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Bram Matthys
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doc/RELEASE-NOTES
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@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ Enhancements
* Support for IRCv3 "echo-message", which helps clients, among other things,
to see if the message you sent was altered in any way, eg: censored,
stripped from color, etc.
* Support for IRCv3 "draft/labeled-response-0.2", which helps clients to
correlate commands and responses.
* Support for IRCv3 "BATCH", needed for some other features.
* Recording and playback of channel history when channel mode +H is set.
The syntax is: +H max-lines-to-record:max-time-to-record-in-minutes.
doc/RELEASE-NOTES.md
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UnrealIRCd 5.0.0-alpha3 Release Notes
======================================
IMPORTANT: UnrealIRCd 5 is currently in "alpha" phase. This means it
may crash or behave weird. Do not run this on production servers!
The alpha releases are there to show the current state of UnrealIRCd 5.
UnrealIRCd 5 is not yet feature complete at this point; about 90% of
the planned functionality is there.
Summary
--------
The most visible change to end-users is channel history.
Various modules from Gottem have been integrated and enhanced.
Channel settings of +P channels and *LINES are saved in a database and
restored on startup (via 'channeldb' and 'tkldb' respectively).
Channel mode +L has a slight change of meaning, the existing floodprot
mode (+f) has a new type to prevent repeated messages and a new drop action.
A few extended bans have been added as well (~f and ~p).
IRCOps now have the ability to add ban exceptions via the /ELINE command.
Advanced admins can use more dynamic configuration options where you can
define variables and use them later in the configuration file.
Finally, there have been speed improvements, we use better defaults and
have added more countermeasures and options against spambots.
Under the hood a lot of the source code was changed and cleaned up.
Enhancements
-------------
* Support for IRCv3 server generated [message tags](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/message-tags), which allows us to communicate
additional information in protocol messages such as in JOIN and PRIVMSG.
Currently implemented and permitted message tags are:
* [account](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/account-tag-3.2): communicate the services account that a user uses
* [msgid](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/message-ids): assign an unique message id to each message
* [time](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/server-time-3.2): assign a time label to each message
The last two are mainly for history playback.
* Support for IRCv3 [echo-message](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/echo-message-3.2), which helps clients, among other things,
to see if the message you sent was altered in any way, eg: censored,
stripped from color, etc.
* Support for IRCv3 [draft/labeled-response-0.2](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/labeled-response), which helps clients to
correlate commands and responses.
* Support for IRCv3 [BATCH](https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/batch-3.2), needed for some other features.
* Recording and playback of [channel history](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Channel_history) when channel mode +H is set.
The syntax is: ```MODE #chan +H max-lines-to-record:max-time-to-record-in-minutes```.
For example: ```MODE #chan +H 50:1440``` means the last 50 messages will be stored and no
message will be stored longer than 1440 minutes (1 day).
The channel history is then played back when joining such a channel,
but with two things to keep in mind:
1) The client must support the 'server-time' CAP ('time' message tag),
otherwise history is not shown. Any modern IRC client supports this.
2) Only a maximum of 15 lines are played back on-join by default
The reason for the maximum 15 lines on-join playback is that this can
be quite annoying if you rejoin repeatedly and as to not flood the users
screen too much (unwanted). In the future we will support a mechanism
for clients to "fetch" history - rather than sending it on-join - so
they can fetch more than the 15 lines, up to the number of lines and
time configured in the +H channel mode.
You can configure the exact number of lines that are played back and
all the limits that apply to +H via set::history::channel.
* For saving and retrieving history we currently have the following options:
* history_backend_mem: channel history is stored in memory.
This is very fast but also means history is lost on restart.
* history_backend_null: don't store channel history at all.
This can be useful to load on servers with no users on it, such as a
hub server, where storing history is unnecessary.
As you can see there is currently no 'disk' backend. However, in the
future more options may be added. Also note that 3rd party modules
can add history backends as well.
* Support for ban exceptions via the new ```/ELINE``` command. This allows you
to add exceptions for regular bans (KLINE/GLINE/ZLINE/etc), but also
for connection throttling and blacklist checking.
