Strangely on a Sunday morning, I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.67 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
The search box also accepts post URLs; the post is requested and, if it's found, can be interacted with (liked, boosted, replied to, etc.).
IP addresses for failed logins are tracked and throttled to mitigate brute force attacks (see snac(8) for more information).
Fixed a bug regarding repeated attachments when editing a post.
Mastodon API: Improved timeline pagination in some clients (details: an HTTP Link header has been added), fixed missing audio attachments, fixed an incorrect value for the bot field in newly created accounts, fixed a crash, implemented markers (contributed by nowster).
When running in server mode, the pidfile is locked to avoid concurrent running of the same server instance.
Added documentation and some tweaks to enable static compilation with musl (contributed by Shamar).
Strangely on a Sunday morning, I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.67 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
The search box also accepts post URLs; the post is requested and, if it's found, can be interacted with (liked, boosted, replied to, etc.).
Two of three GitHub Actions Continuous Integration checks passed, which is a good sign; hopefully the others will pass without issues.
As usual, it's up to others with commit access to merge it!
Thanks again for your and others' continued improvements to snac! Specifically I noticed shout outs to nowster and Shamar in the RELEASE_NOTES.md and I seem to recall watching the discourse about the PID locking suggested and discussed rather collaboratively too!
(My apologies for the delay. The Makefile was slightly modified, which in turn broke the $files/Makefile.patch applied by MacPorts so I needed to rework that which took me a bit longer than usual given other work obligations I have had today.
Though not a concern for upstream, for MacPorts users I also noticed the following warning when running % port test:
"Warning: violation by /opt/local/man
Warning: snac violates the layout of the ports-filesystems!
Warning: Please fix or indicate this misbehavior (if it is intended), it will be an error in future releases!"
Though, it appears as if the man pages are where I think they should be for MacPorts? I have never seen that Warning before, so my guess is something about MacPorts intended prescriptive behavior has been changed but I am not exactly certain what the expected behavior is supposed to be now? I will look into it further, but hopefully it isn't a concern for users at the moment; just thought I would mention it for the sake of being thorough!
However, it's entirely possible I messed something up too; so if others with greater wisdom than I see that Warning and know what to do to correct it, or if they encounter any other issues with MacPorts' snac, others are more than welcome to submit Pull Requests with improvements! Or feel free to open up an issue on MacPorts Trac instance at https://trac.macports.org and I'll look into it.)
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.66 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
As many users have asked for it, there is now an option to make the number of followed and following accounts public (still disabled by default). These are only the numbers; the lists themselves are never published.
Some fixes to blocked instances code (posts from them were sometimes shown).
Fixed non-appearing buttons Approve and Discard if the account requesting a follow were being followed.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.66 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
As many users have asked for it, there is now an option to make the number of followed and following accounts public (still disabled by default). These are only the numbers; the lists themselves are never published.
They are just packaged topical lists of up to 35 accounts you can follow from your Mastodon or other Fediverse account. You can follow the entire pack by importing a file. And the entire pack loads into a list, so it becomes a feed for that subject. You can also just browse for accounts you might want to follow individually.
So, they’re like Bluesky Starter Packs?
Yes, but not quite as convenient. It’s not hard, but because Mastodon does not have a one-click way to do this, you need to download a follow pack file and then use Mastodon’s import facility. Instructions are provided in the directory and also below.
These "follow packs" can also be used from #snac pretty easily. To do it, just download the list you are interested in and run the following command for each one:
The list will be created and the accounts inside followed. After that, you'll find a link to the list at the top of your private timeline. Please, take note that these lists are not automatically populated; they will eventually fill with the new posts from the new accounts, that will also appear in your timeline.
snac's web UI does not allow maintaining these lists, but you can do it with any Mastodon API client or from https://mastodonlistmanager.org (which is, em, also a Mastodon API client).
They are just packaged topical lists of up to 35 accounts you can follow from your Mastodon or other Fediverse account. You can follow the entire pack by importing a file. And the entire pack loads into a list, so it becomes a feed for that subject. You can also just browse...
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.65 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added a new user option to disable automatic follow confirmations (follow requests must be manually approved from the people page).
The search box also searches for accounts (via webfinger).
New command-line action import_list, to import a Mastodon list in CSV format (so that Mastodon Follow Packs can be directly used).
New command-line action import_block_list, to import a Mastodon list of accounts to be blocked in CSV format.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.65 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added a new user option to disable automatic follow confirmations (follow requests must be manually approved from the people page).
GitHub Actions Continuous Integration checks are currently running (two are queued. Hopefully those will go smoothly, but I know at least one of them in particular seems to take an awfully long time recently).
Thanks again to you and other snac contributors for continuing to improve what continues to be my favorite ActivityPub implementation!
Oh, also since this PR was merged: https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/26633 It appears as if snac is now building correctly on older versions of OS X that were throwing up errors in under "Port Health" from https://ports.macports.org/port/snac/details/ I do have older Mac systems, but wasn't testing on much older OS versions, so I kind of turned a blind eye to the errors that IIRC were showing up on OS X High Sierra back through Lion? Those seem to be working now too! (Though again, I haven't tested such systems personally and won't dig through my storage unit to exhume old hardware of mine to do so for the foreseeable short term future).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.64 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes (mostly bugfixes):
Some tweaks for better integration with https://bsky.brid.gy (the BlueSky bridge by brid.gy).
