1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507
|
dircproxy: Frequently Asked Questions
-------------------------------------
Questions
=========
1. Introduction
1.1 What is dircproxy?
1.2 Where can I get dircproxy?
1.3 Are there any mailing lists?
1.4 Is there a dircproxy IRC channel?
1.5 How do I report bugs?
1.6 Is there an anonymous CVS server?
1.7 How do I add a question to the FAQ?
2. Installation
2.1 How do I compile and install dircproxy?
2.2 I get "couldn't find your xxx() function" from configure
2.3 Compilation fails with "xxx.h: No such file or directory"
2.4 Compilation fails with "undefined reference to `xxx'"
2.5 What does --enable-debug do?
3. Usage
3.1 What are configuration classes?
3.2 Can dircproxy be used as an "open proxy"?
3.3 Where in the config file do I put my nickname?
3.4 Can dircproxy be run from inetd?
3.5 dircproxy won't start and says I need to define connection
classes, how do I do this?
3.6 I started dircproxy, but it hasn't connected to any servers
yet, what have I done wrong?
3.7 dircproxy will not accept my password, I know its right as
its exactly what I typed into the configuration file.
3.8 How do I get a running dircproxy to reread its configuration
file?
3.9 How do I detach from dircproxy?
3.10 How can I get dircproxy to disconnect from the server?
3.11 Can I connect multiple clients to the same running session?
3.12 Can one dircproxy connection class be used to connect to
multiple servers?
3.13 Why doesn't dircproxy ever keep my nickname?
4. Logging
4.1 Why does dircproxy by default log channels while I'm
attached?
4.2 How do I log everything and keep it for my own reference
in years to come?
4.3 Why does the permanent copy contain text from all the
clients dircproxy is proxying?
4.4 How do I log private messages to individual files?
4.5 How do I log outgoing private messages?
5. DCC Proxying
5.1 Why would I want dircproxy to proxy DCC requests as well?
5.2 What's "DCC over ssh" and how do I use it?
5.3 Does text I type before dircproxy tells me the remote peer
has connected ever reach them?
6. Advanced Use
6.1 How do I change what username is presented on IRC?
Answers
=======
1.1 What is dircproxy?
dircproxy is an IRC proxy server designed for people who use
IRC from lots of different workstations or clients, but wish to
remain connected and see what they missed while they were away.
You connect to IRC through dircproxy, and it keeps you connected
to the server, even after you detach your client from it.
While you're detached, it logs channel and private messages
as well as important events, and when you re-attach it'll let
you know what you missed.
This can be used to give you roughly the same functionality as
using ircII and screen together, except you can use whatever
IRC client you like, including X ones!
1.2 Where can I get dircproxy?
The dircproxy home page is at:
http://www.dircproxy.net/
New releases along with other news are announced there.
If you'd prefer an FTP site, there is one at:
ftp://ftp.dircproxy.net/pub/dircproxy/
1.3 Are there any mailing lists?
Yes, there are two mailing lists. A low traffic one which
only receives posts from myself announcing new releases and the
occasional other announcement (dircproxy-announce) and a public
mailing list for general dircproxy discussion (dircproxy-users).
For more information, including how to subscribe, see:
http://www.dircproxy.net/lists.html
1.4 Is there a dircproxy IRC channel?
Yes, on the OpenProjects IRC network (irc.openprojects.net or
irc.linux.com). We're on #dircproxy.
1.5 How do I report bugs?
Bug tracking is done using our Bugzilla bug tracking system at:
http://bugzilla.dircproxy.net/
1.6 Is there an anonymous CVS server?
Yes. This can be used to retrieve any release, including the
current developmental release. For more information see:
http://www.dircproxy.net/cvs.html
1.7 How do I add a question to the FAQ?
E-mail me at scott@dircproxy.net and I'll see if its suitable
for inclusion.
