Services -- a system of IRC services for IRC networks
-----------------------------------------------------
Services is copyright (c) 1996-1999 Andrew Church. There is absolutely NO
WARRANTY provided with this program; if it blows up in your face, you get
to clean up the mess. Services may be freely redistributed; see the GNU
General Public License (in the file "COPYING") for details.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Credits
2. Introduction
3. Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure
4. Configuration, Compilation and Installation
5. Operation
6. Overview of Services Clients
7. IRC Protocol Additions
8. Importing Databases From Other Programs
9. Reaching The Author
10. IRC Services Public Mailing List
The latest version of Services can be obtained from the places below.
The Services web site at:
http://ender.shadowfire.org/ircservices/
The Services FTP site at:
ftp://ender.shadowfire.org/pub/ircservices/
Official mirrors of the FTP site, which are updated daily, include:
ftp://ftp.electrocity.com/pub/ircservices/ (South Africa)
ftp://ftp.lite.net (USA)
If you obtained your copy of Services from a different location, check at
one of the above sites to ensure that you have the latest, complete copy.
1. CREDITS
Services was created by Andy Church for the EsperNet (irc.esper.net) IRC
network in 1996. It was originally based on DALnet's IRC services but has
evolved over time to become more than just a replica - sporting many original
features and enhancements.
IMPORTANT: Neither the EsperNet IRC Network nor the ShadowFire IRC Network
are affiliated with IRC Services; they are simply the networks frequented by
the authors of IRC Services and two of its many satisfied users. Please do not
request support from them or their support channels. If you do require help,
please request it through one of the methods mentioned at the end of this
README.
While Services is primarily the work of Andy Church, there have been
numerous contributions from others. These contributions are noted in the
Changes file. Particularly noteworthy contributors during Andy's time were,
and some still are:
Mauritz Antunes -- Portuguese translation
Jose R. Holzmann, Raul S. Villarreal -- Spanish translation
Andrew Kempe <theshadow@shadowfire.org> -- news system
<d.duca@eurcom.net> -- Italian translation
Erdem Sener <mikado@holyfire.com> -- Turkish translation
Andrew Kempe <theshadow@shadowfire.org> -- session limiting
I'd like thank Michael Raff <raff@electrocity.com> and Jonathan George
<net@lite.net> for providing the nescessary resources to mirror the IRC
Services anonymous FTP site.
2. INTRODUCTION
Services is a system of services (as the name implies) to be used
with Internet Relay Chat networks. Services provides for definitive
nickname and channel ownership, as well as the ability to send messages
("memos") to offline users, and gives IRC operators considerably more
control over the network, enabling them to change modes in any channel and
place network-wide bans, among other things.
Services runs as a server on an IRC network, and is designed to use
the RFC 1459 IRC protocol, with some optional additions discussed at the
end of this document.
Services was designed for use with versions of the DALnet IRC server
implementation (ircd.dal) through 4.4.13. Services will also operate with
servers based directly on the RFC 1459 protocol, as well the Undernet
server (ircu) version 2.9.x and versions of ircd.dal from 4.4.15 through at
least 4.6.7. The following servers have been reported NOT to work with
Services:
NewNet
ircd-hybrid
ircd 2.x with "+CS" extension
TS4
ircd 2.9.4
If you have one of these servers or you cannot get Services to work
with your server, I recommend downloading and installing ircd.dal 4.4.10,
which is available at:
ftp://ender.shadowfire.org/pub/ircd/archive/
3. YEAR 2000 READINESS DISCLOSURE
In accordance with the general lack of warranty for Services for IRC
Networks ("Services"), there is ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE that Services will
perform correctly on or after 1 January 2000, and the author explicitly
disclaims any and all liability for any damage which may be caused to any
system, data, or other materials should Services fail to perform correctly
on or after that date.
However, it is the author's belief that no Year 2000 problems exist
within Services, since all internal date calculations are carried out with
32-bit second counters which will not exhibit any problems when crossing to
the year 2000.
4. CONFIGURATION, COMPILATION AND INSTALLATION
In order to compile Services, you'll need the Bourne shell or a
compatible shell (such as GNU bash), GNU make or a compatible make (which
needs to support the "include" and "ifdef" directives), and an ANSI C
compiler (gcc recommended). If you want to modify the language files, you
will also need the Perl interpreter in your path. All GNU utilities can be
found at ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/. NOTE: The "make" distributed with
FreeBSD is known not to work with Services; use GNU make instead.
