2 ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
3 http://ngircd.barton.de/
5 (c)2001-2024 Alexander Barton and Contributors.
6 ngIRCd is free software and published under the
7 terms of the GNU General Public License.
11 ngIRCd 27 (2024-04-26)
13 - Add an example filter file for "Fail2Ban": contrib/ngircd-fail2ban.conf.
15 ngIRCd 27~rc1 (2024-04-13)
16 - Validate certificates on server links. Up to now, ngIRCd optionally used
17 SSL/TLS encrypted server-server links but never checked and validated any
18 certificates. Now ngIRCd validates SSL/TLS certificates on outgoing
19 server-server links by default and drops(!) connections when the remote
20 certificate is invalid (for example self-signed, expired, not matching the
21 host name, ...). Therefore you have to make sure that all relevant
22 *certificates are valid* (or to disable certificate validation on this
23 connection using the new `SSLVerify = false` setting in the affected
24 `[Server]` block, where the remote certificate is not valid and you can not
26 The original patch for OpenSSL dates back to 2009 and was written by Florian
27 Westphal and was extended for GnuTLS in 2014 by Christoph Biedl. But it took
28 us another 10 years to bring it to life ... oh my! Many thanks to both
29 Florian and Christoph!
31 - Add support for the "sd_notify" protocol of systemd(8): Periodically
32 "ping" the service manager (every 3 seconds) and set a status message
33 showing current connection statistics which then is included in "systemctl
34 status ngircd.service" output. In addition, this enables using the
35 systemd(8) watchdog functionality ("WatchdogSec") for the "ngircd.service"
36 unit and allows it to use the "notify" service type, which results in
37 better status tracking by the service manager.
38 - Try to set file descriptor limit to its maximum and show info on startup:
39 The number of possible parallel connections is limited by the file
40 descriptor limit of the process (among other things). Therefore try to
41 upgrade the current "soft" limit to its "hard" maximum (but limited to
42 100000 instead of "infinite"), and show an information or even warning when
43 the limit is still less than the configured "MaxConnections" setting. Please
44 note that ngIRCd and its linked libraries (like PAM) need file descriptors
45 not only for incoming and outgoing IRC connections, but for reading files
46 and inter-process communication, too! Therefore the actual connection limit
47 is less(!) than the file descriptor limit!
48 - Add a "Docker file" (contrib/Dockerfile) and corresponding documentation
49 (doc/Container.md) to the project. The resulting container is based on the
50 latest Debian "stable-slim" container and built using a "build container".
51 - No longer use a default built-in value for the "IncludeDir" directive when
52 a configuration file was explicitly specified on the command line using
53 "--config"/"-f": This way no default include directory is scanned when a
54 possibly non-default configuration file is used which (intentionally) did
55 not specify an "IncludeDir" directive. So now you can use "-f /dev/null"
56 for checking all built-in defaults, regardless of any local configuration
57 files in the default drop-in directory (which would have been read in
59 - The server "Name" in the "[Global]" section of the configuration file no
60 longer needs to be set: When not set (or empty), ngIRCd now tries to
61 deduce a valid IRC server name from the local host name ("node name"),
62 possibly adding a ".host" extension when the host name does not contain a
63 dot (".") which is required in an IRC server name ("ID").
64 This new behavior, with all configuration parameters now being optional,
65 allows running ngIRCd without any configuration file at all.
66 - Autodetect support for IPv6 by default: Until now, IPv6 support was disabled
67 by default, which seems a bit outdated in 2024. Note: You still can pass
68 "--enable-ipv6"/"--disable-ipv6" to the ./configure script to forcefully
69 activate or deactivate IPv6 support.
70 - Do IDENT requests even when DNS lookups are disabled: Up to now disabling
71 DNS in the configuration disabled IDENT lookups as well (for no good
72 reason). Now you can activate/deactivate DNS lookups and IDENT requests
73 completely separately. Thanks for reporting this, Miniontoby!
75 - Allow SSL client-only configurations without keys/certificates: You don't
76 need to configure certificates/keys as long as you don't configure
77 SSL-enabled listening ports. This can make sense when you want to only link
78 your local daemon to an uplink server using SSL and only have clients on
79 your local host or in your fully trusted network, where SSL is not required.
80 - Respect "SSLConnect" option for incoming connections and do not accept
81 incoming plain-text ("non SSL") server connections for servers configured
82 with "SSLConnect" enabled. This change prevents an authenticated
83 client-server being able to force the server-server to send its password
84 on a plain-text connection when SSL/TLS was intended.
85 - Add a new option "Autojoin" to [Channel] blocks: When it is set, ngIRCd
86 automatically joins all local users to this channel on connect. Note: The
87 users must have permissions to access the channel, otherwise joining them
89 Thanks Ivan Agarkov <i_agarkov@wargaming.net> for the initial patch!
90 - Hide invisible (+i) users on "WHOIS <pattern>": Let's behave like most(?)
91 other IRC daemons (at least ircd2.11) and hide all +i users when WHOIS is
92 used with a pattern. Otherwise privacy of this users is not guaranteed and
93 the +i mode a bit useless ...
94 Reported by Cahata on #ngircd, thanks!
95 - Make the debug log level ("--debug"/-"d" command line option) always
96 available, not only when ./configure'd with "--enable-debug": the latter
97 now only enables additional checks (like the tests done using assert(2))
98 and is signalled by adding "+DEBUG" to the version "feature string". This
99 change enables everyone to get even more detailed logging when required.
100 - Allow IRC Operators to use the WHO command on any channel.
101 - Send the NAMES list and channel topic to users "forcefully" joined to a
102 channel using NJOIN, like they joined on their own using JOIN, and
103 streamline the order of NAMES list and channel topic messages.
105 - Added a new command line option "-y"/"--syslog", with which logging to
106 syslog can be activated/deactivated separately from running on the console
107 (using "--nodaemon") or in the background.
108 Thanks Katherine Peeters for the patch and pull request!
110 - Update, enhance and extend our documentation in README.md, INSTALL.md,
111 doc/HowToRelease.txt and the manual pages ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5), add
112 a new doc/QuickStart.md document, and convert some more documentation files
113 to Markdown (AUTHORS.md, contrib/README.md, doc/FAQ.md, doc/SSL.md).
115 ngIRCd 26.1 (2021-01-02)
117 - This release is a bugfix release only, without new features.
119 ngIRCd 26 (2020-06-20)
121 ngIRCd 26~rc2 (2020-06-11)
122 - Add AppStream metadata file (contrib/de.barton.ngircd.metainfo.xml).
123 - Various bug fixes, see the ChangeLog. No new or changed functionality.
125 ngIRCd 26~rc1 (2020-05-10)
126 - Allow up to 512 characters per line in MOTD and help text files (but keep
127 in mind that lines can't get that long, because they have to be prefixed
128 before being sent to the client). But this allows for more fancy MOTDs :-)
130 - Show the actually allowed channel types in the ISUPPORT(005) numeric which
131 are configured by the "AllowedChannelTypes" configuration variable.
133 - Handle commands in the read buffer before reading more data and don't wait
134 for the network in this case: If there are more bytes in the read buffer
135 already than a single valid IRC command can get long (513 bytes), wait for
136 this/those command(s) to be handled first and don't try to read even more
137 data from the network (which most probably would overflow the read buffer
138 of this connection soon).
139 - Log G-/K-Line changes only when not initiated by a server: this prevents
140 the log from becoming spammed during "net bursts".
141 - Update test suite to include SSL tests, including checking for reloading
142 certificates during runtime.
143 - Add support for GnuTLS certificate reload, which is quite handy when using
144 Let's Encrypt, for example. Until now this was only supported when linked
145 with OpenSSL. Thanks a lot, Hilko Bengen <bengen@hilluzination.de>!
