240 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
240 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
xK
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==
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'xK' (chat kit) is an IRC software suite consisting of a daemon, bot, terminal
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client, and web/Windows/macOS frontends for the client. It's all you're ever
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going to need for chatting, so long as you can make do with slightly minimalist
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software.
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They're all lean on dependencies, and offer a maximally permissive licence.
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xC
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--
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The IRC client, and the core of 'xK'. It is largely defined by building on top
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of GNU Readline or BSD Editline that have been hacked to death. Its interface
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should feel somewhat familiar for weechat or irssi users.
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image::xC.webp[align="center"]
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It has most features you'd expect of an IRC client, such as being multiserver,
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a powerful configuration system, integrated help, text formatting, automatic
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message splitting, multiline editing, bracketed paste support, word wrapping
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that doesn't break links, autocomplete, logging, CTCP queries, auto-away,
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command aliases, SOCKS proxying, SASL EXTERNAL authentication using TLS client
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certificates, a remote relay interface, or basic support for Lua scripting.
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As a unique bonus, you can launch a full text editor from within.
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xP
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--
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The web frontend for 'xC', making use of its networked relay interface.
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It intentionally differs in that it uses a sans-serif font, and it shows
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the list of all buffers in a side panel. Otherwise it is a near replica,
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including link:xC.adoc#_key_bindings[keyboard shortcuts].
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image::xP.webp[align="center"]
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xD
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--
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The IRC daemon. It is designed for use as a regular user application rather
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than a system-wide daemon, and follows the XDG Base Directory Specification.
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If all you want is a decent, minimal IRCd for testing purposes or a small
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network of respectful users (or bots), this one will do it just fine.
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It autodetects TLS on incoming connections (I'm still wondering why everyone
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doesn't have this), authenticates operators via TLS client certificate
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fingerprints, and supports a number of IRCv3 capabilities.
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What it notably doesn't support is online changes to configuration, any limits
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besides the total number of connections and mode `+l`, or server linking
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(which also means no services).
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xS
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--
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The IRC daemon again, this time ported to Go, additionally supporting WEBIRC,
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and thus ideal for pairing with, e.g.,
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https://github.com/kiwiirc/webircgateway[].
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Any further development, such as P10 or TS6 linking for IRC services,
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or plugin support for arbitrary bridges, will happen here.
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xB
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--
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The IRC bot. While originally intended to be a simple rewrite of my old GNU AWK
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bot in C, it fairly quickly became a playground, and it eventually got me into
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writing the rest of this package.
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Its main characteristic is that it runs plugins as coprocesses, allowing for
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enhanced reliability and programming language freedom. Moreover, it recovers
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from any crashes, and offers native SOCKS support (even though socksify can add
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that easily to any program).
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Packages
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--------
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Regular releases are sporadic. git master should be stable enough.
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You can get a package with the latest development version using Arch Linux's
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https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xk-git[AUR],
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or as a https://git.janouch.name/p/nixexprs[Nix derivation].
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Building
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--------
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Build-only dependencies: CMake, pkg-config, awk, liberty (included),
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asciidoctor or asciidoc (recommended but optional) +
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Common runtime dependencies: openssl +
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Additionally for 'xC': curses, libffi, readline >= 6.0 or libedit >= 2013-07-12,
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lua >= 5.3 (optional) +
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$ git clone --recursive https://git.janouch.name/p/xK.git
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$ mkdir xK/build
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$ cd xK/build
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$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
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-DWANT_READLINE=ON -DWANT_LIBEDIT=OFF -DWITH_LUA=ON
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$ make
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To install the application, you can do either the usual:
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# make install
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Or you can try telling CMake to make a package for you:
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$ cpack -G DEB # also supported: RPM, FreeBSD
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# dpkg -i xK-*.deb
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Usage
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-----
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'xC' has in-program configuration. Just run it and read the instructions.
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Consult its link:xC.adoc[man page] for details about the interface.
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For the rest you might want to generate a configuration file:
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$ xB --write-default-config
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$ xD --write-default-config
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After making any necessary edits to the file (there are comments to aid you in
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doing that), simply run the appropriate program with no arguments:
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$ xB
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$ xD
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'xB' stays running in the foreground, therefore I recommend launching it inside
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a Screen or tmux session.
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'xD', on the other hand, immediately forks into the background. Use the PID
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file or something like `killall` if you want to terminate it. You can run it
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as a `forking` type systemd user service.
