2 ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
3 http://ngircd.barton.de/
5 (c)2001-2015 Alexander Barton and Contributors.
6 ngIRCd is free software and published under the
7 terms of the GNU General Public License.
12 I. Upgrade Information
13 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
24 To enable connections of clients still requiring the weak SSLv3 protocol,
25 the "CipherList" must be set to its old value (not recommended!), which
26 was "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) and "SECURE128" (GnuTLS), see below.
28 Differences to version 20.x
30 - Starting with ngIRCd 21, the ciphers used by SSL are configurable and
31 default to "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) or "SECURE128" (GnuTLS).
32 Previous version were using the OpenSSL or GnuTLS defaults, "DEFAULT"
33 and "NORMAL" respectively.
35 - When adding GLINE's or KLINE's to ngIRCd 21 (or newer), all clients matching
36 the new mask will be KILL'ed. This was not the case with earlier versions
37 that only added the mask but didn't kill already connected users.
39 Differences to version 19.x
41 - Starting with ngIRCd 20, users can "cloak" their hostname only when the
42 configuration variable "CloakHostModeX" (introduced in 19.2) is set.
43 Otherwise, only IRC operators, other servers, and services are allowed to
44 set mode +x. This prevents regular users from changing their hostmask to
45 the name of the IRC server itself, which confused quite a few people ;-)
47 Differences to version 17
49 - Support for ZeroConf/Bonjour/Rendezvous service registration has been
50 removed. The configuration option "NoZeroconf" is no longer available.
52 - The structure of ngircd.conf has been cleaned up and three new configuration
53 sections have been introduced: [Limits], [Options], and [SSL].
54 Lots of configuration variables stored in the [Global] section are now
55 deprecated there and should be stored in one of these new sections (but
56 still work in [Global]):
57 "AllowRemoteOper" -> [Options]
58 "ChrootDir" -> [Options]
59 "ConnectIPv4" -> [Options]
60 "ConnectIPv6" -> [Options]
61 "ConnectRetry" -> [Limits]
62 "MaxConnections" -> [Limits]
63 "MaxConnectionsIP" -> [Limits]
64 "MaxJoins" -> [Limits]
65 "MaxNickLength" -> [Limits]
66 "NoDNS" -> [Options], and renamed to "DNS"
67 "NoIdent" -> [Options], and renamed to "Ident"
68 "NoPAM" -> [Options], and renamed to "PAM"
69 "OperCanUseMode" -> [Options]
70 "OperServerMode" -> [Options]
71 "PingTimeout" -> [Limits]
72 "PongTimeout" -> [Limits]
73 "PredefChannelsOnly" -> [Options]
74 "SSLCertFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "CertFile"
75 "SSLDHFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "DHFile"
76 "SSLKeyFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "KeyFile"
77 "SSLKeyFilePassword" -> [SSL], and renamed to "KeyFilePassword"
78 "SSLPorts" -> [SSL], and renamed to "Ports"
79 "SyslogFacility" -> [Options]
80 "WebircPassword" -> [Options]
81 You should adjust your ngircd.conf and run "ngircd --configtest" to make
82 sure that your settings are correct and up to date!
84 Differences to version 16
86 - Changes to the "MotdFile" specified in ngircd.conf now require a ngircd
87 configuration reload to take effect (HUP signal, REHASH command).
89 Differences to version 0.9.x
91 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
92 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
93 --with-rendezvous -> --with-zeroconf
95 Differences to version 0.8.x
97 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
98 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
99 are cut at an other position now.
101 Differences to version 0.6.x
103 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
104 --disable-syslog -> --without-syslog
105 --disable-zlib -> --without-zlib
106 Please call "./configure --help" to review the full list of options!
108 Differences to version 0.5.x
110 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
111 passwords: therefore the variable "Password" in [Server]-sections has been
112 replaced by "MyPassword" and "PeerPassword".
114 - New configuration variables, section [Global]: MaxConnections, MaxJoins
115 (see example configuration file "doc/sample-ngircd.conf"!).
118 II. Standard Installation
119 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
121 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
122 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
123 automake ("configure") should be no problem.
125 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
126 files (using a distribution archive or GIT) is as following:
128 0) Satisfy prerequisites
129 1) ./autogen.sh [only necessary when using GIT]
134 (Please see details below!)
136 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
137 location, /usr/local/sbin/.
139 The next step is to configure and afterwards starting the daemon. Please
140 have a look at the ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5) manual pages for details
141 and all possible options -- and don't forget to run "ngircd --configtest"
142 to validate your configuration file!
144 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
145 is /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf), a sample configuration file containing all
146 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
147 doc/ directory: sample-ngircd.conf.
150 0): Satisfy prerequisites
152 When building from source, you'll need some other software to build ngIRCd:
153 for example a working C compiler, make tool, GNU automake and autoconf (only
154 when not using a distribution archive), and a few libraries depending on the
155 features you want to compile in (like IDENT support, SSL, and PAM).
