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 25
17 - Setting modes for predefined channels in *[Channel]* sections has been
18 enhanced: now you can set *all* modes, like in IRC "MODE" commands, and have
19 this setting multiple times per *[Channel]* block. Modifying lists (ban list,
20 invite list, exception list) is supported, too.
22 Both the *Key* and *MaxUsers* settings are now deprecated and should be
23 replaced by `Modes = +l <limit>` and `Modes = +k <key>` respectively.
25 Differences to version 22.x
27 - The *NoticeAuth* `ngircd.conf` configuration variable has been renamed to
28 *NoticeBeforeRegistration*. The old *NoticeAuth* variable still works but
31 - The default value of the SSL *CipherList* variable has been changed to
32 "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH:!SSLv3" (OpenSSL) and "SECURE128:-VERS-SSL3.0"
33 (GnuTLS) to disable the old SSLv3 protocol by default.
35 To enable connections of clients still requiring the weak SSLv3 protocol,
36 the *CipherList* must be set to its old value (not recommended!), which
37 was "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) and "SECURE128" (GnuTLS), see below.
39 Differences to version 20.x
41 - Starting with ngIRCd 21, the ciphers used by SSL are configurable and
42 default to "HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH" (OpenSSL) or "SECURE128" (GnuTLS).
43 Previous version were using the OpenSSL or GnuTLS defaults, "DEFAULT"
44 and "NORMAL" respectively.
46 - When adding GLINE's or KLINE's to ngIRCd 21 (or newer), all clients matching
47 the new mask will be KILL'ed. This was not the case with earlier versions
48 that only added the mask but didn't kill already connected users.
50 - The *PredefChannelsOnly* configuration variable has been superseded by the
51 new *AllowedChannelTypes* variable. It is still supported and translated to
52 the appropriate *AllowedChannelTypes* setting but is deprecated now.
54 Differences to version 19.x
56 - Starting with ngIRCd 20, users can "cloak" their hostname only when the
57 configuration variable *CloakHostModeX* (introduced in 19.2) is set.
58 Otherwise, only IRC operators, other servers, and services are allowed to
59 set mode +x. This prevents regular users from changing their hostmask to
60 the name of the IRC server itself, which confused quite a few people ;-)
62 Differences to version 17.x
64 - Support for ZeroConf/Bonjour/Rendezvous service registration has been
65 removed. The configuration option *NoZeroconf* is no longer available.
67 - The structure of `ngircd.conf` has been cleaned up and three new configuration
68 sections have been introduced: *[Limits]*, *[Options]*, and *[SSL]*.
70 Lots of configuration variables stored in the *[Global]* section are now
71 deprecated there and should be stored in one of these new sections (but
72 still work in *[Global]*):
74 - *AllowRemoteOper* -> [Options]
75 - *ChrootDir* -> [Options]
76 - *ConnectIPv4* -> [Options]
77 - *ConnectIPv6* -> [Options]
78 - *ConnectRetry* -> [Limits]
79 - *MaxConnections* -> [Limits]
80 - *MaxConnectionsIP* -> [Limits]
81 - *MaxJoins* -> [Limits]
82 - *MaxNickLength* -> [Limits]
83 - *NoDNS* -> [Options], and renamed to *DNS*
84 - *NoIdent* -> [Options], and renamed to *Ident*
85 - *NoPAM* -> [Options], and renamed to *PAM*
86 - *OperCanUseMode* -> [Options]
87 - *OperServerMode* -> [Options]
88 - *PingTimeout* -> [Limits]
89 - *PongTimeout* -> [Limits]
90 - *PredefChannelsOnly* -> [Options]
91 - *SSLCertFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *CertFile*
92 - *SSLDHFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *DHFile*
93 - *SSLKeyFile* -> [SSL], and renamed to *KeyFile*
94 - *SSLKeyFilePassword* -> [SSL], and renamed to *KeyFilePassword*
95 - *SSLPorts* -> [SSL], and renamed to *Ports*
96 - *SyslogFacility* -> [Options]
97 - *WebircPassword* -> [Options]
99 You should adjust your `ngircd.conf` and run `ngircd --configtest` to make
100 sure that your settings are correct and up to date!
