UnrealIRCd FAQ

Is UnrealIRCd suitable for me?

UnrealIRCd is a highly advanced and customizable IRC daemon. It is used both by experts and beginners.

Of all IRC servers out there, UnrealIRCd is the most popular one (42%) if you look at the statistics from IRCStats.org. It is the most popular IRC server for both small servers and bigger servers.

Note that the top-5 networks use their own IRC software because (presumably) they want development to be under their own control and design their own network-specific features. UnrealIRCd, on the other hand, is very customizable and should be suitable for all networks. You can tweak a lot of configuration settings and load or unload modules to suit your needs, without ever needing to touch any source code. You can also load 3rd party modules from people other than the UnrealIRCd team or code one yourself (if you know C).

How many users can UnrealIRCd handle?

An IRC network running UnrealIRCd, consisting of multiple servers, can be as big as 100,000 users or more. A single UnrealIRCd server can handle 8000 local users on Linux/BSD by default.

On Windows servers we do not recommend more than 1000 locally connected users. If you need more, it's best to run UnrealIRCd on Linux or FreeBSD.

Horizontal scaling

Although the maximum number of local users a server can handle can be increased when running ./Config, it is generally recommended to spread users over multiple servers instead. This is called horizontal scaling and this is where IRC is good at.

The beauty of IRC is that you can have multiple servers linked to form 1 single IRC network. Users on the same network can see each other and chat in the same channels. The benefit of this is when 1 server goes down for whatever reason (scheduled maintenance, network outage, DDoS, server outage, etc.) users can still connect to the other servers and enjoy IRC. This is achieved by linking servers together and then using DNS RR (Round Robin) where a record like irc.example.org points to multiple IP addresses.

Recommended setup for networks

If you are planning a (medium-size or big) network then we recommend starting with 3 servers: 2 for clients with a planned maximum of 5000, and 1 server as a hub (often with Services running on it too). Then, expand when you get more users. Technically, there's no 5K limit, though, see also next section on the system specifications (CPU/RAM).

How much CPU and memory do I need?

Most of the time UnrealIRCd uses only a few percent of CPU and less than 100MB of memory. However, in case your server is attacked or flooded this may rise significantly. UnrealIRCd has a lot of countermeasures against floods and attacks but will need some power and memory during those "peak times". This is what we recommend (assuming no other major services are running at the same machine):

Locally connected users CPU (vCPU/cores) System memory
<500 1-2 512MB minimum, 1GB recommended
500-2000 1-2 2GB recommended
2000-8000 2 4GB recommended
Remotely connected users CPU (vCPU/cores) System memory
0-100000 1 512MB minimum, 1GB recommended

As you can see, the requirements highly depend on LOCALLY connected users. Remote users only use very small amounts of memory, only a few kilobytes (Kb) at most, it's almost negligible. A network, with multiple servers, can therefore be as big as 100,000 users or more. See also How many users can UnrealIRCd handle?.

CPU: As said, UnrealIRCd generally uses only a few % CPU. Probably any CPU is fine. Some people even run UnrealIRCd on a Raspberry Pi. One thing to keep in mind is that adding more than 2 CPU's is not useful, as the extra CPU's will not be utilized.

Memoryː The machine should have a minimum of 512MB, but more would be better. Note that 99% of the time >512MB memory will NOT be used! The extra memory is there only in case of a flood / server attack / network issues, in which case for a short moment memory can peak to the given figure. If you use the recommended memory values then your server can "take the hit" (DoS and DDoS) without much noticeable slowdown and without going down.

What VM plan should I pick at my provider?

If you use Amazon EC2 then their T2 series (burstable) can be a good choice. They are ideal for low CPU use cases, like UnrealIRCd, and allow short "bursts" of higher CPU if needed. The t2.micro offers 10% CPU speed with 1GB ram and can easily handle 500 users. The t2.small should be sufficient for 500-2000 users per-server (so for almost everyone).

Microsoft Azure offers something similar with their B-series (burstable virtual machines). A VM like B1s would be enough for 0-500 users and B1ms should be sufficient up to 2000 users.

Things that have a major impact on CPU/memory

If you use complex regular expressions in spamfilters then this can negatively affect performance. However, most spam filters are simple enough that you can have tens or even 100 of them without any noticeable performance impact.

The Channel history feature could have a major impact on memory usage. How high depends on the number of channels that have channel mode +H set, and their exact settings (how much history is stored).

