FAQ

           Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) concerning Services
           ====================================================

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Index:

 1. What is Services?

 2. Where can I find Services?

 3. Does Services run under Windows?

 4. How about OS/2?

 5. Can I send you questions without reading the FAQ or README files?

 6. There is no question number 6.

 7. When I run "make", I get an error message like "missing separator",
   "Unassociated shell command", "Unexpected end of line seen", etc.

 7.5. I get an error like "Makefile.inc not found".

 8. I typed "./services" at the command line, but nothing happened!

 9. I need support for the XYZ protocol.

10. Whenever I start Services, I get a message on my IRC server saying
    "connection refused" or something similar, and Services gives an error
    message from the server saying "Closing Link: ...".

11. My IRC server is giving me messages like "Connection to
    services.whatever.net[127.0.0.1] activated" and then "Access denied --
    no N line".  Why?

12. When I say "/connect services.*", it doesn't work!

13. Services complains in the logfile about being unable to load the
    default language.

14. Services always dies after about five minutes, saying "FATAL ERROR!
    Can't back up nick.db".

15. Services can't keep up with my network--it eventually falls off with
    "Max SendQ exceeded".  What can I do about this?

16. Services starts up okay, but if I try to register a nickname, it comes
    back with "Sorry, registration failed."

17. Services crashed with a segmentation fault.

18. Services' channel mode setting doesn't work.  I can't set modes with
    OperServ, and every time ChanServ tries to set a mode, my server
    reverses the change.

19. Using the OperServ JUPE command results in server messages like
    "Server juped.server introduced by non-hub server services.my.net".

20. I can't use the ADMIN command to add Services admins--it tells me
    "Permission denied."

21. How can I set up multiple Services roots?

22. When I add an AKILL, the users matching it don't get killed.

23. When I link nicks, the URL and E-mail fields aren't copied.

24. Services reports (via /stats u or /msg OperServ STATS) a different
    number of users online than I get from doing /lusers.

25. Services ignored the SET SUCCESSOR setting and deleted a channel when
    the founder expired.

26. Services killed a user it thought was cloning when the user really
    wasn't.

27. Trying to use OperServ gives me "Access denied", but my nick is in the
    ServicesRoot directive and is registered, and I've identified for my
    nick.

97. Services sprechen kein Deutsch!, etc.  (Services doesn't speak my
    language!)

97.5. I selected a language other than English, but sometimes Services sends
      responses in English instead.

98. I've found a bug that's not mentioned here or in the README or
    KnownBugs files.  What should I do?

98.5. Your Services program doesn't do XYZ like DALnet Services.  What's
      wrong?

99. I've got a great new idea for Services.  Do you want it?

99.5. Examples of features I have been asked about and why I won't add (or
      haven't yet added) them--so don't ask me about them.

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1. What is Services?

	Services is a package of services for IRC networks.  See the README
	file for more information.


2. Where can I find Services?

	The latest version can always be found at the official Services
	distribution site:

	ftp://ender.shadowfire.org/pub/shadowfire/services/


3. Does Services run under Windows?

	No.  I don't know enough about Windows programming to accomplish
	this (nor do I have the slightest desire to).  Unless and until
	someone contributes patches allowing Services to run under Windows,
	you'll need a different operating system (try Linux or FreeBSD).


4. How about OS/2?

	You may have better luck there; as of version 4.0, Services tries
	to be compilable on OS/2 through patches and suggestions from
	others.  I've never tested it, though (I don't use OS/2).


5. Can I send you questions without reading the FAQ or README files?

	Sure you can.  It's one of the easiest ways I know to get your
	messages ignored.


6. There is no question number 6.


7. When I run "make", I get an error message like "missing separator",
   "Unassociated shell command", "Unexpected end of line seen", etc.

	Your make program isn't compatible with the Makefile for Services.
	The Makefile was designed to work with GNU make, and as such may
	not work on other systems' "make" programs.  If you get an error
	from "make", obtain GNU make from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/
	(or wherever you prefer) and use it instead of your system's
	default "make".  Note that GNU make may already be installed on
	your system; try using the command "gmake" instead of "make".

	The make programs bundled with SunOS/Solaris and FreeBSD have been
	reported not to work; you will need to use GNU make on these
	systems.

7.5. I get an error like "Makefile.inc not found".

	You forgot to run the configure script first.  See the README file
	for compilation instructions.


