bip/README

This is the BIP IRC Proxy readme, you'll learn how to quickly use bip.

Bip can be used in two different way:
- Old school bnc user style: easy and straightforward.
- Unix service style with and init.d scripts and the logs in /var/log

This small README file explains the usage "Old school" with which : 
 - you do not need the root privileges.
 - gives easy access to the logs of the users of this bip to the one owning the
   shell.

Table of contents :

	I.	Installation
	II.	Configuration
	   A.	  Manual configuration
	   B.	  Automated configuration
	III.	Running bip
	IV.	Using bip



I. INSTALLATION

    Install bip on the machine that will be running bip (which is likely to be
    your personnal or shared server) either compiling the package or using your
    distro's package. Then create a configuration file.
    

II. CONFIGURATION

    First of all, create your bip configuration an log directory:
    
    # mkdir -p ~/.bip/logs
    
    There are two ways to create your bip configuration :
    - edit the sample bip.conf file to match your needs
    - use the bipgenconfig script to easily generate a configuration
    
    If you want to connect to bip using an SSL client, you'll need to create
    a certificate / key pair (in a bip.pem file) to allow bip to serve SSL
    sockets.

    A. MANUAL CONFIGURATION

      If you are using a distribution package, the bip.conf sample configuration
      file is likely to be shipped in /usr/share/doc/bip/examples/bip.conf.gz or
      something similar.
      
      If not, you'll find sample configuration file in the source package's
      `samples' subdirectory.
      
      Put the uncompressed configuration file in your ~/.bip directory (it's
      path should be ~/.bip/bip.conf), and edit it, most importantly the "user"
      section that contains information about you and the servers you will want
      to connect to. The "name" field in the "user" section is your login to
      connect to bip.
      The "name" field of the "connection" subsections are the server identifier
      for when you connect to bip.

      The "password" field is a hash of the password you will use to connect to
      bip. To generate a hash value from a password, use bipmkpw, program which
      comes in the bip package and source.

      If you've set client_side_ssl to true, you'll need to generate a bip.pem
      file containing a certificate / key pair. In order to do so, you can use
      the third party `openssl' binary :

      # openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out bip.pem -keyout bip.pem

      You can then remove the passphrase with :

      # openssl x509 -subject -dates -fingerprint -noout -in bip.pem
    
    B. AUTOMATED CONFIGURATION
    
      You can also use the bipgenconfig script to generate a new configuration.
      This script will also help you generate the SSL certificate / key pair
      needed for clients to connect to BIP through SSL.
  
      This script can be found either in the source package's `scripts'
      directory or shipped with your distribution's package.

      Using the script is very simple, and it'll generate a configuration file
      but won't overwrite any existing configuration. 

      It'll ask you the path to the bipmkpw binary, to automatically hash the
      passwords you'll provide. Please make sure to enter the correct path to
      the binary or you might observe unexpected behaviour.
      
      You'll need to move the generated configuration from bip.conf.autogen to
      bip.conf and the generated PEM file from bip.pem.autogen to bip.pem (or
      whatever path you've configured in bip.conf).
    

III. RUNNING BIP

    Once all this is configured, start bip as your regular user:
    
    # bip
    
    Once bip starts, it connects to the different servers your defined in
    all "user"'s "connection" blocks.
    

IV. USING BIP

    Then you want to use your regular irc client and connect to bip.
    Point your client to the machine bip is running and set the proper port number
    (defined in your bip.conf). You should then configure the client to use a
    specific irc server password constructed this way:
    
    user:password:network
    
    The user is the name field of the "user" section, the password is the password
    (*not* the hash) corresponding to the "password" field of the same user section
    (which is the hash generated with bipmkpw) and the network is the "name" field
    of the "connection" subsection. This is how bip authenticates you and puts your
    client to the correct network.
    
    Using the default (or sample file) configuration, logs are in ~/.bip/logs/
    
    Happy ircing!