IrcII Client RPM Install
Introduction
IrcII is an open-source Internet-Relay Chat
server which runs on most UNIX platforms. The particular software package that I
installed was actually the ircII client which accesses an ircII server installed
on another UNIX-platformed machine. This software allows people to log into a "channel
" on the server and to talk freely. I decided to install this after receiving
several "wall"s from group members while trying to perform an install. There
are probably other was around the situation, but since I needed to do an install
of an RPM package, this might be a good one.
Installation Description
The first thing that I did was
to go to go online and look for an irc client to install. I was originally
going to install an XWindows application, but decided against it when I realized
that I would have to be sitting at the terminal to access it and it really
wouldn't be remotely usable by those on our system. Next, I went to www.rpmfind.net
to look for an rpm of an irc client (since I couldn't get the "XWindows
requirement out of the way, at least I could install an RPM .) I found a
version dated from last year that looked like it would suit my purposes. I
checked bugtraq
and a variety of other Internet security resources to see if there were any
security holes that needed to be addressed before installing this application.
It looked like the only security issues that were listed were for a previous
release and were posted the year before the application I planned to install
even came out. I then got ready for my install. I found a version of ircii to
download from the site which was designed for the version 7.2 of Linux and an
i386 set. I performed a "wget" on the link provided and downloaded the file to
my /ahaggard/installs/ircii directory. I then performed a rpm -ivh (install/verbose/hash
-> makes a pretty little display of the installation and tells me that it's
doing it) on my downloaded file. It drew a nice little arrow across my screen
and then gave me back my prompt. I then tried to start it up by typing "irc".
Of course, this didn't work. After many attempts to install this evil file I
found myself completely bewildered. It was only then that I realized that the
link I had downloaded, actually transferred the source code into my directory,
which was what I was trying to install. I downloaded the correct file "ircii-4.4Z-7.i386.rpm
" to my directory and did the install as described above, except that this time
it worked.
Implementation:
I started my irc client by typing "irc". It started
beautifully and I discovered that the author of the software had dedicated in
memory of somebody with the last name of "Pippin"which Joel found funny. It had
the default server set to a server at MIT. I then went into my .bashrc file and
added the following script which changed the default server and set my user
information:
export IRCNAME=Lost1
export IRCUSER=LostOne
export IRCSERVER='irc.dhorizon.org'
I then logged out and shut down my session. I restarted my ssh session with red
and restarted irc. It immediately logged into the proper server. I opened a
channel on the server by typing #red. I performed a /who #red to see if there
were other users on the channel, and lo and behold - I was the only one there. I
have since used this application with members of my group with great success.
