2 ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
4 (c)2001-2007 Alexander Barton,
5 alex@barton.de, http://www.barton.de/
7 ngIRCd is free software and published under the
8 terms of the GNU General Public License.
14 I. Upgrade Information
15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17 Differences to version 0.9.x
19 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
20 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
21 --with-rendezvous -> --with-zeroconf
23 Differences to version 0.8.x
25 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
26 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
27 are cut at an other position now.
29 Differences to version 0.6.x
31 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
32 --disable-syslog -> --without-syslog
33 --disable-zlib -> --without-zlib
34 Please call "./configure --help" to review the full list of options!
36 Differences to version 0.5.x
38 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
39 passwords: therefore the variable "Password" in [Server]-sections has been
40 replaced by "MyPassword" and "PeerPassword".
42 - New configuration variables, section [Global]: MaxConnections, MaxJoins
43 (see example configuration file "doc/sample-ngircd.conf"!).
46 II. Standard Installation
47 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
49 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
50 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
51 automake ("configure") should be no problem.
53 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
54 files (using a distribution archive or GIT) is as following:
56 1) ./autogen.sh [only necessary when using GIT]
61 (Please see details below!)
63 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
64 location, /usr/local/sbin/.
66 The next step is to configure and afterwards starting the daemon. Please
67 have a look at the ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5) manual pages for details
68 and all possible options.
70 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
71 is /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf), a sample configuration file containing all
72 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
73 doc/ directory: sample-ngircd.conf.
78 The first step, autogen.sh, is only necessary if the configure-script isn't
79 already generated. This never happens in official ("stable") releases in
80 tar.gz-archives, but when using GIT.
82 This step is therefore only interesting for developers.
84 autogen.sh produces the Makefile.in's, which are necessary for the configure
85 script itself, and some more files for make. To run autogen.sh you'll need
86 GNU autoconf and GNU automake (use recent versions! autoconf 2.53 and
87 automake 1.6.1 are known to work).
89 Again: "end users" do not need this step!
94 The configure-script is used to detect local system dependencies.
96 In the perfect case, configure should recognise all needed libraries, header
97 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, "./configure --help" shows all
100 In addition, you can pass some command line options to "configure" to enable
101 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
102 "./configure --help", too.
104 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
105 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
106 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
107 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's /var/empty).
112 The make command uses the Makefiles produced by configure and compiles the
118 Use "make install" to install the server and a sample configuration file on
119 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
120 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
123 This files will be installed by default:
125 - /usr/local/sbin/ngircd: executable server
126 - /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf: sample configuration (if not already present)
127 - /usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/: documentation
130 III. Additional features
131 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
133 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
134 options to the "configure" script. Most options can handle a <path> argument
135 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
136 the given paths ("<path>/lib/...", "<path>/include/...") in addition to the
139 * Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
140 --with-syslog[=<path>] / --without-syslog
142 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
143 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
145 * ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
146 --with-zlib[=<path>] / --without-zlib
148 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
149 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
151 * IO Backend (autodetected by default):
152 --with-select[=<path>] / --without-select
153 --with-poll[=<path>] / --without-poll
154 --with-devpoll[=<path>] / --without-devpoll
155 --with-epoll[=<path>] / --without-epoll
156 --with-kqueue[=<path>] / --without-kqueue
158 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" select() and poll()
159 API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems, or the
160 more efficient and flexible epoll() (Linux >=2.6), kqueue() (BSD) and
162 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use "--without-xxx"
163 to disable a more enhanced API.
164 When using the epoll() API, support for select() is compiled in as well by
165 default to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6), too.
168 --with-ident[=<path>]
170 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
171 required for this option.
174 --with-zeroconf[=<path>]
176 Compile ngIRCd with support for ZeroConf multicast DNS service registration.
177 Either the Apple ZeroConf implementation (e. g. Mac OS X) or the Howl
178 library is required. Which one is available is autodetected.
181 --with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]
183 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
184 to the daemon, for example by using "/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}".
185 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
188 IV. Useful make-targets
189 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
191 The Makefile produced by the configure-script contains always these useful
194 - clean: delete every product from the compiler/linker
197 - distclean: the above plus erase all generated Makefiles
198 next step: -> ./configure
200 - maintainer-clean: erase all automatic generated files
201 next step: -> ./autogen.sh
204 V. Sample configuration file ngircd.conf
205 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
207 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with "#" OR
208 ";" -- this is only for the better understanding of the file.
210 The file is separated in four blocks: [Global], [Operator], [Server], and
213 In the [Global] section, there is the main configuration like the server
214 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. IRC operators
215 of this server are defined in [Operator] blocks. [Server] is the section
216 where server links are configured. And [Channel] blocks are used to
217 configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
219 The meaning of the variables in the configuration file is explained in the
220 "doc/sample-ngircd.conf", which is used as sample configuration file in
221 /usr/local/etc after running "make install" (if you don't already have one)
222 and in the "ngircd.conf" manual page.
225 VI. Command line options
226 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228 These parameters could be passed to the ngIRCd:
231 The daemon uses the file <file> as configuration file rather than
232 the standard configuration /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf.
235 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
238 Server-links won't be automatically established.
241 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
242 by the server. Then exits.
244 Use "--help" to see a short help text describing all available parameters
245 the server understands, with "--version" the ngIRCd shows its version
246 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.