-README for ircu2.10.10.beta
-Please read this completely before running the server
-
-* If you run ircu2.10.10 on the production network and expect
- more than 1000 local clients to connect you will want to make
- sure you add -DNDEBUG to the extra CFLAGS setting when you do
- a make config.
-* Ircu now uses asserts in a lot of places to insure referential
- integrity and that impossible situations do not occur. Also
- memory integrity checking is defaulted to on as well. The asserts
- and memory checking both use cpu and in the case of memory checking
- extra memory. We have not had an assert trigger in quite some time
- but would prefer to leave the checks enabled for beta testing.
- The asserts insure that if the server is going to core it will do
- so in well defined places where the problem will be easy to trace,
- without them the server could core in not so well defined places.
- If you want to disable the checks, add -DNDEBUG in the extra CFLAGS
- when you do a make config.
-
-* Ircu no longer uses separate C/N lines, the functionality of both
- has been combined in C:lines, see the example.conf for more information.
-
-* Ircu has an different mechanism for defining ports than the previous
- versions. Please see the example.conf for information on configuring
- them. Ircu also ignores the port specified on the M:line, you MUST define
- a server port with a P:line if you want servers to connect to you.
-
-* For beta releases, please understand that there may be bugs we haven't
- found yet, (that's why you're beta testing it in the first place :)).
- Please report any bugs found in the server to bugs@undernet.org or
- coder-com@undernet.org with as much information as you can provide
- about how to reproduce the problem. Stack traces for coredumps are
- usually helpful, however we aren't expecting any of those ;-).
-
-* Ircu 2.10.08 is a P10 only server, and cannot be used to host P9
- links. On a mostly P10 network this is not a major issue, it does
- mean that you cannot connect services directly to a 2.10.08 server,
- but does not preclude it's use as a leaf or a hub. For now, services
- need to continue to be hosted by 2.10.07 servers.
-
-* EXTENDED_NUMERICS is not defined by default, we need to get everyone
- using 2.10.07 before we can allow it to be turned on anywhere. If you
- are using 2.10.08 on a network where everyone is up to at least 2.10.07
- it is safe to turn them on. We have tested them on testnet and they do
- work. :)
-
-* The masked notices using #*.mask has changed to use $@*.mask instead.
- Since most of the servers on the net will not understand the new masking
- mechanism, this probably won't work for a while. The server notice mask
- ($*.us.undernet.org) still functions properly. This was a trade off
- between backwards compatibility and the improved protocol, we chose to
- not maintain backwards compatibility for this command. The #*.mask
- functionality is easily circumvented, and the command is rarely used
- it is not considered to be a major issue.
-
-* The server no longer sends notices for errors on connections that are
- suddenly dropped during connection setup. If you really want to see
- them, we suggest you get a life. :)
-
-* Removed: unix domain sockets, uping, m4 preprocessor spawning,
- dozens of bugs.
-
-* New stuff:
- Added ISUPPORT code to match dalnets.
- Added connection progress notices.
- Cleaned up operating system checks.
- /invite with no arguments lists the channels you're invited to.
- Many speedups, ipdiffer, faster strncpy, faster inetntoa.
- Passive lag and numerics now displayed by map command.
- Server to server tokenization.
- Much larger TCP windows/kernel buffers for server connections,
- smaller for clients.
- Removed BOOT_OPER security hole.
- Complete listener port specifications including per port virtual
- hosting and hidden listeners.
- Default server port for connects (config option).
- Speed up some channel ops using new Membership struct.
- Hash table performance stats are available now (basic).
- Much of the socket code has been rewritten, we now only make one
- pass through the local client array.
- Added initial support for PROTOCOL command.
- Many functions have been made reentrant.
- Resolver now uses callbacks for all queries.
- Almost every command that is sent to a server uses full P10 numerics
- and tokenization, this reduces netburst sizes by at least 10% and
- many server to server message sizes by 10-50%.
- Major source code reorginization to support engine model.
- Parser now uses an indexed table for commands, which elminates
- the need to do IsServer IsUser IsOper checks and allows much more
- efficient implementation of user/server/oper command handlers.
-
-* For a much longer winded explanation of all this stuff, see the
- ChangeLog in this directory, or the cvs log at the coder-com
- web site at http://coder-com.undernet.org/
+ Welcome to ircu2.10.12, the Undernet IRC daemon
+Version u2.10.12 of the Undernet ircd incorporates many new features
+over its predecessor, and we feel that using it will make you very
+happy indeed.
+New features include:
+ - A completely rewritten network event engine, which make full use
+ of the asynchronous event engines available in FreeBSD (kqueue)
+ and Solaris (/dev/poll), resulting in dramaticaly improved
+ performance.
+ - New F: (feature) lines in ircd.conf, and the GET/SET commands allow
+ many settings to be changed dynamically, rather than by with compile-
+ time configuration.
