forked from Telodendria/Telodendria
221 lines
8.1 KiB
Groff
221 lines
8.1 KiB
Groff
.Dd $Mdocdate: March 10 2023 $
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.Dt TELODENDRIA 7
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.Os Telodendria Project
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm Telodendria
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.Nd Start here. This page contains the project introduction, and provides information about it, such as its status, how to contact the developers, and what the source code license is.
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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.Nm
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is an open source Matrix homeserver written entirely from scratch in ANSI C and
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designed to be lightweight and simple, yet functional.
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.Pp
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.Nm
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differentiates itself from the other Matrix homeserver
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implementations because it:
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.Bl -bullet
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.It
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Is written in C, a stable, low-level programming language with a
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long history, low build and runtime overhead, and wide compatibility.
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.It
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Is written with minimalism as a primary design goal. Whenever possible
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and practical, no third-party libraries are pulled into the source code.
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Everything
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.Nm
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needs is custom written. As a result,
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.Nm
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depends only on a standard C compiler and a POSIX C library to be built,
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both of which should come with any good Unix-style operating system already,
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which means you shouldn't have to install anything extra.
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.It
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Uses a flat-file directory structure to store data instead of a database.
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This has a number of advantages:
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.Bl -bullet
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.It
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It makes setup and maintenance much easier.
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.It
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It allows
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.Nm
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to run on systems with fewer resources.
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.El
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.It
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Is packaged as a single small, statically-linked and highly-optimized binary
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that can be run just about anywhere. It is designed to be extremely easy to
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set up and consume as few resources as possible.
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.It
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Is permissively licensed.
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.Nm
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is licensed under a modified MIT license, which imposes very few restrictions
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on what you can do with it.
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.El
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.Pp
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.Nm
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is on Matrix! Check out the official Matrix rooms:
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.Pp
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.TS
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box tab(;);
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ll.
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#telodendria:bancino.net;The public "space" room.
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#telodendria-releases:bancino.net;Get notified of new releases.
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#telodendria-general:bancino.net;General discussion and support.
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#telodendria-newsletter:bancino.net;Periodic status updates.
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#telodendria-issues:bancino.net;Report bugs and issues.
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#telodendria-patches:bancino.net;Submit code patches to the project.
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#telodendria-ports:bancino.net;Discussion about porting and packaging.
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.TE
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.Pp
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.Nm
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is designed to be fairly straightforward, but that doesn't mean there
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won't be hiccups along the way. If you're struggling to get
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.Nm
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up and running, you're more than welcome to reach out for support. Just
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hop into the appropriate Matrix rooms and talk to me!
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.Sh RATIONALE
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I want a lightweight Matrix homeserver designed specifically for OpenBSD,
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and other Unix-like operating systems. I want a homeserver that can be
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developed and compiled with built-in tools. I want it to function entirely
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on a base OS install without having to install any packages whatsoever. I've
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found that as far as these goals are concerned, the existing homeserver
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implementations fall short. This project aims to prove that Matrix homeservers
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can be lightweight and written in such a way that very few, if any, third-party
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libraries need to be pulled in.
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.Pp
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I also want to learn how Matrix works, and I want to understand the code I'm
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running on my server, which is why I'm writing every component from scratch,
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even the HTTP server and router.
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.Pp
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The advantage of using a flat-file database instead of a real database is that
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your data remains in a format that is incredibly easy to digest. Backups are
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incredibly easy as well\(emjust
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.Xr tar 1
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up the data directory and you're good to go.
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.Sh PROJECT GOALS
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The goals of this project are generally divided into user goals and developer
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goals, depending on who they impact the most. This isn't an exaustive list
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of the project's goals, but it is a list of things that I want to prioritize,
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because other server implementations lack them.
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.Pp
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The user goals are as follows:
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.Bl -bullet
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.It
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To implement the latest Matrix specification as fully and completely as possible.
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All features defined by the specification should eventually be present in
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.Nm .
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.It
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To be as privacy-friendly as possible.
