To install UnrealIRCd on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS X and other *NIX systems you generally compile and install from source. In addition to that you will also need to configure UnrealIRCd. This page explains how to do all that. Even if you are completely new to UnrealIRCd then all these steps to get the IRCd up and running shouldn't take more than 30 minutes in total.
At a minimum, UnrealIRCd needs a compiler and the OpenSSL library. Even better is if you install a few other libraries, but this is not required as UnrealIRCd will fallback to its own libraries if you miss them.
- Ubuntu 20.*/21.*:
sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev libpcre2-dev libargon2-dev libsodium-dev libc-ares-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev - Ubuntu 18.*:
sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev libpcre2-dev libargon2-0-dev libsodium-dev libc-ares-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev - Ubuntu 16.*:
apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev libpcre2-dev libsodium-dev libc-ares-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev - Debian 9/10:
sudo apt-get install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev libpcre2-dev libargon2-0-dev libsodium-dev libc-ares-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev - For unlisted Linux distro's which use apt-get, the minimum requirement is:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev - For Linux distro's that use yum: you need a compiler and the openssl-dev/openssl-devel/libssl-dev package.
- For FreeBSD: your system normally already has a compiler and the openssl development library installed, so you are good to go.
Don't run as root
Be sure to build and run the IRCd as a regular user and not as root. If you are on a VPS / root shell then create a user 'unrealircd' or similar (sudo adduser unrealircd) and do all steps below as that user (login as user 'unrealircd').
Grab the source (.tar.gz)
From the shell
Connect to the *NIX server via SSH. All the following commands execute on the *NIX server.
wget https://sisrv.net/files/ircd/unrealircd-5.2.4.tar.gz
On FreeBSD you may have to use:
fetch https://sisrv.net/files/ircd/unrealircd-5.2.4.tar.gz
If neither works, for example you get an 'unknown command' then you should install the 'wget' package on your system or try uploading (see next).
Alternative: uploading to shell
You can also choose to download the .tar.gz of UnrealIRCd via your browser, save it to disk, and then upload it to the shell via SCP or SFTP.
Extract the source
Extract the .tar.gz and enter the unrealircd-x.y.z directory:
tar xfz unrealircd-5.2.4.tar.gz
rm -rf unrealircd-5.2.4.tar.gz
cd unrealircd-5.* (check your version)
NOTE: There's some logic here. If the file is called, say, unrealircd-5.2.4.tar.gz then it will extract to the unrealircd-5.2.4/ directory. As you can see, the directory name is different for each release to make sure you don't accidentally overwrite your existing installation.
Compiling
First, run the ./Config script which will ask a number of questions. You can just press Enter to accept the default answers.
./Config
Now, compile UnrealIRCd by running make, this may take a minute (or two):
make
Finally, run make install (important!):
make install
Creating a configuration file
- Change to the installed UnrealIRCd directory, this is /home/yourusername/unrealircd by default (For more information on the directory structure see UnrealIRCd files and directories).
cd ~/unrealircd
- Copy conf/example/example.conf to your conf/ directory and rename it to unrealircd.conf
sisrv@sisrv.net:~/unrealircd$ cp conf/examples/example.conf conf/unrealircd.conf
Upgrading
Upgrading from UnrealIRCd 5.x.x to 5.y.y is very simple. You can upgrade from any version to any newer version.
NOTE: If you are upgrading from UnrealIRCd 4 to UnrealIRCd 5 it is nearly the same and very easy.
Linux/BSD/OS X
- Backup your existing /home/xxx/unrealircd directory:
-
cp -Rav /home/xxx/unrealircd /home/xxx/unrealircd.bak
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- Download and install latest version of UnrealIRCd. See Installing from source and stop before Creating a configuration file.
- Double check: make sure you ran make install as this will install all new files in /home/xxx/unrealircd.
- Restart the IRCd to make the changes effective:
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- cd /home/xxx/unrealircd
- ./unrealircd restart
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We suggest you install the latest and supported version of UnrealIRCd 6