For more information, just type ```/ELINE ``` in your IRC client as an IRCOp.
* Channel mode +L now kicks in for any rejected join, so not just for +l but
also for +b, +i, +O, +z, +R and +k. If, for example, the channel is
+L #insecure and also +z then, when an insecure user ties to join, they
will be redirected to #insecure.
* New extended ban ~f to forward users to the specified channel if the ban
matches. Example: ```MODE #chan +b ~f:#badisp:*!*@*.isp.org```
* Channel mode +f now has a 'd' action: drop message. This will send an
error message to the user and not show the message in the channel but
otherwise do nothing (no kick or ban).
For example: ```MODE #chan +f [5t#d]:15``` will limit sending a maximum of
5 messages per 15 seconds per-user and drop any messages sent above that limit.
* Channel mode +f now has 'r' floodtype to prevent repeated lines. This will
compare the current message to the last message and the one before that
the user sent to the channel. If it's a repeat then the user can be
kicked (the default action), the message can be dropped ('d') or the
user can be banned ('b'). Example: ```MODE #chan +f [1r#d]:15```
If you want to permit 1 repeated line but not 2 then use: ```+f [2r#d]:15```
* New module **tkldb** (loaded by default): all *LINES and spamfilters are now
saved across reboots. No need for services for that anymore.
* New module **channeldb** (loaded by default): saves and restores all channel
settings including topic, modes, bans etc. of +P (persistent) channels.
* New module [restrict-commands](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::restrict-commands), which allows you to restrict any IRC
command based on criteria such as "how long is this user connected",
"is this user registered (has a services account)" etc.
The example.conf now ships with configuration to disable LIST the
first 60 seconds and disable INVITE the first 120 seconds.
If you are having spambot problems then tweaking this configuration
may be helpful to you.
* New option [set::require-module](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::require-module), which allows you to require certain
modules on other UnrealIRCd 5 servers, otherwise the link is rejected.
* New option [set::min-nick-length](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::min-nick-length) to set a minimum nick length.
* New module rmtkl (loaded by default): this allows you to remove TKL's
such as GLINEs easily via the /RMTKL command.
* The [reputation and connthrottle](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Connthrottle) modules are now loaded by default.
Just as a reminder, what these do is classifying your users in "known
users (known IP's)" and "unknown IP's" for IP's that have not been
seen before (or only for a short amount of time). Then, when there
is a connection flood, unknown/new IP addresses are throttled at
20 connections per minute, while known users are always allowed in.
* Add support for [defines and conditional configuration](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Defines_and_conditional_config) via @define and @if.
This is mostly for power users, in particular users who share the same
configuration file across several servers.
* New extban ~p to hide the part/quit message in PART and QUIT.
For example: ```MODE #chan +b ~p:*!*@*.nl```
* You will now see a warning when a server is not responding even
before they time out. How long to wait for a PONG reply upon PING
can be changed via [set::ping-warning](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::ping-warning) and defaults to 15 seconds.
If you see the warning frequently then your connection is flakey.
* Add new setting [set::broadcast-channel-messages](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::broadcast-channel-messages) which defines when
channel messages are sent across server links. The default setting
is *auto* which is the correct setting for pretty much everyone.
* Add new option [set::part-instead-of-quit-on-comment-change](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::part-instead-of-quit-on-comment-change):
when a QUIT message is changed due to channel restrictions, such as
stripping color or censoring a word, we normally change the QUIT
message. This has an effect on ALL channels, not just the one that
imposed the restrictions. While we feel that is the best tradeoff,
there is now also this new option (off by default) that will change
the QUIT into a PART in such a case, so the other channels that
do not have the restrictions (eg: are -S and -G) can still see the
original QUIT message.
* New module [webredir](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::webredir::url). Quite some people run their IRCd on port 443 or 80
so their users can avoid firewall restrictions in place. In such a case,
with this module, you can now send a HTTP redirect in case some user
enters your IRC server name in their browser. Eg https://irc.example.org/
can be made to redirect to https://www.example.org/
Changed
--------
* Channel names must now be valid UTF8 by default.