How can I help?

You can help in many ways! See Contributing.

Releases

What is the current version and when will next version be released?

The latest Stable version is 6.0.3, released on April 2, 2022. A Release Candidate called 6.0.4-rc2 was released on June 3, 2022. Stable version 6.0.4 is scheduled for somewhere in June, 2022.
The latest Oldstable version is 5.2.4 released on January 28, 2022. For Windows the latest version is 5.2.4b (which will show up as 5.2.4). There is no time estimate on a 5.2.5.

In general, for the Stable branch, we release a new version every 2-3 months, even if there are only minor changes. This makes sure that at least new installations benefit from recent fixes and enhancements. We always try to make clear what changed in each version so you can decide yourself if you want to upgrade or not. In case of serious issues we will be forced to release more often.

Still supported, but old versions

The UnrealIRCd 5 support schedule is as follows:

  • January 1, 2022 - July 1, 2022: No new features in UnrealIRCd 5, only (major) bug fixes.
  • July 1, 2022 - July 1, 2023: Security fixes only
  • July 1, 2023: End of all support for UnrealIRCd 5

No longer supported versions

The following UnrealIRCd versions do not receive any fixes anymore, not even security fixes! If you use these, please upgrade to UnrealIRCd 5 or UnrealIRCd 6 ASAP!

About the 5.2.x series

When UnrealIRCd 5.2.0 came out, it became the direct successor to UnrealIRCd 5.0.9(.1). This means there will be no further 5.0.x releases, in particular there will never be an UnrealIRCd 5.0.10. So: upgrade to 5.2.x or to 6.x.

The only configuration changes between 5.0.x and 5.2.x are in the set::anti-flood block and in the allow block (the latter will only give a warning). When starting UnrealIRCd will give you clear instructions if anything needs to be changed (and what). This process is really minor, the server will usually tell you to just delete a few old lines from the configuration file. For many users it will only be a warning and not a hard error.

If you are on 5.0.9(.1) or later then try the new ./unrealircd upgrade command which makes upgrading easy.

What is new in the latest version?

Please check out the releases announcements on the forums or browse through the release notes for UnrealIRCd 6 (or UnrealIRCd 5).

How do I get the latest source code?

Regular downloads

Most people should use the downloads from www.unrealircd.org. Those are releases that have actually been tested by several people.

There also exists something else, which is the very latest source code from our git repository. This contains code changes committed only minutes or days ago and is considered bleeding edge. Possibly nobody has tested this code, or just one person. It may not even compile. People run this code to help UnrealIRCd development, to find bugs, or to get fixes for issues that have not been addressed in a release.

Option #1: I'm lazy, I just want a .tar.gz or zip snapshot

Go to our GitHub page. Click on the green button Code and select Download ZIP.

Option #2: The 'real way' to get the latest bleeding edge source...

This describes how to 'checkout' the repository on your machine, which allows you to easily pull in updates (which happen every day/week). First, run:

git clone https://github.com/unrealircd/unrealircd.git unrealircd-src

This will create a directory unrealircd-src with all the source code (UnrealIRCd 6 bleeding edge).

If you have already done that, and - after a few days - you want to pull in the latest changes then run the following in your unrealircd-src directory: git pull

git: command not found

If you get something like git: command not found then you need to install git, so: apt install git / yum install git.

Resources

Where is the documentation

The UnrealIRCd documentation is located here.

Where can I get online support?

I found a bug or have a feature suggestion

If you have a feature suggestion or found a bug (or even crashed) then please report it on https://bugs.unrealircd.org/. This process only takes a couple of minutes!

We use bug tracker software so we don't loose track of bugs and feature requests. PLEASE report it there and don't report issues to us via IRC, email, forums, or any other way... all that will happen is we will forget about it and then your bug will not be fixed.

The bug tracker aids us with coordinating what bugs should be fixed in next version, what has priority, which bugs are similar (or duplicates) and thus may help us spot patterns, who should fix what bugs, etc.

Getting started

How to install UnrealIRCd

Check out the Installing from source (for *NIX) or Installing (Windows) articles.

Compile/build problems

I ran ./configure and got tons of problems

Do NOT use ./configure! Run ./Config instead.

make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

First of all, did you run ./Config? You must run ./Config first!

