The config file tinode.conf contains extensive instructions on configuring the server.

1. Visit the Releases page, choose the latest or otherwise the most suitable release. From the list of binaries download the one for your database and platform. Once the binary is downloaded, unpack it to a directory of your choosing, cd to that directory.

2. Make sure your database is running. Make sure it's configured to accept connections from localhost. In case of MySQL, Tinode will try to connect as root without the password. See notes below (Building from Source, section 4) on how to configure Tinode to use a different user or a password. MySQL 5.7 or above is required. MySQL 5.6 or below will not work.

3. Run the database initializer init-db (or init-db.exe on Windows):

   ./init-db -data=data.json
   

4. Run the tinode (or tinode.exe on Windows) server. It will work without any parameters.

   ./tinode
   

5. Test your installation by pointing your browser to http://localhost:6060/

See instructions

1. Install Go environment. Make sure Go version is at least 1.14. Building with Go 1.13 or below will fail!

2. OPTIONAL only if you intend to modify code: Install protobuf and gRPC including code generator for Go.

3. Make sure one of the following databases is installed and running:

• MySQL 5.7 or above. MySQL 5.6 or below will not work.
• MongoDB 4.0 or above.
• RethinkDB.

4. Fetch, build Tinode server and tinode-db database initializer:

• MySQL:

  go get -tags mysql github.com/tinode/chat/server && go build -tags mysql -o $GOPATH/bin/tinode github.com/tinode/chat/server
  go get -tags mysql github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db && go build -tags mysql -o $GOPATH/bin/init-db github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db
  

• MongoDB:

  go get -tags mongodb github.com/tinode/chat/server && go build -tags mongodb -o $GOPATH/bin/tinode github.com/tinode/chat/server
  go get -tags mongodb github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db && go build -tags mongodb -o $GOPATH/bin/init-db github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db
  

• RethinkDb:

  go get -tags rethinkdb github.com/tinode/chat/server && go build -tags rethinkdb -o $GOPATH/bin/tinode github.com/tinode/chat/server
  go get -tags rethinkdb github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db && go build -tags rethinkdb -o $GOPATH/bin/init-db github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db
  

• All (bundle all the above DB adapters):

  go get -tags "mysql rethinkdb mongodb" github.com/tinode/chat/server && go build -tags "mysql rethinkdb mongodb" -o $GOPATH/bin/tinode github.com/tinode/chat/server
  go get -tags "mysql rethinkdb mongodb" github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db && go build -tags "mysql rethinkdb mongodb" -o $GOPATH/bin/init-db github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db
  

  Note the required -tags rethinkdb, -tags mysql or -tags mongodb build option.

  You may also optionally define main.buildstamp for the server by adding a build option, for instance, with a timestamp:

  -ldflags "-X main.buildstamp=`date -u '+%Y%m%dT%H:%M:%SZ'`"
  

  The value of buildstamp will be sent by the server to the clients.

5. Open tinode.conf. Check that the database connection parameters are correct for your database. If you are using MySQL make sure DSN in "mysql" section is appropriate for your MySQL installation. Option parseTime=true is required.

	"mysql": {
		"dsn": "root@tcp(localhost)/tinode?parseTime=true",
		"database": "tinode"
	},

6. Make sure you specify the adapter name in your tinode.conf. E.g. you want to run Tinode with MySQL:

	"store_config": {
		...
		"use_adapter": "mysql",
		...
	},

7. Now that you have built the binaries, follow instructions in the Running a Standalone Server section.

1. Make sure your database is running:

• MySQL: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-startstop-excerpt/5.7/en/programs-server.html

  mysql.server start
  

• MongoDB: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/administration/install-community/ MongoDB should run as single node replicaset. See https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/administration/replica-set-deployment/

  mongod
  

• RethinkDB: https://www.rethinkdb.com/docs/start-a-server/

  rethinkdb --bind all --daemon
  

2. Run DB initializer

   $GOPATH/bin/init-db -config=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db/tinode.conf
   

   add -data=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db/data.json flag if you want sample data to be loaded:

   $GOPATH/bin/init-db -config=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db/tinode.conf -data=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/tinode-db/data.json
   

   DB intializer needs to be run only once per installation. See instructions for more options.