157 If you are using one of the "big" operating systems or Linux distributions,
158 you can use the following commands to install all the required packages to
159 build the sources including all optional features and to run the test suite:
161 * RedHat / Fedora based distributions:
164 autoconf automake expect gcc glibc-devel gnutls-devel \
165 libident-devel make pam-devel tcp_wrappers-devel telnet zlib-devel
167 * Debian / Ubuntu based distributions:
170 autoconf automake build-essential expect libgnutls-dev \
171 libident-dev libpam-dev libwrap0-dev libz-dev telnet
176 The first step, autogen.sh, is only necessary if the configure-script isn't
177 already generated. This never happens in official ("stable") releases in
178 tar.gz-archives, but when using GIT.
180 This step is therefore only interesting for developers.
182 autogen.sh produces the Makefile.in's, which are necessary for the configure
183 script itself, and some more files for make. To run autogen.sh you'll need
184 GNU autoconf and GNU automake: at least autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10 are
185 requird, newer is better. But don't use automake 1.12 or newer for creating
186 distribution archives: it will work but lack "de-ANSI-fication" support in the
187 generated Makefile's! Stick with automake 1.11.x for this purpose ...
188 So automake 1.11.x and autoconf 2.67+ is recommended.
190 Again: "end users" do not need this step and neither need GNU autoconf nor GNU
196 The configure-script is used to detect local system dependencies.
198 In the perfect case, configure should recognize all needed libraries, header
199 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, "./configure --help" shows all
202 In addition, you can pass some command line options to "configure" to enable
203 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
204 "./configure --help", too.
206 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
207 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
208 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
209 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's /var/empty).
214 The make command uses the Makefiles produced by configure and compiles the
220 Use "make install" to install the server and a sample configuration file on
221 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
222 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
225 These files and folders will be installed by default:
227 - /usr/local/sbin/ngircd: executable server
228 - /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf: sample configuration (if not already present)
229 - /usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/: documentation
230 - /usr/local/share/man/: manual pages
233 III. Additional features
234 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
236 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
237 options to the "configure" script. Most options can handle a <path> argument
238 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
239 the given paths ("<path>/lib/...", "<path>/include/...") in addition to the
242 * Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
243 --with-syslog[=<path>] / --without-syslog
245 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
246 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
248 * ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
249 --with-zlib[=<path>] / --without-zlib
251 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
252 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
254 * IO Backend (autodetected by default):
255 --with-select[=<path>] / --without-select
256 --with-poll[=<path>] / --without-poll
257 --with-devpoll[=<path>] / --without-devpoll
258 --with-epoll[=<path>] / --without-epoll
259 --with-kqueue[=<path>] / --without-kqueue
261 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" select() and poll()
262 API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems, or the
263 more efficient and flexible epoll() (Linux >=2.6), kqueue() (BSD) and
265 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use "--without-xxx"
266 to disable a more enhanced API.
267 When using the epoll() API, support for select() is compiled in as well by
268 default to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6), too.
271 --with-ident[=<path>]
273 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
274 required for this option.
277 --with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]
279 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
280 to the daemon, for example by using "/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}".
281 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
286 Enable support for PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules library.
287 See doc/PAM.txt for details.
290 --with-openssl[=<path>]
291 --with-gnutls[=<path>]
293 Enable support for SSL/TLS using OpenSSL or gnutls libraries.
294 See doc/SSL.txt for details.
299 Adds support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
302 IV. Useful make-targets
303 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
305 The Makefile produced by the configure-script contains always these useful
308 - clean: delete every product from the compiler/linker
311 - distclean: the above plus erase all generated Makefiles
312 next step: -> ./configure
314 - maintainer-clean: erase all automatic generated files
315 next step: -> ./autogen.sh
318 V. Sample configuration file ngircd.conf
319 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
321 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with "#" OR
322 ";" -- this is only for the better understanding of the file.
324 The file is separated in five blocks: [Global], [Features], [Operator],
325 [Server], and [Channel].
327 In the [Global] section, there is the main configuration like the server
328 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. Options in
329 the [Features] section enable or disable functionality in the daemon.
330 IRC operators of this server are defined in [Operator] blocks, remote
331 servers are configured in [Server] sections, and [Channel] blocks are
332 used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
334 The meaning of the variables in the configuration file is explained in the
335 "doc/sample-ngircd.conf", which is used as sample configuration file in
336 /usr/local/etc after running "make install" (if you don't already have one)
337 and in the ngircd.conf(5) manual page.
340 VI. Command line options
341 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
343 These parameters could be passed to the ngIRCd:
346 The daemon uses the file <file> as configuration file rather than
347 the standard configuration /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf.
350 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
353 Server-links won't be automatically established.
356 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
357 by the server. Then exits.
359 Use "--help" to see a short help text describing all available parameters
360 the server understands, with "--version" the ngIRCd shows its version
361 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.
363 Please see the ngircd(8) manual page for complete details!