The error means something must have gone wrong when you ran ./Config earlier. So scroll up in your terminal and have a look at the last 20-30 lines of output that ./Config gave to you. Maybe you don't have a C compiler or are missing some libraries. What helps is if you follow our installation guide, the first step there is installing some packages.

(v)fork: Resource temporarily unavailable

You are trying to compile you ircd on a nice shell and your sysadmin has set your process limit too low.

Explain the problem to your system administrator: say you are unable to compile because of the process limit, and paste the error to them.

Windows: unresolved external symbol ..

NOTE: We highly suggest you to simply download the Windows precompiled version from unrealircd.org instead of compiling your own (unless you need to).

This error can mean a number of things, but if you see unresolved symbols in non-windows functions, such as:

  Creating library L_COMMANDS.lib and object L_COMMANDS.exp
M_OPER.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _sendto_snomask_global re
ferenced in function _m_oper
M_INVITE.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _sendto_snomask_global
src/modules/commands.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'cl' : return code '0x2'
Stop.

Then this is because the wircd.def file is not up to date with your compile settings. Fixing this is simple, you need to download dlltool.exe and place it in your path (eg: c:\windows\system32). Then, for compiling you use something like this:

nmake -f makefile.win32 [your other options here]
nmake -f makefile.win32 SYMBOLFILE
nmake -f makefile.win32 [your other options here]

So basically you just run nmake -f makefile.win32 SYMBOLFILE and then restart compiling again.

If that didn't help, then this is a different problem (eg: old compiler, too new compiler, invalid compile environment, etc).

Windows: I'm unable to compile UnrealIRCd on windows

NOTE: We highly suggest you to simply download the Windows precompiled version from unrealircd.org instead of compiling your own (unless you need to).

If you really want to compile UnrealIRCd on Windows yourself, then read the instructions on Compiling UnrealIRCd on Windows.

Getting UnrealIRCd up and running

The questions below answer problems with getting UnrealIRCd booted.

Windows: It doesn't start?? nothing happens!

If you start UnrealIRCd and nothing happens, you see nothing, then you are probably running UnrealIRCd as a service. This means you checked Install as a service during the installer. When UnrealIRCd is running as a service you won't see a graphical interface (GUI).

Switch from service mode to GUI mode

  • Open an elevated command prompt
  • Change to the C:\Program Files\UnrealIRCd 5\bin (for U5) or C:\Program Files\UnrealIRCd 6\bin directory (for U6)
  • Run the command unrealsvc uninstall

This won't uninstall UnrealIRCd itself, but will uninstall the service.

Now just click the UnrealIRCd icon on the desktop or start menu. You will now see a graphical interface (GUI).

If you want to run in services mode again, then follow the same steps but run "unrealsvc install".

I still want to run as a service

If you run UnrealIRCd as a service then errors are logged to service.log in the logs subdirectory.

Where are errors logged?

Errors are normally logged to the file ircd.log in the logs subdirectory.

If you run UnrealIRCd "as a service" on Windows rather than in GUI mode then the errors are logged to service.log instead. Note that you may want to (temporarily) switch from service to GUI mode, see #Switch from service mode to GUI mode.

set:: missing

You didn't set a required variable in your set block. See the Set block for documentation on the specific variable.

{ } block missing

Your configfile doesn't contain a required block, please check the documentation on the block. Each block is documented in detail.

Unknown directive

Several possibilities:

  • you have a unknown/misspelled variable name.
  • you forgot to load a module
  • you are using an older UnrealIRCd version (note that the documentation in this wiki is about the UnrealIRCd development version so it may contain features not yet available in the current release).
  • you have put the setting in the wrong place, for example set::options::dont-resolve means set { options { dont-resolve; } }
  • you have a parse error in your config file. For example, the admin block should be something like:
admin {
        "Blah";
        "Blahblah";
}

If you forget a ; somewhere then it won't work!

See Configuration#Configuration_file_syntax for an explanation on the syntax and to learn what is valid and what isn't. It's just one page.

illegal something::class / unknown class 'something'

You are referring to a class which you didn't declare.

You refer from allow/oper/server blocks to class blocks so the class blocks should be defined before you refer to them. So the order is important.

Error binding stream socket to .. Address already in use

This means the IRCd cannot listen on the port(s) you specified. Here are the two (most common) possibilities:

Another process is using the port

An IRCd process is already running on the same port(s).