A corner case bug in the media proxying code has been fixed.
Hashtags can now include underscores.
The server now creates a pidfile inside the data directory.
Mastodon API: fixed a crash in the notification code, fixed autocapitalization in the OAuth login field (contributed by fkooman).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.64 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes (mostly bugfixes):
For today's #ThankYouTuesday, I want to send my regards to all people that have contributed any piece of code to #snac or that have sponsored me via one way or another.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.63 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
The server can now act as a proxy for all image, audio or video media coming from other account's posts (both from the Web UI and the Mastodon API). This way, other servers will see media requests coming from the server IP, not the user's, improving privacy. This is controlled by setting the proxy_media boolean field to server.json to true.
The strict_public_timelines option introduced in the previous release now works correctly.
Fixed a crash when posting from the links browser.
Fixed some repeated images from Lemmy posts.
Fixed a crash when posting an image from the tooot mobile app.
Updated FreeBSD rc script: the server process is now managed by the daemon(8) utility (contributed by @stefano@bsd.cafe).
This release has been inspired by the song New Moon (Dark Phase) by #DuranDuran.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.63 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
The server can now act as a proxy for all image, audio or video media coming from other account's posts (both from the Web UI and the Mastodon API). This way, other servers will see media requests coming from the server IP, not the user's,...
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.62 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added a new user option to collapse top level threads by default.
Added a new disable_block_notifications boolean field to server.json to disable the notifications of Block activities.
Added a new strict_public_timelines boolean field to server.json to only show an account's posts and boosts (no trees) in public timelines.
Fixed repeated images in posts from some implementations (those that include an image both as an attachment and as an <img> tag inside the post content).
Added a small HTML/CSS tweak to improve post previews from some implementations (contributed by nyanide).
Notifications for EmojiReact activities now show the emoji.
New command-line action insert, to insert a post by its URL in a user's timeline.
Fixed bad processing/rendering of URLs with two or more @ symbols.
This release has been inspired by the song Subways Of Your Mind by #FEX.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.62 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added a new user option to collapse top level threads by default.
Hi, #snacizens. After much hesitation, I finally did what some fellow users suggested: I created a Liberapay account. Until now, I used to accept small donations via ko-fi.com; this will still be possible. This Liberapay account is also linked to a new Stripe account, so any one of you not having a credit card (or disliking Paypal) can also contribute.
Any help will be greatly and sincerely appreciated.
Hi, #snacizens. After much hesitation, I finally did what some fellow users suggested: I created a Liberapay account. Until now, I used to accept small donations via ko-fi.com; this will still be possible. This Liberapay account is also linked to a new Stripe account, so any one of you not having a credit card (or disliking Paypal) can also contribute.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.61 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Migration from a Mastodon account to a snac one has been implemented. Please see snac(8) (the administrator manual) for more information.
Mastodon API: fixed timelines/public (it was showing less posts that it should).
Fixed over-zealous caching to the public timeline.
This release has been inspired by the painting The Hands Resist Him by #BillStoneham.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.61 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Migration from a Mastodon account to a snac one has been implemented. Please see
GitHub Actions Continuous Integration checks are progressing (3 out of 4 passed, which is a good sign; I guess MacPorts recently started checking 4 OS versions on GitHub automatically instead of 3 so this is taking a bit longer than I am accustomed to, it seems as if the macos-15 checks in particular are sluggish, maybe that system is overloaded?).
Regardless, it's up to someone else with commit access to merge it.
Neat to see more Mastodon migration improvements! I think I saw one person already boast of successes of migrating their followers to a snac instance!
Thank you for your hard work and continuing to make my favorite ActivityPub implementation even better!
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.60 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Migration from a snac account to a Mastodon one has been implemented. Please see snac(8) (the administrator manual) for more information.
Fixed a bug in argument parsing regarding some special characters (contributed by ndagestad).
This release has been inspired by the song State of Independence versioned by #DonnaSummer.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.60 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Migration from a snac account to a Mastodon one has been implemented. Please see
It seems that there is a new wave of SPAM in the Fediverse; this will only get worse over time.
If you use #snac as your Fediverse platform, remember that you have some tools to make it less grievous: for example, the filter_reject.txt file, in the root of your snac directory, can be filled with regular expressions (one per line), that will be matched upon the content of every incoming post. If any of those lines match, the post will be dropped silently.
If you don't know what a regular expression is, don't worry; just add a sentence or text string that happens to appear in the SPAM messages you are receiving (but please take into account that this can be pretty destructive, so be very specific with these pieces of text).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.59 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added post drafts: new or edit post edition dialogs include a checkbox that will cause the message to not be posted, but stored in a list of drafts, directly accesible from the private timeline. From that list, drafts can be edited and definitely posted (or re-stored as a draft for later editing).
Fixed a bug that caused Block notifications to not be shown properly.
