200 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
xK
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==
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'xK' (chat kit) is an IRC software suite consisting of a terminal client,
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daemon, and bot. It's all you're ever going to need for chatting,
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so long as you can make do with slightly minimalist software.
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They come with these potentially interesting properties:
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- supporting IRCv3, SOCKS, IPv6, TLS (including client certificates)
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- lean on dependencies
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- compact and arguably easy to hack on
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- maximally permissive license
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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 being built
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on top of GNU Readline that has been hacked to death. Its interface should feel
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somewhat familiar for weechat or irssi users.
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image::xC.png[align="center"]
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It has most of the stuff you'd expect of an IRC client, such as being
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multiserver, a powerful configuration system, integrated help, text formatting,
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automatic splitting of overlong messages, multiline editing, bracketed paste
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support, decent word wrapping, autocomplete, logging, CTCP queries, auto-away,
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command aliases, and basic support for Lua scripting. As a unique bonus,
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you can launch a full text editor from within.
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xD
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--
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The IRC daemon. It is designed to be used as a regular user application rather
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than a system-wide daemon. If all you want is a decent, minimal IRCd for
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testing purposes or a small network of respectful users (or bots), this one will
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do it just fine.
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Notable features:
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- TLS autodetection (I'm still wondering why everyone doesn't have this)
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- IRCop authentication via TLS client certificates
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- partial IRCv3 support
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Not supported:
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- server linking (which also means no services); I consider existing protocols
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for this purpose ugly and tricky to implement correctly; I've also found no
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use for this feature yet
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- online changes to configuration; the configuration system from 'xC' could
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be used to implement this feature if needed
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- limits of almost any kind, just connections and mode `+l`
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This program has been
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https://git.janouch.name/p/haven/src/branch/master/hid[ported to Go],
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and development continues over there.
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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. You can get
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a package with the latest development version from Archlinux's AUR.
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Building
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--------
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Build dependencies: CMake, pkg-config, asciidoctor or asciidoc, awk,
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liberty (included) +
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Runtime dependencies: openssl +
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Additionally for 'xC': curses, libffi, lua >= 5.3 (optional),
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readline >= 6.0 or libedit >= 2013-07-12
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Avoid libedit if you can, in general it works but at the moment history is
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acting up and I have no clue about fixing it.
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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 -DWANT_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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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' uses SHA-1 fingerprints of TLS client certificates to authenticate users.
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To get the fingerprint from a certificate file in the required form, use:
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$ openssl x509 -in public.pem -outform DER | sha1sum
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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 behaviour.backlog_helper = Press Tab here and change +Gb to +Gb1d
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/set behaviour.date_change_line = "%a %e %b %Y"
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/set behaviour.plugin_autoload += "fancy-prompt.lua"
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/set attributes.userhost = "\x1b[38;5;109m"
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/set attributes.join = "\x1b[38;5;108m"
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/set attributes.part = "\x1b[38;5;138m"
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/set attributes.external = "\x1b[38;5;248m"
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/set attributes.timestamp = "\x1b[48;5;255m\x1b[38;5;250m"
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/set attributes.read_marker = "\x1b[38;5;202m"
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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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