2 ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
3 http://ngircd.barton.de/
5 (c)2001-2011 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 16
17 - Changes to the "MotdFile" specified in ngircd.conf now require a ngircd
18 configuration reload to take effect (HUP signal, REHASH command).
20 Differences to version 0.9.x
22 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
23 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
24 --with-rendezvous -> --with-zeroconf
26 Differences to version 0.8.x
28 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
29 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
30 are cut at an other position now.
32 Differences to version 0.6.x
34 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
35 --disable-syslog -> --without-syslog
36 --disable-zlib -> --without-zlib
37 Please call "./configure --help" to review the full list of options!
39 Differences to version 0.5.x
41 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
42 passwords: therefore the variable "Password" in [Server]-sections has been
43 replaced by "MyPassword" and "PeerPassword".
45 - New configuration variables, section [Global]: MaxConnections, MaxJoins
46 (see example configuration file "doc/sample-ngircd.conf"!).
49 II. Standard Installation
50 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
52 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
53 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
54 automake ("configure") should be no problem.
56 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
57 files (using a distribution archive or GIT) is as following:
59 1) ./autogen.sh [only necessary when using GIT]
64 (Please see details below!)
66 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
67 location, /usr/local/sbin/.
69 The next step is to configure and afterwards starting the daemon. Please
70 have a look at the ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5) manual pages for details
71 and all possible options.
73 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
74 is /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf), a sample configuration file containing all
75 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
76 doc/ directory: sample-ngircd.conf.
81 The first step, autogen.sh, is only necessary if the configure-script isn't
82 already generated. This never happens in official ("stable") releases in
83 tar.gz-archives, but when using GIT.
85 This step is therefore only interesting for developers.
87 autogen.sh produces the Makefile.in's, which are necessary for the configure
88 script itself, and some more files for make. To run autogen.sh you'll need
89 GNU autoconf and GNU automake (use recent versions! autoconf 2.53 and
90 automake 1.6.1 are known to work).
92 Again: "end users" do not need this step!
97 The configure-script is used to detect local system dependencies.
99 In the perfect case, configure should recognise all needed libraries, header
100 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, "./configure --help" shows all
103 In addition, you can pass some command line options to "configure" to enable
104 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
105 "./configure --help", too.
107 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
108 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
109 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
110 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's /var/empty).
115 The make command uses the Makefiles produced by configure and compiles the
121 Use "make install" to install the server and a sample configuration file on
122 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
123 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
126 This files will be installed by default:
128 - /usr/local/sbin/ngircd: executable server
129 - /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf: sample configuration (if not already present)
130 - /usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/: documentation
133 III. Additional features
134 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
136 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
137 options to the "configure" script. Most options can handle a <path> argument
138 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
139 the given paths ("<path>/lib/...", "<path>/include/...") in addition to the
142 * Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
143 --with-syslog[=<path>] / --without-syslog
145 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
146 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
148 * ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
149 --with-zlib[=<path>] / --without-zlib
151 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
152 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
154 * IO Backend (autodetected by default):
155 --with-select[=<path>] / --without-select
156 --with-poll[=<path>] / --without-poll
157 --with-devpoll[=<path>] / --without-devpoll
158 --with-epoll[=<path>] / --without-epoll
159 --with-kqueue[=<path>] / --without-kqueue
161 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" select() and poll()
162 API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems, or the
163 more efficient and flexible epoll() (Linux >=2.6), kqueue() (BSD) and
165 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use "--without-xxx"
166 to disable a more enhanced API.
167 When using the epoll() API, support for select() is compiled in as well by
168 default to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6), too.
171 --with-ident[=<path>]
173 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
174 required for this option.
177 --with-zeroconf[=<path>]
179 Compile ngIRCd with support for ZeroConf multicast DNS service registration.
180 Either the Apple ZeroConf implementation (e. g. Mac OS X) or the Howl
181 library is required. Which one is available is autodetected.
184 --with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]
186 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
187 to the daemon, for example by using "/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}".
188 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
193 Enable support for PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules library.
194 See doc/PAM.txt for details.
197 --with-openssl[=<path>]
198 --with-gnutls[=<path>]
200 Enable support for SSL/TLS using OpenSSL or gnutls libraries.
201 See doc/SSL.txt for details.
206 Adds support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
209 IV. Useful make-targets
210 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
212 The Makefile produced by the configure-script contains always these useful
215 - clean: delete every product from the compiler/linker
218 - distclean: the above plus erase all generated Makefiles
219 next step: -> ./configure
221 - maintainer-clean: erase all automatic generated files
222 next step: -> ./autogen.sh
225 V. Sample configuration file ngircd.conf
226 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with "#" OR
229 ";" -- this is only for the better understanding of the file.
231 The file is separated in four blocks: [Global], [Operator], [Server], and
234 In the [Global] section, there is the main configuration like the server
235 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. IRC operators
236 of this server are defined in [Operator] blocks. [Server] is the section
237 where server links are configured. And [Channel] blocks are used to
238 configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
240 The meaning of the variables in the configuration file is explained in the
241 "doc/sample-ngircd.conf", which is used as sample configuration file in
242 /usr/local/etc after running "make install" (if you don't already have one)
243 and in the "ngircd.conf" manual page.
246 VI. Command line options
247 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
249 These parameters could be passed to the ngIRCd:
252 The daemon uses the file <file> as configuration file rather than
253 the standard configuration /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf.
256 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
259 Server-links won't be automatically established.
262 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
263 by the server. Then exits.
265 Use "--help" to see a short help text describing all available parameters
266 the server understands, with "--version" the ngIRCd shows its version
267 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.