Quassel IRC

h1. Building Quassel core from source on Ubuntu

These instructions tell how to build the latest Quassel core from git for your Ubuntu server or desktop.

Since it scales better with many users and huge amounts of history, setting up PostgreSQL as a backend will be explained as well.

h3. Make sure repositories are up-to-date

<pre>

sudo apt-get update

</pre>

h3. Install required dependencies and build tools

<pre>

sudo apt-get install git-core qt4-dev-tools libqt4-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite screen cmake build-essential

* Ubuntu Server Note: use instead:

sudo apt-get -o APT::Install-Recommends=0 -o APT::Install-Suggests=0 install git-core qt4-dev-tools cmake libqt4-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite screen  build-essential

</pre>

Also install the SQL driver for your planned backend.

- For sqlite (Quassel's default, suggested for single user setups):

<pre>

sudo apt-get install libqt4-sql-sqlite

</pre>

- For PostgreSQL (suggested for multi-user setups):

<pre>

sudo apt-get install libqt4-sql-psql

</pre>

h3. Get the sources

<pre>

mkdir quassel-build

cd quassel-build

git clone https://github.com/quassel/quassel.git

</pre>

h3. Build it

<pre>

mkdir quassel/build

cd quassel/build

cmake -DWANT_CORE=1 -DWANT_QTCLIENT=0 -DWANT_MONO=0 ../

make

sudo make install

</pre>

Another common option to cmake would be:

<pre>

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/where/it/should/be/installed

</pre>

Otherwise /usr/local/ is used as the install prefix.

h2. Optional Step: Use PostgreSQL as backend

h3. Setup PostgreSQL database master user

* "Follow these Ubuntu specific instructions":https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostgreSQL

h3. Setup quassel PostgreSQL database. The database password will be asked later by the Quassel client configuration wizard.

<pre>

sudo -u postgres psql

postgres=# CREATE USER quassel ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'somepassword';

CREATE ROLE

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE quassel WITH OWNER quassel ENCODING 'UTF8';

CREATE DATABASE

</pre>

h2. Optional Step: Create SSL certificate:

<pre>

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout ~/.config/quassel-irc.org/quasselCert.pem -out ~/.config/quassel-irc.org/quasselCert.pem

</pre>

h2. Running Core

"Screen":http://www.debuntu.org/2006/07/04/72-how-to-screen-the-ultimate-admin-tool is a terminal tool which allows you to leave terminal sessions running in the background even when you are logged out.

We run Quassel in screen so that core keeps running as long as it is killed or the server is restarted

<pre>

screen

cd quassel/build

./quasselcore

</pre>

Now you can shut down your terminal and the Quassel core still keeps running. 

Later we can reattach to this screen session to check out the Quassel core terminal output to see if there has been any problems. Log in and type:

<pre>

screen -x

</pre>

Now you should how you left your terminal last time you shut it down.

h2. First-time Setup

The configuration wizard will guide you through the rest of the setup when you connect to your Quassel core using a Quassel client for the first time. Remember to choose PostgreSQL backend instead of SQLite when asked.

h2. Start as Daemon

*make install*, create a user *quasselcore* with *quassel* group and create the */etc/init.d/quasselcore*:

<pre>

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides:          quasselcore

# Required-Start:    $network $local_fs

# Required-Stop:

# Should-Start:

# Should-Stop:

# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5

# Default-Stop:      0 1 6

# Short-Description: distributed IRC client using a central core component

# Description:       This is the core component of Quassel. A modern,

#                    cross-platform, distributed IRC client, meaning that one

#                    (or multiple) client(s) can attach to and detach from this

#                    central core. It's much like the popular combination

#                    of screen and a text-based IRC client such as WeeChat.

### END INIT INFO

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/quasselcore

NAME=quasselcore

DESC="distributed IRC core"

LOGDIR=/var/log/quassel

PORT=4242

PIDFILE=/var/run/quasselcore.pid

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

DAEMON_OPTS=""

