1 # [ngIRCd](https://ngircd.barton.de) - Internet Relay Chat Server
3 This document explains how to install ngIRCd, the lightweight Internet Relay
6 The first section lists noteworthy changes to earlier releases; you definitely
7 should read this when upgrading your setup! But you can skip over this section
8 when you do a fresh installation.
10 All the subsequent sections describe the steps required to install and
13 ## Upgrade Information
15 Differences to version 22.x
17 - The *NoticeAuth* `ngircd.conf` configuration variable has been renamed to
18 *NoticeBeforeRegistration*. The old *NoticeAuth* variable still works but
21 - The default value of the SSL *CipherList* variable has been changed to
22 "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH:!SSLv3" (OpenSSL) and "SECURE128:-VERS-SSL3.0"
23 (GnuTLS) to disable the old SSLv3 protocol by default.
25 To enable connections of clients still requiring the weak SSLv3 protocol,
26 the *CipherList* must be set to its old value (not recommended!), which
27 was "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) and "SECURE128" (GnuTLS), see below.
29 Differences to version 20.x
31 - Starting with ngIRCd 21, the ciphers used by SSL are configurable and
32 default to "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) or "SECURE128" (GnuTLS).
33 Previous version were using the OpenSSL or GnuTLS defaults, "DEFAULT"
34 and "NORMAL" respectively.
36 - When adding GLINE's or KLINE's to ngIRCd 21 (or newer), all clients matching
37 the new mask will be KILL'ed. This was not the case with earlier versions
38 that only added the mask but didn't kill already connected users.
40 - The *PredefChannelsOnly* configuration variable has been superseded by the
41 new *AllowedChannelTypes* variable. It is still supported and translated to
42 the appropriate *AllowedChannelTypes* setting but is deprecated now.
44 Differences to version 19.x
46 - Starting with ngIRCd 20, users can "cloak" their hostname only when the
47 configuration variable *CloakHostModeX* (introduced in 19.2) is set.
48 Otherwise, only IRC operators, other servers, and services are allowed to
49 set mode +x. This prevents regular users from changing their hostmask to
50 the name of the IRC server itself, which confused quite a few people ;-)
52 Differences to version 17.x
54 - Support for ZeroConf/Bonjour/Rendezvous service registration has been
55 removed. The configuration option *NoZeroconf* is no longer available.
57 - The structure of `ngircd.conf` has been cleaned up and three new configuration
58 sections have been introduced: *[Limits]*, *[Options]*, and *[SSL]*.
60 Lots of configuration variables stored in the *[Global]* section are now
61 deprecated there and should be stored in one of these new sections (but
62 still work in *[Global]*):
64 - *AllowRemoteOper* -> [Options]
65 - *ChrootDir* -> [Options]
66 - *ConnectIPv4* -> [Options]
67 - *ConnectIPv6* -> [Options]
68 - *ConnectRetry* -> [Limits]
69 - *MaxConnections* -> [Limits]
70 - *MaxConnectionsIP* -> [Limits]
71 - *MaxJoins* -> [Limits]
72 - *MaxNickLength* -> [Limits]
73 - *NoDNS* -> [Options], and renamed to *DNS*
74 - *NoIdent* -> [Options], and renamed to *Ident*
75 - *NoPAM* -> [Options], and renamed to *PAM*
76 - *OperCanUseMode* -> [Options]
77 - *OperServerMode* -> [Options]
78 - *PingTimeout* -> [Limits]
79 - *PongTimeout* -> [Limits]
80 - *PredefChannelsOnly* -> [Options]
81 - *SSLCertFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *CertFile*
82 - *SSLDHFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *DHFile*
83 - *SSLKeyFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *KeyFile*
84 - *SSLKeyFilePassword* -> [SSL], and renamed to *KeyFilePassword*
85 - *SSLPorts* -> [SSL], and renamed to *Ports*
86 - *SyslogFacility* -> [Options]
87 - *WebircPassword* -> [Options]
89 You should adjust your `ngircd.conf` and run `ngircd --configtest` to make
90 sure that your settings are correct and up to date!
