Easy Secure Scuttlebutt Pub

easy-ssb-pub is an easy-to-host server that runs an SSB "Pub".

Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) is an impressive peer-to-peer network that can be used for metadata, identity, and particularly, messaging. SSB is an ideal protocol for a social network. There is already a social network on SSB, called Patchwork.

However, to join the wider SSB network, you must get a dedicated invitation from a "Pub" server. Also, hosting a Pub server is not the easiest task. In order to improve adoption of SSB, this project makes it easy to deploy an SSB Pub. Once the Pub is running, it has a light frontend page where anyone can freely request a fresh invitation.

Visit one of these

Check the Pub Registry.

How to deploy

⚠️ Note! This project is not actively maintained anymore by @staltz, because: (1) I'm focusing on building MMMMM and have no time, (2) this project should be split up as multiple sbot plugins, that would be a better architecture that allow easier evolution of each part, and easier customization. Feel free to fork! 🍴

You will need a server that supports a TCP sockets on ports 80, 8008 and 8007. This means Heroku or Zeit Now will not work. Recommended services for servers-on-demand: Digital Ocean Docker Droplet, UpCloud, Amazon LightSail, Vultr, Linode, etc.

1. Acess your server via shell (e.g. SSH)
2. Install Docker and Docker Compose
3. git clone https://github.com/staltz/easy-ssb-pub.git
4. cd easy-ssb-pub
5. HOST=publicurltoyourserv.er docker-compose up -d
6. Open http://publicurltoyourserver.er in your browser

After the container has been created, stop/start/restart the server using:

• docker stop easy-ssb-pub
• docker start easy-ssb-pub
• docker restart easy-ssb-pub

OR

1. Access your server via shell (e.g. SSH)
2. docker pull staltz/easy-ssb-pub
3. docker run -e "HOST=publicurltoyourserv.er" -v $HOME/.ssb:/root/.ssb -p 80:80 -p 8008:8008 -p 8007:8007 -m 450M --memory-swap 1G --restart=unless-stopped --name ssb-pub -d staltz/easy-ssb-pub

OR

1. Access your server via shell (e.g. SSH)
2. apt-get install -y libleveldb-dev curl libc6 libcurl3 zlib1g libtool autoconf
3. Install nvm: curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.0/install.sh | bash
4. Restart the shell
5. nvm install v6.9.1
6. git clone https://github.com/staltz/easy-ssb-pub.git
7. cd easy-ssb-pub
8. npm install
9. HOST=publicurltoyourserv.er npm start

How to debug

Sometimes it is useful to see what the easy-ssb-pub server is doing. When starting the server, provide the environment variable:

DEBUG='*'