This version is currently in developement.

What's new

Below is the list of changes since the previous version in the descending order (that is, most recent changes go first).

• A new command LANGUAGE to set the list of languages a client speaks, in order of preference. Languages are propagated over the network. The list of available languages is included within the RPL_ISUPPORT numeric reply (although it can change dynamically). All proposed numerics and behaviour is implemented, see KineIRCD documentation for details.
• Paranoia: WHOIS reply about an invisible user does no longer include channels that you are not in (does not apply to opers).
• WHOIS no longer accepts wildcards, and only processes exactly one nickname at once.
• Removed alias UMODE for command MODE.
• Connection rules (D-Lines) are gone. To be replaced with something else later.
• O-Lines now contain regular user modes that are added to authenticated client, not a pseudomode. This means that you can have an O-Line that would only give, say, user mode +W.
• A-Lines no longer exist, user ADMIN_LOC1, ADMIN_LOC2 and ADMIN_MAIL F-Lines.
• M-Lines no longer exist (basically, all lines only one instance of which is meaningful, are replaced with F-Lines). Take a look at SERVERNAME, SERVERINFO and BINDADDR types of F-Lines. [docs]
• F:DEFAULT_UMODE no longer exists, K-lines are used for the same purpose but with a higher level of customization. [docs]
• Segmentation fault recovery added. It is no longer immediately fatal.
• WHO can now show real host names to privileged users, if the capital H is used in field selection. To unprivileged users both H and h show visible host name. [docs]
• The number of channels that a user can join is now set dynamically with F:MAXCHANNELSPERUSER. Also, privileged clients are no longer affected by this restriction. [docs]
• The number of connections that a server can accept is now defined using F:MAXCONNECTIONS and can be changed dynamically. [docs]
• Access control list can now be automatically written to a text file every time it changes. The file can then be used by an external process to build firewall rules, DNS blacklists etc. [docs]
• New access control code, better and faster. Incorporates old K, Z and I lines. Offers a better level of customizability (rule processing logic). [docs]
• Normalized make files. BSD make is no longer supported.
• Fixed misbehaviour when joining a channel with a bad name.
• Logging is now done using an external library, libflog. [more]
• Connection classes (Y: lines) can now have a language code assigned to them. [docs]
• Win32 version is now compiled for i686 CPU, hopefully this will increase performance in Unicode related parts of the server.
• The most of messages generated by the server are no longer hardcoded into the server, but are read from an external text file instead. Multiple message files can be loaded, each for a different language. [docs]
• The code related to channel modes is rewritten from scratch. The new code is much faster and simplier. Channel access control lists, such as bans and ban exception lists are processed faster and handled gentlier; target channel is now hidden from channels for which the redirection has not been enabled.
• F:MSGDELAY is now used to control penalty, in milliseconds, which is added to an unprivileged connection after every parsed command. [docs]
• Channel mode +f can be made available to all channel ops with setting F:OPENFORWARDING to TRUE. This is the default value. [docs]
• Limit on the number of bans per channel is now configurable using F:MAXBANS. The limit of 1024 characters per ban list is also removed. [docs]
• Removal of the chanop status is now applied after the whole command is parsed, thus allowing things like "MODE -o+st self".
• Pid file is no longer written if the server is started attached to the console.
• Added an option to hide services from WHO replies. [doc]
• Fixed a potential problem with signed time stamp overflow (the so-called Problem 2038). [docs]
• Removed support for EventLog as unnecessary and ineffective (affects WinNT users only).
• New logging code. Separate log files for general, auth, user and debug messages are available, log files are managed better. [docs]
• PING and PONG are no longer used for measuring interserver lag.
• KILL messages generated by servers no longer have path as the reason, due to problems this would cause on a large network with long server names.
• Opers now see secret channels in WHO, instead of asterisks. Namespace character is changed to %, as in WHOIS.
• With HIS_MAP on, unprivileged users see a single server in LUSERS, MAP and LINKS replies.
• Win32 version is now using high-performance overlapped sockets.
• Removed all signs of the old DNS resolving code.
• Boolean feature RESTRICT_CHANNELS can be used to prevent unprivileged users from creating new channels, restictring this function to opers only. [docs]
• Boolean feature PASSIVE can be used to disable autoconnect to uplinks. [docs]
• Each P-Line can be configured as client-only or server-only, not both. Default is to accept clients. [docs]
• Renamed TOKEN protocol option to TOKMAP to avoid incompatibilities with the older versions and other ircds.
• Fixed a bug that was causing slowly handshaking servers kill legitimate users while handshake is in progress.
• Eliminated R-Lines, as resource expensive and non-portable. Possibly replaced by an auth service someday.
• Added server connection flag "Q" to restrict opers on a server. [docs]
• Removed L-Lines due to duplicated functionality with H-Lines. [docs]
• Configuration file can contain comments at any position (e.g., in the middle of a line); can be escaped with a backslash.