We actually have 3 possible settings of [set::allowed-channelchars](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::allowed-channelchars):
* **utf8**: Channel must be valid UTF8, this is the new default
* **ascii**: A very strict setting, for example in use at freenode,
the channel name may not contain high ascii or UTF8
* **any**: A very loose setting, which allows almost all characters
in the channel name. This was the OLD default, up to and
including UnrealIRCd 4. It is no longer recommended.
For most networks this new default setting of utf8 will be fine, since
by far most IRC clients use UTF8 for many years already.
If you have a network that has a significant portion of chatters
that are on old non-UTF8 clients that use a specific character set
then you may want to use ```set { allowed-nickchars any; }```
Some Russian and Ukrainian networks are known to need this.
* The "except tkl" block is now called [except ban](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Except_ban_block#UnrealIRCd_5). If no type
is specified in an except ban { } block then we exempt the entry
from kline, gline, zline, gzline and shun.
* Windows: we now require a 64-bit version, Windows 7 or later.
The new program path is: C:\Program Files\UnrealIRCd 5
and the binaries have been moved to a new subdirectory: bin\
* Modules lost their m_ prefix, so for example m_map is now just map.
Also the modules in cap/ are now directly in modules.
* More modules that were previously PERM (permanent) can now be unloaded
and reloaded on the fly. This allows more "hotfixing" without restart
in case of a bug and also more control for admins at runtime.
Only <5 modules out of 173 are permanent now.
* User mode +T now blocks channel CTCPs as well.
* [set::modes-on-join](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::modes-on-join) is now ```+nt``` by default.
* The [authprompt](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Authentication#How_it_looks_like) module is now loaded by default. This means that if
you do a soft kline on someone (eg: KLINE %*@*.badisp) then the user
has a chance to [authenticate](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Authentication#How_it_looks_like) to services, even without SASL, and
bypass the ban if (s)he is authenticated.
* The WHOX module is now used by default. Previously it was optional.
WHOX enhances the "WHO" output, providing additional information to
IRC clients such as the services account that someone is using.
It is also more universal than standard WHO. Unfortunately this also
means the WHO syntax changed to something less logical.
* At many places the term *SSL* has been changed to *SSL/TLS* or *TLS*.
Configuration items (eg: set::ssl to set::tls) have been renamed
as well and so have directories (eg: conf/ssl to conf/tls).
The old configuration names still work and currently does NOT raise
any warning. Also, when upgrading an existing installation on *NIX,
the conf/tls directory will be symlinked to conf/ssl as to not break
any Let's Encrypt certificate scripts.
* It is now mandatory to have at least one open SSL/TLS port, otherwise
UnrealIRCd will refuse to boot. Previously this was a warning.
* IRCOps now need to use SSL/TLS in order to oper up, as the
[set::plaintext-policy::oper](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::plaintext-policy) default setting is now 'deny'.
Similarly, [set::outdated-tls-policy::oper](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::outdated-tls-policy) is now also 'deny'.
* [set::outdated-tls-policy::server](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::outdated-tls-policy) is now 'deny' as well, since all
servers should use reasonable SSL/TLS protocols and ciphers.
* The default generated certificated has been changed from RSA 4096 bits
to Elliptic Curve Cryptography "384r1". This provides the same amount
of security but at higher speed. This only affects the default self-
signed certificate. You can still use RSA certificates just fine.
* If you do use an RSA certificate, we now require it to be at least
2048 bits otherwise UnrealIRCd will refuse to boot.
* When matching [allow { } blocks](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Allow_block), we now always continue with the next
block (if any) if the password did not match or no password was
specified. In other words, allow::options::nopasscont is now the
default and we behave as if there was a ::wrongpasscont too.
* All snomasks are now oper-only. Previously some were not, which
was confusing and could lead to information leaks.
Also removed weird set::snomask-on-connect accordingly.
* The IRCd now uses hash tables that are resilient against hash table
attacks. Also, the hash tables have increased in size to speed things
up when looking up nick names etc.
* Server options in VERSION (eg: Fhin6OoEMR3) are no longer shown to
normal users. They don't mean much nowadays anyway.
