Hosting a Node

rettui can host three kinds of node: a NomadNet node (pages and files) and an LXMF propagation node (messages kept for people who are offline), with your identity, and an RRC hub (chat rooms), with one of its own.

NomadNet node

rettui hosts a NomadNet node using rsNomad's node. Pages are Micron files in node/pages/ (and downloads in node/files/) in the data directory, or the folder set in node_dir.

• Switching it on: press h in the Node tab, use Start hosting in the web UI, or set "Host a node" in the settings. The node uses your identity, so its address stays the same. Its name defaults to your display name, and it announces every node_announce_interval_mins (360 by default) or when you press a.
• Editing: the Node tab lists what's on the node and has an editor with Micron colouring, undo and redo, and a live preview, in both the TUI and the web UI. Show the editor and the preview side by side, the editor alone, or the preview alone (Ctrl-P / p, or the buttons in the web UI). Saving writes the file, and visitors get the new version straight away. New, renamed and deleted pages are picked up without a restart. You can also edit the files with any editor.
• Formatting ribbon: above the page editor, in both UIs, buttons put Micron markup around the selection, on the selected lines, or at the cursor: bold, italic, underline and normal (removes formatting), text and background colour, left/centre/right alignment, three heading levels, divider, literal block, comment, and inserting links, images, text fields, checkboxes and radio buttons, and uploading. Each has an Alt shortcut, the letter underlined on its button: Alt+B I U N, F G (colours), L C R, 1 2 3, V (divider) T (literal) O (comment), K (link) M (image) D (field) H (checkbox) A (radio) P (upload). Bold, italic and underline toggle, as do headings and comments. The web UI also takes Ctrl+B, I, U and K, and picks colours from a palette.
• Pictures and files: Upload (Alt+P) adds a file to the node and puts it in the page where the cursor is (the selection, if any, becomes its label). The TUI asks for the file's path on this computer; the web UI picks files from the device, several at once, and files dropped on the page's text are added the same way. A picture (WebP, PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF) goes to pages/images/ and is shown in the page (`(name`:/media/images/name.jpg)). To suit the mesh it's made at most 1024 pixels across and written again as a JPEG (a PNG where it's see-through), which leaves out its metadata, such as where a photo was taken; a GIF (which may move), or one that wouldn't get smaller, stays as it is. A picture can be up to 512 KB. Anything else goes to files/, linked for visitors to download (`[name`:/file/name]), up to 32 MB. Names are made safe (spaces become -), and something already there is never replaced: the new one gets -2, -3... on its name.
• Folders: the list shows pages/ (pages, and the pictures they show) and files/, each with its folders. In the TUI, n makes a page in the folder picked, r renames what's picked, m moves it to a folder of its root (a new one is made for it, and one left empty goes), and x deletes it. In the web UI, each has a ⋯ menu (open, show a picture, put it in the open page, copy its address, rename, move, delete), and on a computer anything can be dragged onto a folder of its root. Links to what's moved or renamed (:/page/, :/media/ and :/file/ addresses, and those naming your node's address; not links to another node's page of the same name) are changed in every page, except the one open with changes not saved (the TUI says so; the web UI changes them in the editor, for you to save). Scripts are never changed or moved this way, and the web UI can't rename or move them.
• Selecting text in the editors: Shift with the arrows, Home/End or PgUp/PgDn, Ctrl-A for everything, or drag with the mouse. Typing, pasting or deleting replaces the selection.
• Starter page: a new node gets an index page with a short Micron guide.
• Your own node in the Browser: a client can't reach a node it hosts over Reticulum, so rettui reads your own pages straight from the folder (never from the cache).
• Scripts: executable pages run as programs for visitors only when "Run page scripts" is on. The web UI can't change, rename or create scripts, turn "Run page scripts" on or move the node folder, so the web login can't be used to run programs on the host. The TUI can do all of these.

Propagation node

A propagation node keeps messages for people who aren't online, until they collect them, as lxmd and other LXMF propagation nodes do. rettui's is built on rsLXMF's propagation node (its message store, stamp checks and peer protocol).

