MoneroShameList

A web application for listing projects which claim to care about privacy but don't accept Monero.

Prerequisites

For local development:

• .NET SDK (matching the version specified in MoneroShameList.csproj)
• PostgreSQL

For deployment from Linux:

• bash, dotnet, tar, sshpass (sudo apt install sshpass)

For deployment from Windows:

• PowerShell
• PuTTY tools (plink.exe and pscp.exe)

Local Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/YOURUSER/MoneroShameList.git
cd MoneroShameList

2. Create appsettings.json files

You must create an appsettings.json file in both of the following folders:

• MoneroShameList/
• MoneroShameList.Data/

Use the following format, filling in your own values:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "Host=localhost;Database=YOURDB;Username=YOURUSERNAME;Password=YOURPASSWORD"
  },
  "Admin": {
    "Username": "YOURUSERNAME",
    "Password": "YOURPASSWORD"
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
    }
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*"
}

Replace the placeholder values:

• YOURDB — the name of your PostgreSQL database
• YOURUSERNAME / YOURPASSWORD (ConnectionStrings) — PostgreSQL credentials
• YOURUSERNAME / YOURPASSWORD (Admin) — credentials used to log into the admin area

Do not commit these files. They should be listed in .gitignore.

3. Apply database migrations

From the solution root, run the EF Core migrations against your PostgreSQL database to create the schema. Or use the built-in --migrate-only mode:

dotnet run --project MoneroShameList/MoneroShameList.csproj -- --migrate-only

4. Run the application

dotnet run --project MoneroShameList/MoneroShameList.csproj

Deployment

Two deploy paths are provided. Both target the same Linux VPS running systemd, with nginx as a reverse proxy in a Docker container named nginx. Pick whichever matches your workstation.

• CI/deploy.sh + CI/deploy-config.sh — for Linux workstations
• CI/deploy.ps1 + CI/deploy-config.ps1 — for Windows workstations

Both scripts:

1. Publish the .NET project
2. Bootstrap the server (install .NET runtime, PostgreSQL)
3. Create the database/user if missing
4. Back up the remote database (Linux script only — see Database Backups)
5. Show a maintenance page
6. Upload the build via SCP, install a systemd unit, restart the service
7. Configure nginx, optionally with Let's Encrypt SSL
8. Optionally configure a Tor hidden service

Linux deployment

1. Create CI/deploy-config.sh

Create a file at CI/deploy-config.sh with the following contents, filling in every empty value:

# deploy-config.sh
# Sourced by deploy.sh. Do NOT commit this file.

# -- Server -------------------------------------------------------------------
SSH_HOST="IPADDRESS"
SSH_USER="USERNAME"
SSH_PASSWORD=""        # FILL IN

# -- App ----------------------------------------------------------------------
DOMAIN="DOMAINNAME"
APP_NAME="APPNAME"
APP_PORT=PORTNUMBER
DEPLOY_PATH="/var/www/SITEPATH"
WEB_PROJECT="$SCRIPT_DIR/../MoneroShameList/MoneroShameList/MoneroShameList.csproj"

# -- Database -----------------------------------------------------------------
DB_NAME="YOURNAME"
DB_USER="YOURUSERNAME"
DB_PASSWORD=""         # FILL IN

# -- Admin login --------------------------------------------------------------
ADMIN_USERNAME="YOURUSERNAME"
ADMIN_PASSWORD=""      # FILL IN

Quoting note: if any password contains a ", wrap that value in single quotes ('pa"ssword'). Validate with bash -n CI/deploy-config.sh.

