NRTMv4 Client

Introduction

nrtm4client is a tool for communicating with an NRTMv4 server (GROW). It retrieves IRR data from NTRM mirror servers and stores them in a database (only PostgreSQL currently). History is maintained and can be queried.

Usage

Before you can run the client, follow the Quick set up below, then come back to this section.

Set up environment variables

NRTM4_FILE_PATH An empty directory where NRTMv4 snapshot and delta files will be stored.
PG_DATABASE_URL Connection string to PostgreSQL database.

Running nrtm4client

Create a directory, e.g. $HOME/nrtm4/RIPE to store downloaded files, then copy file [./scripts/env.example.conf] to ./scripts/env.dev.conf, and change the variables to your system, for example:

PG_DATABASE_URL=postgres://nrtm4:nrtm4@localhost:5432/nrtm4?sslmode=disable
NRTM4_FILE_PATH=/tmp/RIPE

Now run the run*.sh script in the ./scripts dir like so:

$ ./scripts/run.sh connect --url <url> # Be patient, snapshot files tend to be on the large side
$ ./scripts/run.sh list

Command line arguments

connect --url <NOTIFICATION_URL> [--label <LABEL>]
Reads the notification file, updates the repo with the latest snapshot, then the latest delta, and creates a new source record.
update --source <SOURCE> [--label <LABEL>] Reads the notification file, then updates the repo the latest delta,
list Lists all sources in the repo.
rename --source <SOURCE> --label <FROM_LABEL> --to <TO_LABEL> Replaces a label

A note about labels

A label can be given to a source in order to track multiple sessions of the same IRR source. This is useful when your repo can no longer be synchronized with a server, for example when the session ID changes, or when your repo wasn't refreshed on time and loses sync.

In these cases you can use a label for each of the sessions to preserve the history, should you wish to keep it. If you only want the latest version of each IRR source then you don't need labels.

GROW:

a mirror server SHOULD remove all Delta Files older than 24 hours

Quick set up

PostgreSQL Database

(Optional) Use Docker to run a local instance of Postgres

Set an environment variable POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust so you won't need to use passwords. It's very insecure but also very handy for a local setup just to get things up and running. You can always pg_dump the data and put it on a more securely configured server later.

docker pull postgres:16
docker run -d -p 5432:5432 -e POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust --name db postgres:16

Or with podman

podman pull docker.io/library/postgres:16
podman run -d -p 5432:5432 -e POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD=trust --name db postgres:16

From then on:

docker stop db
docker start db

Create role and DB

Assuming your database is running on localhost...

createuser -h localhost nrtm4
createdb -h localhost -O nrtm4 nrtm4

createuser -h localhost nrtm4_test
createdb -h localhost -O nrtm4_test nrtm4_test

Build

You'll need these tools:

task
Installation instructions are at the bottom of the linked page, or just use go install github.com/go-task/task/v3/cmd/task@latest and ensure $GOPATH/bin is on your $PATH.
go 1.23+
node 21+ If you want to build the front end.
tern v2.3.0+ for PostgreSQL migrations

Initialize schema

Edit tern.conf to contain the variables for your database, then...

make migrate  # creates database schema and migrates it to the latest version

Build targets

Creates a binary at ./cmd/nrtmclient/nrtmclient. The testgo target uses a db to do integration testing. See above for PostgreSQL setup.

task cleanbinaries buildgo testgo

The run.sh command should now be usable. See Usage above.

For development:

This script uses pg_dump to do a data-only dump of the database.

Example usage:

./scripts/pgdumpdata.sh "-h localhost -U nrtm4" localhost

The result is a gzipped dump file which can be restored by piping the output to a psql command in the usual way.

NOTE: When restoring dumps, ensure the target schema version matches the data dump version. You can see the schema version in the file name, for example: localhost-nrtm4data_v3_2025-01-15T22-26-51.dmp.sql.gz is at v3, between the underscores. To see the current database schema version, this might work:

psql -h localhost -U nrtm4 -c 'select version from schema_version limit 1;'

Other targets

task emptydb  # wipes the table schema, including any data, ofc
task rewinddb  # schema is set back one version
task emptydb migratetest  # resets the test db
task --list-all # fill your boots

These targets also build a web client.

task clean build test
task buildweb testweb

To use a web browser instead of a CLI, start nrtm4serve, then use the command below to start a web server on localhost. Open a browser at the link which appears in the terminal and select 'Sources' from the menu.

task webdev

Tips

Profile the code https://granulate.io/blog/golang-profiling-basics-quick-tutorial/

# Packages

# README