
	FruitBrick v 2.0.0 Copyright (c) 1995, 2000 Daniel J. Wightman

  This is kind of setup like a FAQ
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

	- Questions answered in this document -

		Why is it called FruitBrick
		What does FruitBrick do
		How do I use it
		Why did you write this
		Why are you sharing
		What's so different about YOUR service package
		How do I convert my existing services database
		How do I backup my databases

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------


 Why is it called FruitBrick
 ---------------------------
	The name was quick, easy and probably doesn't exist anywhere
	else.  But for those that have a need to impart meaning on
	meaningless things, FruitBrick can be thought of as a compact
	conglomeration of server utensiles that sometimes give "off the
	wall" responses, fruity ones :)

 What does FruitBrick do
 -----------------------
	What it's designed to do is allow your typical irc chatter to
	take ownership of a channel, nickname and set various options on
	same.  The channel feature is quite complex and extremely
	configurable.  It also includes a game feature, gameserv, that
	allows a channel owner to set and remove points from registered
	nicks in the game access list for that channel and list the
	channel in a publicly searchable database of keywords.  The package
	itself is highly configurable by the administrator and runs on
	Linux, Windows and quite possibly any system that has a perl
	distribution for it.  It allows a ranking system for IRC
	Operators, so they don't need to have /oper and all the "hard set"
	configuration that comes with it.  Instead, the administrator
	can issue rank on a registered nick and they immediately come
	on duty, if they've identified, and each time they identify. 
	In addition, all /oper(s) become authenticated to operserv
	immediately and the system can be configured to allow full
	access to +A irc administrators.

	I've test loaded this service with 5,000 nicks and up to 9,000
	channels.  Some might be surprised at the speed in which
	it can process this many NICK and JOIN messages.  There
	appears to be little or no lag assocciated with this massive
	transfering of user data.

	Version 2 of FruitBrick is a complete rewrite, using my past 5
	years of perl experience, that runs quite a bit faster and has
	most, if not all, of the older useless features removed.

 How do I use it
 ---------------
	FruitBrick was first desiged to run on the DALnet ircd servers. 
	Version specific information at this time is not available but
	it has run on version 4.2 of the DALnet ircd server up to it's
	first DreamForge version (released).  Although it shouldn't
	matter what os platform the actual ircd runs on, I have tested
	it on various DALnet ircd servers compiled for windows. 
	FruitBrick itself will run on windows, if you've added the
	windows flag to the configuration file "service.conf".  After
	release 2 of this package I'm examining protocal for other
	popular ircd's and will include a protocal stripper that will
	allow you to set a flag in the config file, making this package
	usable on most, if not all, of those servers.

	To use it you must edit the configuration file "service.conf",
	but it's best to use the Configure utility, included, to
	accomplish this task, which creates a default config options.conf.
	You must be the administrator/owner ( have administrative
	access ) of the server to which you will attach FruitBrick. 
	This is not an IRC client.  This is not desiged to actually
	ATTACH to DALnet administrated servers and networks.  PLEASE DO
	NOT ATTEMPT TO CONNECT THIS SERVICE TO DAL.NET.  This package
	is for those that don't have services, have a network or single
	server and are NOT attached to the dal.net network.

	You must have perl installed on your system, unless you're
	recieving this as a binary distribution, which was not available
	at the time this document was written.  I originaly built
	this package on Linux with perl 5.003, rebuilt it on Linux
	using perl v5.6.0 and tested it on Windows95 using perl version
	5.003, 5.004, 5.005 and ActivePerl 5.6.0.620.  Everything you need,
	as well	as updates of this package, can be located at
	http://www.abonica.net/ircserv/

 Why did you write this
 ----------------------
 	I thought it would be kewl to have my very own channel service
 	and there wasn't one for DALnet ircd versions at that time so I
 	built my own.

 Why are you sharing
 -------------------
	I've put a lot of effort into a lot of different packages and
	have not had the time to prepare any of it for public release. 
	These things I've built, including streaming video service,
	member database administration and countless short scripts that
	many other aministrators probably build themselfs as well, are
	a waste if nobody else can use them. Many of my other programs
	will follow but have probably become obsolete, as this one
	undoubtedly has.

 What's so different about YOUR service package
 ----------------------------------------------
	I don't know, I spent all my time reprogramming and packaging
	it for release and havn't had time to look into others.  I'll
	tell you why _I_ like it though.  I like it because I can test
	drive additional commands and code without having to restart
	the service.  I like that I can run the code from disk or force
	the code to become static.  The service runs much faster when
	it's in fixed mode but when you're testing commands and
	different code it's nice to be able to make changes to that
	code and see the results immediately.  When you're done testing
	the code you can give operserv the fixed command.  The reverse
	is dump.

 How do I convert my existing services database
 ----------------------------------------------
	If you got your hands on my old version 1 FruitBrick or you've
	already amassed a large user base then contact me.  For v1 I can
	give my parser, although I don't know how you would have gotten
	your hands on version 1, and for any others I'll be willing to
	write a parser for you, really :).  After all, others will
	probably be able to use it.  I'll be looking into popular service
	packages to see how to structure these, and possibly build them,
	before any requests are made so you'll want to check the web site
	before hand.

 How do I backup my databases
 ----------------------------
	Just copy the contents of the ./database directory to another
	location, directory or folder.

	--------------------------------------------------------------
	I'm not a server guru.  I'm sure there are many things I
	haven't thought about and maybe even some features that don't
	work properly.  I'd be willing to alter the program immediately
	if anyone comes to me with a serious bug.

	Everyone is welcome to contact me with questions, suggestions
	and critisisms.  When you ask a question please help the
	development of the package by explaining which document or help
	feature is misleading or confusing. Oh, you can hop over to
	irc.abonica.net and /join #House .  That's where I live.  I may
	be able to help you directly.


- Daniel J. Wightman (aka, UrbanFizBoz / FruitBrick)