+ - The new "account" feature added to the P10 protocol, allows people to
+ remain logged in to service bots (i.e., gnuworld) during a netsplit.
+ This means people will not have to login again once the network rejoins.
+
+INSTALLATION
+
+Please see the INSTALL file for installation instructions, for hints on how
+to best configure your OS for running ircu under high load, see the various
+README.<platform> files.
+
+COMPATIBILITY
+
+This version of ircu will only work with servers that use the P10 protocol,
+some of the new features will only work between ircu2.10.12 servers.
+
+GENERAL PERFORMANCE HINTS
+
+For platform-specific notes and hints, see the platform-specific
+sections below. These notes apply to servers that will serve large
+numbers (thousands) of clients simultaneously. If your server serves
+a small amount of users, the defaults should work well enough.
+
+ - Run an OS that supports an asynchronous network event engine; currently
+ these are FreeBSD (kqueue), and Solaris (/dev/poll); possibly other BSDs
+ will also support kqueue. This will have a dramatic effect on performance.
+ - Make things as lean as possible: Make your server dedicated to ircu,
+ disable anything that is not neccesary, and build a custom kernel (where
+ possible).
+ - Tune kernel parameters as described in the platform-specific
+ sections below.
+ - With many clients connecting each second, ircu will be doing lots of DNS
+ lookups. Make sure that the DNS server(s) in your /etc/resolv.conf are as
+ close as possible, or run a local caching DNS server on your IRC server.
+
+TIME SYNCHRONIZATION
+
+Many things can and will go horribly wrong when the clocks on the servers
+on your network become (too far) out of sync. It is therefore highly
+recommended that all servers run a version of ntpd that will keep their
+clocks from going astray.
+
+INFORMATION HIDING
+
+As per undernet-admins CFV-165, this server contains code that will,
+by default, hide certain information from ordinary users. If you do
+not want this, override the default "HIS" feature settings in your
+ircd.conf.
+
+MORE INFORMATION
+
+For more information on this software, see the included documentation
+in the doc/ directory, as well as http://coder-com.undernet.org.
+
+For general information on the Undernet, vist http://www.undernet.org
+
+Happy IRCing!
+
+RUNNING THIS SERVER ON LINUX
+
+If you run Linux 2.6 or above (or 2.4 with appropriate patches), ircu
+can use the epoll family of system calls for much more efficient
+checks of which connections are active. Most pre-epoll systems will
+use 100% CPU with 2000 clients; with epoll, a server may use only a
+few percent of CPU with the same load.
+
+To handle that many connections, the ircd must be started with a high
+enough file descriptor resource. Check your distribution's docs on
+how to set the global and per-user limits according to your expected
+load.
+
+RUNNING THIS SERVER ON FREEBSD
+
+When running on FreeBSD, ircu can make use of the kqueue() event engine, which
+results in much improved performance over the old poll()-based method. kqueue
+is included in the more recent 4.x releases of FreeBSD.
+
+In order for ircu to be able to serve many clients simultaneously, you need
+to increase the maximum allowable number of open files in the system. To do
+this, add commands such as the following during your system's boot sequence:
+
+sysctl -w kern.maxfiles=16384
+sysctl -w kern.maxfilesperproc=16384
+
+Unless you will be serving thousands of clients simultaneously, you will not
+need to do the following, unless of course you just can't stand having a
+system that is not optimized to its limits :)
+
+Build a custom kernel: Make your kernel as lean as possible by removing all
+drivers and options you will not need. The following parameters will affect
+performance, they are listed with suggested values only. For more information
+on what they do exactly, see FreeBSD's documentation.
+
+maxusers 2048
+options NMBCLUSTERS=65535
+options ICMP_BANDLIM
+
+Also, you may wish to run the following at system startup (from /etc/rc.local,
+or whichever other method you prefer):
+
+sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
+sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
+sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.restrict_rst=1
+sysctl -w kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=2097152
+sysctl -w kern.ipc.somaxconn=2048
+
+Created by Sengaia <sengaia@undernet.org>, July 20 2002.
+
+RUNNING THIS SERVER ON SOLARIS
+
+When running on Solaris, ircu can make use of the /dev/poll event engine, which
+results in much improved performance over the old poll()-based method. Solaris
+versions 8 and 9 include /dev/poll out of the box, for Solaris 7 you will have
+to grab and install Patch-ID 106541-21.
+
+In order to increase the number of clients ircu can handle, add lines such as
+the following to /etc/system:
+
+* set hard limit on file descriptors
+set rlim_fd_max = 16384
+* set soft limit on file descriptors
+set rlim_fd_cur = 8192
+
+For more useful hints see http://www.sean.de/Solaris/soltune.html
+
+Created by Sengaia <sengaia@undernet.org> on July 20, 2002.
projects / ircu2.10.12-pk.git / blobdiff