miniircd -- A (very) simple Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server
============================================================

Description
-----------

miniircd is a small and limited IRC server written in Python. Despite its size,
it is a functional alternative to a full-blown ircd for private or internal
use. Installation is simple; no configuration is required.

Features
--------

* Knows about the basic IRC protocol and commands.
* Easy installation.
* Basic SSL support.
* No configuration.
* No ident lookup (so that people behind firewalls that filter the ident port
  without sending NACK can connect without long timeouts).
* Reasonably secure when used with --chroot and --setuid.

Limitations
-----------

* Can't connect to other IRC servers.
* Only knows the most basic IRC commands.
* No IRC operators.
* No channel operators.
* No user or channel modes except channel key.
* No reverse DNS lookup.
* No other mechanism to reject clients than requiring a password.

Requirements
------------

Python 2.6 or newer (including the Python 3 series). Get it at
http://www.python.org.


Installation
------------

None. Just run "./miniircd --help" (or "python miniircd --help") to get some
help.

Using --chroot and --setuid
---------------------------

In order to use the --chroot or --setuid options, you must be using an OS that
supports these functions (most \*nixes), and you must start the server as root.
These options limit the daemon process to a small subset of the filesystem,
running with the privileges of the specified user (ideally unprivileged)
instead of the user who launched miniircd.

To create a new chroot jail for miniircd, edit the Makefile and change JAILDIR
and JAILUSER to suit your needs, then run ``make jail`` as root. If you have a
motd file or an SSL pem file, you'll need to put them in the jail as well:

    # cp miniircd.pem motd.txt /var/jail/miniircd

Remember to specify the paths for --state-dir, --log-dir, --motd and
--ssl-pem-file from within the jail, e.g.:

    # miniircd --state-dir=/ --log-dir=/ --motd=/motd.txt --setuid=nobody \
          --ssl-pem-file=/miniircd.pem --chroot=/var/jail/miniircd

Make sure your jail is writable by whatever user/group you are running the
server as. Also, keep your jail clean. Ideally it should only contain the files
mentioned above and the state/log files from miniircd. You should **not** place
the miniircd script itself, or any executables, in the jail. In the end it
should look something like this:

    # ls -alR /var/jail/miniircd
    .:
    total 36
    drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody root   4096 Jun 10 16:20 .
    drwxr-xr-x 4 root   root   4096 Jun 10 18:40 ..
    -rw------- 1 nobody nobody   26 Jun 10 16:20 #channel
    -rw-r--r-- 1 nobody nobody 1414 Jun 10 16:51 #channel.log
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root   4096 Jun 10 16:19 dev
    -rw-r----- 1 rezrov nobody 5187 Jun  9 22:25 ircd.pem
    -rw-r--r-- 1 rezrov nobody   17 Jun  9 22:26 motd.txt

    ./dev:
    total 8
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root   4096 Jun 10 16:19 .
    drwxr-xr-x 3 nobody root   4096 Jun 10 16:20 ..
    crw-rw-rw- 1 root   root   1, 3 Jun 10 16:16 null
    crw-rw-rw- 1 root   root   1, 9 Jun 10 16:19 urandom

License
-------

GNU General Public License version 2 or later.

Primary author
--------------

- Joel Rosdahl <joel@rosdahl.net>

Contributors
------------

- Alex Wright
- Braxton Plaxco
- Hanno Foest
- Jan Fuchs
- Julien Monnier
- Leandro Lucarella
- Martin Maney
- Matt Baxter
- Matt Behrens
- Michael Rene Wilcox
- Ron Fritz