92 Differences to version 16.x
94 - Changes to the *MotdFile* specified in `ngircd.conf` now require a ngIRCd
95 configuration reload to take effect (HUP signal, *REHASH* command).
97 Differences to version 0.9.x
99 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
100 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
102 - `--with-rendezvous` -> `--with-zeroconf`
104 Differences to version 0.8.x
106 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
107 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
108 are cut at an other position now.
110 Differences to version 0.6.x
112 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
114 - `--disable-syslog` -> `--without-syslog`
115 - `--disable-zlib` -> `--without-zlib`
117 Please call `./configure --help` to review the full list of options!
119 Differences to version 0.5.x
121 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
122 passwords: therefore the variable *Password* in *[Server]*-sections has been
123 replaced by *MyPassword* and *PeerPassword*.
125 - New configuration variables, section *[Global]*: *MaxConnections*, *MaxJoins*
126 (see example configuration file `doc/sample-ngircd.conf`!).
128 ## Standard Installation
130 *Note*: This sections describes installing ngIRCd *from sources*. If you use
131 packages available for your operating system distribution you should skip over
132 and continue with the *Configuration* section, see below.
134 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
135 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
136 automake ("`configure` script") should be no problem.
138 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
139 files (using a distribution archive or Git) is as following:
141 1) Satisfy prerequisites
142 2) `./autogen.sh` [only necessary when using "raw" sources with Git]
147 (Please see details below!)
149 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
150 location, `/usr/local/sbin/`.
152 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
153 is `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf)`, a sample configuration file containing all
154 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
155 `doc/` directory: `sample-ngircd.conf`.
157 The next step is to configure and afterwards start the daemon. See the section
158 *Configuration* below.
160 ### Satisfy prerequisites
162 When building from source, you'll need some other software to build ngIRCd:
163 for example a working C compiler, make tool, and a few libraries depending on
164 the feature set you want to enable at compile time (like IDENT, SSL, and PAM).
166 And if you aren't using a distribution archive ("tar.gz" file), but cloned the
167 plain source archive, you need a few additional tools to generate the build
168 system itself: GNU automake and autoconf, as well as pkg-config.
170 If you are using one of the "big" operating systems or Linux distributions,
171 you can use the following commands to install all the required packages to
172 build the sources including all optional features and to run the test suite:
174 #### Red Hat / Fedora based distributions
178 autoconf automake expect gcc glibc-devel gnutls-devel \
179 libident-devel make pam-devel pkg-config tcp_wrappers-devel \
183 #### Debian / Ubuntu based distributions
187 autoconf automake build-essential expect libgnutls28-dev \
188 libident-dev libpam-dev pkg-config libwrap0-dev libz-dev telnet
193 The first step, to run `./autogen.sh`, is *only* necessary if the `configure`
194 script itself isn't already generated and available. This never happens in
195 official ("stable") releases in "tar.gz" archives, but when cloning the source
196 code repository using Git.
198 **This step is therefore only interesting for developers!**
200 The `autogen.sh` script produces the `Makefile.in`'s, which are necessary for
201 the configure script itself, and some more files for `make(1)`.
203 To run `autogen.sh` you'll need GNU autoconf, GNU automake and pkg-config: at
204 least autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10 are required, newer is better. But don't
205 use automake 1.12 or newer for creating distribution archives: it will work
206 but lack "de-ANSI-fication" support in the generated Makefile's! Stick with
207 automake 1.11.x for this purpose ...
209 So *automake 1.11.x* and *autoconf 2.67+* is recommended.
211 Again: "end users" do not need this step and neither need GNU autoconf nor GNU
216 The `configure` script is used to detect local system dependencies.
218 In the perfect case, `configure` should recognize all needed libraries, header
219 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, `./configure --help` shows all
222 In addition, you can pass some command line options to `configure` to enable
223 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
224 `./configure --help`, too.
226 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
227 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
230 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
233 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's `/var/empty`).