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.Nm
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should not store any information it does not absolutely need to function as a
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Matrix homeserver. While
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.Nm
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strives to be feature-complete, it should not implement anything not explicitly
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defined in the Matrix specification.
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.It
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To be a production-ready Matrix server capable of working in constrained environments,
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such as embedded devices, cheap VPSs, or a peer-to-peer device.
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.Nm
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should also work on traditional setups as well, and be able to handle a decent
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amount of users. It should work well for personal Matrix homeservers that also
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host a few friends and/or family members.
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.It
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To be easier to get up and running, and yet also be more configurable than other
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Matrix homeserver implementations. The configuration file should be flexible,
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well-documented, and easy to understand and modify. An intuitive command-line
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tool for administrative tasks should also be available.
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.El
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.Pp
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The developer goals are as follows:
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.Bl -bullet
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.It
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To have as few build and runtime dependencies as possible. It should be possible
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to compile and run
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.Nm
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on any POSIX operating system right out of the box.
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.Nm
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should be fully statically-linked, so it can run under a
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.Xr chroot 3 .
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Furthermore, it should be possible to read all the documentation offline, and
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without any overly complicated tools. You'll notice that this documentation is
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a collection of
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.Xr man 1
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pages, not HTML or Markdown, to remove the dependency on a browser or Markdown
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parser. Any Unix-like system has a manual page viewer, which makes the
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documentation more accessible, even on remote systems that have no graphical
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interface to read the documentation. This ensures that you can read the
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documentation for the installed version of
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.Nm
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without having to go online.
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.It
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To have a simple yet elegant workflow, and not depend on any large or complex
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development tools such as code forges. The entire development workflow should
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be able to be successfully and efficiently completed on a base OpenBSD install.
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Of course, you don't have to use OpenBSD for development, but the point is that
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the workflow should require fairly standardized and simple tools.
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.It
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To write clean, elegant, well-tested, and well-documented code. The goal is to build
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a Matrix homeserver from the ground up, not just because I don't like the way existing
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homeservers are implemented, but also because I want to learn how Matrix works,
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make it more accessible, and potentially teach others a little bit along the way.
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.It
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To foster a welcoming community. Many big communities such as Linux and OpenBSD
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have hostile leaders.
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.Nm
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shouldn't have a hostile leader. I want to be as understanding as I can, and talk
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through issues politely and in a civil manner. If I'm failing in this way, don't
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be afraid to call me out!
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.El
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.Sh SEE ALSO
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.Xr telodendria 8 ,
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.Xr telodendria.conf 5 ,
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.Xr td 1
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.Sh STANDARDS
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The installed version of
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.Nm
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conforms to the latest Matrix specification available at the time
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of its release.
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.Sh HISTORY
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.Pp
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.Nm
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was started in early July of 2022. For a change log of this
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project, see
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.Xr telodendria-changelog 7 .
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.Sh AUTHORS
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.Nm
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was started by and is almost exclusively developed by
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Jordan Bancino <@jordan:bancino.net>. Contributions to the code,
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website, documentation, or other components of this project have
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been made by various open source developers.
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.Sh LICENSE
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All of the code and documentation for
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.Nm
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is licensed under a modified MIT license. Please consult the
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.Pa LICENSE.txt
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file for the actual license text. The
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.Nm
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license text differs from the MIT license in the following ways:
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.Bl -bullet
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.It
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Where the MIT license states that the copyright notice and permission
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notice shall be included in all copies or
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.Pa substantial
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portions of the software, the
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.Nm
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license requires the copyright notice and permission notice be included
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with
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.Pa all
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portions, regardless of the size, of the software by omitting the word
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.Pa substantial .
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.El
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.Pp
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The
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.Nm
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logo in all forms, including the ASCII representation, belongs solely
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to the
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.Nm
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project. It must only be used to represent the official
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.Nm
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project, and may only appear in official
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.Nm
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media. If
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.Nm
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is forked, the logo must be removed completely from the project, and
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optionally replaced with a different one. The logo may not be modified
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in any way or for any purpose.
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