Lascaux v3 Documentation

Overview

This application is a social platform API built with FastAPI and backed by a Cassandra database. It allows you to run your own Lascaux community. The application includes several endpoints for authentication, user management, posts, news, and votes.

Prerequisites

• Python >=3.10
• pip for managing Python packages
• make utility
• Cassandra database (automatically pulled andstarted by the application)

Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   Clone the repository to your local machine.

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-directory>

2. Install Dependencies:

   Use the make command to install all necessary Python packages.

   make install

Running the Application

To start the application, use the make command:

make run_app

This command will execute the run_app target in the Makefile, which runs the FastAPI application located at app/start_application.py.

Health Check

Once the application is running, you can perform a health check by accessing the /healthcheck endpoint:

http://<your-server-address>/healthcheck

This should return a JSON response indicating the status of the application:

{
  "status": "ok"
}

Development Note

The run_bot command is currently in development and not officially supported. It is intended for future features and should not be used in production environments.

Setting Up a systemd Service

To ensure that your application runs as a service and restarts automatically on failure, you can create a systemd service file.

1. Create a systemd Service File:

   Create a new file at /etc/systemd/system/lascaux-node.service with the following content:

   [Unit]
   Description=Lascaux Node
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=simple
   WorkingDirectory=/path/to/your/repository
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/make run_app
   Restart=on-failure
   User=your-username
   Group=your-groupname
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

   Replace /path/to/your/repository, your-username, and your-groupname with the appropriate values for your setup.

2. Enable and Start the Service:

   Enable the service to start on boot and start it immediately:

   sudo systemctl enable myapp.service
   sudo systemctl start myapp.service

3. Check Service Status:

   You can check the status of your service with:

   sudo systemctl status myapp.service

This setup will ensure that your application runs continuously and restarts automatically if it crashes.