102 Differences to version 16.x
104 - Changes to the *MotdFile* specified in `ngircd.conf` now require a ngIRCd
105 configuration reload to take effect (HUP signal, *REHASH* command).
107 Differences to version 0.9.x
109 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
110 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
112 - `--with-rendezvous` -> `--with-zeroconf`
114 Differences to version 0.8.x
116 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
117 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
118 are cut at an other position now.
120 Differences to version 0.6.x
122 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
124 - `--disable-syslog` -> `--without-syslog`
125 - `--disable-zlib` -> `--without-zlib`
127 Please call `./configure --help` to review the full list of options!
129 Differences to version 0.5.x
131 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
132 passwords: therefore the variable *Password* in *[Server]*-sections has been
133 replaced by *MyPassword* and *PeerPassword*.
135 - New configuration variables, section *[Global]*: *MaxConnections*, *MaxJoins*
136 (see example configuration file `doc/sample-ngircd.conf`!).
138 ## Standard Installation
140 *Note*: This sections describes installing ngIRCd *from sources*. If you use
141 packages available for your operating system distribution you should skip over
142 and continue with the *Configuration* section, see below.
144 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
145 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
146 automake ("`configure` script") should be no problem.
148 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
149 files (using a distribution archive or Git) is as following:
151 1) Satisfy prerequisites
152 2) `./autogen.sh` [only necessary when using "raw" sources with Git]
157 (Please see details below!)
159 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
160 location, `/usr/local/sbin/`.
162 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
163 is `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf)`, a sample configuration file containing all
164 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
165 `doc/` directory: `sample-ngircd.conf`.
167 The next step is to configure and afterwards start the daemon. See the section
168 *Configuration* below.
170 ### Satisfy prerequisites
172 When building from source, you'll need some other software to build ngIRCd:
173 for example a working C compiler, make tool, and a few libraries depending on
174 the feature set you want to enable at compile time (like IDENT, SSL, and PAM).
176 And if you aren't using a distribution archive ("tar.gz" file), but cloned the
177 plain source archive, you need a few additional tools to generate the build
178 system itself: GNU automake and autoconf, as well as pkg-config.
180 If you are using one of the "big" operating systems or Linux distributions,
181 you can use the following commands to install all the required packages to
182 build the sources including all optional features and to run the test suite:
184 #### Red Hat / Fedora based distributions
188 autoconf automake expect gcc glibc-devel gnutls-devel \
189 libident-devel make pam-devel pkg-config tcp_wrappers-devel \
193 #### Debian / Ubuntu based distributions
197 autoconf automake build-essential expect libgnutls28-dev \
198 libident-dev libpam-dev pkg-config libwrap0-dev libz-dev telnet
203 The first step, to run `./autogen.sh`, is *only* necessary if the `configure`
204 script itself isn't already generated and available. This never happens in
205 official ("stable") releases in "tar.gz" archives, but when cloning the source
206 code repository using Git.
208 **This step is therefore only interesting for developers!**
210 The `autogen.sh` script produces the `Makefile.in`'s, which are necessary for
211 the configure script itself, and some more files for `make(1)`.
213 To run `autogen.sh` you'll need GNU autoconf, GNU automake and pkg-config: at
214 least autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10 are required, newer is better. But don't
215 use automake 1.12 or newer for creating distribution archives: it will work
216 but lack "de-ANSI-fication" support in the generated Makefile's! Stick with
217 automake 1.11.x for this purpose ...
219 So *automake 1.11.x* and *autoconf 2.67+* is recommended.
221 Again: "end users" do not need this step and neither need GNU autoconf nor GNU
226 The `configure` script is used to detect local system dependencies.
228 In the perfect case, `configure` should recognize all needed libraries, header
229 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, `./configure --help` shows all
232 In addition, you can pass some command line options to `configure` to enable
233 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
234 `./configure --help`, too.
236 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
237 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
240 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
243 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's `/var/empty`).
