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chattahoochie(8)       DragonFly System Manager's Manual      chattahoochie(8)


NAME

     chattahoochie - KQueue-Based Small Group Chat Server


SYNOPSIS

     chattahoochie [-i <interface> -p <port> -m <max-clients> -u <user> -g <group> -x]


DESCRIPTION

     Chattahoochie is a plain text small group chat server intended for use
     with 8-bit character sets.  On local networks telnet or netcat can be
     used as clients.  By default Chattahoochie accepts a maximum of five
     connections at any one time.  The maximum number of connections may be
     altered with the -m option.  Chattahoochie will drop connections which
     have been idle for 20 minutes.

     All data exchanged between clients and server is sent in the clear and is
     thus readable by any third party whose equipment it traverses.  For use
     over the internet it is recommended chattahoochie be configured to listen
     on a loopback interface.  Secure shell clients can then be used to
     connect to the server host.  How to do this is described below in the
     section titled SECURING CONNECTIONS.

   DISPLAY LOCKING
     Before inputting chat data, a client should lock the display by entering
     a blank line to prevent the display from scrolling.  The display can be
     unlocked by entering another blank line.  Up to 500 incoming messages
     will be queued for the client while the display is locked.

   SECURING CONNECTIONS
     Create a "chat" user on the server host with the adduser utility.  Add a
     Match directive to the very end of /etc/ssh/sshd_config to run netcat as
     an intermediary for "chat" logins.  It is important to place the Match
     directive at the end of the file to avoid affecting other logins.

     Match User chat
        ForceCommand nc 127.0.0.1 8000

     Restart sshd with

     kill -HUP `cat /var/run/sshd.pid`

     Check to make sure the daemon has restarted before you logout of your
     current ssh session!  If you make a typo in sshd_config, sshd will fail
     to restart, silently, and you will no longer be able to connect to the
     system as any user!  To verify sshd has restarted, open another xterm or
     virtual console and attempt to login as the "chat" user:

     ssh chat@fakehost.org

     Create the file /home/chat/.hushlogin to suppress printing of the last
     login time and message of the day.

   CONFIGURATION
     Chattahoochie writes its pid into /var/run/chattahoochie.pid if it can
     (ie., it is started as root), and may be stopped with a SIGTERM.  A rc.d
     script is provided and installed in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/.  Add the
     following lines to /etc/rc.conf to start chattahoochie on system boot-up.
     Replace the items in brackets with values appropriate for your system,
     and/or add or remove options as suits your system.  The available options
     are described in full at the end of this manual page.

     chattahoochie_enable="YES"
     chattahoochie_flags="-u <user> -g <group>"

     Once your /etc/rc.conf is configured you may start, stop, or restart
     chattahoochie, or determine if it is running with the following commands:

     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie start
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie stop
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie restart
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie status

     If you do not want chattahoochie started on system start, then set

     chattahoochie_enable="NO"

     and use the following commands:

     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie forcestart
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie forcestop
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie forcerestart
     /usr/local/etc/rc.d/chattahoochie forcestatus

     If the server encounters an error reading or writing data to or from a
     client, or runs out of memory, the particular connection which generated
     the error will be dropped.  All other errors will be logged via
     syslog(3), and may be found in /var/log/messages.

     The following arguments are recognized.  They are all optional.

     -p  The -p option specifies the port to listen on.  This defaults to 8000
         if not specified.

     -i  By default, chattahoochie accepts connections on all interfaces it
         can find capable of IPv4 or IPv6.  The -i option, when present,
         overrides this behavior, by limiting chattahoochie to accepting
         connections from a specified interface only.  The option accepts the
         IP address of the desired interface as an argument.  The address must
         be expressed in the presentation format for either IPv4 or IPv6.

     -m  The -m option specifies the maximum number of clients which may be
         connected at any one time.  If not specified, this value defaults to
         5.

     -u

     -g  The -u and the -g options may be used to specify the user and group
         for the server to change to after it has bound to the listening
         socket.  If not specified, both values default to "nobody".  Note
         that in order for the server to change user the server must be
         started as root.  If not started as root, two error messages will be
         syslog()ed at start-up, complaining about the inability of the server
         to change user and group.  You can suppress them by providing values
         to -u and -g to override the default "nobody" with the actual user
         and group under which the server runs.

     -x  The -x option, if present, prevents chattahoochie from becoming a
         daemon.  It will then run in the foreground of the terminal where it
         was started, and may be stopped with signals (ie., Control-C).  The
         server also will not write its pid to /var/run/chattahoochie.pid when
         the -x option is used.


AUTHORS

     James Bailie <jimmy@mammothcheese.ca>
     http://www.mammothcheese.ca

                                October 6, 2013

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