• The actual charset name is now sent within the RPL_ISUPPORT message after the client connection is established. The same numeric message is sent to the client any time the charset is changed.
• "CHARSET ?" now sends a list of available charsets on the target server.
• Charsets are now defined using F-Lines. [docs]
• Multiple services are handled better: services host name is only used to catch the service during the introduction to the network. This allows backup services to be available with CS, NS and other aliases. Previously this would not work if the hostname of the backup services was different, which normally is the case.
• There can be different MOTD files for different users now, based on their addresses. The first field of a T-Line is the host or IP mask, the second one is the file name. There is no default motd file anymore. Remember that config file lines are scanned in reversed order, so the wider is the mask, the upper it must be in the list. Configured MOTD files can be listed using "STATS T" (uppercase 'T'). [docs]
• USERIP now returns fake IP addresses for users that have the +x umode on, and the real address for those who don't. Instead of showing a privilege error.
• DIE password is now set with F:DIE_PASS instead of the X-Line. Also, DIE password must be encrypted. [docs]
• Replacing wild configuration lines with ircu-like F-Lines. Current values are shown in INFO to opers. Admins can use SET and RESET commands to change and restore default values of settings. Opers can use GET to retreive a value of a single setting.
• The notices sent to channel &ircd.clients are made more informative and contain IP addresses, provided the remote links tell them or they are guessable, otherwise an invalid IP address is shown.
• Added command line option -d, to set start-up working directory. Has no effect when -r (chroot) is also used.
• When server masking is enabled, MAP and LINKS return summary network information instead of an error message.
• When server masking is enabled, regular users are unable to use server name filtering and see IP addresses in WHO.
• Added a "common domain" config option, used when creating hostnames for unresolved addresses. [docs]
• New host masking logic. First of all, unresolved addresses are converted into domain names in the in-addr.arpa zone. Second, host masking now uses CRC32 instead of a simple hashing routine. When masking hostnames, at most two most significant domain names are left, the rest is replaced with a checksum of the whole hostname. When masking an IP address, two checksums build the host name: CRC32 of the whole IP address, and CRC32 of the same address with the lower byte reset to zero. This makes it easy to place address-based restrictions without knowing the full address.
• Replaced the old extended WHO syntax with Undernet-compatible, added WHOX to the RPL_ISUPPORT list. [docs]
• Added the USERIP command – only effective with NICKv2+IP servers, otherwise IP addresses are not known outside the client's host server.
• No longer sending notices about attempts to take a Q-Lined nickname.
• Implemented server-to-server protocol extension: NICKv2 (Unreal), NICKv2+IP (same as v2 but includes a base64-encoded IP address, ircu-like).
• Addresses in server notices now use a dot to separate IP address and port number, instead of a colon.
• Non-ascii characters are no longer allowed in channel names. Channel name is not truncated at the first disallowed character, but an error message is sent instead.
• Removed channel mode j (juped channel) due to its uselessness. Added channel modes O (oper-only channel) and M (only users with registered nicknames can speak on such channels).
• Temporary kill lines are no longer removed when the server is rehashed.
• Highest number of global users is now propagated during netjoin using the NETINFO command.
• Added FNC, SAFELIST and other missing tokens to RPL_ISUPPORT. [docs]
• Changed handshake order – PROTOCTL is now sent after PASS but before SERVER, which made the connection negotiation process a bit faster.
• Removed the LINKCTL command. Instead, PROTOCTL now accepts + and – modifiers for almost every protocol option.
• Fixed incorrect realname translation when non-ascii characters were used.
• Added new user mode d (deaf) – ignores private messages and notices sent to channels. Having this mode on, a user only accepts personal (private) messages and notices.
• Replaced user mode n with more convenient W, also made it require privileges again – the experiment shown no good result.
• Opers see secret channels in WHOIS replies again, but prefix is changed to %, to make it obviously abnormal and, more important, unclickable in client software.
• Fixed a bug that allowed regular users receive wallops and server notices.
• Updated message table and the number of accepted parameters to correct values. Relaxed protocol talking is made easy, like you no longer need to type the colon with PRIVMSG while using telnet as a client. Nothing serious behind this update, just a clean-up.
• A new flag T can be assigned to server connections to enable tokenization, which is disabled by default. [docs]
• Rewrote protocol tokenization routines. It's now automatic and transparent to the main server code (protocol logic). Because it's done at the daemon's transport level, it must be much more effective since the pass-through messages are also tokenized. Token table is now built automatically, without manual token assignment to every message. Table serial number is added to PROTOCTL to avoid protocol incompatibilities.
• Away status is propagated again, instead of using the G user mode.
• If a topic is reset to the same string, nickname and time is remembered but nothing is sent to channel members to avoid flood.
• Host mask is re-calculated when umode o is remotely changed.

