159 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
159 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "Chatting in the 21st century"
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author = ["Sergio Durigan Junior"]
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date = 2024-09-07T17:25:00-04:00
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tags = ["debian", "english", "selfhost", "free-software", "matrix", "irc"]
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draft = false
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+++
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Several people have been asking me to explain and/or write about my
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solution for chatting nowadays. I realize that the current scenario
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is much more complex than, say, 10 or 20 years ago. Back then, this
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post would probably be more about the IRC client I used than about
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different chatting technologies.
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I have also spent a non trivial amount of time setting things up the
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way I want, so I understand that it's about time to write about my
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setup not only because I think it can be helpful to others, but also
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because I would like to document things for myself.
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## The backbone: Matrix {#the-backbone-matrix}
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I chose to use [Matrix](https://matrix.org) as the place where I integrate everything.
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Despite there being some [heavy (and justified) criticism](https://anarc.at/blog/2022-06-17-matrix-notes/) on the
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protocol itself, it serves me well for what I need right now.
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Obviously, I don't like the fact that I have to provide Matrix and all
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of its accompanying bridges a VPS with 4GB of RAM and 3 vCPUs, but I
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think that that ship has sailed, unfortunately.
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In an ideal world, I would be using [XMPP](https://xmpp.org/) and dedicating only a
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fraction of the resources I'm using today to have a full chat system.
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And since I have been running my personal XMPP server for more than a
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decade now, I did try to find a solution that would allow me to keep
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using it, but unfortunately the protocol became almost a hobbyist
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thing, so there's that.
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## A few disclaimers {#a-few-disclaimers}
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I self-host everything, including my Matrix server. Much of what I
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did won't work if you don't self-host Matrix, so keep that in mind.
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This won't be a post _teaching_ you how to deploy the services. My
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intention is to describe _what I use_ and for _what purpose_.
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Also, as much as I try to use Debian packages for everything I do, I
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opted to deploy all services using a community-maintained Ansible
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playbook which is very well written and organized:
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[matrix-docker-ansible-deploy](https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy).
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Last but not least, as I said above, you will likely need a machine
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with a good amount of RAM, CPU and storage, especially if you deploy
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[Synapse](https://github.com/element-hq/synapse) as your Matrix homeserver (which is what I recommend if you
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plan to use the bridges I'll mention). My current VPS has 4GB of RAM,
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3 vCPUs and 80GB of storage (of which I'm currently using
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approximately 55GB).
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## Problem #1: my Matrix client(s) {#problem-1-my-matrix-client--s}
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There are [a lot of clients](https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/) that can talk the Matrix protocol, but most
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of them are either web clients or GUI programs. I live on the
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terminal, more specifically inside Emacs, so I settled for the amazing
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[ement.el](https://github.com/alphapapa/ement.el) Emacs mode. It works surprisingly well, but unfortunately
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doesn't support end-to-end encryption out of the box; for that, you
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have to hook it up with [pantalaimon](https://github.com/matrix-org/pantalaimon/). Unfortunately, the project seems
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abandoned and therefore I don't recommend you to use it. I don't use
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it myself.
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When I have to reply some E2E encrypted message from another user, I
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go to my web browser and use my self-hosted [Element](https://app.element.io/) client. It's a
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nuisance, but one that I'm willing to accept because of security
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concerns.
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If you're into web clients and don't want to use Element (because it
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is heavy), you can try [Cinny](https://github.com/ajbura/cinny). It's lightweight and supports a decent
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set of features.
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If you're a terminal lover but don't use Emacs, you may want to try
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[gomuks](https://github.com/tulir/gomuks) or [iamb](https://iamb.chat/).
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## Problem #2: IRC bridging {#problem-2-irc-bridging}
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There are basically two types of IRC bridges for Matrix:
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- The regular and most used [matrix-appservice-irc](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc). This bridge _takes
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Matrix to IRC_ (think of IRC users with the `[m]` suffix appended to
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their nicknames), and is what the [matrix.org](https://matrix.org) and other big
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homeservers (including [matrix.debian.social](https://matrix.debian.social)) use. It's a complex
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service which allows thousands of Matrix users to connect to IRC
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networks, but that unfortunately [has complex problems](https://libera.chat/news/matrix-bridge-disabled-retrospective) and is only
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worth using if you intend to host a community server.
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- A bouncer-like bridge called [Heisenbridge](https://github.com/hifi/heisenbridge). This is what I use
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personally. It _takes IRC to Matrix_, which means that people on
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IRC will _not_ know that you're using Matrix. This bridge is much
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simpler, and because it acts like a bouncer it's pretty much
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impossible for it to cause problems with the IRC network.
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Due to the fact that I sometimes like to use other IRC clients, I
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still run a regular [ZNC bouncer](https://wiki.znc.in/ZNC), and I use Heisenbridge to connect to
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my ZNC. This means that I can use, e.g., ERC inside Emacs _and_ my
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Matrix bridge at the same time. But you don't necessarily need to run
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another bouncer; you can simply use Heisenbridge and connect directly
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to the IRC network(s) you want.
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A word of caution, though: unlike ZNC, Heisenbridge doesn't support
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per-user configuration when you use it in bouncer mode. This is the
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reason why you need to self-host it, and why it's not possible to
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offer the service to other users (they would have access to your IRC
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network configuration otherwise).
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It's also worth talking about logs. I find that keeping logs of
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everything that goes on IRC has saved me a bunch of times, and so I
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find it really important to continue doing that. Unfortunately,
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neither `ement.el` nor Element support logging things out of the box
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(at least not that I know). This is also one of the reasons why I
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still keep my ZNC around: I configure it to log everything.
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## Problem #3: Telegram {#problem-3-telegram}
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I don't use Telegram myself, but unfortunately several people from the
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Debian community do, especially in Brazil. There is a whole Debian
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community on Telegram, and I wanted to be able to bridge our Debian
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Matrix channels to their Telegram counterparts.
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I am currently using [mautrix-telegram](https://github.com/mautrix/telegram) for that, and it's working
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great. You need someone with a Telegram account to configure their
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credentials so that the bridge can connect to it, but afterwards it's
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really easy to bridge channels together.
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## Problem #4: GitLab webhooks {#problem-4-gitlab-webhooks}
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Something else I wanted to be able to do was to receive notifications
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regarding new issues, merge requests and other activities from [Salsa](https://salsa.debian.org).
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For this, I'm using [maubot](https://github.com/maubot/maubot), which is awesome and has a
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[huge list of plugins](https://plugins.mau.bot/). I'm using the [gitlab](https://github.com/maubot/gitlab) one.
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## Final thoughts {#final-thoughts}
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Overall, I'm satisfied with the setup I have now. It has certainly
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taken some time and effort to find the right tool for each problem I
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needed to solve, and I still feel like there are some rough edges to
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soften (like the fact that my Emacs client doesn't support E2E
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encryption out of the box, or the whole logging situation), but
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otherwise things are working fine and I haven't had any big problems
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with the deployment. You do have to be much more careful about stuff
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(for example, when I installed an unrelated service that "hijacked" my
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Apache configuration and made Matrix's federation silently stop
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working), though.
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If you have more specific questions about any part of my setup, shoot
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me an email and I'll do my best to help.
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Happy chatting!
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