catchat

README

catchat

A chat client using catshadow, built using Qt5 and QML.

Status

This code stopped being updated in 2021 and was replaced by a new gioui-based client which is now called Katzen: https://github.com/katzenpost/katzen

If someone is so inclined they could try to update this Qt codebase to work with the latest katzenpost/catshadow changes, but until then we're archiving this repo.

Installation

From Source

Make sure you have a working Go environment (Go 1.11 or higher is required). See the install instructions.

Installing golang (Debian Bullseye example)

apt-get install golang git ca-certificates
export GOPATH=$HOME/go

You will also need Qt5 and its development headers installed.

Dependencies (Debian Bullseye example)

apt-get --no-install-recommends install build-essential libglib2.0-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libpulse-dev
apt-get --no-install-recommends install libqt*5-dev qt*5-dev qt*5-doc-html qml-module-qtquick*

Building catchat

export QT_PKG_CONFIG=true
go get -d -u -v github.com/katzenpost/catchat
cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/katzenpost/catchat
go get -u -v -tags=no_env github.com/therecipe/qt/cmd/...
$(go env GOPATH)/bin/qtsetup
go mod vendor
$(go env GOPATH)/bin/qtdeploy build desktop

Note that you may also need to export the QT_VERSION of your systems Qt5 libraries, for example on Debian Bullseye the packaged version is 5.15.2.

export QT_VERSION=5.15.2

Building within a Docker container

Follow the build instructions above, but instead of the last command, run:

$(go env GOPATH)/bin/qtdeploy -docker build linux

Testing catchat

You can test catchat with a local mixnet. The recommended way to do this is to first run a docker based mixnet locally, see here:

https://github.com/katzenpost/docker

Once you get your mixnet running give it a couple of minutes to get fully connected so that it will route your messages. After that you can start catchat locally.

cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/katzenpost/catchat
./deploy/linux/catchat -f ../catshadow/testdata/catshadow.toml -s bob.state -g

As you can see here, this last command uses the catshadow configuration file from the catshadow git repo. Please aquire the catshadow repo so that you can use this configuration file which will work with the docker mixnet you are running:

https://github.com/katzenpost/catshadow

Run it

You only need to pass it the -g option the first time you run catchat so that it generates a new encrypted state file.

Usage of ./deploy/linux/catchat:
  -f string
     Path to the client config file. (default "katzenpost.toml")
  -g Generate the state file and then run client.
  -s string
     The catshadow state file path. (default "catshadow_statefile")