Solution: simply kill the old IRCd before you try to launch UnrealIRCd (or make one of them use a different port)

You are on a shell box

When you use a shell provider you normally need to 'bind' to a a specific IP which the shell provider assigned to you. So if you have:

listen         *:6667;

Then change that to:

listen         1.2.3.4:6667;

Where 1.2.3.4 is the IP you received from your shell provider. You will have to do this for ALL your listen blocks.

See also the documentation of the Listen block.

UnrealIRCd starts fine but I get Connection refused

See #Connecting

loadmodule ....: undefined symbol ....

If you get undefined symbol errors such as:

* unrealircd.conf:52: loadmodule src/modules/commands.so: failed to load: tmp/F73A8A80.commands.so: Undefined symbol "ssl_get_cipher"

Then most likely you did not upgrade or (re)compile UnrealIRCd properly. Do the following:

make clean
./Config
make
make install

And try booting UnrealIRcd again.

Reasons why it might not have worked:

  • Perhaps you forgot 1 of the steps of above
  • Make sure your irc is installed in the path you think it is. Double check the paths you see / entered.
  • Possibly you have some old .so files from previous versions that you are trying to load. Check the file date/time to ensure they are really just compiled a few minutes ago.

If all of the above didn't work then you could just as easily try a clean UnrealIRCd installation. rm -rf or rename your current one, extract a fresh .tar.gz and configure&compile it.

Your server is not listening on any SSL ports

From 4.0.11 onwards you may see something like this:

[error] Your server is not listening on any SSL ports.
[error] Add this to your unrealircd.conf: listen { ip *; port 6697; options { ssl; } }

This is because you do not have any listen { } blocks with SSL enabled.

Why is this important? Using SSL/TLS prevents people from eavesdropping, much like HTTPS is better than HTTP. For more information see our SSL/TLS article.

To fix this, follow the instructions as outputed on your screen. In the example of above the fix is to add this to your unrealircd.conf:

listen { ip *; port 6697; options { ssl; } }

Or a nicer version (but the same result):

listen {
        ip *;
        port 6697;
        options { ssl; }
}

We suggest to use use port number 6697 for SSL/ TLS. This port number standard port for secure IRC (Source: [1]).

Most people should not see this warning/error, since UnrealIRCd has been shipping and advocating this SSL port in the default example.conf since 2004 (Source: [2])

You have old examples in your spamfilter.conf

The problem

If you see the following error or warning:

[warning] *** IMPORTANT ***
[warning] You have old examples in your spamfilter.conf. We suggest you to edit this file and replace the examples.

Then this means that the example spamfilters in your conf\spamfilter.conf are outdated.

The solution

Please open the conf\spamfilter.conf file on your server and replace the contents (or at least the examples) with this: New spamfilter.conf

Or, if this is too much work for you, then you can also just remove all examples or not include spamfilter.conf from your unrealircd.conf. They are just (old) examples anyway.

More information

The information from above was about example spamfilters that shipped with UnrealIRCd. You may also have added custom spamfilters yourself. For those, if you use method posix then you need to change these to method regex. See the FAQ item POSIX spamfilters are deprecated for more information.

Upgrading

How do I upgrade UnrealIRCd?

  • See Upgrading for all minor upgrades, such as 5.2.x→5.2.y or 6.0.x→6.0.y. Hint: on *NIX you can simply use ./unrealircd upgrade
  • For 5.x to 6.x, see Upgrading from 5.x
  • For 4.x to 5.x, see Upgrading from 4.x
  • For upgrading from 3.2.x to 5.x/6.x, see here

Converting old log block to new (U5 to U6 upgrade)

If you are using UnrealIRCd 5 config on UnrealIRCd 6 then you may see something like:

[error] unrealircd.conf:100: Your log block contains no sources and no destinations.
[error] The log block changed between UnrealIRCd 5 and UnrealIRCd 6, see ... on how to convert it to the new syntax.

In UnrealIRCd 6 we use a new log block syntax. For full details see Log block.

Most people will just want to log everything. Use this:

log {
        source {
            !debug;
            all;
        }
        destination {
            file "ircd.log" { maxsize 100M; }
        }
}

Nesting comments

Previously in UnrealIRCd you could do something like this::

/* This is a comment
 * Lalala
 /* and this is a comment within a comment */
 */

... this was because each /* required a */ to terminate the comment. In other words 'comment nesting', if you had two /* then you needed two */.