237 The `make(1)` command uses the `Makefile`'s produced by `configure` and
238 compiles the ngIRCd daemon.
242 Use `make install` to install the server and a sample configuration file on
243 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
244 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
247 These files and folders will be installed by default:
249 - `/usr/local/sbin/ngircd`: executable server
250 - `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf`: sample configuration (if not already present)
251 - `/usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/`: documentation
252 - `/usr/local/share/man/`: manual pages
254 ### Additional features
256 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
257 options to the `configure` script. Most options can handle a `<path>` argument
258 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
259 the given paths (`<path>/lib/...`, `<path>/include/...`) in addition to the
262 - Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
264 `--with-syslog[=<path>]` / `--without-syslog`
266 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
267 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
269 - ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
271 `--with-zlib[=<path>]` / `--without-zlib`
273 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
274 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
276 - IO Backend (autodetected by default):
278 - `--with-select[=<path>]` / `--without-select`
279 - `--with-poll[=<path>]` / `--without-poll`
280 - `--with-devpoll[=<path>]` / `--without-devpoll`
281 - `--with-epoll[=<path>]` / `--without-epoll`
282 - `--with-kqueue[=<path>]` / `--without-kqueue`
284 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" `select(2)` and
285 `poll(2)` API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems,
286 or the more efficient and flexible `epoll(7)` (Linux >=2.6), `kqueue(2)`
287 (BSD) and `/dev/poll` APIs.
289 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use `--without-xxx`
290 to disable a more enhanced API.
292 When using the `epoll(7)` API, support for `select(2)` is compiled in as
293 well by default, to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6),
298 `--with-ident[=<path>]`
300 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
301 required for this option.
305 `--with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]`
307 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
308 to the daemon, for example by using `/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}`.
309 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
313 `--with-pam[=<path>]`
315 Enable support for PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules library.
316 See `doc/PAM.txt` for details.
320 - `--with-openssl[=<path>]`
321 - `--with-gnutls[=<path>]`
323 Enable support for SSL/TLS using OpenSSL or GnuTLS libraries.
324 See `doc/SSL.txt` for details.
330 Adds support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
334 Please have a look at the `ngircd(8)` and `ngircd.conf(5)` manual pages for
335 details and all possible command line and configuration options -- **and don't
336 forget to run `ngircd --configtest` to validate your configuration file!**
338 After installing ngIRCd, a sample configuration file will be set up (if it
339 does not exist already). By default, when installing from sources, the file is
340 named `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf` (other common names, especially for
341 distribution packages, are `/etc/ngircd.conf` or `/etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf`).
343 You can find the template of the sample configuration file in the `doc/`
344 directory as `sample-ngircd.conf` and
345 [online](https://ngircd.barton.de/doc/sample-ngircd.conf) on the homepage. It
346 contains all available options.
348 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with `#` *or*
349 `;` -- this is only for the better understanding of the file, both comment
352 The file is separated in five blocks: *[Global]*, *[Features]*, *[Operator]*,
353 *[Server]*, and *[Channel]*.
355 In the *[Global]* section, there is the main configuration like the server
356 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. Options in
357 the *[Features]* section enable or disable functionality in the daemon.
358 IRC operators of this server are defined in *[Operator]* blocks, remote
359 servers are configured in *[Server]* sections, and *[Channel]* blocks are
360 used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
362 ### Manual Pages Online
364 - Daemon: [ngircd.8](https://manpages.debian.org/ngircd.8)
365 - Configutation file: [ngircd.conf.5](https://manpages.debian.org/ngircd.conf.5)
367 ## Command line options
369 ngIRCd supports the following command line options:
371 - `-f`, `--config <file>`
373 The daemon uses the file `<file>` as configuration file rather than
374 the standard configuration `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf`.
378 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
382 Server-links won't be automatically established.
384 - `-t`, `--configtest`
386 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
387 by the server. Then exits.
389 Use `--help` to see a short help text describing all available parameters
390 the server understands, with `--version` the ngIRCd shows its version
391 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.
393 Please see the `ngircd(8)` manual page for more details!