2 ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
3 http://ngircd.barton.de/
5 (c)2001-2013 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 previous version
17 - Starting with ngIRCd 21, the ciphers used by SSL are configurable and
18 default to HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH (OpenSSL) or SECURE128 (GnuTLS).
19 Previous version were using the OpenSSL or GnuTLS defaults, DEFAULT
20 and NORMAL respectively.
22 Differences to version 19.x
24 - Starting with ngIRCd 20, users can "cloak" their hostname only when the
25 configuration variable "CloakHostModeX" (introduced in 19.2) is set.
26 Otherwise, only IRC operators, other servers, and services are allowed to
27 set mode +x. This prevents regular users from changing their hostmask to
28 the name of the IRC server itself, which confused quite a few people ;-)
30 Differences to version 17
32 - Support for ZeroConf/Bonjour/Rendezvous service registration has been
33 removed. The configuration option "NoZeroconf" is no longer available.
35 - The structure of ngircd.conf has been cleaned up and three new configuration
36 sections have been introduced: [Limits], [Options], and [SSL].
37 Lots of configuration variables stored in the [Global] section are now
38 deprecated there and should be stored in one of these new sections (but
39 still work in [Global]):
40 "AllowRemoteOper" -> [Options]
41 "ChrootDir" -> [Options]
42 "ConnectIPv4" -> [Options]
43 "ConnectIPv6" -> [Options]
44 "ConnectRetry" -> [Limits]
45 "MaxConnections" -> [Limits]
46 "MaxConnectionsIP" -> [Limits]
47 "MaxJoins" -> [Limits]
48 "MaxNickLength" -> [Limits]
49 "NoDNS" -> [Options], and renamed to "DNS"
50 "NoIdent" -> [Options], and renamed to "Ident"
51 "NoPAM" -> [Options], and renamed to "PAM"
52 "OperCanUseMode" -> [Options]
53 "OperServerMode" -> [Options]
54 "PingTimeout" -> [Limits]
55 "PongTimeout" -> [Limits]
56 "PredefChannelsOnly" -> [Options]
57 "SSLCertFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "CertFile"
58 "SSLDHFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "DHFile"
59 "SSLKeyFile" -> [SSL], and renamed to "KeyFile"
60 "SSLKeyFilePassword" -> [SSL], and renamed to "KeyFilePassword"
61 "SSLPorts" -> [SSL], and renamed to "Ports"
62 "SyslogFacility" -> [Options]
63 "WebircPassword" -> [Options]
64 You should adjust your ngircd.conf and run "ngircd --configtest" to make
65 sure that your settings are correct and up to date!
67 Differences to version 16
69 - Changes to the "MotdFile" specified in ngircd.conf now require a ngircd
70 configuration reload to take effect (HUP signal, REHASH command).
72 Differences to version 0.9.x
74 - The option of the configure script to enable support for Zeroconf/Bonjour/
75 Rendezvous/WhateverItIsNamedToday has been renamed:
76 --with-rendezvous -> --with-zeroconf
78 Differences to version 0.8.x
80 - The maximum length of passwords has been raised to 20 characters (instead
81 of 8 characters). If your passwords are longer than 8 characters then they
82 are cut at an other position now.
84 Differences to version 0.6.x
86 - Some options of the configure script have been renamed:
87 --disable-syslog -> --without-syslog
88 --disable-zlib -> --without-zlib
89 Please call "./configure --help" to review the full list of options!
91 Differences to version 0.5.x
93 - Starting with version 0.6.0, other servers are identified using asynchronous
94 passwords: therefore the variable "Password" in [Server]-sections has been
95 replaced by "MyPassword" and "PeerPassword".
97 - New configuration variables, section [Global]: MaxConnections, MaxJoins
98 (see example configuration file "doc/sample-ngircd.conf"!).
101 II. Standard Installation
102 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
104 ngIRCd is developed for UNIX-based systems, which means that the installation
105 on modern UNIX-like systems that are supported by GNU autoconf and GNU
106 automake ("configure") should be no problem.
108 The normal installation procedure after getting (and expanding) the source
109 files (using a distribution archive or GIT) is as following:
111 0) Satisfy prerequisites
112 1) ./autogen.sh [only necessary when using GIT]
117 (Please see details below!)
119 Now the newly compiled executable "ngircd" is installed in its standard
120 location, /usr/local/sbin/.
122 The next step is to configure and afterwards starting the daemon. Please
123 have a look at the ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5) manual pages for details
124 and all possible options -- and don't forget to run "ngircd --configtest"
125 to validate your configuration file!
127 If no previous version of the configuration file exists (the standard name
128 is /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf), a sample configuration file containing all
129 possible options will be installed there. You'll find its template in the
130 doc/ directory: sample-ngircd.conf.
133 0): Satisfy prerequisites
135 When building from source, you'll need some other software to build ngIRCd:
136 for example a working C compiler, make tool, GNU automake and autoconf (only
137 when not using a distribution archive), and a few libraries depending on the
138 features you want to compile in (like IDENT support, SSL, and PAM).
140 If you are using one of the "big" operating systems or Linux distributions,
141 you can use the following commands to install all the required packages to
142 build the sources including all optional features and to run the test suite:
144 * RedHat / Fedora based distributions:
147 autoconf automake expect gcc glibc-devel gnutls-devel \
148 libident-devel make pam-devel tcp_wrappers-devel telnet zlib-devel
150 * Debian / Ubuntu based distributions:
153 autoconf automake build-essential expect libgnutls-dev \
154 libident-dev libpam-dev libwrap0-dev libz-dev telnet
159 The first step, autogen.sh, is only necessary if the configure-script isn't
160 already generated. This never happens in official ("stable") releases in
161 tar.gz-archives, but when using GIT.
