How to Install Robust IRC on OpenBSD

Robust IRC is a next-generation IRC network that aims to be more reliable and decentralized than traditional IRC networks. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Robust IRC on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• A server running OpenBSD 6.2 or later
• Root or sudo user access
• Basic knowledge of the OpenBSD command line

Installing Robust IRC

Follow these steps to install Robust IRC on OpenBSD:

1. Open the terminal on your OpenBSD server.
2. Run the following command to install Git, which we will use to download the Robust IRC source code:

doas pkg_add git

3. Clone the Robust IRC source code repository with the following command:

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

4. Change into the robustirc directory by running:

cd robustirc

5. Run the following command to install Go, which we need to compile the Robust IRC server:

doas pkg_add go

6. Compile the Robust IRC server with the following command:

make server

7. The Robust IRC server binary is located in bin/robustircd. You can copy this binary to a location of your choice, such as /usr/local/bin.

Configuring Robust IRC

Now that we have installed the Robust IRC server, we need to configure it.

1. Create a new directory for Robust IRC's data:

mkdir -p /var/db/robustirc

2. Create a new file at /var/db/robustirc/config with the following content:

listen:
- 127.0.0.1:4444

data: /var/db/robustirc

tls:
  cert: /etc/ssl/server.crt
  key: /etc/ssl/private/server.key

admins: []

log:
  file: /var/log/robustirc.log
  maxsize: 1000 # MB
  maxage: 30    # days

welcome: Welcome to RobustIRC!

This configuration file specifies the listening address, data directory, TLS certificates, admin users, logging, and welcome message.

3. Create a new SSL certificate for Robust IRC. You can use the openssl command to create a self-signed certificate:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/server.key -out /etc/ssl/server.crt -subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=San Francisco/O=RobustIRC/OU=IT Department/CN=robustirc.net"

Replace the values for the -subj argument with your own organization's information.

Running Robust IRC

1. Start the Robust IRC server with the following command:

robustircd -config /var/db/robustirc/config

2. You can now connect to the Robust IRC server using an IRC client. The default listening address in the configuration file is 127.0.0.1:4444, so you will need to connect to that address using a client that supports SSL/TLS.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have walked you through the process of installing and configuring Robust IRC on OpenBSD. Now that you have Robust IRC running, you can start configuring it for your own IRC network.