The VNDB.org Source Code

Quick and dirty setup using Docker

Setup:

  docker build -t vndb .

Run (will run on the foreground):

  docker run -ti --name vndb -p 3000:3000 -v "`pwd`":/var/www --rm vndb

If you need another terminal into the container while it's running:

  docker exec -ti vndb su -l devuser  # development shell (files are at /var/www)
  docker exec -ti vndb psql -U vndb   # postgres shell

To start Multi, the optional application server:

  docker exec -ti vndb su -l devuser -c 'make -C /var/www multi-restart'

It will run in the background for as long as the container is alive. Logs are written to data/log/multi.log.

The PostgreSQL database will be stored in data/docker-pg/ and the uploaded files in static/{ch,cv,sf,st}. If you want to restart with a clean slate, you can stop the container and run:

  # Might want to make a backup of these dirs first if you have any interesting data.
  rm -rf data/docker-pg static/{ch,cv,sf,st}

Requirements (when not using Docker)

Global requirements:

• Linux, or an OS that resembles Linux. Chances are VNDB won't run on Windows.
• A standard C build system (make/gcc/etc)
• PostgreSQL 10+ (including development files)
• Perl 5.26+
• Elm 0.19.1

Perl modules (core modules are not listed):

General:

• AnyEvent
• Crypt::ScryptKDF
• Crypt::URandom
• DBD::Pg
• DBI
• Image::Magick
• JSON::XS
• PerlIO::gzip
• graphviz (/usr/bin/dot is used by default)

util/vndb.pl (the web backend):

• Algorithm::Diff::XS
• SQL::Interp
• Text::MultiMarkdown
• TUWF
• HTTP::Server::Simple

util/multi.pl (application server, optional):

• AnyEvent::HTTP
• AnyEvent::IRC
• AnyEvent::Pg

Manual setup

• Make sure all the required dependencies (see above) are installed. Hint: See the Docker file for Alpine Linux commands, other distributions will be similar. For non-root setup, check out cpanminus & local::lib.
• Run the build system:

  make

• Setup a PostgreSQL server and make sure you can login with some admin user
• Build the vndbfuncs PostgreSQL library:

  make -C sql/c

• Copy sql/c/vndbfuncs.so to the appropriate directory (either run sudo make -C sql/c install or see pg_config --pkglibdir or SHOW dynamic_library_path)
• Initialize the VNDB database (assuming 'postgres' is a superuser):

  # Create the database & roles
  psql -U postgres -f sql/superuser_init.sql
  psql -U postgres vndb -f sql/vndbid.sql

  # Set a password for each database role:
  echo "ALTER ROLE vndb       LOGIN PASSWORD 'pwd1'" | psql -U postgres
  echo "ALTER ROLE vndb_site  LOGIN PASSWORD 'pwd2'" | psql -U postgres
  echo "ALTER ROLE vndb_multi LOGIN PASSWORD 'pwd3'" | psql -U postgres

  # OPTION 1: Create an empty database:
  psql -U vndb -f sql/all.sql

  # OPTION 2: Import the development database (https://vndb.org/d8#3):
  curl -L https://dl.vndb.org/dump/vndb-dev-latest.tar.gz | tar -xzf-
  psql -U vndb -f dump.sql
  rm dump.sql

• Update data/conf.pl with the proper credentials for vndb_site and vndb_multi.
• Now simply run:

  util/vndb-dev-server.pl

• (Optional) To start Multi, the application server:

  make multi-restart

Rewrites, rewrites, rewrites

The VNDB website is currently (like every project beyond a certain age) in a transitional state of rewrites. There are three "versions" and coding styles across this repository:

Version 2

This is the code that powers the actual website. It lives in lib/VNDB/ and has util/vndb.pl as entry point. Front-end assets are in data/js/, data/style.css, data/icons/, static/f/ and static/s/.

Version 2-rw

This is a (recently started) backend rewrite of version 2. It lives in lib/VNWeb/ with Elm and Javascript code in elm/. Individual parts of the website are gradually being moved into this new coding style and structure. Version 2 and 2-rw run side-by-side in the same process and share a common route table and database connection, so the entry point is still util/vndb.pl. The primary goal of this rewrite is to make use of the clearer version 3 structure and to slowly migrate the brittle frontend Javascript parts to Elm and JSON APIs.

Version 3

There also used to be a "version 3" rewrite with a completely new user interface. All of the improvements developed in version 3 are slowly being backported and improved upon in version 2-rw and version 3 does not exist anymore (though it can still be found in the version history).

Non-rewrites

Some parts of this repository are not affected by these rewrites. These include the database structure, most of the scripts in util/, some common modules spread across lib/ and Multi, which resides in lib/Multi/. That's not to say these are final or stable, but they're largely independent from the website code.

License

GNU AGPL, see COPYING file for details.