Before trying to compile Services, there are some manual configuration
tasks that need to be done: run the "configure" script, (optionally) edit
config.h, and (optionally) edit the top section of the Makefile.
The "configure" script will try to learn how things work on your
system, and set up appropriate Makefile and C source definitions. It will
also ask you a few questions about how you want Services set up. (It will
ask all of the questions before doing any of the automated tests.) If you
get an error while running the script, get bash (if you don't already have
it) and run "bash configure". IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you select the
correct IRC server style! If Services compiles correctly but you only get
messages like "Internal error - unable to process request", the most likely
cause is that you chose the wrong IRC server style.
Note that when asked for the binary and data file installation
directories, you need to choose directories other than the Services source
directory (if you try to install to the Services source directory, the
configure script will display an error message). If you are installing
Services as a normal user (as opposed to root) and do not have write access
to the default /usr/local/sbin and /usr/local/lib directories, I would
suggest using "bin" and "lib" directories under your home directory.
config.h contains a few basic Services settings; in most cases you
should not need to change these. Most settings will be configured via the
"services.conf" file (discussed below).
The Makefile has a section at the top allowing you to configure
certain compile-time options. Presently, there is only one such option:
CLEAN_COMPILE, which if defined will cause Services to try and compile
without any warnings, possibly at the cost of reduced efficiency at
runtime. You can also add additional C compiler flags here, such as
warning flags (this can also be done in the configure script using the
-cflags command-line option).
Once these steps are done, you should be able to compile Services with
little trouble. If Services fails to compile on your system, or if you
have to tweak configure's output to get it to work, let me know what went
wrong so I can try and incorporate a fix into the configure script or the
main code.
Once Services is compiled, type "make install" to copy the program and
data files to their destinations. Care should be taken that only
authorized people have access to the data files; by default (changeable
with the configure script), passwords are NOT encrypted, so unauthorized
access to the files would be a big problem!
Finally, if you are using Services for the first time or upgrading
from a version prior to 4.1.0, you will need to create the Services
configuration file. An example configuration file is provided in the file
"example.conf", which will be installed in the Services data directory.
Edit this file to your liking (note that you will need to fill in values
for at least some directives--pay particular attention to ServicesRoot),
then rename the file to "services.conf".
If you are upgrading from an earlier minor version of Services (i.e.
anything before 4.2.0), check the WhatsNew file for a list of options which
have been added. Descriptions of the options can be found in the
example.conf file.
5. OPERATION
This section does not detail the operation of the individual pieces of
Services; that information can be found in the online help files
("/msg *Serv help"). It only describes how to start Services itself.
Normally, Services can be run simply by invoking the "services"
executable. Services will then use the defaults specified in the
services.conf file, and connect to the specified uplink server.
Alternatively, any of the following command-line options can be specified
to change the default values:
-remote server[:port] Connect to the specified server
-local host -or- Connect from the specified address (e.g.
[host]:[port] for multihomed servers)
-name servername Our server name (e.g. services.some.net)
-desc string Description of us (e.g. SomeNet Services)
-user username Username for Services' nicks (e.g. services)
-host hostname Hostname for Services' nicks (e.g. esper.net)
-dir directory Directory containing Services' data files
(e.g. /usr/local/lib/services)
-log filename Services log filename (e.g. services.log)
-update secs How often to update databases (in seconds)
-expire secs How often to check for nick/channel
expiration (in seconds)
Additionally, the following command-line options can be used to modify
the behavior of Services:
-debug Enable debugging mode--more info sent to log
(give option more times for more info)
-readonly Enable read-only mode--no changes to
databases allowed, .db files and log
not written
-skeleton Enable skeleton mode--like read-only mode,
but only OperServ is available
-nofork Do not fork after startup; log messages will
be written to terminal (as well as to
the log file if not in read-only mode)
-forceload Try to load as much of the databases as
possible, even if errors are encountered
-noexpire Prevents all expirations (Nicknames, Channels,
Akills, Session Limit Exceptions etc).
