simple-nixos-fediverse/README.md

# How to start up a mastodon VM

```bash
nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .#mastodon 
./result/bin/run-nixos-vm
```

Now you can access mastodon at <https://social.local.gd:44443>

- You will have to "accept the security risk".
- It may take a minute for the webpage to come online. Until then you will see 502 Bad Gateway

Remember that if you want to clear the state from one launch to the next, you should delete the `nixos.qcow2` file that is created.

# Account creation / access

Mastodon throws a hissyfit when trying to create accounts / login if it's not being **accessed** on port 443. This is a problem with the way we've set up port forwarding.

My current (terrible) solution is to run 
```
nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .#mastodon

# start a proxy server to the server on port 1234 (you can pick your favourite port)
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=Error -D 1234 root@localhost -p 2222

# optional. create a new firefox profile so we don't have to undo the settings when we're done
mkdir /tmp/profile && firefox --profile /tmp/profile
```

Then configure Firefox by going to `about:config` and setting `network.proxy.allow_hijacking_localhost` to `true`, and in `about:preferences` set the proxy to manual `localhost` port `1234`, and enable `Proxy DNS` at the bottom.

Navigate to <https://social.local.gd>, and click "create account"

- email verification is WIP, but should be accessible at <https://social.local.gd/letter_opener>

# TODOs

- [ ] set up a domain name and a DNS service so we can do deploy this to an actual machine
- [ ] set up an email service
- [ ] add logging
  - [ ] errors / logs
  - [ ] performance
- [ ] switch to garage / s3 storage
  - SEE: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/optional/object-storage/
- [ ] decouple the postgres database from this machine
- [ ] test with high use / throughput
- [ ] configure scaling behaviour
  - SEE: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/scaling/
- [ ] remove the need for "accept security risk" dialogue if possible
- [ ] development environment does not work seamlessly. 
- [ ] don't require proxy server
  - either forward 443 directly, or get mastodon to accept connections on a different port (maybe 3000? see development environment documentation)
- [ ] get letter_opener working

# resources

- Tutorial for setting up better logging: https://krisztianfekete.org/self-hosting-mastodon-on-nixos-a-proof-of-concept/
- Setting up development environment: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/dev/setup/