2.1 How do I compile and install dircproxy?
Read the INSTALL file in the dircproxy distribution, or see:
http://www.dircproxy.net/install.html
2.2 I get "couldn't find your xxx() function" from configure
dircproxy makes very few requirements on your system, and
your libc. The only things it does require are TCP/IP support
through the socket() function, DNS resolver support through
the gethostbyname() function and encryption support through
the crypt() function.
The 'configure' program checks a few likely locations for
these functions and if it can't find them will generate the
appropriate warning. For example:
checking for crypt... no
checking for crypt in -lcrypt... no
configure: warning: couldn't find your crypt() function
If you know which library these functions are located in, you
can pass the LDFLAGS shell variable to tell it. For example,
if you know your crypt() function is in the libdes.so (example
only!) library, you can do this:
$ LDFLAGS=-ldes ./configure ...
Then let me know what type of system you have and what you
did, so I can make future versions of dircproxy detect this
case automatically.
If you can't find these functions, you'll need to chat to your
local sysadmin or UNIX guru and get them to upgrade your libc
to something a little more up to date.
2.3 Compilation fails with "xxx.h: No such file or directory"
This most likely means that a system header file that dircproxy
needs wasn't found on your system. It can also mean that the
dircproxy source isn't complete.
Find out which directory that header file is on your system,
and pass that to the 'configure' program using the CFLAGS
shell variable like this:
$ CFLAGS=-I/path/to/directory ./configure ...
If you can't find it, you'll need to find out what your system's
equivalent is, then let me know all about it so I can enable
future versions of dircproxy to support your system fully.
If there is no equivalent you'll need to get your sysadmin or
UNIX guru to upgrade your libc to something more up to date.
2.4 Compilation fails with "undefined reference to `xxx'"
This means that a system function dircproxy uses wasn't found
on your system. You'll need to find out in which library
on your system that function is. Then if for example its
in libmisc.so pass that using the LDFLAGS shall variable to
'configure' like this:
$ LDFLAGS=-lmisc ./configure ...
If you're system doesn't have that function, you'll need to
get your sysadmin or local UNIX guru to upgrade your libc to
something a little more up to date.
2.5 What does --enable-debug do?
Its used primarily by myself to debug dircproxy, it can also
be used by anyone else who wants to help out debugging it.
One main difference is that dircproxy will not switch to the
background, but will stay in the foreground and write a lot of
strange information (including a record of all text received
from the client and server) to the console. This reverses
the meaning of the -D parameter.
It also causes dircproxy to use its built-in versions of
strdup() sprintf() and vsprintf() instead of any that might
exist in your libc.
Finally it switches on a lot of expensive memory debugging
code that records every malloc(), realloc() and free(), notes
what C file and line it occurred in and pads the memory with
random junk to detect most buffer overruns. On termination you
will see a memory report (hopefully saying "0 bytes in use"),
you can also send a USR1 signal to dircproxy to see how much
memory it thinks its using, and a USR2 signal to see exactly
what is in its memory and where it was allocated.
This slows down dircproxy a lot and makes it inconvenient
to use. However, for people wanting to do dircproxy code work
its invaluable.
3.1 What are configuration classes?
A configuration class defines a possible client/server proxied
connection.
Basically you define a connection class, setting a password and
server to connect to, then when you connect to dircproxy and
give your password for the first time, it automatically connects
you to a server. This connection class is then assigned to
your proxy session and cannot be used by anyone else until
you cause dircproxy to disconnect from the server (see 3.10).
When you reconnect, all you need to do is supply the password
again. dircproxy then sees that your connection class is
already in use and simply attaches you to that.
This means you don't need to specify any "one time passwords",
or magic connection or reconnection commands etc. dircproxy can
be used by simply telling your IRC client to supply a "server
password" when it connects. Everything else is automatic.
3.2 Can dircproxy be used as an "open proxy"?
Yes, only if each user knows the password. dircproxy does NOT
support password-less proxy sessions, if you do that you'll
just annoy the IRC operators and get yourself banned from the
IRC network.