Fixed crash in a corner case of the URL parameter parsing code.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.59 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added post drafts: new or edit post edition dialogs include a checkbox that will cause the message to not be posted, but stored in a list of drafts, directly accesible from the private timeline. From that list, drafts can be edited and definitely...
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.58 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Search by content also looks into alt-text from attachments (images, videos, etc.).
Search by content is case insensitive for all Unicode-supported alphabets (previously was only for ASCII characters).
Added support for bookmarking posts.
Fixed a failed compilation under Solaris/Illumos.
The actor Person object now includes a featured property, that returns the list of pinned posts.
The delete post button can now be hidden server-wise (it's not very useful and clutters the space).
The lists of pinned and bookmarked posts are directly accesible from the private timeline.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.58 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Search by content also looks into alt-text from attachments (images, videos, etc.).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.57 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
Added support for listening on UNIX-like sockets.
Don't allow empty polls.
Added support for Markdown-style images (converted to attachments) and strikethrough text.
Added support for incoming Move messages: when received, the new account is followed and the old one is unfollowed.
Incoming EmojiReact messages are internally converted to Like (more proper support will happen eventually).
Blocks are also notified.
Mastodon API: fixed a cache bug when following local users.
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.57 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.56 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes (all of them contributions by fellow developers):
Don't show instance announcements in public timelines (contributed by sarahpw).
Added auto boosting. If an account has this flag enabled, all mentions to that account are automatically boosted to all its followers (contributed by sarahpw).
Fixed typos in manpages (contributed by sergiodj).
Some minor performance improvements (contributed by Claire).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.56 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes (all of them contributions by fellow developers):
I feel sorry and a bit unprofessional about announcing the quick release of version 2.55 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the fix to a careless change by me:
Mastodon API: fixed a last-minute bug that broke some API functions.
I apologize for any inconvenience. This week has not been very good for me, but that is no excuse.
I feel sorry and a bit unprofessional about announcing the quick release of version 2.55 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the fix to a careless change by me:
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.54 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. This release includes very valuable work by fellow developer louis77, as well as other bugfixes and improvements:
Markdown-style links are now supported.
The alt text in attachments that have one is also shown in a dropdown just below it (useful for environments where mouseover is not available, i.e. for phones and tablets).
Instance-wide notifications has been implemented (contributed by louis77). A small tweak to the default CSS was made to suit this change; please consider updating your style.css (see doc/style.css as an example).
The avatar and/or the header images can now be deleted (contributed by louis77).
Code cleaning: HTTP status codes use names instead of hardcoded integers (contributed by louis77).
Mastodon API: fixed login problems with the official Mastodon API, IceCube and Toot! on iOS, some fixes for Mona and Tokodon apps, user credentials can now be edited from apps (all contributed by louis77), fixed crash on unset content-type header.
The webfinger content-type response header is now RFC-compliant (contributed by steve-bate).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.54 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. This release includes very valuable work by fellow developer louis77, as well as other bugfixes and improvements:
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.53 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
New user feature to search by post content (using regular expressions) or tag.
Added some (partial) support for Event object types.
Minor fixes: Allow unboosting your own posts (contributed by khm), CSS fixes for the Dillo browser (contributed by kvibber).
I'm glad to announce the release of version 2.53 of #snac, the simple, minimalistic #ActivityPub instance server written in C. It includes the following changes:
New user feature to search by post content (using regular expressions) or tag.
Gregory's Server
https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/27188
Two of three GitHub Actions Continuous Integration checks passed, which is a good sign; hopefully the others will pass without issues.
As usual, it's up to others with commit access to merge it!
Thanks again for your and others' continued improvements to snac! Specifically I noticed shout outs to nowster and Shamar in the RELEASE_NOTES.md and I seem to recall watching the discourse about the PID locking suggested and discussed rather collaboratively too!
(My apologies for the delay. The Makefile was slightly modified, which in turn broke the $files/Makefile.patch applied by MacPorts so I needed to rework that which took me a bit longer than usual given other work obligations I have had today.
Though not a concern for upstream, for MacPorts users I also noticed the following warning when running % port test:
"Warning: violation by /opt/local/man
Warning: snac violates the layout of the ports-filesystems!
Warning: Please fix or indicate this misbehavior (if it is intended), it will be an error in future releases!"
Though, it appears as if the man pages are where I think they should be for MacPorts? I have never seen that Warning before, so my guess is something about MacPorts intended prescriptive behavior has been changed but I am not exactly certain what the expected behavior is supposed to be now? I will look into it further, but hopefully it isn't a concern for users at the moment; just thought I would mention it for the sake of being thorough!
However, it's entirely possible I messed something up too; so if others with greater wisdom than I see that Warning and know what to do to correct it, or if they encounter any other issues with MacPorts' snac, others are more than welcome to submit Pull Requests with improvements! Or feel free to open up an issue on MacPorts Trac instance at https://trac.macports.org and I'll look into it.)
#snac #MacPorts #OpenSource #ActivityPub #Mastodon #NoDatabaseNeeded
#NoJavaScript #NoCookiesEither#NotMuchBullShit #snacAnnounces
https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/27188