AIM Oscar Server

Run your own AIM chat server, managing users and groups. Hook up a vintage client and get chatty.

Goals

• Have a vintage client authenticate with the server
• Add buddies
• See buddy online/away status
• Chat with buddy
• Set away status
• See away status
• Look up buddy
• Buddy icons
• Rate limiting + warn system
• Web Signup (https://runningman.network/register)
• Federation?

Getting Started

Clone this repository and make sure you have Go installed in your terminal's path. Copy env/example.config.yml to env/config.yml and configure the service settings.

OSCAR Settings

The server has two addresses that need to be set:

• addr: The host:port that the server binds to
• bos: The host:port that clients will try to reach to access Basic OSCAR Services

The bos needs to be an IP that the client can reach directly, not 0.0.0.0. If you're running the client in a virtual environment then bos should be set to the local IP of the machine. On macOS you can find this by running:

osascript -e "IPv4 address of (system info)"

Running

If this is the first time running this service you should do a DB migration to set up all of the tables and create a default user.

$ go run cmd/migrate/main.go --config <path to config> init
$ go run cmd/migrate/main.go --config <path to config> up

After you have set up your config you can run the server:

$ ./run.sh

If you set up your config somewhere else then set the CONFIG_FILE environment variable to the full path of the config file like so:

$ CONFIG_PATH=/Users/admin/config.yml ./run.sh

Development

If you want to develop the aim-oscar-server, there is a nodemon-powered script in ./dev.sh which will watch for changes and reload the aim-oscar-server automatically. The AIM clients are pretty good at not failing immediately when the server is unavailable so you can develop rapidly.

User Administration

There is a user administration tool in cmd/user that lets you add and verify users on your server.

To add and verify a user:

$ go run cmd/user/main.go --config <path to config> add <screen_name> <password> <email>

To verify a user that has registered but not confirmed their email:

$ go run cmd/user/main.go --config <path to config> verify <screen_name>

Terms

from iserverd

• BOS: Basic OSCAR Service. This term refers to the services that form the core of the Instant Messenger service. These services include Login/Logoff, Locate, Instant Message, Roster management, Info management and Buddy List
• FLAP is a low-level communications protocol that facilitates the development of higher-level, record-oriented, communications layers. It is used on the TCP connection between all clients and servers.
• SNAC: A SNAC is the basic communication unit that is exchanged between clients and servers. The SNAC communication layers sits on top of the FLAP layer.
• TLV: Type Length Value. A tuple allowing typed opaque information to be passed through the protocol. Typically TLV's are intended for interpretation at the core layer. Being typed, new elements can be added w/o modifying the lower layers.
• ICBM: Inter Client Basic Message. ICBM is a channelized client-to-client mechanism. Currently the most user visible channel is used for Instant Messages.