• Changed the no-color (channel mode c) channel logic:

  1. Channel operators, servers and services can use colors in topics.
  2. Colorful messages from non-ops are denied ("Cannot send to channel") instead of being stripped.
• Added a command-line switch D to show compile-time settings.
• When specifying a services host name, an U-Line is added automatically for that host. [docs]
• Disabled the f user mode from regular users, removed the traffic notice. It only lets receive flood notices again.
• Removed UDP pinging socket for it's no longer used.
• Removed everything related to "zombies".
• Pid file location can be specified in the configuration file. If not set, process identifier is not written. Note that the file is only created after the configuration is read when the daemon starts up, any further rehashes do nothing related.
• Removed the TRACE command.
• Removed modeless channels (prefix +). When a user tries to join a channel with an invalid (or missing) namespace character, # is automatically added.
• Servers (and services) are now able to give operator privileges (umode o) to remote user. This is good for network with centralized privilege management, avoids the need to maintain O-Lines at each server. However, commands that need Server Administrator privileges, such as DIE and RESTART, still require a proper O-Line with the A flag.
• Disabled manual change for raA user modes (previously it was saying that r is an unknown user mode – a wrong error message). It also eliminates the dancing +a/-a mode changes during identification to Services.
• Removed the channel mask rudiment.
• Removed useless m_hash and m_dns commands. BSD version is now compiled with as strict command line as MinGW, almost no warnings are tolerated.
• Removed all signs of AUTH (identd).
• Regular users no longer see server names, at all. Only opers do, after the privilege is applied. This is done in order to prevent users from using exact server names when there is a round-robin entry point. This helps avoid problems when a single server becomes unavailable but users keep trying to connect to it instead of using the rest of available servers.
• Better console events handling under Win32.
• Fixed a bug with opers being able to see secret channel's topics in some cases.
• Added MinGW makefiles, removed ones for MSVC.
• Removed the ircdpw binary. Password hashes are calculated online using the MKPASSWD command. [docs]

Installation notes

This release contains a large amount of changes and requires configuration changes. Carefully follow the following steps to get a working config.

1. Configuration lines of the form "option_name value" are no longer supported and must be renamed to corresponding F-Lines. Option names are mostly unchanged, which makes it easier to convert the existing settings. Run the server with the -F command line switch to display the list of available options. [docs]
2. Charset conversion maps are now loaded using F:CHARSET lines, file names must be specified relative to the server's working directory. There is no charset path setting anymore, be careful. Typically, you would copy all F:CHARSET lines from the default configuration file. [docs]
3. There aren't any N-Lines anymore, all linking information is defined using C-Lines. This means that there is only one password for a server link now, unlike the older versions which had two different passwords – incoming and outgoing. Make sure the passwords are equal on both sides of the link. Also, check the new "flags" field. [docs]
4. Z and I lines no longer exist, both functionalities have been moved into K-Lines. [docs]
5. M-Lines no longer exist. Add an extra P-Line for incoming server connections. [docs]
6. Add F-Lines for SERVERNAME, SERVERINFO and BINDADDR based on your old M-Line. [docs]
7. Replace your A-Line with ADMIN_LOC1, ADMIN_LOC2 and ADMIN_MAIL F-Lines.