Minbif is minimal, flexible, easy to use, and best of all- IRC related. It’s really no more than an IRC interface to libpurple. The biggest difference between Bitlbee and minbif is that minbif uses a control scheme very similar to most popular IRCd’s. Bitlbee goes for a “connect via IRC and control with oddball channel commands” approach. I like minbif’s style a great deal more than bitlbee’s.

Here goes.

To compile/install minbif just do the usual:

make ENABLE_TLS=on
make install

If you’re using FreeBSD like I am, you may or may not have to disable PAM. I also enabled TLS, as encrypted connections are “A Good Thing™”.

To generate certificates for use in minbif, use GnuTLS’ built in “certtool”. Place the files wherever you want, but remember the locations of them when it comes to altering the minbif.conf file.

certtool --generate-privkey --outfile server.key
certtool --generate-self-signed --load-privkey server.key --outfile server.crt

Alright. Onto the conf file.

Uncomment the TLS portion (located under irc/daemon) of the conf file as such:

                tls {
                        cert_file = /etc/minbif/server.crt
                        key_file = /etc/minbif/server.key
                        priority = PERFORMANCE
                #
                #       # client certificate validation
                #       trust_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ca.crt
                #       crl_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ca.crl
                }

We left the trust file commented out, as if it doesn’t exist or has issues, it will prevent minbif from running properly (or at all). Uncomment or add other options as you require, such as IRCOPs or passwords.

Don’t forget to check permissions on your /var/lib/minbif/users directory. Make sure minbif can access it under the user you’re running it as.

Now you can start minbif.

minbif /usr/local/etc/minbif/minbif.conf

Your minbif.conf location will vary depending on install location. Once it’s all set connect to port 6667 via SSL with your favorite IRC client. You’ll be good to go. Don’t forget to connect with a password. The moment you connect with a password, your account is generated and information saved from that point on.

To start off dicking around with minbif, you can /quote map help. That will kick you off into the excellent world of minbif. Check out the quick start as well should you need more help. Enjoy.