Upon starting, Services will parse its command-line parameters, open
its logfile, then (assuming the -nofork option is not given) detach itself
and run in the background. If Services encounters a problem reading the
database files or cannot connect to its uplink server, it will terminate
immediately; otherwise, it will run until the connection is terminated (or
a QUIT, SHUTDOWN, or RESTART command is sent--see OperServ's help). In the
case of an error, an appropriate error message will be written to the log
file.
If Services is run with the "-readonly" command-line option, it can
serve as a "backup" to the full version of Services. A "full" version of
Services (run without -readonly) will automatically reintroduce its
pseudo-clients (NickServ, ChanServ, etc.), while a "backup" Services will
not, thus allowing full Services to be brought up at any time without
disrupting the network (and without having to take backup Services down
beforehand).
If Services is run with the "-skeleton" command-line option, it will
not try to load the nickname or channel databases, and will respond with
"services is inactive" messages to any commands sent to NickServ, ChanServ,
or MemoServ. This can be useful as an emergency stopgap measure when the
main copy of Services cannot be started.
The "-debug" option is useful if you find or suspect a problem in
Services. Giving it once on the command line will cause all traffic to and
from Services as well as some other debugging information to be recorded in
the log file; if you send a bug report, PLEASE include an excerpt from the
log file WITH DEBUGGING ACTIVE--I cannot emphasize enough how important
this is to tracking down problems. (You can also enable debugging while
Services is running using OperServ's SET DEBUG command.) If you repeat the
-debug option more than once, the debugging level will be increased, which
provides more detailed information but may also slow Services down
considerably and make the log file grow dramatically faster (in particular,
at debug level 4 a message is written to the log for every character
received from the server). In general, a debug level of 1 is sufficient
for me to be able to trace a problem, because all network traffic is
included and I can usually reproduce the problem.
The "-forceload" option is provided to attempt recovery of data from
corrupted or truncated databases. Normally, if Services encounters an
error writing to a database file, it will attempt to restore the original
version of the file and report an error to the logfile and through WALLOPS.
However, if this should fail (which normally should not happen), or if
Services is terminated abruptly e.g. by kill -9 or a power failure, then
one or more of the databases may be corrupt. Normally, this will cause
Services to abort the next time you try to run it; however, if you give
the -forceload option to Services, it will instead read as much as it can,
then skip to the next database. For obvious reasons, it's recommended to
keep backup copies of your databases in case something does happen (since
Services will stop at the first error even with -forceload, meaning you
lose any data after that).
Two additional programs are available in addition to the main
executable: "listnicks" and "listchans", both installed as hard links to
the main executable. The programs will list all registered nicknames and
channels, respectively; or, if given the -c option, will display the
number of registered nicknames or channels.
6. OVERVIEW OF SERVICES CLIENTS
This is a brief introduction to the various clients available from
Services. All *Serv clients can be /msg'd with "help" for a general
introduction or "help <command>" for more detailed command descriptions.
A command reference can also be found at:
http://achurch.dragonfire.net/services/commandref.html
NickServ is the nickname server; it allows users to register and
control nicknames, and will (at the user's choice) /kill any unauthorized
user who tries to use that nick after a warning. NickServ also allows
users to select a language which Services will then use for all
communication with the user (command responses as well as automatic
notices).
ChanServ is the channel server; as NickServ does with nicknames, it
allows users to register and control channels. There is a much wider array
of controls available via ChanServ than NickServ, since there are
considerably more features available for channels than for nicknames.
These include automatic mode setting, topic retention (active by default,
this will cause the channel's topic to be saved while the channel is empty
and restored when a user joins it again), and automatic opping, voicing, or
kicking of selected users, among others.
MemoServ allows users to send short messages to other users, which can
be stored and retrieved at the recipient's convenience. Memos can also be
sent to channels; any user with the proper access to a channel can read
such memos.
HelpServ allows users to request information about Services and/or the
network on which it is being used. HelpServ will, on request, send a help
text to a user. The actual help texts used by HelpServ are stored in the
"helpfiles" subdirectory of the Services data directory; HelpServ
lowercases its arguments, joins them with slashes, and attempts to read the
filename given by the resulting string. For example, the command
"/msg HelpServ server Dragonfire" causes HelpServ to look for the file
helpfiles/server/dragonfire in the data directory. If a given help file is
a directory (for example, "/msg HelpServ server" where helpfiles/server is
a directory), HelpServ will look for a file named "index" in that directory
and send it in response to the help request if it exists. (Note that the
other pseudo-clients have their own help systems independent of HelpServ,
and the help texts for those clients are stored in the "lang" subdirectory
of the Services distribution.)
