dendrite/docs/p2p.md

Peer-to-peer Matrix

These are the instructions for setting up P2P Dendrite, current as of May 2020. There's both Go stuff and JS stuff to do to set this up.

Dendrite

• The master branch has a WASM-only binary for dendrite: ./cmd/dendritejs.
• Build it and copy assets to riot-web.

$ GOOS=js GOARCH=wasm go build -o main.wasm ./cmd/dendritejs
$ cp main.wasm ../riot-web/src/vector/dendrite.wasm

Rendezvous

This is how peers discover each other and communicate.

By default, Dendrite uses the Matrix-hosted websocket star relay server at TODO /dns4/ws-star.discovery.libp2p.io/tcp/443/wss/p2p-websocket-star. This is currently hard-coded in ./cmd/dendritejs/main.go - you can also use a local one if you run your own relay:

$ npm install --global libp2p-websocket-star-rendezvous
$ rendezvous --port=9090 --host=127.0.0.1

Then use /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9090/ws/p2p-websocket-star/.

Riot-web

You need to check out this repo:

$ git clone git@github.com:matrix-org/go-http-js-libp2p.git

Make sure to yarn install in the repo. Then:

• $ cp "$(go env GOROOT)/misc/wasm/wasm_exec.js" ./src/vector/
• Comment out the lines in wasm_exec.js which contains:

if (!global.fs && global.require) {
    global.fs = require("fs");
}

• Add the diff at https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/compare/matthew/p2p?expand=1 - ignore the package.json stuff.
• Add the following symlinks: they HAVE to be symlinks as the diff in webpack.config.js references specific paths.

$ cd node_modules
$ ln -s ../../go-http-js-libp2p

NB: If you don't run the server with yarn start you need to make sure your server is sending the header Service-Worker-Allowed: /.

TODO: Make a Docker image with all of this in it and a volume mount for dendrite.wasm.

Running

You need a Chrome and a Firefox running to test locally as service workers don't work in incognito tabs.

• For Chrome, use chrome://serviceworker-internals/ to unregister/see logs.
• For Firefox, use about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox to unregister. Use the console window to see logs.

Assuming you've yarn started Riot-Web, go to http://localhost:8080 and register with http://localhost:8080 as your HS URL.

You can:

• join rooms by room alias e.g /join #foo:bar.
• invite specific users to a room.
• explore the published room list. All members of the room can re-publish aliases (unlike Synapse).