8. I typed "./services" at the command line, but nothing happened!

	Services puts itself in the background when it starts, so you get
	your shell prompt right back.  Meanwhile, Services will continue
	setting up, then connect to the IRC server specified in
	services.conf (or on the command line).  If it doesn't connect, you
	probably specified the wrong server type when running the configure
	script.  (Also make sure that you are actually running one of the
	supported servers.  There are a gazillion different variations on
	the basic IRC protocol out there, and I have neither the time nor
	the desire to add support for them.)

	The recommended server, under which Services has been developed, is
	DALnet 4.4.x (x < 15); version 4.4.10 of that server is also
	present at the official Services distribution site.  More recent
	versions of the DALnet server, through 4.6.7 Dreamforge, have been
	reported to work with Services.  The Undernet server version 2.9.x
	has also been reported to work; support has been added in Services
	4.0 for ircu 2.10.x, but it appears that changes in the Undernet
	ircd have made Services fail to function with that server--either
	downgrade to 2.9.32 or switch to the DALnet server.  Support is
	also present for base irc2.x distributions (with or without the TS8
	extension), but also has not been extensively tested.  More recent
	extensions like +CS and TS4 are known _not_ to work.  See the
	README for more information.

	As always, you can check the log file (services.log by default) for
	error messages.


9. I need support for the XYZ protocol.

	Tough luck, unless you want to write support for it yourself.  See
	the previous answer.  (Alternatively, I may consider adding or
	extending support for a protocol if I am given a complete RFC-style
	description of the protocol, but even then it depends on how common
	and useful (compared to the protocols already present) I perceive
	that protocol to be.)


10. Whenever I start Services, I get a message on my IRC server saying
    "connection refused" or something similar, and Services gives an error
    message from the server saying "Closing Link: ...".

	You need to configure your IRC server to accept Services as an IRC
	server.  For most IRC servers (those based on the irc2.x
	distribution), that involves adding two lines like the following to
	your ircd.conf file:

	C:127.0.0.1:password:services.whatever.net::99
	N:127.0.0.1:password:services.whatever.net::99

	See the example ircd.conf provided with most distributions for the
	meaning of each field.


11. My IRC server is giving me messages like "Connection to
    services.whatever.net[127.0.0.1] activated" and then "Access denied --
    no N line".  Why?

	This is typically caused by including a port number in the C:line
	for Services, which tells your server to try to autoconnect to it
	(depending on the class (Y:line) settings).  This is not what you
	want, because Services will connect to the server itself, but does
	not listen for servers to connect to it.  The solution is to remove
	the port number from the C:line.


12. When I say "/connect services.*", it doesn't work!

	Of course not.  RTFM (Read The Fine Manual), and see the previous
	answer.


13. Services complains in the logfile about being unable to load the
    default language.

	You forgot to run "make install".


14. Services always dies after about five minutes, saying "FATAL ERROR!
    Can't back up nick.db".

	Make sure that the user Services runs as has write access to the
	data directory, and that the data directory actually exists (the
	latter shouldn't be a problem if you ran the configure script).
	This means Services needs write and execute permission on the data
	directory itself and execute permission on every parent directory
	of the data directory.


15. Services can't keep up with my network--it eventually falls off with
    "Max SendQ exceeded".  What can I do about this?

	If you have a really large network (tens of thousands of
	simultaneous users), Services in its default configuration will
	probably be unable to keep up with all the network traffic.  Here
	are some possible ways to speed Services up:

	  - Run it on a faster computer.  (Services does _not_ need to run
	    on the same system as an ircd!  If you have several computers
	    connected via Ethernet or another type of high-speed network,
	    it's perfectly fine to have an ircd on one machine and Services
	    on a separate machine.)

	  - Disable clone detection by commenting out CheckClones in
	    services.conf.

	  - Comment out MSNotifyAll in services.conf.

	  - Reduce the nickname and channel expiration periods.

	  - Reduce the size of your autokill list as much as possible.

	  - Increase ExpireTimeout in services.conf to reduce the frequency
	    of checking for nickname and channel expiration.

	  - Increase UpdateTimeout in services.conf, but beware that this
	    will mean more potential data loss if/when Services falls off
	    your network or crashes.

	  - DON'T run in debug mode!

	Services is known to be functional on networks as large as 4000
	simultaneous users with 60,000 registered nicks.