247 The `make(1)` command uses the `Makefile`'s produced by `configure` and
248 compiles the ngIRCd daemon.
252 Use `make install` to install the server and a sample configuration file on
253 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
254 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
257 These files and folders will be installed by default:
259 - `/usr/local/sbin/ngircd`: executable server
260 - `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf`: sample configuration (if not already present)
261 - `/usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/`: documentation
262 - `/usr/local/share/man/`: manual pages
264 ### Additional features
266 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
267 options to the `configure` script. Most options can handle a `<path>` argument
268 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
269 the given paths (`<path>/lib/...`, `<path>/include/...`) in addition to the
272 - Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
274 `--with-syslog[=<path>]` / `--without-syslog`
276 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
277 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
279 - ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
281 `--with-zlib[=<path>]` / `--without-zlib`
283 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
284 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
286 - IO Backend (autodetected by default):
288 - `--with-select[=<path>]` / `--without-select`
289 - `--with-poll[=<path>]` / `--without-poll`
290 - `--with-devpoll[=<path>]` / `--without-devpoll`
291 - `--with-epoll[=<path>]` / `--without-epoll`
292 - `--with-kqueue[=<path>]` / `--without-kqueue`
294 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" `select(2)` and
295 `poll(2)` API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems,
296 or the more efficient and flexible `epoll(7)` (Linux >=2.6), `kqueue(2)`
297 (BSD) and `/dev/poll` APIs.
299 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use `--without-xxx`
300 to disable a more enhanced API.
302 When using the `epoll(7)` API, support for `select(2)` is compiled in as
303 well by default, to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6),
308 `--with-ident[=<path>]`
310 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
311 required for this option.
315 `--with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]`
317 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
318 to the daemon, for example by using `/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}`.
319 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
323 `--with-pam[=<path>]`
325 Enable support for PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules library.
326 See `doc/PAM.txt` for details.
330 - `--with-openssl[=<path>]`
331 - `--with-gnutls[=<path>]`
333 Enable support for SSL/TLS using OpenSSL or GnuTLS libraries.
334 See `doc/SSL.txt` for details.
340 Adds support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
344 Please have a look at the `ngircd(8)` and `ngircd.conf(5)` manual pages for
345 details and all possible command line and configuration options -- **and don't
346 forget to run `ngircd --configtest` to validate your configuration file!**
348 After installing ngIRCd, a sample configuration file will be set up (if it
349 does not exist already). By default, when installing from sources, the file is
350 named `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf` (other common names, especially for
351 distribution packages, are `/etc/ngircd.conf` or `/etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf`).
353 You can find the template of the sample configuration file in the `doc/`
354 directory as `sample-ngircd.conf` and
355 [online](https://ngircd.barton.de/doc/sample-ngircd.conf) on the homepage. It
356 contains all available options.
358 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with `#` *or*
359 `;` -- this is only for the better understanding of the file, both comment
362 The file is separated in five blocks: *[Global]*, *[Features]*, *[Operator]*,
363 *[Server]*, and *[Channel]*.
365 In the *[Global]* section, there is the main configuration like the server
366 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. Options in
367 the *[Features]* section enable or disable functionality in the daemon.
368 IRC operators of this server are defined in *[Operator]* blocks, remote
369 servers are configured in *[Server]* sections, and *[Channel]* blocks are
370 used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
372 ### Manual Pages Online
374 - Daemon: [ngircd.8](https://manpages.debian.org/ngircd.8)
375 - Configutation file: [ngircd.conf.5](https://manpages.debian.org/ngircd.conf.5)
377 ## Command line options
379 ngIRCd supports the following command line options:
381 - `-f`, `--config <file>`
383 The daemon uses the file `<file>` as configuration file rather than
384 the standard configuration `/usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf`.
388 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
392 Server-links won't be automatically established.
394 - `-t`, `--configtest`
396 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
397 by the server. Then exits.
399 Use `--help` to see a short help text describing all available parameters
400 the server understands, with `--version` the ngIRCd shows its version
401 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.
403 Please see the `ngircd(8)` manual page for more details!