3. Unpack JS client to a directory, for instance $HOME/tinode/webapp/ by unzipping https://github.com/tinode/webapp/archive/master.zip and https://github.com/tinode/tinode-js/archive/master.zip to the same directory.

4. Copy or symlink template directory $GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/server/templ to $GOPATH/bin/templ

   ln -s $GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/server/templ $GOPATH/bin
   

5. Run the server

   $GOPATH/bin/tinode -config=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/server/tinode.conf -static_data=$HOME/tinode/webapp/
   

6. Test your installation by pointing your browser to http://localhost:6060/. The static files from the -static_data path are served at web root /. You can change this by editing the line static_mount in the config file.

Important! If you are running Tinode alongside another webserver, such as Apache or nginx, keep in mind that you need to launch the webapp from the URL served by Tinode. Otherwise it won't work.

• Install and run the database, run DB initializer, unpack JS files, and link or copy template directory as described in the previous section. Both MySQL and RethinkDB supports cluster mode. You may consider it for added resiliency.

• Cluster expects at least two nodes. A minimum of three nodes is recommended.

• The following section configures the cluster.

	"cluster_config": {
		// Name of the current node.
		"self": "",
		// List of all cluster nodes, including the current one.
		"nodes": [
			{"name": "one", "addr":"localhost:12001"},
			{"name": "two", "addr":"localhost:12002"},
			{"name": "three", "addr":"localhost:12003"}
		],
		// Configuration of failover feature. Don't change.
		"failover": {
			"enabled": true,
			"heartbeat": 100,
			"vote_after": 8,
			"node_fail_after": 16
		}
	}

• self is the name of the current node. Generally it's more convenient to specify the name of the current node at the command line using cluster_self option. Command line value overrides the config file value. If the value is not provided either in the config file or through the command line, the clustering is disabled.
• nodes defines individual cluster nodes. The sample defines three nodes named one, two, and tree running at the localhost at the specified cluster communication ports. Cluster addresses don't need to be exposed to the outside world.
• failover is an experimental feature which migrates topics from failed cluster nodes keeping them accessible:
  • enabled turns on failover mode; failover mode requires at least three nodes in the cluster.
  • heartbeat interval in milliseconds between heartbeats sent by the leader node to follower nodes to ensure they are accessible.
  • vote_after number of failed heartbeats before a new leader node is elected.
  • node_fail_after number of heartbeats that a follower node misses before it's considered to be down.

If you are testing the cluster with all nodes running on the same host, you also must override the listen and grpc_listen ports. Here is an example for launching two cluster nodes from the same host using the same config file:

$GOPATH/bin/tinode -config=./tinode.conf -static_data=./webapp/ -listen=:6060 -grpc_listen=:6080 -cluster_self=one &
$GOPATH/bin/tinode -config=./tinode.conf -static_data=./webapp/ -listen=:6061 -grpc_listen=:6081 -cluster_self=two &

A bash script run-cluster.sh may be found useful.

Follow instructions.

There is no clean way to daemonize a Go process internally. One must use external tools such as shell & operator, systemd, launchd, SMF, daemon tools, runit, etc. to run the process in the background.

Specific note for nohup users: an exit must be issued immediately after nohup call to close the foreground session cleanly:

nohup $GOPATH/bin/server -config=$GOPATH/src/github.com/tinode/chat/server/tinode.conf -static_data=$HOME/tinode/webapp/ &
exit

Otherwise SIGHUP may be received by the server if the shell connection is broken before the ssh session has terminated (indicated by Connection to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX port 22: Broken pipe). In such a case the server will shutdown because SIGHUP is intercepted by the server and interpreted as a shutdown request.

For more details see tinode#25.