Open IRC proxies are a BAD THING and lead to abuse of the
IRC network.
You may however use dircproxy as a proxy for many users who
know the password. This can be accomplished by running it
from inetd (one of the few reasons to do this).
Set it up as described in README.inetd, and set up a single
connection class with the appropriate password etc. By default,
dircproxy will not remain attached to the server when each
client quits, they'll need to explicitly do a /DIRCPROXY
PERSIST to do that.
3.3 Where in the config file do I put my nickname?
You don't. dircproxy doesn't connect to the IRC server until
you connect to it. This means it can pick up the nickname
from the one your IRC client sends.
All you need to tell dircproxy is what server you want to
connect to. The rest of the information such as your nickname,
user name and full name etc are taken from your IRC client
when it first connects to it.
3.4 Can dircproxy be run from inetd?
Yes. See the README.inetd file in the dircproxy distribution.
3.5 dircproxy won't start and says I need to define connection
classes, how do I do this?
You need to create a configuration file. Best way is to get
the example one in the conf subdirectory of the dircproxy
(or if its just installed on a machine you are using, the
/usr/local/share/dircproxy directory), copy it to your home
directory, call it .dircproxyrc and make sure it has no more
than 0600 permissions (-rw-------).
Then edit this file, its very well documented. The
configuration classes are defined right at the bottom.
3.6 I started dircproxy, but it hasn't connected to any servers yet,
what have I done wrong?
Nothing, dircproxy won't connect to the server until you
connect an IRC client to it.
3.7 dircproxy will not accept my password, I know its right as it's
exactly what I typed into the configuration file.
dircproxy requires that IRC client passwords in the
configuration file are encrypted so that anyone managing to
read the file off the disk can't get the password and use your
dircproxy session.
Encrypt them using your systems crypt(3) function or by using
the dircproxy-crypt(1) utility included with the dircproxy
source.
3.8 How do I get a running dircproxy to reread its configuration
file?
Send it a hang-up (HUP) signal. The process ID can be obtained
using the 'ps' command, and then signal sent using the 'kill'
command. On BSD-like machines, this can be done like this:
$ ps aux | grep dircproxy
user 7410 0.0...
$ kill -HUP 7410
Or on a SysV-like machine, like this:
% ps -ef | grep dircproxy
user 7410 388...
$ kill -HUP 7410
Note that certain configuration options do not take effect
until you reconnect to a server, or detach from dircproxy.
3.9 How do I detach from dircproxy?
Close your IRC client, probably by typing /QUIT. You don't
need tell dircproxy you're detaching, it can guess that by
your connection to it closing.
The exception to this is if you're running dircproxy from inetd,
if this is the case you'll need to do a /DIRCPROXY PERSIST
before you close to tell it that you want to reconnect later.
dircproxy will tell you what port number to reconnect at.
3.10 How can I get dircproxy to disconnect from the server?
Using the /DIRCPROXY QUIT command. You can specify an optional
quit message if you like, for example.
> /DIRCPROXY QUIT Right, four weeks in the sun, here I come!
3.11 Can I connect multiple clients to the same running session?
No. After all, which one do you listen to? It could all
get very schizophrenic with two people typing under the same
nickname from different computers.
3.12 Can one dircproxy connection class be used to connect to
multiple servers?
No. It might sound fairly simple to implement at first, tracking
channels is fairly easy, its tracking nicknames thats the problem.
3.13 Why doesn't dircproxy ever keep my nickname?
First of all, check you've *not* got the following in your
configuration file.
nick_keep no
"yes" is the default, so if this option isn't set, then it will
be used.
dircproxy will attempt to keep whatever nickname your client
last set using the NICK command. This means that if you connect
a client while dircproxy's attempting to restore your nickname,
and your client reacts to the server messages (as most "clever"
clients do) than dircproxy will accept the new nickname and stop
guarding the old one.