IrcIIHelp is HelpServ under another name, and allows ircII users to
simply type "/help <topic>" to get help on the ircII client. The files can
also be accessed with "/msg HelpServ ircii <topic>".
OperServ provides services to IRC operators, including the ability to
send a network-wide message from a Services pseudo-client and obtain
statistics on Services and the network. A set of IRC operators can be
defined as "Services operators" using the OPER command; these users will
have access to more functions, including the ability to change the mode of
any channel, kick any user from a channel, and add and remove network-wide
bans ("autokills" or AKILLs, similar to classic K:lines but applying to all
servers on the network). A more privileged group of operators can be
defined as "Services administrators" via the ADMIN command, and can perform
additional functions, such as manually updating Services' databases or
shutting Services down, as well as set options for any nickname and channel
without needing to identify for that nick or channel. The only person who
can use the ADMIN ADD and ADMIN DEL commands is the Services superuser
(Services root), whose nick should be inserted in the ServicesRoot
directive in services.conf. (Note that Services will not recognize a user
as a Services operator or admin unless that user has identified with
NickServ, and users will not be permitted to use any OperServ functions
unless they are IRC operators.) Obviously, all these functions should be
used with care.
DevNull is just like its Unix equivalent /dev/null: it ignores
anything sent to it. It can be removed, by commenting out DevNullName in
services.conf, without affecting the rest of Services in any way.
Global is the global noticer: when Services is instructed to send a
notice to all clients on the network, this nickname sends the message.
This nick is also used when sending "news" messages (see the OperServ NEWS
command help for more information). You may want to change this to a more
meaningful name for your network; for example, on the EsperNet network, the
nick "EsperNet" is used for this pseudoclient.
7. IRC PROTOCOL ADDITIONS
The following commands, not defined in RFC 1459, are used by Services
if available on the selected server type:
AKILL
Syntax: AKILL <hostmask> <usermask> <reason>
Adds an AutoKill to the network; this is like a K:line, but is
propogated to all servers. Any user matching the usermask and
hostmask will not be allowed to connect.
Example: :services.esper.net AKILL *.lame.com lamer :Flooding
Disallows any client matching "lamer@*.lame.com" from connecting
to the network.
Bahamut Syntax: AKILL <hostmask> <usermask> <expiry> <who> <time> :<reason>
This AutoKill works in the same way as the original one except that it
has a few more parameters. They are, in the above order: hostmask,
usermask, seconds until expiry, nick of person who added the akill,
time of addition and finally the reason for the AutoKill.
Example: :services.esper.net AKILL *.lame.com lamer 3600 IRCop 945085429
:Flooding
Works in the same way as the first example, but has the following:
- will expire in 1 hour
- was added by IRCop
- was added on Mon Dec 13 13:43:49 1999
RAKILL
Syntax: RAKILL <hostmask> <usermask>
Removes an AutoKill line from all servers.
Example: :services.esper.net RAKILL *.lame.com lamer
Removes the AutoKill described in the previous example.
GLINE
Syntax: GLINE * +<expire> <mask>
Similar to AKILL, defines a network-wide ban. <expire> is given in
seconds from the current time, so, for example, 3600 means "1 hour
from now".
Example: :services.esper.net GLINE * +604800 lamer@*.lame.com
Disallows any client matching "lamer@*.lame.com" from connecting
to the network for the next 604800 seconds (1 week).
GLOBOPS
Syntax: GLOBOPS <message>
Sends a message to all users with user mode +og.
Example: :Alcan GLOBOPS :Watch out for flooders from *.lame.com.
GOPER
Syntax: GOPER <message>
Sends a message to all IRC operators, regardless of other user modes.
Example: :services.esper.net GOPER :WARNING -- clones detected from
ppp1-9.lame.com
8. IMPORTING DATABASES FROM OTHER PROGRAMS
As of Services 4.1.0, a program (import-db) has been added to convert
databases used by other Services-like programs to the format used by
Services, allowing easy transition to Services. If you would like to use
Services with databases created by unsupported software, please E-mail me
(see below) with a location where the software's source code may be
downloaded and I will look into adding conversion support for the software.
