Using systemd with UnrealIRCd

Usually you want to run UnrealIRCd at startup. This can be done via a Cron job but you can also do it via Systemd.

Installing systemd unit file

You have two options here, pick one:

• System unit: this is usually what people use. It requires root but on the plus side it allows a couple of extra security measures.
• User unit: this does not require root on the machine, and you can run all commands to start/stop/restart the ircd as the same user as the ircd is running at, so is actually quite convenient.

System unit

In the directory where you compiled UnrealIRCd at, for example ~/unrealircd-6.2.1/ go to the subdirectory extras/startup and open the file unrealircd.service in an editor. Change the User= and Group= lines to match the user/group you user for running the ircd, and change the path in ExecStart= if needed. So:

cd extras/startup
# open editor and update User=, Group= and ExecStart=
nano unrealircd.service

Finally, run the following as root:

cp -av unrealircd.service /etc/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable unrealircd.service
systemctl start unrealircd.service

User unit

If instead, you prefer to use the user unit, then go to the directory where you compiled UnrealIRCd at, for example ~/unrealircd-6.2.1/ and go to the subdirectory extras/startup. Open the file unrealircd_user.service in an editor. Change the ExecStart= line if needed (by default it assumes unrealircd is installed in ~/unrealircd/). So:

cd extras/startup
# open editor and change the line with ExecStart= if needed
nano unrealircd_user.service

Then, run the following commands:

loginctl enable-linger
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp unrealircd_user.service ~/.config/systemd/user/unrealircd.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable unrealircd.service
systemctl --user start unrealircd.service

Starting and stopping UnrealIRCd

Now that you are using systemd to manage UnrealIRCd, you can no longer use the ./unrealircd [start|stop|restart] commands. Instead, you should use:

• If using the system service, as root or via sudo: systemctl [start|stop|restart] unrealircd
• If using the user service: systemctl --user [start|stop|restart] unrealircd

You can still use ./unrealircd commands other than start/stop/restart, like ./unrealircd rehash or ./unrealircd status