Aquila Direct Connect Hub Software

Aquila DC was a lightweight Direct Connect hub written in C for Linux and BSD systems. The original SourceForge project was registered in 2007 and described a command-line server intended to remain fast and flexible without removing normal hub functions. Its public packages reached the 0.1.11 pre-release series.

A separate SourceForge project named AquilaDCH was registered in 2011 as a continuation of Jove's Aquila Direct Connect Server. It preserved older packages and attempted to attract new developers and support. The two SourceForge records belong to the same historical software family, but their dates and maintainers should not be merged without explanation.

Aquila had real public source and package releases, so it was not merely an unreleased server name. It is now historical software. Current hublist entries that advertise later-looking version strings must be treated as deployment observations unless they can be tied to a project-controlled release archive.

Overview And Status

Original Project

The Aquila DC SourceForge project was registered on 2007/01/12 and maintained under the account eon. Its project record identifies C as the programming language, GPLv2 as the license, Linux and BSD as the supported systems, and a console interface for administrators.

The original description emphasized a small and efficient service rather than a desktop administration application. This placed Aquila closer to daemon-oriented Unix hub software than to Windows products such as YnHub or Eximius.

AquilaDCH Continuation

AquilaDCH was registered on 2011/02/16 by the accounts aquiladc and drakect. Its project summary explicitly calls it a continuation of Jove's Aquila Direct Connect Server and states that the goal was to find new people interested in development and support.

The continuation archive contains packages from the 0.1.9, 0.1.10, and 0.1.11 development lines. The original Aquila DC archive later published aquila-0.1.11-pre4-beta3 in 2012 and aquila-0.1.11-pre4-beta4 in 2015.

Release History

The latest project-controlled Aquila DC package visible in SourceForge is 0.1.11-pre4-beta4, dated 2015/02/17. Its pre-release and beta labels matter. They indicate that the final public archive remained in a development series rather than reaching a numbered stable 1.0 release.

DCHUBLIST currently reports hubs advertising 0.1.11-pre4-beta4 and 1.7.0.0. The first matches the SourceForge archive. No corresponding project-controlled Aquila release for 1.7.0.0 has been verified, so that value should be described as a self-reported public deployment version.

Unrelated Aquila Projects

SourceForge hosts several unrelated projects named Aquila, including cognitive-robotics software. The Direct Connect project uses the identifiers aquiladc and aquiladch. Links to a generic sourceforge.net/projects/aquila/ page lead to different software and must not be used as a hub-server resource.

Current Status

No current maintained release line or active project support channel has been established. The source and release archives remain useful for historical research, restoration, and migration. Public hubs may still use old packages or private derivatives.

Operation And Recovery

Reconstructing A Build

Aquila was distributed primarily as source archives for Unix-like systems. Before compiling an old release, preserve the original archive and checksum, inspect the included README and build files, and reproduce the expected compiler and library environment in a disposable virtual machine or container.

Do not replace old build scripts with current assumptions until the original dependencies are understood. Compiler warnings, changed library APIs, and stricter defaults can alter runtime behavior even when a patched build succeeds.

Preserving An Installation

Back up the binary, source revision, build flags, startup script, configuration, account data, bans, hub text, logs, certificates, and any external storage used by the deployment. The public project description does not define one universal modern package layout, so the running system is the authoritative inventory for that installation.

If the server reports a version that is absent from the public archive, preserve the executable before making changes. Record its hash and search the installation for embedded version strings, local patches, or source snapshots that can explain its lineage.

Migration

Test a replacement server on a separate port and recreate user classes, registrations, bans, redirects, hub descriptions, and operator procedures. Do not assume that another server interprets Aquila data files or permission levels directly.

Keep the old service offline but intact until the new system has reproduced login, search, chat, administration, and hublist registration. An archived Aquila installation may be the only remaining record of local configuration that was never stored elsewhere.

Verified Resources

Use the Direct Connect-specific SourceForge projects below. Avoid unrelated SourceForge projects that happen to share the Aquila name.

Related Direct Connect Reading

YnHub and PtokaX document other hub servers from the period in which Aquila was developed. Their Windows-oriented administration and scripting models contrast with Aquila's C and Unix console design.

Verlihub is relevant when planning a move from an old Unix-hosted hub to a maintained server family. Use Support when a surviving Aquila build cannot be tied to either SourceForge archive.