Currently, the following programs' data files are understood:
- Magick 1.4b2
This is a fork of Services itself (that is, a program based on an
earlier version of Services), with a different set of features than
Services has.
I would like to state for the record that, at least through this
version, the author of Magick is violating the Services licensing terms
(for example, by having removed my name from the copyright notices at the
top of the source code). The author of Magick seems to have ignored the
fact that while Services is a freely-distributED program, it is a
copyrighted work, and is only freely distributABLE under certain
conditions. In view of this, I ask that you refrain from using Magick and
encourage others to refrain from using Magick unless and until the author
complies with the licensing terms of Services or rewrites Magick without
using any material from Services.
The import-db program may be compiled with the command:
make import-db
(or "gmake import-db" if GNU make is installed on your system as "gmake").
This will create an executable called "import-db" in the Services
distribution directory, and you should run the program from that directory.
For example, if you have unpacked the Services distribution into
/usr/local/src/services, run this program as
"/usr/local/src/services/import-db".
import-db may be given any of the following flags, in any order:
-d <dir> Specify directory where data files are located.
(Normally required.)
-v Be verbose; print progress reports.
+magick-1.4b2 Specify that data files are from Magick 1.4b2.
If you do not specify the -d option, import-db will use the default
directory for the source program chosen (which will be printed out when you
run import-db). If you do not specify the source program, but you do
specify a -d flag, import-db will attempt to determine the database type by
looking at the files in the given directory. If it cannot determine the
file types--or if you do not specify a -d option--import-db will print an
error message and exit.
In summary, you can use one of the following two formats to run this
command:
import-db -d /path/to/old/data/files
import-db +old-program-name
As each file is read in, a backup copy will be made which has the same
name with a tilde ("~") appended. If all files are successfully read in,
then they will be written in a format readable by Services in the data
directory you specified in the "configure" script (by default
/usr/local/lib/services).
Please note that this program has not yet been extensively tested;
please report any problems.
9. REACHING THE AUTHOR
Services is no longer maintained by Andy Church, although he still plays
a semi-active role in it's development. As of version 4.3 the maintainer is
Andrew Kempe <theshadow@shadowfire.org>. Services' documentation still refers
to Andy Church, but all questions, suggestions and bug reports should be
directed either to myself, Andrew Kempe, or to the Services mailing list. It
should also be noted that the mailing list has a new address.
Andy Church can be reached via E-mail at achurch@dragonfire.net or on the
EsperNet IRC Network (irc.esper.net) where his nickname is Alcan. E-mail is the
more prefered way of contacting Andy.
I, Andrew Kempe, can be reached via E-mail at theshadow@shadowfire.org or
on the ShadowFire IRC Network (irc.shadowfire.org) where my nickname is
TheShadow. Please feel free to send comments, suggestions, problem reports,
context diffs, or whatever, though you may not receive any reply. Please do NOT
ask for or expect direct online help, as I am quite busy and cannot spare the
time to set up Services myself on every system where it will be used. If you
do ask, expect to be abruptly dismissed or ignored.
When leaving memos, please be sure to include your problem or suggestion
_in the memo_. Don't just say "I need to talk to you"; such memos will be
ignored. Again, don't expect a reply even if you do have a valid problem or
suggestion; problem reports will be noted and addressed as soon as practical,
and suggestions will be taken into consideration for future versions.
10. IRC SERVICES PUBLIC MAILING LIST
There is also a mailing list, ircservices@ender.shadowfire.org, for
discussion of, and announcements regarding, Services. The list is unmoderated,
but you must be subscribed to the list in order to post to it. To subscribe,
send an E-mail message to:
ircservices-request@ender.shadowfire.org
with the following in the body of the message:
subscribe <your-address>
where <your-address> is your E-mail address (without the angle brackets).
Unsubscription works the same way, but use "unsubscribe" instead of
"subscribe". (Note that the mailing list software does not understand
MIME-encoded messages, so make sure you turn off any "special" features of
your mailreader, like HTML encoding--Microsoft Outlook users in particular
should keep this in mind.)