146 - Allow setting arbitrary channel modes in the configuration file by handling
147 them like in MODE commands, and allow multiple "Modes =" lines per [Channel]
148 section. Thanks to Michi <michi+ngircd@dataswamp.org>!
150 - Add "FNC" (forced nick changes) to ISUPPORT(005) numeric. Most probably
151 this doesn't make any difference to any client, but it seems correct.
152 See <http://www.irc.org/tech_docs/005.html> for details.
153 - Enhance handling of command line errors, and return with exit code 0 ("no
154 error") when "--help" or "--version" is used (which resulted in exit code 1,
155 "error" before). Exit with code 2 ("command line error") for all other
156 invalid command line options, and show the error message itself on stderr
157 (instead of stdout and exit code 1, "generic error", as before).
158 This new behavior is more in line with the GNU "coding standards",
159 see <https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/_002d_002dhelp.html>.
160 - Add ./contrib/nglog.sh: This script parses the log output of ngircd(8),
161 and colorizes the messages according to their log level. Example usage:
162 ngircd -f $PWD/doc/sample-ngircd.conf -np | ./contrib/nglog.sh
163 - Enlarge buffers of info texts to 128 bytes. This includes:
164 - "Real name" of a client (4th filed of the USER command).
165 - Server info text ("Info" configuration option).
166 - Admin info texts and email address ("AdminInfo1", "AdminInfo2" and
167 "AdminEmail" configuration options).
168 - Network name ("Network" configuration option).
169 The limit was 64 bytes before ...
171 - Streamline handling of invalid and unset server name: Don't exit during
172 runtime (REHASH command, HUP signal), because the server name can't be
173 changed in this case anyway and the new invalid name will be ignored.
174 - Slightly reorder startup steps, and enhance logging:
175 - Show name of configuration file at the beginning of start up.
176 - Add a message when ngIRCd is ready, including its host name.
177 - Show name of configuration file on REHASH (SIGHUP), too.
178 - Change level of "done message" to NOTICE, like "starting" & "ready".
179 - Initialize IO functions before channels, connections, clients, ...
180 - configure.ng: OpenSSL can depends on lz or latomic so use pkg-config to
181 find those dependencies and fallback to existing mechanism.
184 ngIRCd 25 (2019-01-23)
186 - Implement new configuration option "MaxPenaltyTime", which configures the
187 maximum penalty time increase in seconds, per penalty event. Set to -1 for
188 no limit (the default), 0 to disable penalties altogether. ngIRCd doesn't
189 use penalty increases higher than 2 seconds during normal operation, so
190 values higher than 1 rarely make sense.
191 Disabling (or reducing) penalties can greatly speed up "make check" runs
192 for example, see below, but are mostly a debugging feature and normally
193 not meant to be used on production systems!
194 Some example timings running "make check" from my macOS workstation:
195 - MaxPenaltyTime not set: 4:41,79s
196 - "MaxPenaltyTime = 1": 3:14,71s
197 - "MaxPenaltyTime = 0": 25,46s
198 Closes #249 and #251.
199 - Update Xcode project for latest Xcode version (10.0)
200 - Allow a 5th parameter in WEBIRC. Thanks to "ItsOnlyBinary".
203 ngIRCd 25~rc1 (2018-08-11)
204 - Only send TOPIC updates to a channel when the topic actually changed:
205 This prevents the channel from becoming flooded by unnecessary TOPIC update
206 messages, that can happen when IRC services try to enforce a certain topic
207 but which is already set (at least on the local server), for example.
208 Therefore still forward it to all servers, but don't inform local clients
209 (still update setter and timestamp information, though!).
210 - Update Xcode project for latest Xcode version (9.2). This includes adding
211 missing and deleting obsolete file references.
212 - Handle user mode "C" ("Only users that share a channel are allowed to send
213 messages") like user mode "b" ("block private messages and notices"): allow
214 messages from servers, services, and IRC Operators, too. Change proposed by
215 "wowaname" back in 2015 in #ngircd, thanks!
216 - Allow IRC Ops and remote servers to KILL service clients: such clients
217 behave like regular users, therefore IRC operators and servers should be
218 able to KILL them: for example to resolve nick collisions.
221 ngIRCd 24 (2017-01-20)
223 ngIRCd 24~rc1 (2017-01-07)
224 - Log privilege violations and failed OPER request with log level "error"
225 and send it to the "&SERVER" channel, too.
226 - Immediately shut down connection when receiving an "ERROR" command,
227 don't wait for the peer to close the connection. This allows the daemon
228 to forward the received "ERROR" message in the network, instead of the
229 very generic "client closed connection" message.
230 - Explicitly forbid remote servers to modify "x-lines" (G-LINES) when the
231 "AllowRemoteOper" configuration option isn't set, even when the command
232 seems to originate from the remote server itself: this prevents GLINE's
233 to become set during server handshake in this case (what wouldn't be
234 possible during regular runtime when a remote IRC Op sends the command)
235 and what can't be undone by IRC Ops later on (because of the missing
236 "AllowRemoteOper" option) ...
237 - Update Xcode project for latest Xcode version (8.0), and fix "duplicate
238 symbols" error messages when building (linking) the binary.
239 - Add "Documentation" variables to systemd configuration files.
240 - Make sure that SYSCONFDIR is always set, which can be handy when
241 using source code linters when ./configure hasn't been run already.
242 - Add the new "PAMServiceName" configuration option to specify the name
243 used as PAM service name. This setting allows to run multiple ngIRCd
244 instances with different PAM configurations for each instance.
245 Thanks to Christian Aistleitner <christian@quelltextlich.at> for the
247 - Add an ".editorconfig" file to the project.
248 - Limit the number of message target, and suppress duplicates: This
249 prevents an user from flooding the server using commands like this:
250 "PRIVMSG nick1,nick1,nick1,...".
251 Duplicate targets are suppressed silently (channels and clients).
252 In addition, the maximum number of targets per PRIVMSG, NOTICE, ...
253 command are limited to MAX_HNDL_TARGETS (25). If there are more, the
254 daemon sends the new 407 (ERR_TOOMANYTARGETS_MSG) numeric, containing
255 the first target that hasn't been handled any more. Closes #187.
256 - Make contrib/platformtest.sh script more portable, and only show
257 "runs=Y" when the test suite really has been passed successfully.
259 ngIRCd 23 (2015-11-16)
261 ngIRCd 23~rc1 (2015-09-06)
262 - Use "NOTICE *" before registration instead of "NOTICE AUTH". "AUTH" is
263 a valid nickname so sending notices to it is probably not a good idea.
264 Use "*" as the target instead as done with numerics when the nick is not
265 available. This mimics the behavior in Charybdis, IRCD-Hybrid, InspIRCd
266 2.2, Plexus 4, etc. Closes #217.
267 The "NoticeAuth" configuration variable (ngircd.conf) has been renamed
268 to "NoticeBeforeRegistration" accordingly, but the old name is still
269 supported for compatibility reasons.
270 - Implement new channel mode "N" (regular users can't change their nick
271 name while on this channel). Closes #214.
272 - Keep track of who placed bans, invites, and excepts.
273 Idea and implementation by LucentW, Thanks! Closes #203.
274 - Implement numeric RPL_LISTSTART(321). lightIRC and other clients
275 expecting RPL_LISTSTART should now behave correctly.
276 Idea and implementation by LucentW, Thanks! Closes #207.
277 - Streamline the effect of "MorePrivacy" option: Update documentation
278 in ngircd.conf(5); don't hide channels for IRC Ops on LIST and don't
279 hide IP addresses/hostnames on WHOIS when "MorePrivacy" is in effect.
281 - IRC operators now can kick anyone when "OperCanMode" is set.
