ZPY

ZPY is an online implementation of the Chinese playing card game "zhao peng you", a.k.a. "找朋友", "finding friends", "拖拉机", or "tractor". it is the fluid partnership variant of the game outlined here.

the author's ZPY server can be found at https://zpy.mxawng.com.

setup

it's possible to host your own ZPY server if you wish. the following instructions assume a debian/ubuntu linux distro, but only very slightly.

ZPY requires nodejs and postgres, and the instructions here assume you have an nginx server on a host which runs systemd.

begin by cloning the zpy repository:

git clone https://github.com/mxw/zpy.git

then install npm packages and run webpack:

cd zpy
npm install
npm run build

next, make a unix user which the node server will run as:

sudo adduser zpy

then create the database and set appropriate permissions:

su - postgres
createdb zpydb
createuser zpy
psql

# in psql client
GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE zpydb TO zpy;
\q

note that ZPY's out-of-box configuration assumes postgres is configured with peer authentication. if this is undesirable on your system, simply add the relevant environment variables to the zpy.service you deploy.

for whatever reason, the out-of-box configuration assumes your files all live in /usr/local/lib, so copy them there:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/zpy
sudo cp -rf dist /usr/local/lib/zpy
sudo cp -rf assets /usr/local/lib/zpy

publish the nginx and systemd configs:

sudo cp conf/zpy.nginx /etc/nginx/sites-available/zpy
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/zpy /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/zpy

sudo cp conf/zpy.service /lib/systemd/system/zpy.service
sudo cp conf/zpy-async.service /lib/systemd/system/zpy-async.service
sudo cp conf/zpy-async.timer /lib/systemd/system/zpy-async.timer

you'll probably want to change the nginx server_name and obtain TLS certs.

finally, start the ZPY server:

sudo systemctl reload nginx
sudo systemctl enable zpy zpy-async.timer
sudo systemctl start zpy zpy-async.timer

logs can be monitored via

sudo journalctl -u zpy

nixops

it's possible to spin up a ZPY instance using nix. i have no idea how, though.