First you must run a seed node. The seed node is a static host which nodes can connect to when they first connect to the network. The seed_session simply connects to a seed node and runs protocol_seed, which requests a list of addresses from the seed node and disconnects straight after receiving them.

LOG_TARGETS=net cargo run -- -vv --accept 0.0.0.0:9999 --irc 127.0.0.1:6688

Note that the above command doesn't specify an external address since the seed node shouldn't be advertised in the list of connectable nodes. The seed node does not participate as a normal node in the p2p network. It simply allows new nodes to discover other nodes in the network during the bootstrapping phase.

Inbound Node

This is a node accepting inbound connections on the network but which is not making any outbound connections.

The external address is important and must be correct.

LOG_TARGETS=net cargo run -- -vv --accept 0.0.0.0:11004 --external $LOCAL_IP:11004 --seeds $SEED_IP:9999 --irc 127.0.0.1:6667

Outbound Node

This is a node which has 8 outbound connection slots and no inbound connections. This means the node has 8 slots which will actively search for unique nodes to connect to in the p2p network.

LOG_TARGETS=net cargo run -- -vv --slots 5 --seeds $SEED_IP:9999 --irc 127.0.0.1:6668

Attaching the IRC Frontend

Assuming you have run the above 3 commands to create a small model testnet, and both inbound and outbound nodes above are connected, you can test them out using weechat.

To create separate weechat instances, use the --dir command:

weechat --dir /tmp/a/
weechat --dir /tmp/b/

Then in both clients, you must set the option to connect to temporary servers:

/set irc.look.temporary_servers on

Finally you can attach to the local IRCd instances:

/connect localhost/6667
/connect localhost/6668

And send messages to yourself.

Running a Fullnode

See the script run_node.sh for an example of how to deploy a full node which does seed session synchronization, and accepts both inbound and outbound connections.