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xP
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~~
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The precondition for running 'xC' frontends is enabling its relay interface:
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/set general.relay_bind = "127.0.0.1:9000"
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To build the web server, you'll need to install the Go compiler, and run `make`
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from the _xP_ directory. Then start it from the _public_ subdirectory,
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and navigate to the adress you gave it as its first argument--in the following
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example, that would be http://localhost:8080[]:
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$ ../xP 127.0.0.1:8080 127.0.0.1:9000
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For remote use, it's recommended to put 'xP' behind a reverse proxy, with TLS,
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and some form of HTTP authentication. Pass the external URL of the WebSocket
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endpoint as the third command line argument in this case.
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xW
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~~
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The Win32 frontend is a separate CMake subproject that should be compiled
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using MinGW-w64. To avoid having to specify the relay address each time you
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run it, create a shortcut for the executable and include the address in its
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_Target_ field:
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C:\...\xW.exe 127.0.0.1 9000
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It works reasonably well starting with Windows 7.
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xM
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~~
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The Cocoa frontend is a separate CMake subproject that requires Xcode to build.
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It is currently not that usable. The relay address can either be passed on
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the command line, or preset in the _defaults_ database:
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$ defaults write name.janouch.xM relayHost 127.0.0.1
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$ defaults write name.janouch.xM relayPort 9000
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Client Certificates
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-------------------
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'xC' will use the SASL EXTERNAL method to authenticate using the TLS client
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certificate specified by the respective server's `tls_cert` option if you add
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`sasl` to the `capabilities` option and the server supports this.
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'xD' and 'xS' use SHA-256 fingerprints of TLS client certificates
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to authenticate users. To get the fingerprint from a certificate file
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in the required form, use:
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$ openssl x509 -in public.pem -outform DER | sha256sum
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Custom Key Bindings in xC
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-------------------------
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The default and preferred frontend used in 'xC' is GNU Readline. This means
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that you can change your bindings by editing '~/.inputrc'. For example:
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....
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# Preload with system-wide settings
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$include /etc/inputrc
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# Make M-left and M-right reorder buffers
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$if xC
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"\e\e[C": move-buffer-right
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"\e\e[D": move-buffer-left
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$endif
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....
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Consult the source code and the GNU Readline manual for a list of available
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functions. Also refer to the latter for the exact syntax of this file.
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Beware that you can easily break the program if you're not careful.
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How do I make xC look like the screenshot?
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------------------------------------------
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With the defaults, 'xC' doesn't look too fancy because I don't want to have
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a hard dependency on either Lua for the bundled script that provides an easily
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adjustable enhanced prompt, or on 256-colour terminals. Moreover, it's nearly
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impossible to come up with a colour theme that would work well with both
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black-on-white and white-on-black terminals, or anything wild in between.
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Assuming that your build supports Lua plugins, and that you have a decent,
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properly set-up terminal emulator, it suffices to run:
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/set general.pager = Press Tab here and change +Gb to +Gb1d
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/set general.date_change_line = "%a %e %b %Y"
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/set general.plugin_autoload += "fancy-prompt.lua"
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/set theme.userhost = "109"
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/set theme.join = "108"
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/set theme.part = "138"
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/set theme.external = "248"
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/set theme.timestamp = "250 255"
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/set theme.read_marker = "202"
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Configuration profiles
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----------------------
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Even though the applications don't directly support configuration profiles,
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they conform to the XDG standard, and thus you can change the location they
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load configuration from via XDG_CONFIG_HOME (normally '~/.config') and the
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location where store their data via XDG_DATA_HOME (normally '~/.local/share').
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It would be relatively easy to make the applications assume whatever name you
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run them under (for example by using symbolic links), and load different
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configurations accordingly, but I consider it rather messy and unnecessary.
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Contributing and Support
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------------------------
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Use https://git.janouch.name/p/xK to report any bugs, request features,
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or submit pull requests. `git send-email` is tolerated. If you want to discuss
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the project, feel free to join me at ircs://irc.janouch.name, channel #dev.
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Bitcoin donations are accepted at: 12r5uEWEgcHC46xd64tt3hHt9EUvYYDHe9
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License
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-------
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This software is released under the terms of the 0BSD license, the text of which
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is included within the package along with the list of authors.
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Note that 'xC' becomes GPL-licensed when you link it against GNU Readline,
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but that is not a concern of this source package. The licenses are compatible.
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