mod key
to the desired board url: https://fchan.xyz/[Mod Key]/g
The Mod key
is not static and is reset on server restart.
Server Update
Check the git repo for the latest commits. If there are commits you want to update to, git pull and restart the instance.
Networking
NGINX Template
Use Certbot, (or your tool of choice) to setup SSL.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/html;
server_name DOMAIN_NAME;
client_max_body_size 100M;
location / {
# First attempt to serve request as file, then
# as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
#try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
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;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}
Using Certbot With NGINX
- After installing Certbot and the Nginx plugin, generate the certificate:
sudo certbot --nginx --agree-tos --redirect --rsa-key-size 4096 --hsts --staple-ocsp --email YOUR_EMAIL -d DOMAIN_NAME
- Add a job to cron so the certificate will be renewed automatically:
echo "0 0 * * * root certbot renew --quiet --no-self-upgrade --post-hook 'systemctl reload nginx'" | sudo tee -a /etc/cron.d/renew_certbot
Apache
Please consider submitting a pull request if you set up a FChannel instance with Apache with instructions on how to do so
Caddy
Please consider submitting a pull request if you set up a FChannel instance with Caddy with instructions on how to do so
Docker
A Dockerfile is provided, and an example docker-compose.yml
exists to base your Docker setup on.
You should use the config-init.docker
file to configure it and it will work more or less out of the box with it, you should just need some minor configuration changes to test it out.
Remember, you may need to look at the section on local testing to use 100% of FChannel's features.