16. Services starts up okay, but if I try to register a nickname, it comes
    back with "Sorry, registration failed."

	Make sure you've selected the correct IRC server type in the
	configure script; see question 9 for details.


17. Services crashed with a segmentation fault.

	See if you can reproduce this by doing a certain sequence of
	things.  If so, please report it to me (see question 98 below).  If
	not, you're probably out of luck; if you like, you can report it to
	me anyway, but chances are it won't get fixed if I don't have
	instructions on reproducing it.  If you do have such a problem, you
	may find the crontab utility useful for dealing with it.


18. Services' channel mode setting doesn't work.  I can't set modes with
    OperServ, and every time ChanServ tries to set a mode, my server
    reverses the change.

	If you're running the DALnet (and maybe Undernet) daemon, make
	sure EVERY server on your network has a U: line for Services in
	ircd.conf, for example:

	U:*::services.whatever.net

	As of version 4.0, Services will report this in a WALLOPS or
	GLOBOPS message the first time it discovers it cannot change modes.


19. Using the OperServ JUPE command results in server messages like
    "Server juped.server introduced by non-hub server services.my.net".

	In all irc2.x-derived IRC servers (and possibly others), every
	server on the network must have an H: line for Services in the
	ircd.conf file, which looks something like:

	H:*::services.whatever.net


20. I can't use the ADMIN command to add Services admins--it tells me
    "Permission denied."

	Did you define yourself as the Services root?  You need to insert
	your nickname in the ServicesRoot directive in services.conf.


21. How can I set up multiple Services roots?

	You can't.  If you really need multiple people to be able to modify
	the Services admin list, create a role nick (e.g. "RootNick") and
	give the password for the nick to those people.  (Note that the
	ability to modify the Services admin list is the only difference
	between the "root" and "admin" privilege levels.)


22. When I add an AKILL, the users matching it don't get killed.

	1) Did you include a nick in the mask?  If you did, DON'T.
	   Autokill masks must not include nicks; Services will consider
	   *!*@host.name to be "a username containing !", not "any nick and
	   any username".

	2) Services does not kill users when an autokill is added; it only
	   kills them when they next connect.  This is designed behavior,
	   intended to reduce the possibility of a mistyped autokill
	   getting the wrong users.  (Suppose you typed "AKILL ADD *@*" and
	   then accidentally hit Return before finishing the host mask...)


23. When I link nicks, the URL and E-mail fields aren't copied.

	This is designed behavior (though it may be changed in a future
	version).


24. Services reports (via /stats u or /msg OperServ STATS) a different
    number of users online than I get from doing /lusers.

	Services doesn't count its own pseudo-clients (NickServ, ChanServ,
	etc.) in its user count, so Services will normally report a number
	eight lower than /lusers.  If you have disabled DevNull and/or
	IrcIIHelp in services.conf, this will be six or seven instead of
	eight.

	If you have a very large and/or busy network, there may be an
	additional offset, either positive or negative, caused by lag
	(1) between users signing on/off and Services recognizing them, or
	(2) between Services killing a user and the servers receiving the
	kill.  On a network with under 500 simultaneous clients, this
	difference should typically not be more than one at any time, but
	it can increase quickly as the network grows in size.  (If the
	difference is abnormally high, see question 15 for ways to speed
	Services up.)


25. Services ignored the SET SUCCESSOR setting and deleted a channel when
    the founder expired.

	Normally, this is because the successor had too many channels
	registered; in this case, you will see an entry in the log file
	like the following:

	[date] Successor (SuccessorNick) of channel #somechannel owns too
	       many channels, deleting channel #somechannel

	If you don't get a message like this or you can verify that the
	successor wasn't running into the channel limit, please report it
	using the bug-reporting procedure below (question 98).


26. Services killed a user it thought was cloning when the user really
    wasn't.  Or something else went wrong with clone killing.

	Comment out KillClones in services.conf.  Better yet, remove it
	entirely so you forget it exists.  _Don't_ complain to me, or
	you'll get flamed, probably in public.


27. Trying to use OperServ gives me "Access denied", but my nick is in the
    ServicesRoot directive and is registered, and I've identified for my
    nick.

	You need to be opered (i.e. user mode +o) to access OperServ.


