### Lobsters Rails Project ![build status](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/actions/workflows/check.yml/badge.svg)

This is the
[quite sad](https://web.archive.org/web/20230213161624/https://old.reddit.com/r/rails/comments/6jz7tq/source_code_lobsters_a_hacker_news_clone_built/)
source code to the
[ghost town](https://twitter.com/webshitweekly/status/1399935275057389571) at
[https://lobste.rs](https://lobste.rs).
It is a Rails codebase and uses a SQL (MariaDB in production) backend for the database.

You are free to use this code to start your own [sister site](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/wiki)
because the code is available under a [permissive license](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/master/LICENSE) (3-clause BSD).
We welcome bug reports and code contributions that help use improve [lobste.rs](https://lobste.rs).
As a volunteer project we're reluctant to take on work that's not useful to our site, so please understand if we don't want to adopt your custom feature.


#### Contributing bugfixes and new features

We'd love to have your help.
Please see the [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) file for details.
If you have questions, there is usually someone in [our chat room](https://lobste.rs/chat) who's familiar with the code.


#### Development setup

Use the steps below for a local install or
[lobsters-ansible](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters-ansible) for our production deployment config.
There's an external project [docker-lobsters](https://github.com/utensils/docker-lobsters) if you want to use Docker.

* Install the Ruby version specified in [.ruby-version](https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/blob/master/.ruby-version)

* Checkout the lobsters git tree from Github
    ```sh
    $ git clone git@github.com:lobsters/lobsters.git
    $ cd lobsters
    lobsters$
    ```

* Install Nodejs, needed (or other execjs) for uglifier
    ```sh
    Fedora: sudo yum install nodejs
    Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install nodejs
    OSX: brew install nodejs
    ```
* Create a MariaDB (other DBs supported by ActiveRecord may work, only MySQL and
MariaDB have been tested) database, username, and password and put them in a
`config/database.yml` file.  You will also want a separate database for
running tests:

    ```yaml
    development:
      adapter: mysql2
      encoding: utf8mb4
      reconnect: false
      database: lobsters_dev
      socket: /tmp/mysql.sock
      username: *dev_username*
      password: *dev_password*
      
    test:
      adapter: mysql2
      encoding: utf8mb4
      reconnect: false
      database: lobsters_test
      socket: /tmp/mysql.sock
      username: *test_username*
      password: *test_password*
    ```

* Run `bin/setup` to install dependencies and set up db

    ```sh
    lobsters$ bin/setup
    ```
    
    * If when installing the `mysql2` gem on macOS, you see 
      `ld: library not found for -l-lpthread` in the output, see 
      [this solution](https://stackoverflow.com/a/44790834/204052) for a fix.
      You might also see `ld: library not found for -lssl` if you're using
      macOS 10.4+ and Homebrew `openssl`, in which case see
      [this solution](https://stackoverflow.com/a/39628463/1042144).

* On your production server, copy `config/initializers/production.rb.sample`
  to `config/initalizers/production.rb` and customize it with your site's
  `domain` and `name`. (You don't need this on your dev machine).

* On your personal computer, you probably want to add some sample data.

    ```sh
    lobsters$ rails fake_data
    ```

* Run the Rails server in development mode.
  You should be able to login to `http://localhost:3000` with your new `test` user:

    ```sh
    lobsters$ rails server
    ```

* Deploying the site in production requires setting up a web server and running the app in production mode.
  There are more tools and options available than we can describe; find a guide or an expert.
  The lobsters-ansible repo has our config files to crib from. Some app-specific notes:

* Set up crontab or another scheduler to run regular jobs:

    ```
    */5 * * * *  cd /path/to/lobsters && env RAILS_ENV=production sh -c 'bundle exec ruby script/mail_new_activity; bundle exec ruby script/post_to_twitter; bundle exec ruby script/traffic_range'
    ```

* See `config/initializers/production.rb.sample` for GitHub/Twitter integration help.

* You probably want to use [git-imerge](https://lobste.rs/s/dbm2d4) to pull in
  changes from Lobsters to your site.

#### Administration

Basic moderation happens on-site, but most other administrative tasks require use of the rails console in production.
Administrators can create and edit tags at `/tags`.