Starting with UnrealIRCd 4.2.1 we no longer do this and the rule is simply: /* to start a comment and the first */ ends the comment immediately:

/* This is a comment
 * Lalala
 * you can type more but you can only close it once:
 */

Any attempt to use the old way will result in a Ignoring extra end comment warning.

Why? The old style 'comment nesting' was non-standard, and confusing if you for example wrote /* This is for FreeBSD/*NIX */

New operclass permissions

UnrealIRCd 4.2.1 and higher have a new operclass permission systems. When upgrading you may encounter the message: UnrealIRCd 4.2.1 and higher have a new operclass permissions system. and be referred to this FAQ item.

Default operclasses

About 99% of our users use the default operclasses and in such a case you should never see this error. Your operclass.default.conf should have been upgraded when installing UnrealIRCd 4.2.1 or higher. So if you are seeing an error in conf/operclass.default.conf then something went wrong with that.

However, if you are seeing an error related to a file that is NOT operclass.default.conf then see next section:

Modified operclasses

This is for the 1% of the users that like to customize their operclasses. The bad news is: we renamed about 50 of the permissions out of the 100+ so you will have to redo your changes. The good news is that the grouping and naming of permissions is now a lot better and more logical and we did this all for you! The new permissions are extensively documented at the Operclass permissions page.

Note that operclass::privileges is now called operclass::permissions. But you CANNOT just rename your block and be done with it!! For example all the override privilege is now called channel, and thus if you grant channel to low-privileged IRCOp's then they end up having a lot of privileges. Yes, really, you either need to use the default operclasses or have a serious look at the operclass permissions and not try to cut any corners!

Upgrade: download verification issues

'gpgv' not installed

You may get the warning:

WARNING: The GnuPG (GPG/PGP) verification tool 'gpgv' is not installed.
Consider running 'sudo apt install gpgv' or 'yum install gnupg2'
When 'gpgv' is installed then the UnrealIRCd upgrade script can
verify the digital signature of the download file.

WARNING: Unable to check download integrity
This is for your information only. It is possible to continue.
Press ENTER to continue, or CTRL+C to abort.

Then there is nothing really wrong, but.. it means the script cannot verify the digital signature. You have two choices:

  • Simply press ENTER to ignore the warning
  • Or do what it says and install the gpgv program (sudo apt install gpgv or sudo yum install gnupg2) and run ./unrealircd upgrade again.

GPG/PGP verification failed

There are also other possible errors such as:

WARNING: GPG/PGP verification failed. This could be a security issue.
This is for your information only. It is possible to continue.
Press ENTER to continue, or CTRL+C to abort.

If you get that warning, with the note "This could be a security issue" then you should be careful. Something is wrong. Please report to the UnrealIRCd team at syzop@unrealircd.org and/or https://bugs.unrealircd.org/.

ERROR: Upgrade failed

If the ./unrealircd upgrade script gives this error then it can mean various things. Try to read the error messages above it, see if you can fix these.

If you can't fix it then simply don't use ./unrealircd upgrade and go for the manual upgrade method: see Upgrading.

Allow block uses allow::mask nowadays

In UnrealIRCd 5.2.1 and later we have changed the allow block slightly.

Instead of allow::ip and allow::hostname we now use allow::mask, so we use the same type of match blocks everywhere in the config.

Simply edit your configuration file and change ip (or hostname) to mask.

So, change:

allow {
        ip *@*;
        class clients;
        maxperip 3;
}

To:

allow {
        mask *@*;
        class clients;
        maxperip 3;
}

How to upgrade from 3.2.x

You can upgrade from 3.2.x to 5.x or 6.x. Just be sure to run ./unrealircd upgrade-conf to convert your configuration file. You may still get some warnings or errors when you try to start UnrealIRCd but these should be self-explanatory.

Note that it is not possible to link UnrealIRCd 3.2.x to UnrealIRCd 5.x or later (see also this question).

How do I upgrade my network?

Since you cannot link 3.2.x to 5.x you have two options:

  • Upgrade all servers at the same time, from 3.2.x to 5.x, in 1 big move. That is: kill all 3.2.x servers, then start all 5.x servers. Of course, best to first test your setup on a small test network.

-OR-

  • Do a two-stage upgrade:
  1. Upgrade all your servers gradually (one by one) from 3.2.x to 4.x
  2. After all that is done. You can now upgrade gradually (one by one) from 4.x to 5.x.

