decentralize/synapse-purge repository overview

⁠synapse-purge

Purge old room events from Synapse⁠, a homeserver for the Matrix⁠ network.

Currently, only remote events are purged. Events sent by local users are not deleted, as they may represent the only copies of this content in existence.

⁠Prerequisites

You need:

• access to synapse's database (postgresql only, read access is sufficient)
• an admin account on the homeserver
• Ruby or Docker installed on your server

As you need direct database access, the app probably needs to run on the same host / network as synapse.

⁠Installation

Without Docker, clone this repository first. Then run:

bundle install --without development

With Docker, use the supplied docker-compose.yml file as an example.

⁠Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust the homeserver URL, admin credentials and database URL for your configuration.

The purge will keep old events back as far as DAYS_TO_KEEP days (120 by default).

⁠Running

Without Docker:

ruby synapse-purge.rb

With Docker Compose:

docker-compose run --rm app

Alternatively, deploy using supplied docker-compose.yml on your Docker swarm.

⁠How it works

Synapse's Purge History API⁠ works asynchronously. In order not to overload the homeserver, we purge rooms one-by-one.

The order of operation is as follows:

• The list of all rooms on the server is fetched from the database.
• For each room:
  • A purge is initiated through the synapse admin API.
  • The API is polled every half second for completion of the purge, until it is complete.

⁠Support

Need help or having ideas for improvement? Join our matrix room⁠.