libravatarserv/README.md

libravatarserv is a simple libravatar server. It is intended to be used as a CGI program.

Libravatar is a free service and an open specification for hosting profile images tied to email or OpenID addresses.

Features

• Avatar delivery based on email addresses
• Default avatar for unknown addresses
• MD5 hashes
• SHA256 hashes
• Variable image size (s or size)
• Default actions (d or default): 404, URL, mp/mm, identicon

The default behaviour for unknown users is to return a 404 error. If a default image is put in the avatar directory, that is returned instead. The default image can not be overriden by adding the parameter d or default to the URL.

Clients are asked to cache results for up to 1 day to reduce load. This can apply to negative results as well.

The API is explained in greater detail at the Libravar wiki.

Usage

Install nginx and fcgiwrap, copy the example config to the nginx configuration directory and edit it according to your needs. Other webservers and cgi spawners will also work, of course.

Add the following DNS records to your nameserver:

_avatars._tcp.example.com.     IN SRV 0 0 80  avatars.example.com
_avatars-sec._tcp.example.com. IN SRV 0 0 443 avatars.example.com

_avatars._tcp.example.com is for HTTP, _avatars-sec._tcp.example.com is for HTTPS.

libravatarserv looks in each of ${XDG_DATA_DIRS} for a directory named libravatarserv. You can force a different directory by setting the environment variable ${LIBRAVATARSERV_DIR} (until 0.3.0 ${AVATAR_DIR}).

The image files are named like your email address, no file extension. If you want to deliver a default image for unknown email addresses, name it default.

If you want to support "Mystery persons" (mp/mm) as default avatars, place a file named mp in the avatar dir. You can use the default libravatar mystery person, for example.

Test your setup on https://www.libravatar.org/tools/check/.

Example

The avatar directory could look like this:

/usr/share/libravatarserv
├── [ 32K]  default
├── [ 759]  user@example.com
└── [  16]  user+newsletter@example.com -> user@example.com

Install

Gentoo

Gentoo ebuilds are available via my repository.

Automatically generated packages

Binary packages are generated automatically for each release in the formats:

• deb
• rpm
• tar.gz

They are generated on Ubuntu Trusty 64 bit.

From source

Dependencies

• C++ compiler (tested: gcc 5/6/7/8, clang 5/6)
• cmake (at least 3.2)
• crypto++ (tested: 7.0 / 5.6)
• imagemagick (tested: 7.0 / 6.7)
• libxdg-basedir (tested: 1.2)

Compile

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make install

cmake options

• -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug for a debug build
• One of:
  • -DWITH_DEB=YES to generate a deb-package
  • -DWITH_RPM=YES to generate an rpm-package

To generate a binary package, execute make package

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome. You can submit them as pull requests or via email to tastytea@tastytea.de.

Contact

See https://tastytea.de/

License & Copyright

Copyright © 2018 tastytea <tastytea@tastytea.de>.
License GPLv3: GNU GPL version 3 <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html>.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.