From: Duje Mihanović <duje.mihanovic@skole.hr>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2023 20:46:59 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: New post: Updating/installing Dendrite
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New post: Updating/installing Dendrite
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+---
+title: "Updating/installing Dendrite"
+date: 2023-08-24T16:41:53+02:00
+---
+I decided to share the method I just devised for updating (and perhaps
+installing) Dendrite on my VPS.
+
+# Motivation
+I discovered that yesterday (as of writing), Dendrite was updated to
+[0.13.2](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/releases/tag/v0.13.2), and I was
+running 0.13.1. Because old thing bad and new thing good, I decided to update
+right away!
+
+The method I tried using for this was essentially the same as I used for the
+initial install:
+
+1. Stop dendrite service
+1. Download new tarball
+1. Unpack new tarball into existing dendrite directory
+1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...`
+
+This is where the issues start: it errored out on some nats something and I
+assumed it just didn't like being unpacked into an existing dendrite directory,
+so I made a new one. It failed again and then I read the actual error that
+occurred, and as it turned out the version of Go packaged in Debian is too old
+to compile the nats thing. Isn't that a classic?
+
+I looked around to see if maybe Go has its own Debian repository, but I was out
+of luck. It seemed that the 2 options were either install Go from source or just
+stick with Dendrite 0.13.1, but in the end I decided on a 3rd solution:
+
+# Compiling it locally
+My personal machine runs Artix, so there should be no problem with outdated Go
+(or anything really) whatsoever. I figured that I could compile Dendrite on my
+personal machine and then `rsync` the binaries onto my VPS, just like I did with
+my Piped-Material frontend. Here are the steps:
+
+1. Clone [Dendrite git repository](https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite)
+1. Checkout `v0.13.2` *(replace with latest version)*
+1. Run `go build -o ./bin ./cmd/...` and wait for it to compile
+1. On VPS, move `/opt/dendrite` to `/opt/dendrite-old` and create new
+   `/opt/dendrite`
+1. *(optional)* Strip the binaries so they take up less space: `strip
+   --strip-unneeded bin/*`
+1. `rsync` the `bin` directory: `rsync -aAXvhzP bin root@vps:/opt/dendrite/`\
+   *Most likely all these options aren't needed, it is what I use for VPS
+   backups so I decided to not touch it just to be safe.*
+1. Back on the VPS, copy over `matrix_key.pem`, `media_store`, *(if it exists)*
+   `searchindex` and `dendrite.yaml` from `dendrite-old` into `dendrite`.\
+   I have noticed that Dendrite also creates a `jetstream` directory, I'm not
+   sure what it is for but my homeserver seems to work fine without copying it
+   over.
+1. Update configuration file. To do this, I went back to the Git repository on
+   my local machine and ran `git log -p dendrite-sample.yaml`. This time the
+   only change was that MSC2946 (Space Summaries) was de-MSCified, so I removed
+   that from the config file.
+1. Make sure the user and group `dendrite` own every file in `/opt/dendrite`.
+   Run: `chown -R dendrite:dendrite /opt/dendrite`
+
+After doing this, I started Dendrite again using `systemctl` and to my surprise
+the homeserver was up and running first try. I also took this time to enable
+server-side search and DNS caching, which is something I overlooked during the
+initial setup of my homeserver. I have also verified that space previews still
+work despite MSC2946 being removed from the configuration file.
+
+This way I was also able to save a bit of disk space, which is important since
+space is often rather limited on VPSes.