97. Services sprechen kein Deutsch!, etc.  (Services doesn't speak my
    language!)

	If you would like to supply a new language module for Services,
	take a look at lang/en_us.l, which is the language module for
	English, as well as the comments at the top of lang/langcomp.c,
	which describe the language module file format.  If/when you have
	completed a module for your language, E-mail it to me
	(achurch@dragonfire.net) for inclusion in Services.  However--
	warning, legal stuff follows--by sending me a language module for
	inclusion in Services, you agree to waive all copyright claims to
	that file and the text it contains, and you agree and state that no
	one else (such as your employer) has any claims of copyright to
	said file and text.  (I will give credit, of course, but the
	copyright remains mine.  If you are not sure whether your employer
	might have rights to your translation, consult with your employer.)
	Also, it would be very helpful if you would be willing to continue
	updating the module as changes are made to the base English module.

	If any British/Canadian English speakers want to make another
	version of the English language file which seems more natural to
	them, I'll take that too. (^:


97.5. I selected a language other than English, but sometimes Services sends
      responses in English instead.

	Some language files are not complete--in other words, they don't
	have a translation of every message Services uses, but only some of
	them.  In this case, the missing messages will be displayed in
	English.  You can either wait for the primary translator to provide
	me with a translation, or do the translation yourself and send me
	the messages translated into your language (along with the original
	English messages so I know what they mean!).


98. I've found a bug that's not mentioned here or in the README or
    KnownBugs files.  What should I do?

	Send a report of the bug with as many details as possible to
	achurch@dragonfire.net.  Even if something seems obvious to you,
	like what you think Services should be doing that it isn't, mention
	it anyway, because what seems obvious to you may not be obvious to
	me.  Include in any case a copy of or excerpt from the Services log
	file, usually "services.log" in the Services data directory,
	  **** generated with the "-debug" command-line option, ****
	which includes a demonstration of the bug.  (This is important!)
	If the bug occurs in response to something you do (like sending a
	ChanServ command), also send the sequence of steps necessary to
	reproduce the bug, preferably starting with nickname or channel
	registration if NickServ or ChanServ is involved, and make sure the
	corresponding part of the log file is included.


98.5. Your Services program doesn't do XYZ like DALnet Services.  What's
      wrong?

	Nothing is wrong, except your expectations.  Services is a
	completely different program from that used on DALnet; they are
	similar in concept only.


99. I've got a great new idea for Services.  Do you want it?

	I'm always interested in hearing new ideas.  HOWEVER, I have very
	specific plans for what to include and not to include in Services.
	As a rule, I don't add anything that can be equivalently done by
	other means, or that I don't consider useful; see below for
	examples of things I don't plan to add.  If you have added
	something to Services you think would be useful to include in the
	standard distribution, feel free to send a context or unified diff
	along with (but not instead of!) your description.  If I choose not
	to include it, you're always free to keep and/or distribute the
	patch yourself.

	My general intent is for Services to provide as much functionality
	as possible--while staying as lean as possible (as opposed to, say,
	recent versions of Microsoft Word, which in my opinion provide so
	much functionality you can't do anything).  So features which are
	arguably beneficial will tend to be added, while features of
	limited or no benefit or which can be equally provided by something
	else already in use will tend to be passed over.


99.5. Examples of features I have been asked about and why I won't add (or
      haven't yet added) them--so don't ask me about them:

	- An option to make ChanServ stay in some/all registered channels:
	  I see absolutely no necessity for this feature, since (1)
	  Services' channel privilege and information functions will
	  operate whether or not ChanServ (or any users at all) are in the
	  channel, and (2) if someone _really_ wants to keep a channel
	  open for some reason, they can use a standard bot.  Furthermore,
	  having ChanServ stay in channels will dramatically increase the
	  amount of traffic Services has to handle, which will in turn
	  reduce the rate at which Services can respond to requests.

	- The various features of DALnet's ircd since version 4.4.15:
	  Unlikely at best.  I consider most of them of no real use, and
	  supporting them would only make Services more bulky.  The same
	  applies to any new features Undernet's ircu-2.10 may have, and
	  any other servers with "nifty" features added to their protocols.

	- A "current time" field in NickServ and ChanServ INFO displays:
	  Most people have clocks of some sort either on their computer
	  screens or on their walls (or both), and all IRC servers, as well
	  as Services, have a command to return the server's current time.
	  Thus a current-time field in INFO displays would simply take up
	  extra space for no reason.