README

This README is based on the README file shipped with shroudBNC 1.1.

It assumes you have already downloaded1) and extracted2) sBNC in the home folder3) of the user you want to run it with. Not as root.

• A compiler (GCC/G++)
  • Required.
  • If not installed on your system, find it with your package manager.
  • Under debian it is included in the build-essential package4)
• TCL 8.4+
  • Optional (Only needed if you want sBNC to understand TCL).

1. Change to the ~/sbnc-1.1 folder.
2. Check configuration:

   ./configure

3. Compile:

   make

4. Install:

   make install

• Either continue with compiling the TCL module below, or skip to configuring sBNC. You can come back and compile the TCL module later if you wish.

Remember you need to have both the “tcl8.4” and “tcl8.4-dev” packages installed to compile and use the TCL module.

1. Change to the ~/sbnc-1.1/tickle folder.
2. Check configuration:

   ./configure

3. Compile:

   make

4. Install:

   make install

• If successful, a “tickle.so” file will have been compiled and copied to your ”~/sbnc” folder.
• Once you have sBNC running and are connected to it, you will be able to load the module using ”/sbnc insmod ./tickle.so” over IRC.

• After executing “make install” above, a new folder will have been created in your home folder. Go there now.

  cd ~/sbnc

• Start the included configuration tool to set up some basic settings like port and the first user.

  ./conftool

• You can now start sBNC using either ”./sbnc” or ”./sbnc -n”. The ”-n” flag will show you the console output.

  user@server:~/sbnc$ ./sbnc
  shroudBNC loader
  Loading shroudBNC from /home/user/sbnc/sbnc-20051215034250.so
  Thu Dec 15 03:43:11 2005 Log system initialized.
  shroudBNC1.0 $Revision: 370 $ - an object-oriented IRC bouncer
  Thu Dec 15 03:43:11 2005 Created main listener.
  Thu Dec 15 03:43:11 2005 Starting main loop.
  Daemonizing... DONE
  user@server:~/sbnc$

Just connect to the bnc using your favorite IRC client. You will have to set your username (i.e. e-mail address in most clients) to the accountname you've chosen for your bnc.

Once you're connected you should type ”/sbnc help” to get a list of available commands.

If you've compiled the TCL module you can load it using ”/sbnc insmod ./tickle.so”

A list of loaded modules can be viewed using ”/sbnc lsmod” and ”/sbnc rmmod <module-id>” removes a module.

shroudBNC supports oidentd in order to provide custom idents for each user. You will need to enable ident-spoofing for the unix account you're using to run shroudBNC. Read oidentd's manual for more details and look at our guide.

shroudBNC can be updated while it is running - without losing any active IRC or client connections. In order to update it you need to extract a clean copy of shroudBNC somewhere, just like when you initially installed it.

After compiling it, you can run the “make update” script instead of “make install” which will automatically update your currently running shroudBNC. (The script assumes that the bouncer's directory is ~/sbnc/).

Please note that you might need to unload certain modules like tickle.so before upgrading, as the old versions of the modules might not be compatible with the new sBNC version.

It is vital that you understand that any bouncer admin has access to:

• The shell account where the bouncer is running.
• Any user connections.

Using the TCL module any admin can perform shell commands (using the exec command) and send IRC commands for any user's connection. Thus you should choose your admins wisely. Do not load arbitrary scripts and make sure you understand any scripts you want to load.

Giving shell access to someone you don't trust is potentially dangerous.