163 This step is therefore only interesting for developers.
165 autogen.sh produces the Makefile.in's, which are necessary for the configure
166 script itself, and some more files for make. To run autogen.sh you'll need
167 GNU autoconf and GNU automake: at least autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10 are
168 requird, newer is better. But don't use automake 1.12 or newer for creating
169 distribution archives: it will work but lack "de-ANSI-fucation" support in the
170 generated Makefile's! Stick with automake 1.11.x for this purpose ...
171 So automake 1.11.x and autoconf 2.67+ is recommended.
173 Again: "end users" do not need this step and neither need GNU autoconf nor GNU
179 The configure-script is used to detect local system dependencies.
181 In the perfect case, configure should recognize all needed libraries, header
182 files and so on. If this shouldn't work, "./configure --help" shows all
185 In addition, you can pass some command line options to "configure" to enable
186 and/or disable some features of ngIRCd. All these options are shown using
187 "./configure --help", too.
189 Compiling a static binary will avoid you the hassle of feeding a chroot dir
190 (if you want use the chroot feature). Just do something like:
191 CFLAGS=-static ./configure [--your-options ...]
192 Then you can use a void directory as ChrootDir (like OpenSSH's /var/empty).
197 The make command uses the Makefiles produced by configure and compiles the
203 Use "make install" to install the server and a sample configuration file on
204 the local system. Normally, root privileges are necessary to complete this
205 step. If there is already an older configuration file present, it won't be
208 These files and folders will be installed by default:
210 - /usr/local/sbin/ngircd: executable server
211 - /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf: sample configuration (if not already present)
212 - /usr/local/share/doc/ngircd/: documentation
213 - /usr/local/share/man/: manual pages
216 III. Additional features
217 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
219 The following optional features can be compiled into the daemon by passing
220 options to the "configure" script. Most options can handle a <path> argument
221 which will be used to search for the required libraries and header files in
222 the given paths ("<path>/lib/...", "<path>/include/...") in addition to the
225 * Syslog Logging (autodetected by default):
226 --with-syslog[=<path>] / --without-syslog
228 Enable (disable) support for logging to "syslog", which should be
229 available on most modern UNIX-like operating systems by default.
231 * ZLib Compression (autodetected by default):
232 --with-zlib[=<path>] / --without-zlib
234 Enable (disable) support for compressed server-server links.
235 The Z compression library ("libz") is required for this option.
237 * IO Backend (autodetected by default):
238 --with-select[=<path>] / --without-select
239 --with-poll[=<path>] / --without-poll
240 --with-devpoll[=<path>] / --without-devpoll
241 --with-epoll[=<path>] / --without-epoll
242 --with-kqueue[=<path>] / --without-kqueue
244 ngIRCd can use different IO "backends": the "old school" select() and poll()
245 API which should be supported by most UNIX-like operating systems, or the
246 more efficient and flexible epoll() (Linux >=2.6), kqueue() (BSD) and
248 By default the IO backend is autodetected, but you can use "--without-xxx"
249 to disable a more enhanced API.
250 When using the epoll() API, support for select() is compiled in as well by
251 default to enable the binary to run on older Linux kernels (<2.6), too.
254 --with-ident[=<path>]
256 Include support for IDENT ("AUTH") lookups. The "ident" library is
257 required for this option.
260 --with-tcp-wrappers[=<path>]
262 Include support for Wietse Venemas "TCP Wrappers" to limit client access
263 to the daemon, for example by using "/etc/hosts.{allow|deny}".
264 The "libwrap" is required for this option.
269 Enable support for PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules library.
270 See doc/PAM.txt for details.
273 --with-openssl[=<path>]
274 --with-gnutls[=<path>]
276 Enable support for SSL/TLS using OpenSSL or gnutls libraries.
277 See doc/SSL.txt for details.
282 Adds support for version 6 of the Internet Protocol.
285 IV. Useful make-targets
286 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
288 The Makefile produced by the configure-script contains always these useful
291 - clean: delete every product from the compiler/linker
294 - distclean: the above plus erase all generated Makefiles
295 next step: -> ./configure
297 - maintainer-clean: erase all automatic generated files
298 next step: -> ./autogen.sh
301 V. Sample configuration file ngircd.conf
302 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
304 In the sample configuration file, there are comments beginning with "#" OR
305 ";" -- this is only for the better understanding of the file.
307 The file is separated in five blocks: [Global], [Features], [Operator],
308 [Server], and [Channel].
310 In the [Global] section, there is the main configuration like the server
311 name and the ports, on which the server should be listening. Options in
312 the [Features] section enable or disable functionality in the daemon.
313 IRC operators of this server are defined in [Operator] blocks, remote
314 servers are configured in [Server] sections, and [Channel] blocks are
315 used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
317 The meaning of the variables in the configuration file is explained in the
318 "doc/sample-ngircd.conf", which is used as sample configuration file in
319 /usr/local/etc after running "make install" (if you don't already have one)
320 and in the ngircd.conf(5) manual page.
323 VI. Command line options
324 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
326 These parameters could be passed to the ngIRCd:
329 The daemon uses the file <file> as configuration file rather than
330 the standard configuration /usr/local/etc/ngircd.conf.
333 ngIRCd should be running as a foreground process.
336 Server-links won't be automatically established.
339 Reads, validates and dumps the configuration file as interpreted
340 by the server. Then exits.
342 Use "--help" to see a short help text describing all available parameters
343 the server understands, with "--version" the ngIRCd shows its version
344 number. In both cases the server exits after the output.
346 Please see the ngircd(8) manual page for complete details!