If it never restores your nickname when left without a client
connected, it may be that the server believes dircproxy is changing
it's nickname "too fast" or "too many times". The default is to
attempt to restore the nickname once per minute. You can adjust
this by changing the 'NICK_GUARD_TIME' #define in src/dircproxy.h.
4.1 Why does dircproxy by default log channels while I'm attached?
dircproxy was originally designed to give roughly the same
functionality as using ircII and screen, but allowing you to
use X clients (which can't be screen'd).
This means it tries to give you a "full screen" of text when
you reattach, so if you've only just disconnected, a full
screen includes that which happened before you disconnected.
Its actually quite useful when you think about it:
<You> Argh, I think my computer's about to crash?
<DreamDate> Hi there :) My name is X.
-dircproxy- You disconnected
<DreamDate> Do you want to go out for a drink sometime?
-dircproxy- You connected
<You> Hi X, sure :)
You might not have seen your dream date's name :) Its also
handy for reference.
You can always switch it off though by setting this in the
config file:
chan_log_always no
4.2 How do I log everything and keep it for my own reference in
years to come?
Create a directory for dircproxy to store the logs in, and then
tell dircproxy to store a "permanent copy" in that directory
like this:
chan_log_copydir /path/to/directory
other_log_copydir /path/to/directory
4.3 Why does the permanent copy contain text from all the clients
dircproxy is proxying?
Because you've set the directory name globally for all
connection classes in the configuration file. Because dircproxy
doesn't use the logs itself, its not a security risk or anything
to be able to do this, and if each person is on a different
channel, its quite a handy thing to do.
If you don't want it to do this, define the 'chan_log_copydir'
and 'other_log_copydir' inside each connection class instead
of the global level, like this:
connection {
:
chan_log_copydir /path/to/directory
other_log_copydir /path/to/directory
:
}
connection {
:
chan_log_copydir /path/to/directory2
other_log_copydir /path/to/directory2
:
}
4.4 How do I log private messages to individual files?
Use the 'privmsg-log.pl' script in the contrib directory of the
dircproxy source as a filter as an 'other_log_program'. You'll need
to edit the script to set the directory to store these private
message log files, and need to add the following to your dircproxy
configuration file:
other_log_program "/usr/local/share/dircproxy/privmsg-log.pl"
4.5 How do I log outgoing private messages?
You can't, there's no way for dircproxy to replay them for you
(every client I tested ignored them).
5.1 Why would I want dircproxy to proxy DCC requests as well?
DCC proxying means that all DCC requests get proxied through
dircproxy just like your normal IRC requests. This means
your real IP address is just as hidden as it is on IRC.
Also if you're running dircproxy on your NAT firewall so you
can actually get on IRC, you'll be able to do DCCs to as it
will be proxying them between the two networks for you.
5.2 What's "DCC over ssh" and how do I use it?
For a complete description, including how to do it, see
the README.dcc-via-ssh file in the dircproxy distribution.
Simply its a way of doing DCCs over ssh tunnels to get around
any firewalls that might be in the way that would normally
prevent even the most determined proxy from allowing DCCs.
5.3 Does text I type before dircproxy tells me the remote peer
has connected ever reach them?
Yes, its simply queued until the remote side connects, then
is sent to them.
6.1 How do I change what username is presented on IRC?
The obvious answer is to run dircproxy under that username,
but that doesn't help if you're proxying for multiple people.
Another option is to use one of the many fake ident daemons
to return a false answer for you.
There's also a third option, which is available to those
running dircproxy as root (either as a daemon or from inetd).
You can use the 'switch_user' configuration file directive.
This ensures that the connection to the server appears as from
whatever local username you give it (by seteuid()ing to that
briefly) while the dircproxy process remains as root.
Copyright (C) 2002 Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com>.
All Rights Reserved.
|