IRC Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 100 Combine BitlBee and CtrlProxy

We've already covered both
BitlBee and CtrlProxy separately, but IRC power users will be
delighted to learn how effective the two combined can be.

Some frequently requested BitlBee features don't
really have to be implemented in BitlBee, because
CtrlProxy can do all of them. Some of these features are:

SSL support

This encrypts all traffic between the IRC client and server. Although
this is not quite top securitymost Instant Messaging protocols
send all conversations unencrypted anywayit at least makes
sure nobody can sniff your passwords.

Keep-alive connections

This means that your session will stay running when you close your
IRC client.

Server-side logs

You will be able to keep your IRC logs on the machine that runs
CtrlProxy.

As you may have noticed, these points don't really
make sense when you run BitlBee and your IRC client on the same
machine. But when you regularly connect to your BitlBee server from
different (remote) places, they can prove to be very useful.

15.7.1 Setting Up CtrlProxy and BitlBee

Setting
up CtrlProxy and BitlBee is quite easy. First, read the hacks [Hack #9] and [Hack #99] ) about the two programs to
read how to install them. Reading the parts about getting and
compiling them should be enoughyou can skip the configuration
part. When using CtrlProxy, you can leave out the
bitlbeed/inetd setup,
because CtrlProxy can start BitlBee directly, as demonstrated in the
following configuration file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ctrlproxy>
<plugins>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libsocket">
<sslcertfile>/home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxy.pem</sslcertfile>
<sslkeyfile>/home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxy.pem</sslkeyfile>
</plugin>
<plugin autoload="1" file="librepl_memory"/>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libadmin"/>
<plugin autoload="1" file="liblog_irssi">
<logfile>/home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/logs/</logfile>
</plugin>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libstrip"/>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libnickserv"/>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libantiflood"/>
<plugin autoload="1" file="libauto-away">
<message time="300">"I'm currently away, sorry!</message>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<networks>
<network autoconnect="1" client_pass="secret" name="BEE">
<listen>
<ipv4 port="6668" ssl="1"/>
</listen>
<servers>
<pipe>
<path>/usr/sbin/bitlbee</path>
<arg>-d/home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/bitlbee/</arg>
</pipe>
</servers>
<nickserv>
<nick name="wilmer" password="beedifferent"/>
</nickserv>
</network>
</networks>
</ctrlproxy>

Obviously, you may need to change the file and path names to suit
your setup. Don't forget this when copying the
configuration file. Save this into a file called
ctrlproxyrc in the
.ctrlproxy directory in your home directory. If
this directory doesn't exist yet, you must create
it. Don't forget to create the log and BitlBee
configuration directories you specified in this file as well, since
they won't be created automatically. The password
specified in the NickServ configuration will be the password you
should use as your BitlBee NickServ password. Pick anything you want
here, as CtrlProxy will take care of sending this information to
BitlBee.

If you want to use SSL, you will need to create an SSL
certificate/key. The script called mksslcert.sh
in the CtrlProxy source directory can do this for you. It creates a
file ctrlproxy.pem in the current directory.
Just run the script and make sure you put the generated file at the
place you refer to in the configuration file.

15.7.2 Starting CtrlProxy

When

this is all done, you can finally
start CtrlProxy. You can do this like so:

% ctrlproxy -D -r ~/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxyrc

When running CtrlProxy for the first time, it may be a good idea to
leave out the -D argument, so the program will
start in the foreground and send some information to the terminal so
you can troubleshoot, if necessary.

When everything is OK, you should see something like this when you
start the program:

ruby~$ ctrlproxy -r ~/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxyrc
** Message: Using SSL certificate from /home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxy.pem
and SSL key 
from /home/wilmer/.ctrlproxy/ctrlproxy.pem
Added linestack backend 'memory'
Filter 'repl_simple' added
Adding new client hook 'repl_simple'
Filter 'admin' added
Filter 'log_irssi' added
Filter 'strip' added
Adding lose client hook 'nickserv'
Filter 'nickserv' added
Filter 'antiflood' added
Filter 'auto-away' added
socket-Message: Listening on port 6668(socket 3)
Connecting with pipe for server BEE
Joining channel #bitlbee

The last line is especially important. If you don't
get the "Joining channel #bitlbee",
CtrlProxy probably failed to start BitlBee. Also, if the first line
says something about a missing SSL certificate/key file, something
went wrong while creating the ctrlproxy.pem
file, which means SSL support will not work. A configuration problem
is the most likely cause of this problem, so double-check what you
have written in the configuration file.

As you can see, #bitlbee is joined automatically, although that's not specified in the CtrlProxy configuration file. This is normal BitlBee behavior. You don't have to put the channel in the CtrlProxy configuration, as CtrlProxy handles this force-join quite well.

Now, find out whether your IRC client supports SSL connections. Most
decent clients know about SSL these days. irssi
does, for example. SSL support for mIRC seems to be available as a
plug-in. If you don't know whether your IRC client
supports SSL connections yet, just check the documentation. If SSL is
not supported, you can choose to switch to a different IRC client or
disable SSL in CtrlProxy. You can do this by changing the 1 into a 0
in the ssl argument to the listener definition.

Finally, you can now try to connect the IRC client to the proxy. A
simple /connect or /server with
just the server name as an argument won't be enough.
You have to tell the IRC client to connect to the correct port, use
SSL, and send the password. If you use irssi,
you can connect to a server called ruby by typing
the following:

/connect -ssl ruby 6668 secret

15.7.3 Starting the Session

If

everything went well,
you'll see a regular BitlBee session coming up. You
may notice some differences when you look at the server messages, but
the control channel should look familiar to you if you have used
BitlBee before.

Now, go ahead and set up the Bee [Hack #99] . When you register your
nickname, don't forget to use the password you chose
when you wrote the CtrlProxy configuration file. If the passwords
don't match, automatic identification will not work,
and you'll have to manually identify yourself to
root and NickServ every time you sign in.

When you're done, it might be interesting to kill
CtrlProxy. There are two ways to do it. Sending
SIGTERM to the CtrlProxy process is one way, but
you can also do it using your IRC client. Typing
/CTRLPROXY DIE should do the job. If that
doesn't work, try /QUOTE CTRLPROXY
DIE. Now start up CtrlProxy again. If everything goes
well, it will set up the BitlBee connection and identify you to
NickServ automatically. So when you connect your IRC client to
CtrlProxy, the session will be up and running already.

Now it's time for some more experimentation. Start
up a second IRC client and connect it to the same CtrlProxy. See how
you get exactly the same session there, and how you can do whatever
you want in both sessions? Close both IRC clients and start one again
to connect it to the proxy. You should notice that the whole session
is reproduced, and nobody ever noticed you were away (unless you
enabled the autoaway module). It should look something like Figure 15-5.

Figure 15-5. Viewing the same session through two different IRC clients

You will also have full logs of all your conversations on the machine
where CtrlProxy runs. You can now disable logging in your IRC client,
as there is little point in creating two copies. The benefit of using
CtrlProxy to make your logs is that wherever you run your IRC client,
your logs will always be in the same place.

15.7.4 Hacking the Hack

Maybe you're not completely comfortable yet? Maybe
you want the logs to be formatted a bit differently? Maybe you want
to connect to other networks as well? Maybe you
don't like some of the BitlBee default settings?
Most of these things are explained in the hacks about the two
programs (see [Hack #9] and [Hack #99] ) or the online manuals.
Don't forget to read them, as they cover far more
topics than these hacks can. Many features requested by users already
exist, but they're just not obvious enough to be
discovered without reading some documentation.

Wilmer van der Gaast