Why is the upgrade path so shitty for 3.2.x to 5.x?

So, you can upgrade from 3.2.x to 5.x just fine, see above. But... the way to upgrade on a multi-server network is indeed not ideal.

The reason for this is that a lot of cleanups have taken place in the past 5 years to get rid of old code. We now make modern assumptions about server traffic (protocols). To be frank, and you probably already know this very well: you shouldn't be running 3.2.x anymore since all support (including security support) for 3.2.x was dropped on Dec 31, 2016.

UnrealIRCd 4 was released in December 2015, you have had more than 4 years to upgrade from 3.2.x to 4.x. Also, again, if you run 3.2.x that is very dangerous since it lacks security fixes.

Connecting

The FAQ items below assume your UnrealIRCd is running but you can't connect to it with an IRC client.

We split the connection problems in two sub-sections:

Please be sure to read the correction secton :)

Unable to connect to IRC server (server at home)

This FAQ item assumes you are running UnrealIRCd on a server at home. If this isn't the case then see #Unable to connect to IRC server (VPS/shell) instead!

Really running?

First of all, is UnrealIRCd really running? If on Windows: do you see a GUI? If on *NIX: do you see the process if you run ps x|grep ircd ?

Check also #Where are errors logged? to see if there are no errors.

Can you connect locally to your IRCd?

Try /server 127.0.0.1 6667. If even yourself can't connect to your own IRCd by this then verify if the IRCd is running at all! Or maybe you bounded to a specific IP or using a different port. You should fix this, there's no point in continuing with the steps below.

Have outside users connect to your IP

Try using the IP name of your IRC server first, rather than a hostname. So /server 1.2.3.4 6667 where 1.2.3.4 is your internet IP. You can find out your internet IP by going to whatsmyip.org or similar sites. (Also note that outside users cannot connect to your ircd with ips like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, those are LAN ip's, not internet routable IP's!)

You probably need some port forwarding

If outside users can't connect to your Internet IP, but you can connect locally, then most likely a router or firewall in-between is blocking their access. This is common. You need to "forward" your IRCd port (usually 6667 and 6697) on your router. Please consult your routers documentation. This article may also be of help.

Don't forget Windows firewall!

You may need to allow the Windows Firewall to allow incoming connections to your IRCd. It should have asked this when you fired up the IRCd. Alternatively, you can disable Windows firewall if you trust the people on the same LAN and are connected to the internet via a router.

Finally...

When the port has been forwarded on your router and windows firewall is turned off (or on but incoming IRCd connections are allowed) then it should be no problem to get outside users on your IRCd. Have fun!

Unable to connect to IRC server (VPS/shell)

Below assumes you are running UnrealIRCd on a VPS, shell provider or a dedicated server. If instead, you are running a server at your own home then see #Unable to connect to IRC server (server at home) instead!

Really running and listening?

First of all, is UnrealIRCd really running? On *NIX run ps x|grep ircd, it should output something like this:

syzop@vulnscan:~$ ps x|grep unrealircd
 7795 ?        S      0:00 /home/syzop/unrealircd/bin/unrealircd

This means UnrealIRCd is running.

Listening on the right ports?

On *NIX (but not easily on Windows) you can double check if UnrealIRCd is actually listening on the port. You do this via netstat -anp|grep ircd:

syzop@vulnscan:~$ netstat -anp|grep unrealircd
(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info
 will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:7000            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      7795/unrealircd
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:6667            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      7795/unrealircd
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:6668            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      7795/unrealircd
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:6900            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      7795/unrealircd
unix  2      [ ]         DGRAM                    212392255 7795/unrealircd

In the example of above the IRCd is running on the ports 7000, 6667, 6668 and 6900.

If it's not listening on the correct ports then stop here. Check #Where are errors logged? for errors.

Connect by IP

Try connecting to the IP of your IRC server first, rather than connect by hostname. So /server 1.2.3.4 6667 where 1.2.3.4 is the internet IP of the machine.

Check the firewall

If you cannot connect by IP then you need to check the firewall of the server. Consult the documentation for your Linux distribution or your non-Linux OS.

On some VPS providers like Amazon, you need to configure the firewall in your admin panel as well (these are called Security groups on Amazon EC2).