282 Idea and implementation by LucentW, Thanks! Closes #202.
283 - Implement user mode "I": Hide channels on WHOIS: this mode prevents
284 ngIRCd from showing channels on WHOIS (IRC Operators can always see
286 Idea and implementation by LucentW, Thanks! Closes #197.
287 - INVITE command: Implement ERR_USERNOTONSERV(504) numeric and make sure
288 that the target user is on the same server when inviting other users
289 to local ("&") channels.
290 Idea by Cahata, thanks! Closes #183.
291 - MODE command: Always report channel creation time. Up to now when
292 receiving a MODE command, ngIRCd only reported the channel creation
293 time to clients that were members of the channel. This patch reports
294 the channel creation time to all clients, regardless if they are joined
295 to that channel or not. At least ircd-seven behaves like this.
296 This closes #188. Reported by Cahata, thanks!
298 ngIRCd 22.1 (2015-04-06)
300 - Update "CipherList" to not enable SSLv3 by default. Idea, initial patch,
301 and testing by Christoph Biedl <ngircd.anoy@manchmal.in-ulm.de>.
302 - Change ngIRCd test suite not to use DNS lookups: Different operating
303 systems do behave quite differently when doing DNS lookups, for example
304 "127.0.0.1" sometimes resolves to "localhost" and sometimes to
305 "localhost.localdomain" (for example OpenBSD). And other OS resolve
306 "localhost" to the real host name (for example Cygwin). So not using
307 DNS at all makes the test site much more portable.
309 ngIRCd 22 (2014-10-11)
311 - Match all list patterns case-insensitive: this affects the invite-,
312 ban-, and except lists, as well as G-Lines an K-Lines.
313 Problem pointed out by "wowaname" on #ngircd, thanks!
315 ngIRCd 22~rc1 (2014-09-29)
316 - Sync "except lists" between servers: Up to now, ban, invite, and G-Line
317 lists have been synced between servers while linking -- but obviously
318 nobody noticed that except list have been missing ever since. Until now.
319 Thanks to "j4jackj", who reported this issue in #ngircd.
320 - Allow longer user names (up to 63 characters) for authentication.
321 - Increase MAX_SERVERS from 16 to 64: There are installations out there
322 that would like to configure more than 16 links per server, so increase
323 this limit. Best would be to get rid of MAX_SERVERS altogether and make
324 if fully dynamic, but start with this quick and dirty hack ...
325 - Test suite/platformtest.sh: Detect when tests have been skipped.
326 - Allow "DefaultUserModes" to set all possible modes, including modes only
327 settable by IRC Operators.
328 - Implement user mode "F": "relaxed flood protection". Clients with mode
329 "F" set are allowed to rapidly send data to the daemon. This mode is only
330 settable by IRC Operators and can cause problems in the network -- so be
331 careful and only set it on "trusted" clients!
332 User mode "F" is used by Bahamut for this purpose, for example.
333 - Use server password when PAM is compiled in but disabled.
334 - Streamline punctuation of log messages.
335 - Return ISUPPORT(005) numerics on "VERSION". This is how ircd-seven,
336 Charybdis, Hybrid, and InspIRCd behave, for example.
337 - configure: Only link "contrib/Debian" if it exists, which isn't the case
338 on "VPATH builds", for example.
339 - Show the account name in WHOIS. This uses the same numeric as Charybdis
340 and ircu families: WHOISLOGGEDIN(330).
341 - Pattern matching: Remove "range matching" in our pattern matching code
342 using the "[...]" syntax, because [ and ] are valid characters in nick
343 names and one has to quote them currently using the "\" character, which
344 is quite unexpected for users.
345 - platformtest.sh: New option "-x", don't regenerate build system and
346 allow using separate source and build trees.
347 - Test suite: explicitly enable glibc memory checking.
348 - Make "MODE -k" handling more robust and compatible, send "fake '*' key"
350 - portabtest: Actually test the functions snprintf(), strlcpy(), strlcat(),
351 and vsnprintf() for correctness, not only existence (which was quite
352 useless, because if they weren't available, the program could not have
353 been linked at all ...).
354 - Implement new configuration option "Network": it is used to set the
355 (completely optional) "network name", to which this instance of the
356 daemon belongs. When set, this name is used in the ISUPPORT(005) numeric
357 which is sent to all clients connecting to the server after logging in.
358 - Update doc/Platforms.txt.
359 - Various code cleanups, remove unused code, streamline error handling.
360 Remove all imp.h and exp.h header files, support non-standard vsnprintf()
361 return codes, and fix some K&R C portability issues. Streamline
362 DEBUG_ARRAY, DEBUG_BUFFER, DEBUG_IO, DEBUG_ZIP definitions.
363 - Increase penalty time to 10 seconds when handling OPER commands with an
366 ngIRCd 21.1 (2014-03-25)
368 - Don't ignore but use the server password when PAM is compiled in but
369 disabled. Thanks to Roy Sindre Norangshol <roy.sindre@norangshol.no>!
370 - doc/Platforms.txt: Update from master branch.
371 - doc/Services.txt: Update information for Anope 2.x.
372 - configure: add support for the LDFLAGS_END and LIBS_END variables to add
373 linker flags and libraries at the end of the configure run (CFLAGS_END has
374 been implemented already).
375 - Update Copyright notices for 2014 :-)
377 ngIRCd 21 (2013-10-30)
379 - Call arc4random_stir() in forked subprocesses, when available. This
380 is required by FreeBSD <10 and current NetBSD at least to correctly
381 initialize the "arc4" random number generator on these platforms.
383 ngIRCd 21~rc2 (2013-10-20)
384 - Report the correct configuration file name on configuration errors,
385 support longer configuration lines, and warn when lines are truncated.
387 ngIRCd 21~rc1 (2013-10-05)
388 - Actually KILL clients on GLINE/KLINE. (Closes bug #156)
389 - Add support to show all user links using the "STATS L" (uppercase)
390 command (restricted to IRC Operators).
391 - Implement configurable SSL cipher list selection for GnuTLS and OpenSSL
392 using the new configuration option "CipherList". In addition, this
393 changes the defaults to more secure values: "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" for
394 OpenSSL, and "SECURE128" for GnuTLS.
395 - Show connection flag "s" (SSL) in RPL_TRACE{LINK|SERVER} messages: now
396 you can check if a server-to-server link is SSL-encrypted or not using
397 the IRC "TRACE" command.
398 - Implement the new configuration option "DefaultUserModes" which lists
399 user modes that become automatically set on new local clients right
400 after login. Please note that only modes can be set that the client
401 could set on itself, so you can't set "a" (away) or "o" (IRC Op),
402 for example! User modes "i" (invisible) or "x" (cloaked) etc. are
403 "interesting", though. (Closes bug #160)
404 - Add support for the new METADATA "account" property, which allows
405 services to automatically identify users after netsplits and across
407 - Implement a new configuration option "AllowedChannelTypes" that lists
408 all allowed channel types (channel prefixes) for newly created channels
409 on the local server. By default, all supported channel types are allowed.
410 If set to the empty string, local clients can't create new channels at
411 all, which equals the old "PredefChannelsOnly = yes" setting.
412 This change deprecates the "PredefChannelsOnly" variable, too, but it is
413 still supported and translated to the appropriate "AllowedChannelTypes"
414 setting. When the old "PredefChannelsOnly" variable is processed, a
415 warning message is logged. (Closes bug #152)
416 - Add support for "client certificate fingerprinting". When a client
417 passes an SSL certificate to the server, the "fingerprint" will be
418 forwarded in the network which enables IRC services to identify the
419 user using this certificate and not using passwords.
420 - Implement a new configuration option "IncludeDir" in the "[Options]"
421 section that can be used to specify a directory which can contain
422 further configuration files and configuration file snippets matching
423 the pattern "*.conf". These files are read in after the main server
424 configuration file ("ngircd.conf" by default) has been read in and
425 parsed. The default is "$SYSCONFDIR/ngircd.conf.d", so that it is
426 possible to adjust the configuration only by placing additional files
427 into this directory. (Closes bug #157)
428 - Add Travis-CI configuration file (".travis.yml") to project.
