Running Techrater (Linux)

BACKSTORY & DISCLAIMER

Due to how inactive Particle_G has been, as a main developer, they are unlikely to respond to any inquiries about this repo.

Unfortunately, they also aren't really known to provide much documentation on setup instructions, if at all.

This guide is the community's best effort to provide decent documentation.

This is AI-ASSISTED DOCUMENTATION, not made by Particle_G. Although it "works" as of August 2024 (confirmed by @Not-A-Normal-Robot and @SweetSea-ButImNotSweet), this may not align with best practices.

Keep in mind that incorrect documentation can sometimes be worse than no documentation. If you think something's off and you are more experienced, you should consider following that gut feeling.

That said, we welcome constructive improvements to this rather lackluster documentation, especially if you have prior experience with C++ and Drogon.

Cloning the repo

Install Git if you haven't, then clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/26F-Studio/Techrater --recurse

You can also use the --depth 1 argument to only get the latest version of the repo to speed up your download.

Install dependencies

Some of Techrater's dependencies require you to install some packages.
This command will install some of them:

sudo apt install gcc build-essential pkg-config autoconf flex libcrypto++-dev libcrypto++-doc libcrypto++-utils

Note that this may not install all of them.
If installing dependencies through vcpkg fails because you don't have something from a package manager, you can do sudo apt install <package> to install it.

Setting up vcpkg

This project uses vcpkg to manage dependencies.
Bootstrap vcpkg:

./vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

Then, install all the dependencies:

./vcpkg/vcpkg install

This will probably take around 15 minutes on a low-end PC.

Handling dependency errors

If some of the dependencies error out during installation, you can try this:

1. Read the error message. If it has instructions on how to fix it (e.g. "install X from your package manager"), then follow it.
2. Read the error log. If it says that it needs an export to ZIC, for example, you can run export ZIC=/usr/sbin/zic and then try again.

Building the project

The project uses CMake for building, so make sure to install that first.
Configure the project:

cmake -S . -B build

This shouldn't take too long.

Then, build the project:

cmake --build build

Creating your config

There is a config.default.json on the project root.
You can copy it and name your copy config.json, and modify it as needed.

Running the project

Assuming the build finishes smoothly, you should be able to find an executable in ./build/Techrater. You can run it to start Techrater.