X-Git-Url: http://git.silcnet.org/gitweb/?p=runtime.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=82eacbb30c601fdd52cbce0649510687d7571d5d;hp=13e88e5ae66ab5e638a0eef252164a1cdcfbe7db;hb=HEAD;hpb=01f3ed70ac686777ebfb992e062d65f2322d8998 diff --git a/README b/README index 13e88e5a..82eacbb3 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,138 +1,26 @@ -SILC - Secure Internet Live Conferencing -======================================== +SILC Runtime Toolkit +==================== -SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) is a protocol which provides -secure conferencing services in the Internet over insecure channel. -SILC is IRC like softwarre although internally they are very different. -Biggest similarity between SILC and IRC is that they both provide -conferencing services and that SILC has almost same commands as IRC. Other -than that they are nothing alike. Biggest differences are that SILC is -secure what IRC is not in any way. The network model is also entirely -different compared to IRC. +SILC Runtime Toolkit (SRT) provides useful utility functions for application +programmers. The SRT can be used as the sole and main runtime in any +application. It provides application main loop, hash table, lists, atomic +operations, threads, locks, queues, file descriptor stream, socket stream, +network routines, a finite state machine, memory pool, random number +generator, buffers, regular expressions, and many many other features. +The SRT natively supports multiple platforms; Unix/Linux, Windows, Mac OS +X and Symbian OS, and all APIs work identically or nearly identically on +all support platforms. The SRT and all of its APIs are entirely reentrant +and some APIs are completely thread safe. -Running SILC -============ - -After installing the SILC to the system the SILC client is started by -giving command: - - silc - -If you want to run with specific configuration file give -f option. - -To run the server you should configure the server first. To run the -server give the command: - - silcd - -This will launch the server on to the background. - - -Features -======== - -Features to be included into the final release of SILC. [Note that the -current Developer's Version does not include all of these features, read -TODO file for more information.] - - o Normal conferencing services such as private messages, channels, - channel messages, etc. All traffic is secured and authenticated. - - o No unique nicknames. There can same nicknames in SILC without - collisions. SILC has unique Client ID's, Server ID's and Channel ID's - to assure that there are no collisions. - - o Secure key exchange and authentication protocol. SILC Key Exchange - protocol provides key material used in the SILC sessions in secure - manner. The protocol is immune for example to man-in-the-middle - attacks. The SILC Authentication protocol provides strong - authentication. Authentication may be based on passphrase or public - key (RSA) authentication. For clients there is an option not to - use authentication when connecting to servers. - - o All traffic is encrypted and authenticated using the best cryptographic - algorithms out there. Command messages, private messages and channel - messages are all protected by encryption. User can set private keys - for both private message and for channels so that even SILC servers do - not know the keys. Cipher keys are, by default, 128 bits in length and - public keys, by default, 1024 bits in length. - - o Supports data compression with GZIP to improve performance. - - o Supports SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 firewall traversal protocols. - - o SIM (SILC Module) support. Support for loading of shared objects at - run-time that provides new and extended features to both SILC client - and server. These can provide extra ciphers and extra features to - the software. - - o SILC client can be installed and used without root privileges. - - o SILC client can be configured by system wide configuration files but - with user specific configuration files as well. - +The SRT is free software and is dual-licensed with GNU GPL and BSD +licenses. History ======= -Even though SILC were released in summer 2000 to the public the idea and -the protocol itself is quite old. I got the idea about SILC in its -current form in the year 1996 and first lines of codes were written in -early 1997. This release is now third rewrite of the SILC. The very first -version were written in 1997 and it included SILC client and very very -preliminary SILC server. The server actually weren't usable but the -client looked pretty much the same as it does now. At that time the SILC -also included RSA implementation and 3DES implementation. The random -number generator that exists in this current release is actually based on -the RNG written in 1997. The RNG written in 1997, on the other hand, were -based on the SSH's random number generator. The RNG has been rewritten -twice since the first version. - -I stopped writing the SILC later in 1997 when I got busy at school and in -work. The pause lasted several months. The development resumed in 1998 -when my friend (Juha Räsänen) and I implemented ElGamal algorithm. I -rewrote some other parts as well. However, for the same reasons as -previously the development stopped again. I resumed the development later -in 1998 by doing rewrite of the SILC in C++. This was obviously a mistake -but at that time it seemed like a good idea. Again, in the winter 1999 I -got very busy writing my thesis and was forced to stop the development -again. I also, started a new job in the spring. - -Later, in 1999, I decided that this time I'm going to make it the right -way. C++ was obviously a bad choice so I decided to fall back to plain C -language. I also decided to do complete rewrite and started doing more -thorough planning of what the SILC actually should include. I also -decided that this time it is going to kill me before I stop the -development. I started writing SILC in the weekends and actually -everytime I had some spare time. I also started a new job but I didn't -let that get to my way. The result of this development effort is the -release now in public. - -I've learned a lot by doing the SILC. I guess, when I started it I wasn't -that good of a C programmer. That alone was a reason why SILC hasn't seen -the day of light before now. My programming style has also changed -dramatically during these years. Actually, it has changed couple times -since this last rewrite as well. However, the code style of current SILC -release is quite consistent (actually the coding style SILC has been -written now I've learned in my current job). - -There is probably over 85% of new code in this third rewrite. Rest has -just been copied from the old versions and only minor changes has been -made (like changed function names and overall coding style). I've -preserved the dates of the old files (dating back to 1997) that has -existed in some forms in the old versions. There is a lot of new code but -already I see a lot that needs rewriting. The development continues. - - -Contact -======= - -Feedback and comments are welcome. Bug reports should be sent to the -development mailing list. - -Official SILC project web site : http://silcnet.org/ -FTP archive for SILC project : ftp://silc.pspt.fi/pub/silc/ -Development mailing list address : silc-devel@lists.sourceforge.net - - Pekka Riikonen +The SRT used to be part of the SILC Toolkit; a software development kit for +Secure Internet Life Conferencing application programmers. The SRT was +split off from the SILC Toolkit into its own package due to its generic and +useful nature. Many APIs still present in SRT have been in use in the SILC +Toolkit since the year 2000.