429 - ngIRCd now accepts user names including "@" characters, saves the
430 unmodified name for authentication but stores only the part in front
431 of the "@" character as "IRC user name". And the latter is how
432 ircd2.11, Bahamut, and irc-seven behave as well. (Closes bug #155)
433 - Lots of IRC "information functions" like ADMIN, INFO, ... now accept
434 server masks and names of connected users (in addition to server names)
435 for specifying the target server of the command. (Closes bug #153)
436 - Implement a new configuration option "IdleTimeout" in the "[Limits]"
437 section of the configuration file which can be used to set a timeout
438 in seconds after which the whole daemon will shutdown when no more
439 connections are left active after handling at least one client.
440 The default is 0, "never".
441 This can be useful for testing or when ngIRCd is started using "socket
442 activation" with systemd(8), for example.
443 - Implement support for systemd(8) "socket activation".
444 - Enable WHOIS to display information about IRC Services using the new
445 numeric 310(RPL_WHOISSERVICE) This numeric is used for this purpose by
446 InspIRCd, for example -- but as usual, other numerics are in use, too,
447 like 613 in UltimateIRCd ...
448 Please note that neither the Operator (+o) not the "bot status" (+B)
449 of an IRC service is displayed in the output.
450 - Update systemd(8) example configuration files in ./contrib/ directory:
451 the "ngircd.service" file now uses the "forking" service type which
452 enhances the log messages shown by "systemctl status ngircd.service",
453 and the new "ngircd.socket" file configures a systemd socket that
454 configures a socket for ngIRCd and launches the daemon on demand.
455 - Enhance help system and the HELP command: now a "help text file" can be
456 set using the new configuration option "HelpFile" ("global" section),
457 which is read in and parsed on server startup and configuration reload,
458 and then is used to output individual help texts to specific topics.
459 Please see the file ./doc/Commands.txt for details.
461 ngIRCd 20.3 (2013-08-23)
463 - This release is a bugfix release only, without new features.
464 - Security: Fix a denial of service bug (server crash) which could happen
465 when the configuration option "NoticeAuth" is enabled (which is NOT the
466 default) and ngIRCd failed to send the "notice auth" messages to new
467 clients connecting to the server (CVE-2013-5580).
469 ngIRCd 20.2 (2013-02-15)
471 - This release is a bugfix release only, without new features.
472 - Security: Fix a denial of service bug in the function handling KICK
473 commands that could be used by arbitrary users to crash the daemon
476 ngIRCd 20.1 (2013-01-02)
478 - This release is a bugfix release only, without new features.
480 ngIRCd 20 (2012-12-17)
482 - Allow user names ("INDENT") up to 20 characters when ngIRCd has not
483 been configured for "strict RFC mode". This is useful if you are using
484 external (PAM) authentication mechanisms that require longer user names.
485 Patch suggested by Brett Smith <brett@w3.org>, see
486 <http://arthur.barton.de/pipermail/ngircd-ml/2012-October/000579.html>.
488 ngIRCd 20~rc2 (2012-12-02)
489 - Rework cloaked hostname handling and implement the "METADATA cloakhost"
490 subcommand: Now ngIRCd uses two fields internally, one to store the
491 "real" hostname and one to save the "cloaked" hostname. This allows
492 "foreign servers" (aka "IRC services") to alter the real and cloaked
493 hostnames of clients without problems, even when the user itself issues
494 additional "MODE +x" and "MODE -x" commands.
496 ngIRCd 20~rc1 (2012-11-11)
497 - Update doc/Services.txt: describe the upcoming version of Anope 1.9.8,
498 then including a protocol module for ngIRCd. And remove our own patches
499 in ./contrib/Anope because they aren't supported any more ...
500 - Implement new "METADATA" command which can be used by remote servers
501 and IRC services to update client metadata like the client info text
502 ("real name"), user name, and hostname, and use this command to
503 configure an cloaked hostname (user mode "+x") on remote servers:
504 This prevents "double cloaking" of hostnames and even cloaked
505 hostnames are in sync on all servers supporting "METADATA" now.
506 - Implement new IRC "SVSNICK" command to allow remote servers (and IRC
507 services) to change nicknames of already registered users. The SVSNICK
508 command itself doesn't change the nickname, but it becomes forwarded
509 to the server to which the user is connected to. And then this server
510 initiates the real nickname changing using regular NICK commands.
511 This allows to run mixed networks with old servers not supporting the
512 SVSNICK command, because SVSNICK commands for nicknames on such servers
513 are silently ignored and don't cause a desynchronization of the network.
514 - New configuration option "MaxListSize" to configure the maximum number
515 of channels returned by a LIST command. The default is 100, as before.
516 - Implement user mode "b", "block messages": when a user has set mode "b",
517 all private messages and notices to this user are blocked if they don't
518 originate from a registered user, an IRC Op, server or service. The
519 originator gets an error numeric sent back in this case,
520 ERR_NONONREG_MSG (486), which is used by UnrealIRCd, too. (Closes #144)
521 - Implement channel mode "V" (invite disallow): If the new channel mode
522 "V" is set, the INVITE command becomes invalid and all clients get the
523 new ERR_NOINVITE_MSG (518) reply. (Closes #143)
524 - Implement channel mode "Q" and user mode "q": Both modes protect users
525 from channel kicks: only IRC operators and servers can kick users having
526 mode "q" or in channels with mode "Q". (Closes #141)
527 - Allow users to "cloak" their hostname only when the configuration
528 variable "CloakHostModeX" (introduced in 19.2) is set. Otherwise, only
529 IRC operators, other servers, and services are allowed to set the user
530 mode "+x": this prevents regular users from changing their hostmask to
531 the name of the IRC server itself, which confused quite a few people ;-)
533 - New configuration option "OperChanPAutoOp": If disabled, IRC operators
534 don't become channel operators in persistent channels when joining.
535 Enabled by default, which has been the behavior of ngIRCd up to this
537 - Allow IRC operators to see secret (+s) channels in LIST command as long
538 as the "MorePrivacy" configuration option isn't enabled in the
539 configuration file. (Closes #136)
540 - Implement new (optional) IRC+ "CHARCONV" command to set a client
541 character set that the server translates all messages to/from UTF-8.
542 This feature requires the "libiconv" library and must be enabled using
543 the new "--with-iconv" option of the ./configure script. See
544 doc/Protocol.txt for details. (Closes #109)
545 - Implement user mode "B" ("Bot flag"): it is settable and unsettable by
546 every (non-restricted) client. This is how Unreal and InspIRCd do
547 behave, and so do we :-)
548 - Implement channel mode "M": Only the server, identified users and IRC
549 operators are able to talk in such a channel.
550 - Block nicknames that are reserved for services and are defined using the
551 configuration variable "ServiceMask" in "Server" blocks; And this
552 variable now can handle more than one mask separated by commas.
553 - Implemented XOP channel user modes: "Half Op" ("+h", prefix "%") can set
554 the channel modes +imntvIbek and kick all +v and normal users; "Admin"
555 ("+a", prefix "&") can set channel modes +imntvIbekoRsz and kick all +o,
556 +h, +v and normal users; and "Owner" ("+q", prefix "~") can set channel
557 modes +imntvIbekoRsz and kick all +a, +o, +h, +v and normal users.
558 - Implement hashed cloaked hostnames for both the "CloakHost" and
559 "CloakHostModeX" configuration options: now the admin can use the new
560 '%x' placeholder to insert a hashed version of the clients hostname,
561 and the new configuration option "CloakHostSalt" defines the salt for
562 the hash function. When "CloakHostSalt" is not set (the default), a
563 random salt will be generated after each server restart.