Can connect by IP but not by hostname

If connecting by IP works perfectly fine (/server 1.2.3.4), but you cannot connect to it by hostname (/server some.nice.hostna.me) then you need to understand that the hostname you are connecting with needs to be 'registered' at your DNS provider. You must own the domain name, and add something called an 'A record' to point to your IRC server. Explaining how to do this is outside the scope of this FAQ.

Running

This section assumes your server is up and running and you can connect to it, but you are having some sort of problem or question.

You need to use a secure connection (SSL/TLS) in order to /OPER

If you try to /OPER up from an insecure connection you will see the following error message: You need to use a secure connection (SSL/TLS) in order to /OPER.

Why?

UnrealIRCd, by default, requires IRCOps to use an SSL/TLS connection before they can use the /OPER command. This is because IRCOps will see sensitive information, both in terms of privacy and safety. By not using SSL/TLS you risk intercepting of sensitive information (including passwords) by third parties.

How to fix it

You basically have two options (choose 1):

Option 1: Tell your IRC client to connect with SSL/TLS

This is the highly recommended action. The standard SSL/TLS port is 6697. You have to configure your IRC client to connect to port 6697 and you must tell the IRC client to use SSL/TLS. How you do this depends on your IRC client:

  • In AdiIRC and mIRC you prefix the port with a plus sign: /server irc.example.org +6697
  • In irssi you use the -tls option: /connect -tls irc.example.org 6697
  • In weechat you use the -ssl option: /connect irc.example.org/6697 -ssl
  • Many other IRC clients use similar methods. In graphical chat clients you may have to tick a box called 'SSL' or 'TLS'.

IMPORTANT: Some IRC clients will not accept self-signed certificates by default (e.g: mIRC 7.59+) and you will recieve errors such as SSL certificate verify failed. Almost always the IRC client has an option to still trust/accept the certificate, consult your IRC client documentation. Of course, it would be even better if you use a "real" SSL/TLS certificate, see also Using Let's Encrypt with UnrealIRCd.

Option 2: Allow insecure oper connections

You can disable the SSL/TLS requirement for IRCOps. This is NOT recommended and, depending on your case and jurisdiction, you may violate law such as GDPR Article 32. However, it is available as an option, for example if you run a test network with only you (1 person) on it:

To disable the requirement you have to change set::plaintext-policy::oper from deny to warn:

set {
    plaintext-policy {
        oper warn;
    }
}

Where do I get a list of commands, user modes, channel modes, etc.

Check out the documentation:

I am missing server notices in UnrealIRCd 6

You are IRCOp but you are missing all or some server notices after you upgraded from UnrealIRCd 5 to UnrealIRCd 6?

In UnrealIRCd 6 lots of snomask letters changed, so maybe you have the wrong letters set. See the 5.x to 6.x Upgrade guide under Update your snomasks.

Also, as long as you run a mixed UnrealIRCd 5 - UnrealIRCd 6 network, you may miss some server notices, but not a lot.

Helpop doesn't work

If the /HELPOP command does not output anything, then try /QUOTE HELPOP just to be sure.

Still nothing? You need to include help.conf from your unrealircd.conf like this:

include "help/help.conf";

So better double check you have it. After having added it, rehash.

I can't change channel modes, join invite only channels, etc even though I am IRCOp!!

So, you are an IRCOp and you expect to be able to join all channels, regardless of whether they are invite only, have a channel key, if you are banned, etc. etc.? And you expect to be able to change channel modes through /MODE even though you are not a channel operator?

Have a look at the OperOverride. And you should read the IRCOp guide as well.

I have k/g-lined myself!!

-sigh-

See #How to prevent myself from getting banned on how to get on IRC anyway to resolve the situation.

NOTE: There's no way to remove any *LINES from the shell. Well, if you restart the IRCd the KLINEs will be cleared, of course. And if you have no other IRC servers linked then all other ban types (GLINE's) will be cleared as well.

How to prevent myself from getting banned

If you want to be sure that you can never get KLINE'd / GLINE'd / etc... then see below. Note that this has nothing to with channel bans (+b)!

Open your unrealircd.conf and add the following lines:

except ban { mask 1.2.3.4; }

Naturally replace 1.2.3.4 with your own IP address (your own ip address, not your server ip address)

After that, rehash the ircd.

How to become IRCOp / administrator

You define IRC Operators in the Oper block and then use the /OPER command on IRC to become an IRCOp.

For example, if your oper block is called 'TestOper' like this (first few lines):

oper TestOper {
        mask *;
        password "test";
..etc..