* ```./Config``` now asks fewer questions and configure runs faster since
many unnecessary checks have been removed (compatibility with very
old compilers / systems).
* We now default to system libs (eg: ```--with-system-pcre2``` is assumed)
* Spamfilter should catch some more spam evasion techniques.
Minor issues fixed
-------------------
* Specifying a custom OpenSSL/LibreSSL path should work now
Removed
--------
* Extended ban ~R (registered nick): this was the old method to match
registered users. Everyone should use ~a (services account) instead.
* The old TRE **posix** regex method has been removed because the TRE
library is no longer maintained for over a decade and contains many
bugs. (It was already deprecated in UnrealIRCd 4.2.3).
Use type **regex** instead, which uses the modern PCRE2 regex engine.
* Timesync support has been removed. Use your OS time synchronization
instead. (Note that Timesync was already disabled by default in 2018)
* Changing time offsets via ```TSCTL OFFSET``` and ```TSCTL SVSTIME``` are no longer
supported. Use your OS time synchronization (NTP!). Adjustments via
TSCTL are simply not accurate enough.
* The *nopost* module was removed since it no longer serves any useful
purpose. UnrealIRCd already protects against these kind of attacks
via ping cookies ([set::ping-cookie](https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Set_block#set::ping-cookie), enabled by default).
Developers
-----------
IMPORTANT: As long as UnrealIRCd 5 is in alpha stage, we do not suggest
3rd party module authors to start porting modules yet from U4 to U5.
Of course you may, but the module API is still very likely to change
so you may have to do certain (other) changes again next alpha release.
It is therefore best to wait until beta1. You have been warned ;).
* The module header is now as follows:
ModuleHeader MOD_HEADER
= {
"nameofmodule",
"5.0",
"Some description",
"Name of Author",
"unrealircd-5",
};
There's a new author field, the version must start with a digit,
and also the name of the module must match the loadmodule name.
So for example third/funmod must also be named third/funmod.
* The ```MOD_TEST```, ```MOD_INIT```, ```MOD_LOAD``` and ```MOD_UNLOAD``` functions no longer
take a name argument. So: ```MOD_INIT(mymod)``` is now ```MOD_INIT()```
* In UnrealIRCd 5, during development, ```--enable-asan``` is ON by default
to catch more bugs. This also means an up to 10x slowdown and more
memory usage. When we reach 5.0.0 stable this will be turned off.
* We now use our own BuildBot infrastructure, so Travis-CI and AppVeyor
have been removed.
* We now use a new test framework.
* ```Auth_Check()``` now returns ```1``` for allow and ```0``` on deny (!!)
* New function ```new_message()``` which should be called when a new message
is sent, or at least for all channel events. It adds (or inherits)
message tags like 'account', 'msgid', 'time', etc.
* Many send functions now take an extra MessageTag *mtags parameter,
including but not limited to: sendto_one() and sendto_server().
* Command functions (CMD_FUNC) have an extra ```MessageTag *mtags```,
on the other hand the ```cptr``` parameter has been removed.
* Command functions no longer return ```int``` but are ```void```,
the same is true for ```exit_client()```. ```FLUSH_BUFFER``` has been removed too.
All this is a consequence of removing this (limited) signaling
of client exits. From now on, if you call ```exit_client()``` it will free
a lot of the client data and exit the user (close socket, send [s]quit),
but it will **not free 'sptr' itself**, so you can simply check if some
upstream function killed the client by checking ```IsDead(sptr)```.
This is highly recommended after running ```do_cmd()``` or calling other
functions that could kill a client. In which case you should return
rather than continue doing anything with ```sptr```.
Ultimately, in the main loop, the client will be freed (normally in less than 1 second).
* New single unified ```sendto_channel()``` and ```sendto_local_common_channels()```
functions that are used by all the channel commands.
* Numerics should now be sent using ```sendnumeric()```. There's also
a format string version ```sendnumericfmt()``` in case you need it.
* The parameters in several hooks have changed. Many now have an
extra ```MessageTag *mtags``` parameter. Sometimes there are other changes
as well, for example ```HOOKTYPE_CHANMSG``` now has 4 extra parameters.