565 ngIRCd 19.2 (2012-06-19)
567 ngIRCd 19.2~rc1 (2012-06-13)
568 - New configuration option "CloakHostModeX" to configure the hostname
569 that gets used for IRC clients which have user mode "+x" enabled.
570 Up to now, the name of the IRC server itself has been used for this,
571 which still is the default when "CloakHostModeX" isn't set.
572 - Add instructions for setting up Atheme IRC services.
573 - Implement support for IRC capability handling, the new "CAP" command,
574 and capability "multi-prefix" which allows both the NAME and WHO command
575 handlers to return more than one "class prefix" to the client.
577 ngIRCd 19.1 (2012-03-19)
579 - Really include _all_ patches to build the Anope module into the
580 distribution archive ... ooops!
582 ngIRCd 19 (2012-02-29)
584 ngIRCd 19~rc1 (2012-02-12)
585 - Update preliminary ngIRCd protocol module for Anope 1.9.6, which now
586 is the only supported version.
587 - New numeric RPL_WHOISHOST_MSG(378), which returns the DNS host name
588 (if available) and the IP address of a client in the WHOIS reply.
589 Only the user itself and local IRC operators get this numeric.
590 - Implement channel exception list (mode 'e'). This allows a channel
591 operator to define exception masks that allow users to join the
592 channel even when a "ban" would match and prevent them from joining:
593 the exception list (e) overrides the ban list (b).
594 - Implement user mode 'C': If the target user of a PRIVMSG or NOTICE
595 command has the user mode 'C' set, it is required that both sender
596 and receiver are on the same channel. This prevents private flooding
597 by completely unknown clients.
598 - New RPL_WHOISREGNICK_MSG(307) numeric in WHOIS command replies: it
599 indicates if a nickname is registered (if user mode 'R' set).
600 - Limit channel invite, ban, and exception lists to 50 entries and fix
601 duplicate check and error messages when adding already listed entries
602 or deleting no (longer) existing ones.
603 - Limit the number of list items in the reply of LIST (100), WHO (25),
604 WHOIS (10), and WHOWAS (25) commands.
605 - Limit the MODE command to handle a maximum number of 5 channel modes
606 that require an argument (+Ibkl) per call and report this number
607 in the ISUPPORT(005) numeric: "MODES=5".
608 - LINKS command: support <mask> parameter to limit the reply.
609 - Add 1 second penalty for every further target on PRIVMSG/NOTICE
610 commands: this reduces the possibility of flooding channels with
611 commands like "PRIVMSG/NOTICE #a,#n,#c,... :message" a little bit.
612 Problem noticed by Cahata, thanks!
613 - New configuration option "PAMIsOptional": when set, clients not
614 sending a password are still allowed to connect: they won't become
615 "identified" and keep the "~" character prepended to their supplied
616 user name. See "man 5 ngircd.conf" for details.
617 - Fixed handling of WHO commands. This fixes two bugs: "WHO <nick>"
618 returned nothing at all if the user was "+i" (reported by Cahata,
619 thanks) and "WHO <nick|nickmask>" returned channel names instead
620 of "*" when the user was member of a (visible) channel.
621 - LUSERS reply: only count channels that are visible to the requesting
622 client, so the existence of secret channels is no longer revealed by
623 using LUSERS. Reported by Cahata, thanks!
624 - Unknown user and channel modes no longer stop the mode parser, but
625 are simply ignored. Therefore modes after the unknown one are now
626 handled. This is how ircd2.10/ircd2.11/ircd-seven behave, at least.
627 Reported by Cahata, thanks!
628 - Implement IRC commands "GLINE" and "KLINE" to ban users. G-Lines are
629 synchronized between server on peering, K-Lines are local only.
630 If you use "*!<user>@<host>" or "*!*@<host>" masks, these connections
631 are blocked even before the user is fully logged in (before PASS,
632 NICK, and USER commands have been processed) and before the child
633 processes for authentication are forked, so resource usage is smaller.
634 - Added doc/Modes.txt: document modes supported by ngIRCd.
635 - Implement user mode "R": indicates that the nickname of this user
636 is "registered". This mode isn't handled by ngIRCd itself, but must
637 be set and unset by IRC services like Anope.
638 - Implement channel mode "R": only registered users (having the user
639 mode "R" set) are allowed to join this channel.
640 - Test suite: bind to loopback (127.0.0.1) interface only.
641 - Handle unknown user and channel modes: these modes are saved and
642 forwarded to other servers, but ignored otherwise.
643 - Handle channel user modes 'a', 'h', and 'q' from remote servers.
644 These channel user modes aren't used for anything at the moment,
645 but ngIRCd knows that these three modes are "channel user modes"
646 and not "channel modes", that is that these modes take an "nickname"
647 argument. Like unknown user and channel modes, these modes are saved
648 and forwarded to other servers, but ignored otherwise.
650 ngIRCd 18 (2011-07-10)
652 - Add preliminary ngIRCd protocol module for Anope 1.9 to contrib/Anope/.
654 ngIRCd 18~rc2 (2011-06-29)
655 - GnuTLS: use 1024 bits as minimum size of the DH prime. This enables
656 ngIRCd to accept incoming connections from other servers and clients
657 that "only" use at least 1024 bits again, like ngIRCd 17 did (and no
658 longer requires 2048 bits for incoming connections).
660 ngIRCd 18~rc1 (2011-06-27)
661 - New configuration option "MorePrivacy" to "censor" some user information.
662 When enabled, signon time and idle time is left out. Part and quit
663 messages are made to look the same. WHOWAS requests are silently dropped.
664 All of this is useful if one wish to conceal users that access the ngircd
665 servers from TOR or I2P.
666 - New configuration option "ScrubCTCP" to scrub incoming CTCP commands. If
667 activated, the server silently drops incoming CTCP requests from both
668 other servers and from users. The server that scrubs CTCP will not forward
669 the CTCP requests to other servers in the network either, which can spell
670 trouble if not every oper knows about the CTCP-scrubbing. Scrubbing CTCP
671 commands also means that it is not possible to send files between users.
672 There is one exception to the CTCP scrubbing performed: ACTION ("/me
673 commands") requests are not scrubbed.
674 - Restructure ngIRCd configuration file: introduce new [Limits], [Options],
675 and [SSL] sections. The intention of this restructuring is to make the
676 [Global] section much cleaner, so that it only contains variables that
677 most installations must adjust to the local requirements. All the optional
678 variables are moved to [Limits], for configurable limits and timers of
679 ngIRCd, and [Options], for optional features. All SSL-related variables
680 are moved to [SSL] and the "SSL"-prefix is stripped. The old variables in
681 the [Global] section are deprecated now, but are still recognized.
682 => Don't forget to check your configuration, use "ngircd --configtest"!
683 - New documentation "how to contribute": doc/Contributing.txt.
684 - Avoid needlessly scary 'buffer overflow' messages: When the write buffer
685 space grows too large, ngIRCd has to disconnect the client to avoid
686 wasting too much memory, which is logged with a scary 'write buffer
687 overflow' message. Change this to a more descriptive wording.
688 - New configuration option "RequireAuthPing": PING-PONG on login. When
689 enabled, this configuration option lets ngIRCd send a PING with an numeric
690 "token" to clients logging in; and it will not become registered in the
691 network until the client responds with the correct PONG.
692 - New configuration option "NoticeAuth": send NOTICE AUTH on connect. When
693 active, ngircd will send "NOTICE AUTH" messages on client connect time
694 like e.g. snircd (QuakeNet) does.
695 - Add support for up to 3 targets in WHOIS queries, also allow up to one
696 wildcard query from local hosts. Follows ircd 2.10 implementation rather
697 than RFC 2812. At most 10 entries are returned per wildcard expansion.
