content/posts/updating-dendrite/index.md

   1 ---
   2 title: "Updating/installing Dendrite"
   3 date: 2023-08-24T16:41:53+02:00
   4 ---
   5 I decided to share the method I just devised for updating (and perhaps
   6 installing) Dendrite on my VPS.
   7
   8 # Motivation
   9 I discovered that yesterday (as of writing), Dendrite was updated to
  10 [0.13.2](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/releases/tag/v0.13.2), and I was
  11 running 0.13.1. Because old thing bad and new thing good, I decided to update
  12 right away!
  13
  14 The method I tried using for this was essentially the same as I used for the
  15 initial install:
  16
  17 1. Stop dendrite service
  18 1. Download new tarball
  19 1. Unpack new tarball into existing dendrite directory
  20 1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...`
  21
  22 This is where the issues start: it errored out on some nats something and I
  23 assumed it just didn't like being unpacked into an existing dendrite directory,
  24 so I made a new one. It failed again and then I read the actual error that
  25 occurred, and as it turned out the version of Go packaged in Debian is too old
  26 to compile the nats thing. Isn't that a classic?
  27
  28 I looked around to see if maybe Go has its own Debian repository, but I was out
  29 of luck. It seemed that the 2 options were either install Go from source or just
  30 stick with Dendrite 0.13.1, but in the end I decided on a 3rd solution:
  31
  32 # Compiling it locally
  33 My personal machine runs Artix, so there should be no problem with outdated Go
  34 (or anything really) whatsoever. I figured that I could compile Dendrite on my
  35 personal machine and then `rsync` the binaries onto my VPS, just like I did with
  36 my Piped-Material frontend. Here are the steps:
  37
  38 1. Clone [Dendrite git repository](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite)
  39 1. Checkout `v0.13.2` *(replace with latest version)*
  40 1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...` and wait for it to compile
  41 1. On VPS, move `/opt/dendrite` to `/opt/dendrite-old` and create new
  42    `/opt/dendrite`
  43 1. *(optional)* Strip the binaries so they take up less space: `strip
  44    --strip-unneeded bin/*`
  45 1. `rsync` the `bin` directory: `rsync -aAXvhzP bin root@vps:/opt/dendrite/`\
  46    *Most likely all these options aren't needed, it is what I use for VPS
  47    backups so I decided to not touch it just to be safe.*
  48 1. Back on the VPS, copy over `matrix_key.pem`, `media_store`, *(if it exists)*
  49    `searchindex` and `dendrite.yaml` from `dendrite-old` into `dendrite`.\
  50    I have noticed that Dendrite also creates a `jetstream` directory, I'm not
  51    sure what it is for but my homeserver seems to work fine without copying it
  52    over.
  53 1. Update configuration file. To do this, I went back to the Git repository on
  54    my local machine and ran `git log -p dendrite-sample.yaml`. This time the
  55    only change was that MSC2946 (Space Summaries) was de-MSCified, so I removed
  56    that from the config file.
  57 1. Make sure the user and group `dendrite` own every file in `/opt/dendrite`.
  58    Run: `chown -R dendrite:dendrite /opt/dendrite`
  59
  60 After doing this, I started Dendrite again using `systemctl` and to my surprise
  61 the homeserver was up and running first try. I also took this time to enable
  62 server-side search and DNS caching, which is something I overlooked during the
  63 initial setup of my homeserver. I have also verified that space previews still
  64 work despite MSC2946 being removed from the configuration file.
  65
  66 This way I was also able to save a bit of disk space, which is important since
  67 space is often rather limited on VPSes.