HONK(8) | System Manager's Manual | HONK(8)

# NAME

`honk` — honk administration

# DESCRIPTION

The `honk` daemon processes messages from other federated servers. This is the admin manual. For user operation, see honk(1).

## Setup

Set up a TLS reverse proxy. `honk` can listen on TCP or unix sockets, but will not terminate TLS. https is a required component for federation. Also, http signature verification requires accurate time keeping.

Make sure to pass the Host header, if necessary (as for nginx).

    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;

FastCGI can be used by prefixing the listen address with "fcgi:".

## Build

Building `honk` requires a go compiler 1.22+ and libsqlite 3.34.0+. On OpenBSD this is the go and sqlite3 packages. Other platforms may require additional development libraries or headers to be installed. Run make. Please be patient. Even on fast machines, building from source can take several seconds.

## Options

The following options control where `honk` looks for data.

`-datadir` dir
  The root data directory, where the database and other user data are stored. This directory contains all user data that persists across upgrades. Requires write access. Defaults to ".". Also set by `HONK_DATADIR`.
`-viewdir` dir
  The root view directory, where html and other templates are stored. The contents of this directory are generally replaced with each release. Read only. Defaults to ".". Also set by `HONK_VIEWDIR`.

The following options control log output.

`-log` logfile
  Log to file logfile.
`-debug`
  Enable absurdly verbose debug logging.

## Init

Run the `init` command. This will create the database and ask four questions, as well as creating the initial user. See below about importing existing data.

## Operation

Run honk.

## Customization

The funzone contains fun flair that users may add to posts and profiles. Add custom memes (stickers) to the memes data directory. Image and video files are supported. Add custom emus (emoji) to the emus data directory. PNG and GIF files are supported.

Site CSS may be overridden by creating a views/local.css file in the data directory. Site JS may similarly be included by creating views/local.js. A restart is required after changes. A site icon.png and favicon.ico will be served from the views directory in the data directory, if present.

Custom HTML messages may be added to select pages by using the `admin` command. This interface is a little rough. A restart is required after changes.

server
  Displayed on the home page.
about
  Displayed on the about page.
login
  Displayed on the login form.
avatar colors
  Four 32-bit hex colors (RGBA).

## User Admin

New users can be added with the `adduser` command. This is discouraged.

Passwords may be reset with the `chpass` username command.

Users may be deleted with the `deluser` username command.

Follow and unfollow requests can be sent via command line with `follow` username url and `unfollow` username url.

## Storage

By default, `honk` will store attachments in a file system directory structure, attachments. Previous versions stored files in a database, blob.db. Related commands:

`storefiles`
  Switch to storing attachments in the file system.
`storeblobs`
  Switch to storing attachments in the blob.db.
`extractblobs`
  Copy blobs from the blob.db into the file system. Running cleanup first will reduce the time and space required.

## Maintenance

The database may grow large over time. The `cleanup` [days] command exists to purge old external data, by default 30 days. This removes unreferenced, unsaved posts and attachments. It does not remove any original content. This will not immediately reduce the size of the database, but frees space for future use. A vacuum may be performed manually if necessary, but will require more time and additional disk space.

Backups may be performed by running `backup dirname`. Backups only include the minimal necessary information, such as user posts and follower information, but not external posts.

Sometimes servers simply disappear, resulting in many errors trying to deliver undeliverable messages. Running `unplug` hostname will delete all subscriptions and pending deliveries.

## Upgrade

Safe and slow: Stop the old honk process. Backup the database. Perform the upgrade with the `upgrade` command. Restart.

Web scale alternative: Send SIGHUP.

`pkill -HUP honk`

The current version of the honk binary may be printed with the `version` command.

## Security

`honk` is not currently hardened against SSRF, server side request forgery. Be mindful of what other services may be exposed via localhost or the local network.

## Development

Development mode may be enabled or disabled by running `devel` on|off. In devel mode, secure cookies are disabled, TLS certs are not verified, and templates are reloaded every request.

## Import

Data may be imported and converted from other services using the `import` command. Currently supports Honk, Mastodon, Twitter, and Instagram exported data. Posts are imported and backdated to appear as old honks. The Mastodon following list is imported, but must be refollowed.

To prepare a Honk data archive, extract the export.zip file.

`./honk import username honk source-directory`

To prepare a Mastodon data archive, extract the archive-longhash.tar.gz file.

`./honk import username mastodon source-directory`

To prepare a Twitter data archive, extract the twitter-longhash.zip file. After unzipping the data archive, navigate to the tweet_media directory and unzip any zip files contained within.

`./honk import username twitter source-directory`

To prepare an Instagram data archive, extract the igusername.zip file.

`./honk import username instagram source-directory`

## Export

User data may be exported to a zip archive using the `export` command. This will export the user's outbox and inbox in ActivityPub json format, along with associated media.

`./honk export username zipname`

## Advanced Options

Advanced configuration values may be set by running the `setconfig` key value command. For example, to increase the fast timeout value from 5 seconds to 10:

`./honk setconfig fasttimeout 10`

To support separate mentions without a subdomain, e.g. @user@example.com and https://honk.example.com/u/user, set config key 'masqname' to 'example.com'. Route /.well-known/webfinger from the top domain to honk.

Custom URL seperators (not "u" and "h") may be specified by adding "usersep" and "honksep" options to the config table. e.g. example.com/users/username/honk/somehonk instead of example.com/u/username/h/somehonk.

convertavif
  If libavif can be loaded, convert JPEG images to AVIF. May reduce bandwidth requirements.
acceptavif
  If libavif can be loaded, also accept AVIF images. If libheif can be loaded, also accept HEIC images.
fasttimeout
  Short timeout for fetching activities. (Default: 5)
slowtimeout
  Long timeout for posting actvities. (Default: 30)
honkwindow
  How many days to display in a timeline. (Default: 7)
collectforwards
  Fetch reply actvities forwarded from other servers. (Default: true)
usersep
  (Default: u)
honksep
  (Default: h)

# FILES

`honk` files are split between the data directory and the view directory. Both default to "." but may be specified by command line options.

The data directory contains:

honk.db
  The main database.
attachments
  Media and attachment storage.
blob.db
  Old location for media and attachment storage.
emus
  Custom emoji.
memes
  Stickers and such.
views/local.js
  Locally customized JS.
views/local.css
  Locally customized CSS.

The view directory contains:

views
  HTML templates and CSS files.

# EXAMPLES

This series of commands creates a new database, sets a friendly welcome message, and runs honk.

    honk-v98> make
    honk-v98> ./honk -datadir ../honkdata init
    username: puffy
    password: OxychromaticBlowfishSwatDynamite
    listen address: /var/www/honk.sock
    server name: honk.example.com
    honk-v98> ./honk -datadir ../honkdata admin
    honk-v98> date; ./honk -log honk.log -datadir ../honkdata

The views directory includes a sample mastodon.css to change color scheme.

    honk-v98> mkdir ../honkdata/views
    honk-v98> cp views/mastodon.css ../honkdata/views/local.css

Upgrade to the next version. Clean things up a bit.

    datadir> cp honk.db backup.db
    datadir> cd ../honk-v99
    honk-v99> make
    honk-v99> ./honk -datadir ../honkdata upgrade
    honk-v99> ./honk -datadir ../honkdata cleanup
    honk-v99> date; ./honk -log honk.log -datadir ../honkdata

# ENVIRONMENT

Image processing and scaling requires considerable memory. It is recommended to adjust the datasize ulimit to at least 1GB.

`will respond to` `SIGHUP` by restarting a new process.

# SEE ALSO

intro(1), honk(1)

June 6, 2025 | macOS 13.7