698 - ngircd.conf(5) manual page: describe types of configuration variables
699 (booleans, text strings, integer numbers) and add type information to each
700 variable description.
701 - Terminate incoming connections on HTTP commands "GET" and "POST".
702 - New configuration option "CloakHost": when set, this host name is used for
703 every client instead of the real DNS host name (or IP address).
704 - New configuration option "CloakUserToNick": when enabled, ngIRCd sets
705 every clients' user name to their nickname and hides the user name
706 supplied by the IRC client.
707 - Make write buffers bigger, but flush early. Before this change, a client
708 got disconnected if the buffer flushing at 4k failed, now regular clients
709 can store up to 32k and servers up 64k even if flushing is not possible at
710 the moment. This enhances reliability on slow links.
711 - Allow "Port = 0" in [Server] blocks. Port number 0 marks remote servers
712 that try to connect to this daemon, but where this daemon never tries to
713 establish a connection on its own: only incoming connections are allowed.
714 - Enable WHOIS command to return information about services.
715 - Implement channel mode 'O': "IRC operators only". This channel mode is
716 used on DALnet (bahamut), for example.
717 - Remove support for ZeroConf/Bonjour/Rendezvous service registration
718 including the "[No]ZeroConf" configuration option.
719 - Deprecate NoXX-Options in ngircd.conf and move new variants into our new
720 [Options] section: 'NoDNS=no' => 'DNS=yes', 'NoIdent=no' => 'Ident=yes',
721 'NoPAM=no' => 'PAM=yes', and 'NoZeroConf=no' => 'ZeroConf=yes' (and
722 vice-versa). The defaults are adjusted accordingly and the old variables
723 in [Global] are still accepted, so there is no functional change.
725 ngIRCd 17.1 (2010-12-19)
727 - Don't log critical (or worse) messages to stderr
728 - Remove "error file" when compiled with debug code enabled
729 - New numeric 329: get channel creation time on "MODE #chan" commands
731 ngIRCd 17 (2010-11-07)
733 - doc: change path names in sample-ngircd.conf depending on sysconfdir
735 ngIRCd 17~rc2 (2010-10-25)
736 - Generate ngIRCd version number from GIT tag.
737 - Make source code compatible with ansi2knr again. This allows to compile
738 ngIRCd using a pre-ANSI K&R C compiler again.
740 ngIRCd 17~rc1 (2010-10-11)
741 - New configuration option "NoZeroConf" to disable service registration at
742 runtime even if ngIRCd is compiled with support for ZeroConf (e.g. using
743 Howl, Avahi or on Mac OS X).
744 - New configuration option "SyslogFacility" to define the syslog "facility"
745 (the "target"), to which ngIRCd should send its log messages.
746 Possible values are system dependent, but most probably "auth", "daemon",
747 "user" and "local1" through "local7" are possible values; see syslog(3).
748 Default is "local5" for historical reasons.
749 - Dump the "internal server state" (configured servers, established
750 connections and known clients) to the console or syslog when receiving
751 the SIGUSR2 signal and debug mode is enabled.
752 - Enable the daemon to disable and enable "debug mode" on runtime using
753 signal SIGUSR1, when debug code is compiled in, not only on startup
754 using the command line parameters.
755 - Implement user mode "x": host name cloaking (closes: #102).
756 - Change MOTD file handling: ngIRCd now caches the contents of the MOTD
757 file, so the daemon now requires a HUP signal or REHASH command to
758 re-read the MOTD file when its content changed.
759 - Allow IRC ops to change channel modes even without OperServerMode set.
760 - Allow IRC operators to use MODE command on any channel (closes: #100).
761 - New configuration option "NoPAM" to disable PAM.
762 - Implement asynchronous user authentication using PAM, please see the
763 file doc/PAM.txt for details.
764 - Add some documentation for using BOPM with ngIRCd, see doc/Bopm.txt.
765 - Implement user mode "c": receive connect/disconnect NOTICEs. Note that
766 this new mode requires the user to be an IRC operator.
767 - Show SSL status in WHOIS output, numeric 275.
769 ngIRCd 16 (2010-05-02)
771 ngIRCd 16~rc2 (2010-04-25)
772 - Enhance connection statistics counters: display total number of served
773 connections on daemon shutdown and when a new client connects using
774 the new numeric RPL_STATSCONN (250).
776 ngIRCd 16~rc1 (2010-03-25)
777 - Implement WEBIRC command used by some Web-IRC frontends. The password
778 required to secure this command must be configured using the new
779 "WebircPassword" variable in the ngircd.conf file.
780 - Remove limit on max number of configured irc operators.
781 - A new channel mode "secure connections only" (+z) has been implemented:
782 Only clients using a SSL encrypted connection to the server are allowed
783 to join such a channel.
784 But please note three things: a) already joined clients are not checked
785 when setting this mode, b) IRC operators are always allowed to join
786 every channel, and c) remote clients using a server not supporting this
787 mode are not checked either and therefore always allowed to join.
789 ngIRCd 15 (2009-11-07)
791 ngIRCd 15~rc1 (2009-10-15)
792 - Do not add default listening port (6667) if SSL ports were specified, so
793 ngIRCd can be configured to only accept SSL-encrypted connections now.
794 - Enable IRC operators to use the IRC command SQUIT (instead of the already
795 implemented but non-standard DISCONNECT command).
796 - New configuration option "AllowRemoteOper" (disabled by default) that
797 enables remote IRC operators to use the IRC commands SQUIT and CONNECT
799 - Enforce upper limit on maximum number of handled commands. This implements
800 a throttling scheme: an IRC client can send up to 3 commands or 256 bytes
801 per second before a one second pause is enforced.
803 ngIRCd 14.1 (2009-05-05)
805 - Security: fix remotely triggerable crash in SSL/TLS code.
806 - Debian: build ngircd-full-dbg package.
807 - Allow ping timeout quit messages to show the timeout value.
809 ngIRCd 14 (2009-04-20)
811 ngIRCd 14~rc1 (2009-03-29)
812 - Allow creation of persistent modeless channels.
813 - The INFO command reports the compile time now (if available).
814 - Support individual channel keys for pre-defined channels: introduce
815 new configuration variable "KeyFile" in [Channel] sections in ngircd.conf,
816 here a file can be configured for each pre-defined channel which contains
817 individual channel keys for different users.
818 - Remove limit on maximum number of predefined channels in ngircd.conf.
820 ngIRCd 13 (2008-12-25)
822 ngIRCd 13~rc1 (2008-11-21):
823 - New version number scheme :-)
824 - Initial support for IRC services, using a RFC1459 style interface,
825 tested with IRCServices (http://www.ircservices.za.net/) version 5.1.13.
826 For this to work, ngIRCd now supports server-server links conforming
827 to RFC 1459. New ngircd.conf(5) option: ServiceMask.
828 - Support for SSL-encrypted server-server and client-server links using
829 OpenSSL (configure: --with-openssl) or GNUTLS (configure: --with-gnutls).
830 New ngircd.conf(5) options: SSLPorts, SSLKeyFile, SSLKeyFilePassword,
831 SSLCertFile, SSLDHFile, and SSLConnect.
832 - Server local channels have been implemented, prefix "&", that are only
833 visible to users of the same server and are not visible in the network.
834 In addition ngIRCd creates a "special" channel &SERVER on startup and logs
835 all the messages to it that a user with mode +s receives.
836 - New make target "osxpkg" to build a Mac OS X installer package.
837 - New configuration option "NoIdent" to disable IDENT lookups even if the
838 daemon is compiled with IDENT support.
840 ngIRCd 0.12.1 (2008-07-09)
842 - Add option aliases -V (for --version) and -h (for --help).