2. Make the script executable

chmod +x CI/deploy.sh

3. Run the deployment

cd CI
./deploy.sh

Flags

Flag	What it does
(none)	Build, back up DB, deploy, configure nginx
--skip-build	Skip dotnet publish (deploy whatever is already in ../publish/)
--skip-backup	Skip the pre-deploy DB backup
--backup-only	Take a DB backup and exit (no deploy)
--ssl	Install Let's Encrypt SSL via certbot (first-time setup)
--tor	Set up a Tor hidden service (first-time setup)

Common combinations:

./deploy.sh                  # routine deploy
./deploy.sh --ssl --tor      # first-ever deploy to a new server
./deploy.sh --skip-build     # config-only redeploy
./deploy.sh --backup-only    # ad-hoc DB snapshot

Windows deployment

1. Create CI/deploy-config.ps1

Create a file at CI/deploy-config.ps1 with the following contents, filling in every value:

# deploy-config.ps1
# Fill in every value. Do NOT commit this file.

# -- PuTTY tools ---------------------------------------------------------------
$PLINK = "C:\Windows\System32\plink.exe"
$PSCP  = "C:\Windows\System32\pscp.exe"

# -- Server --------------------------------------------------------------------
$SSH_HOST     = "IPADDRESS"
$SSH_USER     = "USERNAME"
$SSH_PASSWORD = "PASSWORD"

# -- App -----------------------------------------------------------------------
$DOMAIN       = "DOMAINNAME"
$APP_NAME     = "APPNAME"
$APP_PORT     = PORTNUMBER
$DEPLOY_PATH  = "/var/www/SITEPATH"
$WEB_PROJECT  = Join-Path $PSScriptRoot "..\MoneroShameList\MoneroShameList\MoneroShameList.csproj"

# -- Database ------------------------------------------------------------------
$DB_NAME      = "YOURNAME"
$DB_USER      = "YOURUSERNAME"
$DB_PASSWORD  = "YOURPASSWORD"

# -- Admin login ---------------------------------------------------------------
$ADMIN_USERNAME = "YOURUSERNAME"
$ADMIN_PASSWORD = "YOURPASSWORD"

2. Run the deployment

From PowerShell, in the CI folder:

.\deploy.ps1

Flags

Flag	What it does
(none)	Build, deploy, configure nginx
-SkipBuild	Skip dotnet publish
-SSL	Install Let's Encrypt SSL via certbot (first-time setup)
-Tor	Set up a Tor hidden service (first-time setup)

Database Backups

The Linux deploy.sh script automatically backs up the remote PostgreSQL database before every deploy and pulls the dump down to your local machine.

Where backups are stored

Local: backups/<DB_NAME>-<YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS>.sql.gz, relative to the repo root. The directory is auto-created. Only the 20 most recent backups are kept; older ones are pruned automatically.

Take an ad-hoc backup (no deploy)

cd CI
./deploy.sh --backup-only

Skip the auto-backup on a deploy

./deploy.sh --skip-backup

Restore a backup to the remote server

gunzip -c backups/moneroshamelist-20260428-143022.sql.gz | \
  sshpass -p "$SSH_PASSWORD" ssh root@YOUR.SERVER.IP \
  "sudo -u postgres psql YOUR_DB_NAME"

If the database already has data, drop and recreate it first, or restore into a fresh database.

Restore a backup to your local machine

gunzip -c backups/moneroshamelist-20260428-143022.sql.gz | \
  psql -h localhost -U YOUR_LOCAL_USER YOUR_LOCAL_DB

Server Operations

These don't require the deploy script — they're plain SSH commands. Replace PASSWORD and the IP as needed.

Task	Command
Service status	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'systemctl status APP_NAME'
Live logs	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'journalctl -u APP_NAME -f'
Restart service	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'systemctl restart APP_NAME'
Reload nginx	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'docker exec nginx nginx -s reload'
Show onion address	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'cat /var/lib/tor/moneroshamelist/hostname'
Renew SSL certificate	sshpass -p PASSWORD ssh root@HOST 'certbot renew && docker restart nginx'

.gitignore

At minimum the following must be ignored:

**/appsettings.json
**/appsettings.Development.json
CI/deploy-config.ps1
CI/deploy-config.sh
backups/
publish/

License

See LICENSE file.