DIETIME=10

STARTIME=3

LOGFILE=$LOGDIR/core.log

DATADIR=/var/cache/quassel

DAEMONUSER=quasselcore

if [ -f /etc/default/$NAME ] ; then

    . /etc/default/$NAME

fi

if [ -n "$DAEMONUSER" ] ; then

    if getent passwd | grep -q "^$DAEMONUSER:"; then

        # Obtain the uid and gid

        DAEMONUID=`getent passwd |grep "^$DAEMONUSER:" | awk -F : '{print $3}'`

        DAEMONGID=`getent passwd |grep "^$DAEMONUSER:" | awk -F : '{print $4}'`

    else

        log_failure_msg "The user $DAEMONUSER, required to run $NAME does not exist."

        exit 1

    fi

fi

set -e

running_pid() {

    pid=$1

    name=$2

    [ -z "$pid" ] && return 1

    [ ! -d /proc/$pid ] &&  return 1

    cmd=`cat /proc/$pid/cmdline | tr "\000" "\n"|head -n 1 |cut -d : -f 1`

    [ "$cmd" != "$name" ] &&  return 1

    return 0

}

running() {

    [ ! -f "$PIDFILE" ] && return 1

    pid=`cat $PIDFILE`

    running_pid $pid $DAEMON || return 1

    return 0

}

start_server() {

    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --make-pidfile \

        --background --chuid $DAEMONUSER --exec $DAEMON \

        -- --logfile=$LOGFILE --loglevel=$LOGLEVEL --configdir=$DATADIR \

           --port=$PORT \

           $DAEMON_OPTS

    errcode=$?

    return $errcode

}

stop_server() {

    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --user $DAEMONUSER \

        --exec $DAEMON

    errcode=$?

    return $errcode

}

force_stop() {

    [ ! -e "$PIDFILE" ] && return

    if running ; then

        kill -15 $pid

    # Is it really dead?

        sleep "$DIETIME"s

        if running ; then

            kill -9 $pid

            sleep "$DIETIME"s

            if running ; then

                echo "Cannot kill $NAME (pid=$pid)!"

                exit 1

            fi

        fi

    fi

    rm -f $PIDFILE

}

case "$1" in

  start)

    log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"

        # Check if it's running first

        if running ;  then

            log_progress_msg "apparently already running"

            log_end_msg 0

            exit 0

        fi

        if start_server ; then

            [ -n "$STARTTIME" ] && sleep $STARTTIME # Wait some time

            if  running ;  then

                log_end_msg 0

            else

                log_end_msg 1

            fi

        else

            log_end_msg 1

        fi

    ;;

  stop)

        log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"

        if running ; then

            stop_server

            log_end_msg $?

        else

            log_progress_msg "apparently not running"

            log_end_msg 0

            exit 0

        fi

        ;;

  force-stop)

        $0 stop

        if running; then

            # If it's still running try to kill it more forcefully

            log_daemon_msg "Stopping (force) $DESC" "$NAME"

            force_stop

            log_end_msg $?

        fi

    ;;

  restart|force-reload)

        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"

        stop_server

        # Wait some sensible amount, some server need this

        [ -n "$DIETIME" ] && sleep $DIETIME

        start_server

        [ -n "$STARTTIME" ] && sleep $STARTTIME

        running

        log_end_msg $?

    ;;

  status)

        log_daemon_msg "Checking status of $DESC" "$NAME"

        if running ; then

            log_success_msg "running"

            log_end_msg 0

        else

            log_success_msg "apparently not running"

            log_end_msg 1

            exit 1

        fi

        ;;

  reload)

        log_warning_msg "Reloading $NAME daemon: not implemented, as the daemon"

        log_warning_msg "cannot re-read the config file (use restart)."

        ;;

  *)

    N=/etc/init.d/$NAME

      echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|force-stop|restart|force-reload|status}" >&2

    exit 1

    ;;

esac

exit 0

</pre>

* *Note:* By default this script will not work after a reboot with mysql/postgresql backends. If you're interested in that, this should make quassel start with either mysql or postgresql  "as per this bug report":https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=701943. Simply change the the Should-Start and Should-Stop parameters to the following:

<pre>

  # Should-Start: mysql postgresql

  # Should-Stop: mysql postgresql

</pre>

And now...

Binary: /usr/local/bin/quasselcore

The logfile is: /var/log/quassel/core.log

PID-file: /var/run/quasselcore.pid

Data dir (confi, cert): /var/cache/quassel

Daemon-user: quasselcore

Ok... Start: 

<pre>

/etc/init.d/quasselcore start

</pre>