843 - Make Listen parameter a comma-separated list of addresses. This also
844 obsoletes ListenIPv4 and ListenIPv6 options. If Listen is unset, it
845 is treated as Listen="::,0.0.0.0".
846 Note: ListenIPv4 and ListenIPv6 options are still recognized,
847 but ngircd will print a warning if they are used in the config file.
849 ngIRCd 0.12.0 (2008-05-13)
851 ngIRCd 0.12.0-pre2 (2008-04-29)
852 - IPv6: Add config options to disable ipv4/ipv6 support.
854 ngIRCd 0.12.0-pre1 (2008-04-20)
856 - Install a LaunchDaemon script to start/stop ngIRCd on Mac OS X.
857 - Implemented IRC commands INFO, SUMMON (dummy), and USERS (dummy) and
858 enhanced test suite to check these commands. (Dana Dahlstrom)
859 - IRC_WHO now supports search patterns and will test this against user
860 nickname/server name/host name, etc. as required by RFC 2812, Section 3.6.1.
861 (reported by Dana Dahlstrom)
862 - Implement RFC 2812 handling of "0" argument to 'JOIN': must be treated
863 as if the user had sent PART commands for all channels the user is a
864 member of. (Dana Dahlstrom)
865 - Allow NOTICEs to be sent to a channel. (Fabian Schlager)
867 ngIRCd 0.11.0 (2008-01-15)
869 - Add support for /STAT u (server uptime) command.
870 - New [Server] configuration Option "Bind" allows to specify
871 the source IP address to use when connecting to remote server.
872 - New configuration option "MaxNickLength" to specify the allowed maximum
873 length of user nicknames. Note: must be unique in an IRC network!
874 - Numeric 317: implemented "signon time" (displayed in WHOIS result).
875 - Added new server configuration option "Passive" for "Server" blocks to
876 disable automatic outgoing connections (similar to -p option to ngircd,
877 but only for the specified server). (Tassilo Schweyer)
878 - Added support for the WALLOPS command. Usage is restricted to IRC
881 ngIRCd 0.10.2 (2007-06-08)
883 - Predefined channel configuration now allows specification of channel key
884 (mode k) and maximum user count (mode l): variables "Key" and "MaxUsers".
885 - When using the epoll() IO interface, compile in the select() interface as
886 well and fall back to it when epoll() isn't available on runtime.
887 - Added support for IO APIs "poll()" and "/dev/poll".
889 ngIRCd 0.10.1 (2006-12-17)
891 - Allow PASS syntax defined in RFC 1459 for server links, too.
892 - New configuration option "PredefChannelsOnly": if set, clients can only
893 join predefined channels.
895 ngIRCd 0.10.0 (2006-10-01)
897 ngIRCd 0.10.0-pre1 (2006-08-02)
898 - Enhanced DIE to accept a single parameter ("comment text") which is sent
899 to all locally connected clients before the server goes down.
900 - JOIN now supports more than one channel key at a time.
901 - Implemented numeric "333": Time and user name who set a channel topic.
902 - Channel topics are no longer limited to 127 characters: now the only limit
903 is the maximum length of an IRC command, i. e. 512 bytes (in practice, this
904 limits the topic to about 490 characters due to protocol overhead).
905 - Reverse DNS lookup code now checks the result by doing an additional
906 lookup to prevent spoofing.
907 - Added new IO layer which (optionally) supports epoll() and kqueue() in
908 addition to the select() interface.
910 ngIRCd 0.9.0 (2005-07-24)
912 - Never run with root privileges but always switch the user ID.
913 - Make "netsplit" messages RFC compliant.
914 - Implemented the IRC function "WHOWAS".
915 - New configuration option "OperServerMode" to enable a workaround needed
916 when running an network with ircd2 servers and "OperCanUseMode" enabled
917 to prevent the ircd2 daemon to drop mode changes of IRC operators.
918 Patch by Florian Westphal, <westphal@foo.fh-furtwangen.de>.
919 - Implemented support for "secret channels" (channel mode "s").
920 - New configuration option "Mask" for [Operator] sections to limit OPER
921 commands to users with a specific IRC mask. Patch from Florian Westphal.
922 - New configuration variable "PidFile", section "[Global]": if defined,
923 the server writes its process ID (PID) to this file. Default: off.
924 Idea of Florian Westphal, <westphal@foo.fh-furtwangen.de>.
925 - Added support for the Howl (http://www.porchdogsoft.com/products/howl/)
926 Rendezvous API, in addition to the API of Apple (Mac OS X). The available
927 API will be autodetected when you call "./configure --with-rendezvous".
929 ngIRCd 0.8.0 (2004-06-26)
931 - Two new configuration options: "ChrootDir" and "MotdPhrase", thanks to
932 Benjamin Pineau <ben@zouh.org>. Now you can force the daemon to change
933 its root and working directory to something "safe". MotdPhrase is used
934 to define an "MOTD string" instead of a whole file, useful if the
935 "real" MOTD file would be outside the "jail".
936 - INVITE- and BAN-lists become synchronized between IRC+ servers when
937 establishing new connections, if the peer supports this as well.
938 - The type of service (TOS) of all sockets is set to "interactive" now.
939 - Added short command line option "-t" as alternative to "--configtest".
940 - Added optional support for "IDENT" lookups on incoming connections. You
941 have to enable this function with the ./configure switch "--with-ident".
942 The default is not to do IDENT lookups.
944 ngIRCd 0.7.5 (2003-07-11)
946 - New configuration variable "MaxConnectionsIP" to limit the number of
947 simultaneous connections from a single IP that the server will accept.
948 This configuration options lowers the risk of denial of service attacks
949 (DoS), the default is 5 connections per client IP.
950 - Added new configuration variable "Listen" to bind all listening
951 sockets of the server to a single IP address.
953 ngIRCd 0.7.1 (2003-07-18)
955 - Added support for GNU/Hurd.
957 ngIRCd 0.7.0 (2003-05-01)
959 - New command CONNECT to enable and add server links. The syntax is not
960 RFC-compatible: use "CONNECT <name> <port>" to enable and connect an
961 configured server and "CONNECT <name> <port> <host> <mypwd> <peerpwd>"
962 to add a new server (ngIRCd tries to connect new servers only once!).
963 - Added DISCONNECT command ("DISCONNECT <name>") to disable servers.
964 - New command TRACE (you can trace only servers at the moment).
965 - New command HELP that lists all understood commands.
966 - ngIRCd can register itself with Rendezvous: to enable support pass the
967 new switch "--with-rendezvous" to configure.
968 - Added support for TCP Wrappers library: pass "--with-tcp-wrappers" to
969 configure to enable it.
970 - Changed some configure options to use "--with"/"--without" as prefix
971 instead of "--enable"/"--disable": "--without-syslog", "--without-zlib",
972 "--with-tcp-wrappers", and "--with-rendezvous".
973 - Enhanced manual pages ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5).
974 - Documentation is now installed in $(datadir)/doc/ngircd.
977 Older news (sorry, only available in German language):
979 ngIRCd 0.6.0, 24.12.2002
981 - beim Schliessen einer Verbindung zeigt der Server nun vor dem ERROR
982 noch eine Statistik ueber die empfangene und gesendete Datenmenge an.
983 - Connection-Strukturen werden nun "pool-weise" verwaltet; der Pool wird
984 bei Bedarf bis zu einem konfigurierten Limit vergroessert.
985 - Mit der neuen Konfigurationsvariable "MaxConnections" (Sekion "Global")
986 kann die maximale Anzahl gleichzeitiger Verbindungen begrenzt werden.
987 Der Default ist -1, "unlimitiert".
988 - der Server erkennt nun, ob bereits eine eingehende Verbindung von einem
989 Peer-Server besteht und versucht dann nicht mehr, selber eine eigene
990 ausgehende Verbindung zu diesem auufzubauen. Dadurch kann nun auf beiden
991 Servern in der Konfiguration ein Port fuer den Connect konfiguriert
992 werden (beide Server versuchen sich dann gegenseitig zu connectieren).