* If you ever send a timestamp in a printf-like function, such as
in ```sendto_server()```, then be sure to use ```%lld``` and cast the timestamp
to *long long* so that it is compatible with both *NIX and Windows.
Example: ```sendnotice(sptr, "Timestamp is %lld", (long long)ts);```
* ```EventAdd()``` changed the order of parameters and expects every_msec now
which specifies the time in milliseconds rather than seconds. This
allows for additional precision, or at least multiple calls per second.
The minimum allowed every_msec value is 100 at this time.
The prototype is now: ```EventAdd(Module *module, char *name,
vFP event, void *data, long every_msec, int count);```
* New ```HOOKTYPE_IS_HANDSHAKE_FINISHED```. If a module returns ```0``` there, then
the ```register_user()``` function will not be called and the user will
not come online (yet). This is used by CAP and some other stuff.
Can be useful if your module needs to "hold" a user in the registration
phase.
* The function ```is_module_loaded()``` now takes a relative path like
"usermodes/noctcp" because with just "ctcp" one could not see the
difference between usermodes/noctcp and chanmodes/noctcp.
* ```CHFL_CHANPROT``` is now ```CHFL_CHANADMIN```, ```is_chanprot()``` is now ```is_chanadmin()```
* All hash tables now use [SipHash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SipHash), which is a hash function that is
resilient against hash table attacks. If you, as a module dev, too
use any hash tables anywhere (note: this is quite rare), then you
are recommended to use our functions, see the functions siphash()
and siphash_nocase() in src/hash.c.
* The random generator has been updated to use [ChaCha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa20#ChaCha20_adoption) (more modern).
* You can now save pointers and integers etc. across rehashes by using
```LoadPersistentPointer()``` and ```SavePersistentPointer()```. For an example,
see ```src/modules/chanmodes/floodprot.c``` how this can be used.
Note that there can be no struct or type changes between rehashes.
* New ModData types: ```MODDATA_LOCALVAR``` and ```MODDA_GLOBALVAR```. These are
settings or things that are locally or globally identified by the
variable name only and not attached to any user/channel.
* Various files have been renamed. As previously mentioned, the m_
prefix was dropped in ```src/modules/m_*.c```. Similarly the s_ prefix
was dropped in ```src/s_*.c``` since it no longer had meaning. Also some
files have been deleted and integrated elsewhere or renamed to
have a name that better reflects their true meaning.
Related to this change is that all command functions are now called
```cmd_name``` rather than ```m_name```.
* ```HOOKTYPE_CHECK_INIT``` and ```HOOKTYPE_PRE_LOCAL_CONNECT```
have their return value changed. You should now return ```HOOK_*```, such
as ```HOOK_DENY``` or ```HOOK_CONTINUE```.
Server protocol
----------------
* Surprisingly little has been changed in the server to server protocol
between UnrealIRCd 4 and UnrealIRCd 5:
* ```PROTOCTL MTAGS``` indicates that the server is capable of handling
message tags and that the server can cope with 4K lines. (Note that
the ordinary non-message-tag part is still limited to 512 bytes).
* We now assume at least UnrealIRCd 4 like protocol abilities,
such as SID, NICKv2, TKLEXT2, etc.
(more precise information will follow)
In particular this means UnrealIRCd 3.2.x will not link with 5.x.
Client protocol
----------------
TODO: expand with other new things / changes
* When a message is blocked, for whatever reason, we now use a generic
numeric response: ```:server 531 yourname targetname :reason``` for the block
This replaces all the various NOTICEs, ```ERR_NOCTCP```, ```ERR_NONONREG```, etc.
with just one single numeric.
The only other numerics that you may still encounter when PM'ing are
```ERR_NOSUCHNICK```, ```ERR_TOOMANYTARGETS``` and ```ERR_TARGETTOOFAST```, which are
generic errors to any command involving targets. And ```ERR_SERVICESDOWN```.
Note that channel messages already had a generic numeric for signaling
blocked messages for a very long time, ```ERR_CANNOTSENDTOCHAN```.