Then you would use the following command to become IRCOp:

/oper TestOper test

NOTE: both the name and the password are case sensitive!

Still have trouble becoming IRCOp?

  • Try with an oper::mask * like in the example of above. Only after it works you limit it down to an IP range, or you just keep it at *
  • Make sure you rehashed after making any changes to your unrealircd.conf

Once you are IRCOp, we recommend reading the IRCOp guide!

How to broadcast a message to all users

As an administrator you may want to broadcast a message to all users, either on one particular server or to everyone on all servers. Naturally only IRCOp's may do this, regular users can't.

Network-wide broadcasting

You normally use Services for this, the command is usually called GLOBAL and goes via OperServ:

/OS GLOBAL Hi this is a message to everyone!

You can also use this UnrealIRCd command. It also works without services but rquires you to have all your server names end in the same domain name:

/NOTICE $*.yournet.org Hi this is a message

Server-specific message

To send a message to everyone connected to irc1.yournet.org:

/NOTICE $irc1.yournet.org Hi this is a message

I am IRCOp but /LIST still hides certain channels

hidden on the client-side

Clients often have filtering options enabled by default. For example in mIRC if you right click on the channel list and select List options:

  • Ensure that it does not filter on a minimum amount of people. If you filter at minimum 2, then you won't see channels with only 1 user in it.
  • mIRC has a checkbox option called Hide non-text channels or Hide non-alphanumeric channels which want to uncheck (deselect). If the option is enabled then it will hide certain channels.

permitted to see?

You need the override::see::list operclass privilege in order to see secret channels in /LIST. The operclasses shipped with UnrealIRCd in operclass.default.conf include this capability, so if you use the 'netadmin' or other default operclasses then this is already OK.

incorrect time

Unusual, but possible: if your clock is off by 24 hours (or more) then some channels will be hidden as well.

Warning! Possible desynch: SJOIN for channel .. has a fishy timestamp (XX)

This is a serious condition, and is actually some sort of bug.

In technical terms, it means a MODE command (to be exact: the last parameter mode) was misinterpreted to be timestamp of the channel. For example UnrealIRCd 3.2.2 had a problem with SAMODE and certain parameters.

This is a serious condition and unfortunately the only way to fix it is to have all users leave the channel so it can be re-created.

I (suddenly) got clients quiting with Max SendQ exceeded!

short answer

Increase your class::sendq

long answer

This happens when a client issues a request that will return A LOT of data, usually '/who' (eg /who #channel). If you for example have large channels like 300+, 500+ etc... then /who #chan will return A LOT of data, therefore the max sendq (sendq == send queue) is reached and the client is disconnected... Some clients or scripts do a '/who #chan' on join. This explains why certain people will be killed directly on join, while others will not.

The solution is to simply increase the sendq. To what value? Something like 250000 is reasonably high (250k). If that doesn't work, try 500000 (500k).

hostnames are not resolving

You get *** Couldn't resolve your hostname; using your IP address instead?

The best way to test is to let someone from a remote location (not your LAN) connect to you where you can be sure of his host resolves (for example it works at ircnet/efnet/undernet/..). If the host resolves fine on one of those other networks but not on your UnrealIRCd server then you know there is a possibly problem on your end (your UnrealIRCd or your server).

DNS information is acquired from /etc/resolv.conf (*NIX) or the registry (Windows). Type '/quote dns i' (as an oper) to see the current nameserver in use by UnrealIRCd. If you changed your nameserver settings in resolv.conf or in Windows then you will have to run /REHASH -dns or restart UnrealIRCd.

Example of how to test your nameserver at *NIX:

# host 1.2.3.4
4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer test.domain.
# host test.domain
test.domain has address 1.2.3.4

In this example the host is correct and the nameserver seems to work fine. The user should get the host test.domain on IRC.

Another example:

# host 1.2.3.4
4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer somehost.domain.
# host somehost.domain
somehost.domain has address 5.5.5.5

In this case your own name server is fine, it is sending replies. But the information does not match: reverse dns resolved 1.2.3.4 to somehost.domain, however, when double checking this by resolving somehost.domain we got 5.5.5.5 back. Since forward DNS and reverse DNS don't match the user will not have a hostname on IRC. That's how it works, otherwise everyone could spoof their own hosts... In this case the owner of the domain and/or the IP could (or should) fix their DNS entries to make them match.

 

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