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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/README')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/README | 47 |
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 28 deletions
@@ -41,6 +41,25 @@ Also, don't forget to create the configuration directory (/var/lib/bitlbee/ by default) and chown it to the UID BitlBee is running as. Make sure this directory is read-/writable by this user only. +--- (Fork)Daemon mode + +If you don't want to run any inetd daemon, you can run BitlBee in Daemon +mode. Right now, daemon mode may be a bad idea on servers with multiple +users, since possible fatal BitlBee bugs will crash the BitlBee process and +disconnect all connected users at once. Instead, you can use ForkDaemon +mode, which serves every user from a separate process, without depending on +an inetd daemon. + +To use BitlBee in daemon mode, just start it with the right flags or enable +it in bitlbee.conf. You probably want to write an init script to start +BitlBee automatically after a reboot. (This is where you realise using +a package from your distro would've been a better idea. :-P) + +Note that the BitlBee code is getting stable enough for daemon mode to be +useful. Some public servers use it, and it saves a lot of memory by serving +tens of users from a single process. One crash affects all users, but these +are becoming quite rare. + DEPENDENCIES ============ @@ -89,34 +108,6 @@ versions of make, we'd love to hear it, but it seems this just isn't possible. -RUNNING ON SERVERS WITH MANY USERS -================================== - -BitlBee is not yet bug-free. Sometimes a bug causes the program to get into -an infinite loop. Something you really don't want on a public server, -especially when that machine is also used for other (mission-critical) things. -For now we can't do much about it. We haven't seen that happen for a long -time already on our own machines, but some people still manage to get -themselves in nasty situations we haven't seen before. - -For now the best we can offer against this problem is bitlbeed, which allows -you to setrlimit() the child processes to use no more than a specified -number of CPU seconds. Not the best solution (not really a solution anyway), -but certainly trashing one busy daemon process is better than trashing your -whole machine. - -We don't believe adding a limit for bitlbee to /etc/security/limits.conf will -work, because that file is only read by PAM (ie just for real login users, -not daemons). - -See utils/bitlbeed.c for more information about the program. - -Just a little note: Now that we reach version 1.0, this shouldn't be that -much of an issue anymore. However, on a public server, especially if you -also use it for other things, it can't hurt to protect yourself against -possible problems. - - USAGE ===== |