View source for So you want to link to pissnet

This manual will guide you step-by step on how to compile, configure and link your server to Pissnet.

=== Step 0: Contemplate your life choices ===

* You sure you want to do this?
** Really?
* Let the despair set in.
** Or ''don't'' let the despair set in.
* Thar be dragons here.
** They're horny.
*** (Get it? Cause they have horns? Ah. Sigh.)
* Just make sure this is something you really want to do. We'd like for people to be able to not only set up a server, '''but also keep it maintained and updated.'''
* With great power comes great responsibili'''pee'''. 
* At minimum, you'll need to know your way around a shell and be able to self diagnose your own issues on your own server. We'll try to help out but a lot of the time it's your own config that needs tweaking and only you can do that for yourself.
* That said... Unrealircd is pretty simple and easy to set up. Proceed if you're horny like dragons.


'''Important note:'''

* It is highly advised that you '''don't''' use your own home computer or home internet connection if you're able to. There are many options for free-tier (or free trial with generous credits) cloud VMS providers... Including Oracle, AWS and Google. Other providers are quite inexpensive, running about $3 to $5 a month for the lowest spec vServer, which is more than plenty for an IRCd. Linode, Vultr, Hetzner, OVH, Digital Ocean, BuyVM are options if you want to get away from the 'big three.' A lot of it comes down to personal preference. Just about anything that can give you a Linux 'box' is able to run Unrealircd. If this is your first time running a cloud service and you're not quite sure where to start, Oracle is probably the most documented and it's fairly straightforward. They have an always free tier with generous quotas, but they do require a credit card for sign-up (which is not stored on the account).

=== Step 1: Preparing your system ===

* We will be building the IRCd from source, so of course you will need a few tools, like: <code>git</code>, <code>gcc</code>, etc.
** On Ubuntu, Debian and the like, you can install these with <code>apt install git build-essential python3 libssl-dev</code>
* It is usually a good idea to run UnrealIRCd on it's own user. You can create a <code>ircd</code> user with <code>adduser --disabled-password --shell /bin/bash --gecos "User" ircd</code>
* Switch to the new ircd user with <code>sudo -iu ircd</code>

=== Step 2: Downloading and building the IRCd ===

We will download [https://github.com/pissnet/pissircd PissIRCd], which is a fork of UnrealIRCd with a few modules and patches that are useful for pissnet.

* Get the PissIRCd source code with <code>git clone https://github.com/pissnet/pissircd</code>
* Configure it for compilation with <code>cd pissircd && ./Config</code>
* The script will ask you a few questions. It is recommended to pick the defaults for everything, so you can just hit enter on every question.
* After you finish configuring, you can now compile and install PissIRCd with <code>make && make install</code>

=== Step 3: Configuring your brand new IRCd ===

* Grab the [[Optimal linking script of doom]] and execute it in your server. The script will ping every pissnet hub and give you the link block for the three hubs with the lowest ping. Save those link blocks for later
* Go to the ircd directory (with <code>cd ~/unrealircd</code>) and copy the example file to its final location (<code>cp conf/examples/example.conf conf/unrealircd.conf</code>)
* Edit the <code>conf/unrealircd.conf</code> with your favorite text editor. The parts you want to change are:
** The <code>me {}</code> block:
*** <code>name</code> is the name of your server. It doesn't need to resolve to your server, but it's a plus if it does.
*** <code>info</code> a description for your server, you can be creative here.
*** <code>sid</code> is an identifier for your server and it should be unique. You can check out the '''[[Great big-ass server list of doom]]''' to find an unused one for your server.
** The <code>admin {}</code> block:
*** In this block you can have up to three lines of free text. Ideally it should have some kind of info so we can contact you in case something goes wrong. You can put just your nick, nick and email or whatever.
** The <code>oper ... {}</code> block:
***This block sets the username and password you will use with the <code>/oper</code> command to admin your server. The default user and password are "bobsmith" and "test". '''CHANGE IT'''.
* At the bottom of the file, paste the three <code>link {}</code> blocks you got when you ran the [[Optimal linking script of doom]]
* Now you can start your IRCd with `./unrealircd start`.
** One potential hitch at this point is whether or not you have properly configured your VMS's firewall to allow incoming and/or outgoing connections, especially on the common IRCd ports (6667, 6697, 6900)
* Connect to it with your IRC client to check that everything is OK. Check if your oper credentials work with <code>/oper username password</code> as defined in your conf file, you should get auto-joined to a channel named <code>#opers</code> when it succeeds.

That's it! Now your server is ready to run! But before, you have to send your own link block to one of the hub administrators. Grab your link block with <code>./unrealircd genlinkblock</code>, upload it to a [https://bpaste.net pastebin] and send it to the admins of the hubs you added to your config file (Hint: their nicks are in a comment block above the <code>link ...{}</code> block). After at least one hub adds you, you will automatically connect to the network!

=== Step 4: After you link... ===

* Create an account on this wiki and [[Form:Server|add your server to the list]]