simplereaderd Server

SimpleReader is an EPUB and PDF reader written in Java and Kotlin for Android.

simplereaderd is a server for Ubuntu Server that synchronises a reader's book, bookmarks and highlights across all devices.

Ubuntu prereqs

To make this program, you must first install Drogon:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake g++ uuid-dev zlib1g-dev libssl-dev git libjsoncpp-dev libsqlite3-dev pkg-config libsodium-dev -y
git clone https://github.com/drogonframework/drogon.git
cd drogon
git submodule update --init
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

configure Apache virtual host

Apache acts as proxy, handling TLS/SSL and passing unencrypted HTML to simplereaderd. You can use your favourite proxy software. You can also use any port, here 8443 is just an example.

<VirtualHost *:8443>
    ServerName yourdomain.com

    # TLS settings
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem

    # Proxy to Drogon on localhost:9000
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass        /upload http://127.0.0.1:9000/upload nocanon
    ProxyPassReverse /upload http://127.0.0.1:9000/upload
    ProxyPass        /        http://127.0.0.1:9000/
    ProxyPassReverse /        http://127.0.0.1:9000/
    LimitRequestBody 0
    ProxyTimeout 300
    RequestReadTimeout body=120

    # security headers
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options "DENY"
</VirtualHost>

In /etc/apache2/ports.conf:

<IfModule ssl_module>
    Listen 443
    Listen 8443                 <== add this line
</IfModule>

Ensure Apache modules enabled, test and run:

sudo a2enmod ssl proxy proxy_http headers
sudo a2ensite your-site.conf
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

If you are using ufw, then allow this port:

sudo ufw allow 8443/tcp comment 'simplereaderd'

Note: depending on your server/WAN setup, you might need to forward port 8443 to your server (on your router).

run simplereaderd as a daemon

Set up a user to run the daemon:

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --group simplereaderd
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/simplereader
sudo chown simplereaderd:simplereaderd /var/lib/simplereader

Install the binary and config:

sudo install -m 0755 build/simplereaderd /usr/local/bin/simplereaderd
sudo mkdir -p /etc/simplereader
sudo cp simplereader.conf /etc/simplereader/simplereader.conf
sudo chown -R root:root /etc/simplereader
sudo chown root:simplereaderd /etc/simplereader/simplereader.conf
sudo chmod 640 /etc/simplereader/simplereader.conf

Set up the daemon service in /etc/systemd/system/simplereaderd.service:

[Unit]
Description=Simplereader daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
User=simplereaderd
Group=simplereaderd
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/simplereaderd
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/simplereader
Environment=SIMPLEREADER_CONF=/etc/simplereader/simplereader.conf
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable the service and restart:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable simplereaderd
sudo systemctl start simplereaderd
sudo systemctl status simplereaderd

tool: add_user

To help you add a user into the database, the tool add_user is also packaged. The executable is built in build/add_user.

To run it: sudo add_user username password

License

SimpleReader is available under the Creative Commons license. See the LICENSE file.