small typos

projects/alamesh/setting_up_bird.md

@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
 # Setting up BIRD
 
-BIRD, or the "BIRD Internet Routing Daemon", is a daemon that turns a dump linux box into a fully fledged router that 
+BIRD, or the "BIRD Internet Routing Daemon", is a daemon that turns a dumb linux box into a fully fledged router that 
 can support many different routing protocols. It speaks those protocols with other routers and builds a dynamic routing
 table that is then sent to the kernel (which does the actual packet forwarding).
 
-This doc tracks my learnings from install and using bird on a cheap, $4/month DO droplet.
+This doc tracks my learnings from installing and setting up bird on a cheap, $4/month DO droplet. Actually using it 
+with another router will come in an edit or separate post.
 
 # My Network
 
 I'm not trying to to any sort of dynamic routing yet, but here's what I have working right now. My current network is 
-the entire `0200::/7` address space (all addresses prefixed with `0x2` and `0x00`).
-
+the entire `0200::/7` address space (all addresses prefixed with `0x02` and `0x0[01]`).
 
 ```
 ┌──────────┐    wg tunnel
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ I moved my bin to `/usr/local/bin/bird` after having some weird env issues.
 
 ~~Now we need to create a user with `CAP_NET_*` privileges that bird can run as~~. We actually don't need to do that 
 immediately. We can use `-u` to drop to a user like `nobody` and bird will only give itself the privileges that it
-needs.
+needs. We may want a specific bird user in the future.
 
 # Configuration
 
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ chosen to use a local config file under `~/.bird/bird.conf`. You can give bird t
 dn42 has a [great guide](https://dn42.eu/howto/Bird) on using bird (with peers!). I'm going to copy the configuration 
 structure from that page here and attempt to add more commentary.
 
-The guide requires a few pieces of information (what we'll need to decide on):
+The guide requires a few pieces of information that we'll need to discuss:
 
 * `<AS>`: your [Autonomous System Number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_system_(Internet))
 * `<GATEWAY_IP>`: your gateway ip, the internal `0200::/7` address that the router will run on.
@@ -73,9 +73,8 @@ The guide requires a few pieces of information (what we'll need to decide on):
 
 > Most of this information should be located in (and authenticated through) a git repo. If we do it with git, then 
 > updating bird should simply be a `git pull` and then running a cli tool to generate the config and reload bird. We need
-> to find a balance between magic and understanding of what's happening. Maybe a tool that can describe what's going on 
-> at any level of detail would be enough?
-
+> to find a balance between magic and understanding of what's happening. Maybe a tool that automates it but describes 
+> what's going on is enough?
 
 Now for the actual configuration. We're going to be using IPv6 only. If we did v4 we would need a separate set of rules
 files, subnets, ips, etc.
@@ -83,6 +82,9 @@ files, subnets, ips, etc.
 The first file is the root `bird.conf`. This is what we point bird to when starting the daemon. I will try to comment 
 every line and block with my understanding of what it means.
 
+The bird conf file format is a structured tree of blocks with some simple syntax. A `protocol` is the base unit of work
+in bird. Protocols describe how to interact with the kernel, BGP, static route, etc.
+
 ## bird.conf
 
 ```
@@ -105,7 +107,7 @@ include "/etc/bird/local6.conf
 #
 # Again, not really a protocol but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
-# Comment from dn42.
+# Comment from dn42's guide:
 /*
     krt_prefsrc defines the source address for outgoing connections.
     On Linux, this causes the "src" attribute of a route to be set.
@@ -221,8 +223,10 @@ define OWNIP = <GATEWAY_IP>;
 
 # Now for some helper functions (filters) that we use in the config above:
 
-# Returns if the `net` special variable (what the route is actually talking about, could be prefix),
-# is in our own subnet. The `+` after the subnet is shorthand for "every possible address in this subnet".
+# Returns if the `net` special variable (what the route is actually 
+# talking about, could be prefix. generally some kind of address), 
+# is in our own subnet. The `+` after the subnet is shorthand for 
+# "every possible address in this subnet".
 #
 # `a ~ b` means "a is in b".
 function is_self_net() {
@@ -264,4 +268,6 @@ when we get there (large outage lol).
 Now I need to actually test this with another router. I'll most likely setup another VPS or ask someone else to spin 
 something up.
 
-I need to determine a fake AS number, subnets, etc.
+I need to determine a fake AS number, subnets, etc, and then I'll report back if it works or not. To test the bird 
+configuration, I plan to connect lykos to a different router running on a different subnet, and then ssh into hyperion 
+from lykos. The routes should "just work" (right lol).