• Switching it on: set "Host a propagation node" in the settings (Status tab, either UI). It announces itself (lxmf.propagation) a few seconds after it starts, then every announce_interval_mins, with its name (pn_name, or your display name), stamp cost and transfer limits. Its address comes from your identity, so it stays the same. Changing one of its settings restarts it; the messages it holds stay.
• Status: the Status tab's Hosting messages line shows its address, how many messages it holds and their size, how many it has taken in and given out, those it refused, and the peers connected to it now. It's also listed in the Network tab, where you can pick it as your own propagation node.
• What it takes: each message sent through it brings a propagation stamp of at least pn_stamp_cost (16 by default, LXMF's own; at least 13) less LXMF's flexibility of 3, and is at most pn_transfer_kb (256 KB by default). Clients send one message at a time; only peers send several. Messages without a valid stamp, too big, or over the storage limit are refused.
• Storage: messages are kept encrypted for their recipients in propagation/ in the data directory, at most pn_storage_mb (500 MB by default). LXMF's 30-day expiry applies, and past the limit the oldest go first.
• Collecting: a client identifies itself on its Link and asks for its messages (/get); the node sends them, then deletes the ones it got.
• Messages for you: when the node takes a message addressed to you, it delivers it straight to your conversations instead of keeping it. With your own node picked as your propagation node, rettui hands messages to it directly (a client can't open a Link to itself), and a sync has nothing to download.
• Peers: other propagation nodes that peer with yours (proving the work of LXMF's peering key, cost 18) offer it the messages it doesn't have, and send them several at a time. Yours doesn't peer with other nodes itself, as lxmd with autopeer off: messages sent through it stay here until their recipients collect them, and other nodes only get them by peering with it. Tested against Python LXMF 1.2: its clients send through and collect from rettui's node, and its propagation nodes peer with it.

RRC hub

An RRC hub is what people chat on in RRC: rooms, their topics and modes, operators, bans. rettui runs rsRRCD's hub on its own Reticulum instance, so NomadNet, MeshChatX, Ratspeak, rettui and the other RRC clients can join it as they join rrcd.

• Switching it on: press e in the Hub tab, use Start hosting in the web UI's Hub section, or set "Host an RRC hub" in the settings. It announces itself (rrc.hub) a few seconds after it starts, with its name, then every hub_announce_interval_mins (360 by default; 0 announces only when it starts), or when you press a. Its name is hub_name, or your display name; hub_greeting is sent to everyone who connects (\n starts a new line). Changing these applies to the hub as it runs: nobody is disconnected.
• Its own identity: the hub has an identity of its own, made the first time it starts (rrc-hub-identity in the data directory), so its address stays the same and people who join learn the hub's address, not your LXMF one. You're an operator of it (as is the hub itself), wherever you are. If you use another identity (or the hub gets a new one), the old one is no longer an operator; operators added to its config.yaml by hand stay.
• You on it: the hub is added to your hubs in Channels once it's up, and rettui joins it straight away (a client can't find a path to a destination it hosts, so yours connects with the hub's key). Stopping the hub leaves it.
• Who makes rooms: as on most hubs, anyone may make a room by joining one that isn't there, and is its founder (an operator of it). With "Anyone makes rooms" off, only you can: others join the rooms there are.
• The Hub tab: who's connected (their nick, identity, rooms and when they came), the rooms (registered or not, modes, topic, who's in them, their operators) and the bans, of the whole hub and of each room. Pick someone to kick them from a room (K), ban them from one (b), make them an operator of one (o) or voiced in one (v), each again to undo, disconnect them (d), or ban them from the whole hub (B, a kline: they're disconnected, and every time they come back). Pick a room to set its topic (t) or modes (m: +m moderated, +i invite only, +t topic by operators, +n members only, +p private, +k key; - takes one off), or to register it (r). n makes a registered room, which stays, with its topic and modes, while nobody is in it. In Bans, x lifts the ban picked.
• The web UI's Hub section: a room opens a page of its settings: its topic, a switch for each mode, its key, who's in it (with operator and voice to turn on or off, kick and ban), who's invited and who's banned, with renaming and deleting it at the bottom. A person opens theirs: the rooms they're in, with the same for each, and disconnecting or banning them from the hub. Bans each have a Lift button.
• Renaming and deleting rooms: neither rsRRCD nor RRC has a command for them, so the hub does it itself. Renaming a room (R in the Hub tab) moves its topic, settings, key, operators and bans to the new name, and registers it. RRC can't move people from one room to another, so those in it are told the new name and taken out of the old one, to rejoin it there. Deleting a room (D, asked first) takes everyone out of it, telling them it's been closed, and it's gone with its settings and bans; where anyone makes rooms, anyone may make it again by joining it.
• Hub commands: : in the Hub tab (or the web UI's console) runs a command as typed in a room, as the hub itself: /stats, /kline list, /who lobby, /reload... The hub's answers are listed beside it. The room commands (/topic, /mode, /op, /kick, /ban...) work in any room from here, though rsRRCD only lets a room's operators run them.
• Its files: rsRRCD's own config.yaml and rooms.yaml (the registered rooms) in rrc-hub/ in the data directory, so its /reload and /kline work as they do in rsRRCD. rettui writes the settings above into config.yaml (and lists you and the hub as trusted_identities); the rest (limits such as max_rooms_per_session or rate_limit_msgs_per_minute, operators of your choosing, the hub's bans) is yours to change there, then /reload. Backups keep the folder, and the hub's identity with yours.