Do not run as root

As mentioned in our installation instructions you should not start or run UnrealIRCd as root. We have always highly discouraged this with startup warnings. Later version of UnrealIRCd will simply refuse to start as root.

Why?
Because running UnrealIRCd as root is unnecessary and dangerous. If a security issue in UnrealIRCd can be exploited then the attacker has full root privileges, meaning he can do anything on the machine. You should run UnrealIRCd as a (limited) normal user.

How to add a user
On *NIX the command is usually called adduser. adduser unrealircd Or if you are not root then: sudo adduser unrealircd

Then, log in as the user unrealircd.

Now in this location you should setup your UnrealIRCd. See the installation instructions for more information.

Migrating from root to a normal user
See previous section on how to create the user and install UnrealIRCd.

After you have installed UnrealIRCd in its new location you should copy all files from /root/unrealircd/conf/ to /home/unrealircd/unrealircd/conf/ and change ownership of the files. Run the following as root : cp /root/unrealircd/conf/* /home/unrealircd/unrealircd/conf/ chown unrealircd:unrealircd /home/unrealircd/unrealircd -R

Now you are done as root. Log in as the user unrealircd again and start/stop UnrealIRCd as usual.

Don't forget to remove - or at least rename - your old installation in /root/unrealircd and remove the conjob for it if you had previously installed any.

Should I create an account only for UnrealIRCd?
We recommend running UnrealIRCd under a dedicated account such as unrealircd. An account with no other files or services other than UnrealIRCd.

Your own account may have sudo privileges which would largely defeat security. This is true for example for accounts named ubuntu on Amazon EC2.

We recommend a dedicated account. This also means we suggest running services (such as anope) under it's own account (eg: anope). This so a security issue in anope would not compromise UnrealIRCd and vice-versa.