993 - Server identifizieren sich nun mit asynchronen Passwoertern, d.h. das
994 Passwort, welches A an B schickt, kann ein anderes sein als das, welches
995 B als Antwort an A sendet. In der Konfig.-Datei, Abschnitt "Server",
996 wurde "Password" dazu durch "MyPassword" und "PeerPassword" ersetzt.
997 - Der Server kann nun zur Laufzeit die Konfiguration neu einlesen: dies
998 macht er nach dem Befehl REHASH oder wenn ein HUP-Signal empfangen wird.
999 - Server-Server-Links koennen nun komprimiert werden, dazu wird die zlib
1000 (www.zlib.org) benoetigt. Unterstuetzt die Gegenseite die Komprimierung
1001 nicht, wird automatisch unkomprimiert kommuniziert. Das Verfahren ist
1002 kompatibel mit dem Original-ircd 2.10.3, d.h. beide Server koennen
1003 miteinander ueber komprimiert Links kommunizieren.
1004 - neue Konfigurations-Variable "MaxJoins": Hiermit kann die maximale Zahl
1005 der Channels, in denen ein User Mitglied sein kann, begrent werden.
1006 - neue Channel-Modes l (User-Limit) und k (Channel-Key) implementiert.
1008 ngIRCd 0.5.0, 20.09.2002
1010 - AIX (3.2.5), HP-UX (10.20), IRIX (6.5), NetBSD (1.5.3/m68k) und Solaris
1011 (2.5.1, 2.6) gehoeren nun auch zu den unterstuetzten Platformen.
1012 - Unter A/UX (und evtl. weiteren Systemen) kompiliert der ngIRCd nun mit
1013 dem "nativen" (ggf. pre-ANSI) Compiler.
1014 - "persistente Channels" (Mode 'P') implementiert: diese koennen in der
1015 Konfigurationsdatei definiert werden (Sektion "Channel", vgl. Beispiel-
1016 Konfiguration "sample-ngircd.conf") und bleiben auch dann bestehen,
1017 wenn kein User mehr im Channel ist.
1018 - neue IRC-Befehle: KICK, INVITE, ADMIN, CHANINFO; LIST wurde erweitert.
1019 Mit dem neuen Befehl CHANINFO synchronisieren Server, die das IRC+-
1020 Protokoll unterstuetzen, Channel-Modes und Topics. Fuer den ADMIN-Befehl
1021 gibt es neue Konfigurationsoptionen (Sektion "Global"): "AdminInfo1",
1022 "AdminInfo2" und "AdminEMail".
1023 - Invite- und Ban-Lists implementiert.
1024 - neue Konfigurationsoption "OperCanUseMode" (Sektion "Global"):
1025 ist sie aktiv, koennen IRC-Operatoren immer Channel-Modes setzen.
1026 - "Test-Suite" begonnen: mit "make check" wird sie durchlaufen.
1028 ngIRCd 0.4.2, 29.04.2002
1030 - IRC-Funktion LIST implementiert; bisher werden allerdings noch keine
1031 Regular Expressions (bis auf "*") unterstuetzt.
1033 ngIRCd 0.4.0, 01.04.2002
1035 - WHO implementiert (bisher ohne komplette Unterstuetzung von Masks).
1036 - stderr wird nun in eine Datei umgelenkt (/ngircd-<PID>.err).
1037 Laeuft der Server nicht im Debug-Modus, so wird diese bei Programm-
1038 ende geloescht. Sollte der Server abstuerzen, finden sich hier evtl.
1039 zusaetzliche Informationen.
1040 - Server-Gruppen implementiert: es wird immer nur zu einem Server in
1041 einer Gruppe eine Verbindung aufgebaut, klappt es beim ersten Server
1042 nicht, so wird der naechste probiert.
1043 - Clients und Channels werden nicht mehr ueber ihren Namen, sondern
1044 einen Hash-Wert gesucht: sollte deutlich schneller sein.
1045 - neuer Kommandozeilen-Parameter "--configtest": die Konfiguration wird
1046 gelesen und die dann verwendeten Werte angezeigt.
1047 - Client-Mode "s" (Server Notices) implementiert.
1048 - mit dem neuen Kommandozeilen-Parameter "--config"/"-f" kann eine
1049 alternative Konfigurationsdatei angegeben werden.
1050 - nach dem Start kann der ngIRCd, wenn er mit root-Rechten laeuft,
1051 zu einer anderen User-ID und Group-ID wechseln.
1053 ngIRCd 0.3.0, 02.03.2002
1055 - bekommt der Server ein HUP-Signal, so startet er neu -- genau so, wie
1056 er auf den IRC-Befehl RESTART reagiert.
1057 - neuer Kommandozeilen-Schalter "--passive" (-p): wird er angegeben, so
1058 verbindet sich der ngIRCd nicht mehr automatisch zu anderen Servern.
1059 Zum Debuggen manchmal ganz praktisch :-)
1060 - neue Befehle VERSION und KILL implementiert. NAMES korrigiert.
1061 - Anpassungen an A/UX: gehoert nun auch zu den unterstuetzten Platformen.
1062 - AWAY (und der User-Mode 'a') ist nun implementiert.
1063 - der ngIRCd unterstuetzt nun Channel-Topics (TOPIC-Befehl).
1064 - Channel- und Nicknames werden nun ordentlich validiert.
1066 ngIRCd 0.2.0, 15.02.2002
1068 - Begonnen Channel-Modes und User-Channel-Modes zu implementieren: der
1069 Server versteht an User-Modes o und v, beachtet letzteres allerdings
1070 noch nirgends. Bekannte (aber nicht beachtete!) Channel-Modes sind
1071 bisher a, m, n, p, q, s und t. Diese Modes werden von Usern ange-
1072 nommen, von anderen Servern werden auch unbekannte Modes uebernommen.
1073 - Nach dem Connect eines Users werden LUSERS-Informationen angezeigt.
1075 ngIRCd 0.1.0, 29.01.2002
1077 - Channels implementiert, bisher jedoch noch ohne Channel-Modes, d.h.
1078 es gibt keine Channel-Ops, kein Topic, kein "topic lock" etc. pp.
1079 Chatten in Channels ist aber natuerlich moeglich ;-)
1080 Dadurch zum Teil groessere Aenderungen an bisherigen Funktionen.
1081 - neue Befehle fuer Channles: JOIN, PART und NJOIN.
1082 - FAQ.txt in doc/ begonnen.
1084 ngIRCd 0.0.3, 16.01.2002
1086 - Server-Links vollstaendig implementiert: der ngIRCd kann nun auch
1087 "Sub-Server" haben, also sowohl als Leaf-Node als auch Hub in einem
1088 IRC-Netzwerk arbeiten.
1089 - WHOIS wird nun immer an den "Original-Server" weitergeleitet.
1090 - Parser handhabt Leerzeichen zw. Parametern nun etwas "lockerer".
1091 - Kommandozeilen-Parser: Debug- und No-Daemon-Modus, Hilfe.
1092 - ngIRCd wandelt sich nun in einen Daemon (Hintergrundprozess) um.
1093 - neue Befehle: LUSERS, LINKS.
1095 ngIRCd 0.0.2, 06.01.2002
1097 - neuer Aufbau der Konfigurationsdatei,
1098 - mehrere IRC-Operatoren koennen konfiguriert werden,
1099 - Server-Links teilweise implementiert. Bisher kann der ngIRCd jedoch
1100 nur "leafed server" sein, d.h. keine "Client-Server" haben.
1102 ngIRCd 0.0.1, 31.12.2001
1104 - erste oeffentliche Version von ngIRCd als "public preview" :-)