PacketServer BBS
DISCLAIMER This whole project is still a major WIP.
HUGE HUGE THANKS TO https://github.com/mfncooper for providing the pyham_pe package that this uses to talk to the TNC
Intro
Basically, this is supposed to be a modernized BBS for radio, but with clients and servers exchanging binary messages (which can be compressed automatically) rather than human-typed text.
This compression is inherent to the protocol, and actually results in some pretty large transmission time savings when sending longer messages back and forth!
The downside is that right now, this BBS system will be useless to someone without the client library. You won't be able to just type in messages to the server. I may add some kind of workaround for this.
Right now, it uses ax25 connected sessions through any TNC that can provide an AGWPE TNC, though I may add a restricted unconnected protocol using UI packets later on..
Requirements
- A radio of some kind that can transmit on a band suitable for any kind of AX25 packet work.
- A way to connect the radio to a Linux machine (for hosting using the container orchestrator) or just anything that runs Python for the client. I recommend DigiRig.
- A TNC that provides an AGWPE interface. Direwolf works; there are others for different platforms.
- Recent Python (Python 3.11+.)
Features completed:
- protocol using connected mode sessions to provide request/response architecture
- Object CRUD operations
- Server-side Podman containerized job orchestrator
- automatic compression for all RF communication
- Creating and retrieving bulletins
- Sending and receiving and searching messages to/from other users
Features in-progress and working to some extent:
- corresponding Python client wrapper library for most elements of the server-side (RF) API (enough for basic usage anyway)
- Python CLI client supporting:
- listing registered users on the server
- setting and retrieving personal user profile details
- uploading files as objects, searching objects on server, downloading object data
- sending and retrieving messages to other users including attached arbitrary string and binary data
- running basic scripts/commands as jobs on the server inside containers
Planned features not yet implemented:
- client API and CLI capability to fully interact with the job system including getting artifacts back from jobs
- client API and CLI capability to set and retrieve bulletins
- editing public bulletins, once created
- client/server API capability to modify objects
I'm considering several other features like:
- Useful documentation of any variety..
- RF beacon
- service administration over RF
- cli server administration tools
- Right now, just edit the server's zope database with a python interpreter (included example scripts to help)
- possibly a cron system (again in containers for safety)
- maybe an e-mail or an sms gateway (though clever user uploaded scripts could do this instead)
- maybe APRS integration through APRS-IS
- Kubernetes or possibly simple shell job execution.
Examples
Main help dialog:
(venv) [user@host]$ export PSCLIENT_SERVER=KQ4PEC
(venv) [user@host]$ export PSCLIENT_AGWPE=localhost
(venv) [user@host]$ export PSCLIENT_PORT=8000
(venv) [user@host]$ export PSCLIENT_CALLSIGN=KQ4PEC-7
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli
Usage: packcli [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Command line interface for the PacketServer client and server API.
Options:
--conf TEXT path to configfile
-s, --server TEXT server radio callsign to connect to (required)
-a, --agwpe TEXT AGWPE TNC server address to connect to (config file)
-p, --port INTEGER AGWPE TNC server port to connect to (config file)
-c, --callsign TEXT radio callsign[+ssid] of this client station (config
file)
-k, --keep-log Save local copy of request log after session ends?
-v, --version Show the version and exit.
--help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
job Runs commands on the BBS server if jobs are enabled on it.
message Send, search, and filter messages to and from other users...
object Manages objects stored on the BBS.
query-server Query the server for basic info.
set Set your user profile settings on the BBS.
user Query users on the BBS.
Running jobs on the remote server:
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli job start -- ls -l /
67
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli job get
You must either supply a job id, or --all-jobs
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli job get 67
----------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
id 67
return_code 0
status SUCCESSFUL
created 2025-03-21T00:15:41.142544+00:00
finished 2025-03-20T20:15:46.257489
cmd ['ls', '-l', '/']
owner KQ4PEC
artifacts
output total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 40 Mar 21 00:14 artifact_output
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 11 2024 bin -> usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Jan 28 2024 boot
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 340 Mar 21 00:14 dev
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Mar 21 00:14 etc
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 20 Mar 21 00:14 home
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 11 2024 lib -> usr/lib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 11 2024 lib64 -> usr/lib64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Mar 11 2024 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Mar 11 2024 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Mar 11 2024 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 534 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 21 00:14 proc
drwx------ 1 root root 21 Mar 21 00:14 root
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 27 Mar 21 00:14 run
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Mar 11 2024 sbin -> usr/sbin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 6 Mar 11 2024 srv
dr-xr-xr-x 13 nobody nogroup 0 Mar 21 00:14 sys
drwxrwxrwt 1 root root 6 Feb 16 02:08 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 66 Mar 11 2024 usr
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 41 Mar 11 2024 var
errors
----------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
Working with objects:
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli object list
name size_bytes binary private created_at modified_at uuid
--------------- ------------ -------- --------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- ------------------------------------
testdb.txt 13 False True 2025-03-16T22:26:05.049173+00:00 2025-03-16T22:26:05.051375+00:00 fbbd4527-a5f0-447f-9fc9-55b7b263c458
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli object upload-file
Usage: packcli object upload-file [OPTIONS] FILE_PATH
Try 'packcli object upload-file --help' for help.
Error: Missing argument 'FILE_PATH'.
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli object upload-file /tmp/hello-world.txt
35753577-21e3-4f64-8776-e3f86f1bb0e0
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli object list
name size_bytes binary private created_at modified_at uuid
--------------- ------------ -------- --------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- ------------------------------------
testdb.txt 13 False True 2025-03-16T22:26:05.049173+00:00 2025-03-16T22:26:05.051375+00:00 fbbd4527-a5f0-447f-9fc9-55b7b263c458
hello-world.txt 13 False True 2025-03-19T02:25:41.501833+00:00 2025-03-19T02:25:41.503502+00:00 35753577-21e3-4f64-8776-e3f86f1bb0e0
(venv) packcli object get 35753577-21e3-4f64-8776-e3f86f1bb0e0
Hello world.
Retrieving messages:
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli message get
from to id text sent_at attachments
------ ------ ------------------------------------ ------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------
KQ4PEC KQ4PEC df7493d7-5880-4c24-9e3c-1d3987a5203e testing.. again with attachment 2025-03-18T03:41:36.597371+00:00 random.txt
KQ4PEC KQ4PEC e3056cdf-1f56-4790-8aef-dfea959bfa13 from stdin 2025-03-18T03:40:36.051667+00:00
KQ4PEC KQ4PEC 992c3e81-005a-49e2-81d7-8bf3026a2c46 testing.. again 2025-03-18T03:40:05.025017+00:00
KQ4PEC KQ4PEC 05684b13-40f8-40aa-ab7a-f50a3c22261e testing.. 1.. 2.. 3 2025-03-18T03:39:50.510164+00:00
KQ4PEC KQ4PEC ad513075-e50f-4f84-8a87-a1217b43bef3 testing.. 1.. 2.. 3 2025-03-18T03:38:01.634498+00:00
Listing users:
(venv) [user@host]$ packcli user -l
username status bio socials created last_seen email location
---------- --------------------- ----- --------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- --------------- ----------
KQ4PEC just happy to be here 2025-03-16 04:29:52.044216+00:00 2025-03-19 02:22:21.413896+00:00 user@domain.com
Final Thoughts
I may also add a TCP/IP interface to this later, since that shouldn't be too difficult. We'll see.
I'm envisioning using a couple of python CLI clients with this for now, or possibly an android or PC GUI, assuming an AGWPE TNC is available on the network.