General Public License ([GPL]); please see the file `COPYING` for licensing
information.
-The server is simple to configure, can cope with dynamic IP addresses, and
-supports IPv6 as well as SSL. It is written from scratch and not based on the
-original IRCd.
-
-The name ngIRCd means *next generation IRC daemon*, which is a little bit
+The server is quite easy to configure and runs as a single-node server or can
+be part of a network of ngIRCd servers in a LAN or across the internet. It
+optionally supports the IPv6 protocol, SSL/TLS-protected client-server and
+server-server links, the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system for user
+authentication, IDENT requests, and character set conversion for legacy
+clients.
+
+The name ngIRCd stands for *next-generation IRC daemon*, which is a little bit
exaggerated: *lightweight Internet Relay Chat server* most probably would have
been a better name :-)
-Please see the `INSTALL.md` document for installation and upgrade information,
-online available here: <https://ngircd.barton.de/doc/INSTALL.md>!
-
## Status
-ngIRCd should be quite feature complete and stable to be used as daemon in
-real world IRC networks.
+Development of *ngIRCd* started back in 2001: The server has been written from
+scratch in C, tries to follow all relevant standards, and is not based on the
+forefather, the daemon of the IRCNet.
It is not the goal of ngIRCd to implement all the nasty behaviors of the
-original ircd, but to implement most of the useful commands and semantics
-specified by the RFCs that are used by existing clients.
+original `ircd` or corner-cases in the RFCs, but to implement most of the useful
+commands and semantics that are used by existing clients.
-## Features (or: why use ngIRCd?)
+*ngIRCd* is used as the daemon in real-world in-house and public IRC networks
+and included in the package repositories of various operating systems.
+
+## Advantages and strengths
- Well arranged (lean) configuration file.
- Simple to build, install, configure, and maintain.
- No problems with servers that have dynamic IP addresses.
- Freely available, modern, portable and tidy C source.
- Wide field of supported platforms, including AIX, A/UX, FreeBSD, HP-UX,
- IRIX, Linux, macOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, and Windows with Cygwin.
-- ngIRCd is being actively developed since 2001.
+ IRIX, Linux, macOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Windows with WSL or Cygwin.
## Documentation
The **homepage** of the ngIRCd project is <https://ngircd.barton.de>.
-More documentation can be found in the `doc/` directory and
-[online](https://ngircd.barton.de/documentation).
+The `INSTALL.md` document describes how to _install_ and _upgrade_ ngIRCd. It
+is included in all distribution archives and available online on
+[GitHub](https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/blob/master/INSTALL.md).
+
+Please see the file `doc/QuickStart.md` in the `doc/` directory or on
+[GitHub](https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/blob/master/doc/QuickStart.md) for
+information about _setting up_ and _running_ ngIRCd, including some real-world
+configuration examples.
+
+More information can be found in a couple of files in the `doc/` directory
+(online on [GitHub](https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/tree/master/doc)) and in
+the [documentation section](https://ngircd.barton.de/documentation) on the
+[homepage of ngIRCd](https://ngircd.barton.de).
+
+In addition, ngIRCd comes with two _manual pages_: `ngircd(8)` (for the daemon)
+and `ngircd.conf(5)` (for its configuration file). They have even more details
+and list all possible command line parameters and configuration options. You
+can read them with the `man` command (when they are installed locally on your
+system, e.g. `man 8 ngircd` and `man 5 ngircd.conf`) or online here:
+
+- Daemon:
+ [ngircd(8)](https://ngircd.barton.de/man/ngircd.8.html)
+- Configuration file:
+ [ngircd.conf(5)](https://ngircd.barton.de/man/ngircd.conf.5.html)
## Downloads & Source Code
stable release on the [news](https://ngircd.barton.de/news) and
[downloads](https://ngircd.barton.de/download) pages of the homepage.
-Visit our source code repository at [GitHub](https://github.com) if you are
-interested in the latest development code: <https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd>.
+Visit our source code repository at [GitHub](https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd)
+if you are interested in the latest development code.
## Problems, Bugs, Patches
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you encounter problems:
- On IRC: <irc://irc.barton.de/ngircd>
-- Via the mailing list: <ngircd-ml@ngircd.barton.de>
+- Via the mailing list: <ngircd@lists.barton.de>
-See <http://ngircd.barton.de/support> for details.
+See <https://ngircd.barton.de/support> for details.
If you find any bugs in ngIRCd (which most probably will be there ...), please
report them to our issue tracker at GitHub:
projects / ngircd-alex.git / blobdiff