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<title>Public Server</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
<body>
<article>
<h1>
Running a public server
</h1>
<p>
To let other people connect to your server and play games, there are a few other things you will need to set up.
<h2>
Recovering from a crash
</h2>
<p>
Use <tt>nodemon</tt> to restart the server if it crashes.
This also restarts the server if the software is updated.
<pre>
nodemon server.js
</pre>
<h2>
Database & Backups
</h2>
<p>
For best performance, you should turn on WAL mode on the database.
<pre>
sqlite3 db "pragma journal_mode = wal"
</pre>
<p>
You will want to backup your database periodically. This is easy to do with a single sqlite command.
Schedule the following command using cron or something similar, and make sure to copy the resulting
backup database to another machine!
<pre>
sqlite3 db "vacuum into strftime('backup-%Y%m%d-%H%M.db')"
</pre>
<h2>
Customize settings
</h2>
<p>
The server reads its settings from the .env file.
<pre>
NODE_ENV=production
SITE_NAME=Example
SITE_URL=https://example.com
SITE_IMPRINT="This website is operated by ..."
HTTP_HOST=localhost
HTTP_PORT=8080
# Enable mail notifications
MAIL_FROM=Example Notifications <notifications@example.com>
MAIL_HOST=localhost
MAIL_PORT=25
# Enable webhooks
WEBHOOKS=1
# Enable forum
FORUM=1
</pre>
<h2>
Expose the server to the internet
</h2>
<p>
For simplicity, the server only talks plain HTTP on localhost.
To expose the server to your LAN and/or WAN, either listen to 0.0.0.0 or use a reverse proxy server such as Nginx.
To use SSL (HTTPS) you need a reverse proxy server.
<p>
Here is an example Nginx configuration:
<pre>
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
ssl_certificate /path/to/ssl/certificate/fullchain.cer;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/ssl/certificate/example.com.key;
root /path/to/server/public;
location / {
try_files $uri @rally;
}
location @rally {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
proxy_read_timeout 86400s;
proxy_send_timeout 86400s;
}
}
</pre>
<h2>
Archive
</h2>
<p>
Storing all the games ever played requires a lot of space. To keep the size of
the main database down, you can delete and/or archive finished games periodically.
<p>
You can copy the game state and replay data for finished games to a separate archive database.
Below are the tools to archive (and restore) the game state data.
Run the archive and purge scripts as part of the backup cron job.
<dl>
<dt>
<code>sqlite3 tools/archive.sql</code>
<dd>
Copy game state data of finished games into archive database.
<dt>
<code>sqlite3 tools/purge.sql</code>
<dd>
Delete game state data of finished games over a certain age.
<dt>
<code>bash tools/unarchive.sh <i>game_id</i></code>
<dd>
Restore archived game state.
</dl>