NAME
ngircd.conf - configuration file of ngIRCd
SYNOPSIS
/etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf
DESCRIPTION
ngircd.conf is the configuration file of the ngircd(8) Internet Relay
Chat (IRC) daemon which you should adept to your local preferences and
needs.
Most variables can be modified while the ngIRCd daemon is already
running: It will reload its configuration when a HUP signal is
received.
FILE FORMAT
The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the
name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
section begins.
Sections contain parameters of the form
name = value
Empty lines and any line beginning with a semicolon (’;’) or a hash
(’#’) character are treated as a comment and will be ignored. Leading
and trailing whitespaces are trimmed before any processing takes place.
The file format is line-based - that means, each non-empty newline-
terminated line represents either a comment, a section name, or a
parameter.
Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
SECTION OVERVIEW
The file can contain blocks of four types: [Global], [Operator],
[Server], and [Channel].
The main configuration of the server is stored in the [Global] section,
like the server name, administrative information and the ports on which
the server should be listening. IRC operators of this server are
defined in [Operator] blocks. [Server] is the section where server
links are configured. And [Channel] blocks are used to configure pre-
defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
There can be more than one [Operator], [Server] and [Channel] sections
per configuration file, but only one [Global] section.
[GLOBAL]
The [Global] section is used to define the server main configuration,
like the server name and the ports on which the server should be
listening.
Name Server name in the IRC network. This is an individual name of
the IRC server, it is not related to the DNS host name. It must
be unique in the IRC network and must contain at least one dot
(".") character.
Info Info text of the server. This will be shown by WHOIS and LINKS
requests for example.
AdminInfo1, AdminInfo2, AdminEMail
Information about the server and the administrator, used by the
ADMIN command.
Ports Ports on which the server should listen. There may be more than
one port, separated with commas (","). Default: 6667, unless
SSL_Ports are also specified.
SSLPorts
Same as Ports , except that ngIRCd will expect incoming
connections to be SSL/TLS encrypted. Common port numbers for
SSL-encrypted IRC are 6669 and 6697. Default: none.
SSLKeyFile
Filename of SSL Server Key to be used for SSL connections. This
is required for SSL/TLS support.
SSLKeyFilePassword
(OpenSSL only:) Password to decrypt private key.
SSLCertFile
Certificate file of the private key.
SSLDHFile
Name of the Diffie-Hellman Parameter file. Can be created with
gnutls "certtool --generate-dh-params" or "openssl dhparam". If
this file is not present, it will be generated on startup when
ngIRCd was compiled with gnutls support (this may take some
time). If ngIRCd was compiled with OpenSSL, then
(Ephemeral)-Diffie-Hellman Key Exchanges and several Cipher
Suites will not be available.
Listen A comma separated list of IP address on which the server should
listen. If unset, the defaults value is "0.0.0.0" or, if ngIRCd
was compiled with IPv6 support, "::,0.0.0.0". So the server
listens on all configured IP addresses and interfaces by
default.
MotdFile
Text file with the "message of the day" (MOTD). This message
will be shown to all users connecting to the server.
MotdPhrase
A simple Phrase (<256 chars) if you don’t want to use a MOTD
file. If this variable is set, no MotdFile will be read at all
which can be handy if the daemon should run inside a chroot
directory.
ServerUID
User ID under which the server should run; you can use the name
of the user or the numerical ID.
Attention:
For this to work the server must have been started with root
privileges! In addition, the configuration and MOTD files must
be readable by this user, otherwise RESTART and REHASH won’t
work!
ServerGID
Group ID under which the ngIRCd should run; you can use the name
of the group or the numerical ID.
Attention:
For this to work the server must have been started with root
privileges!
ChrootDir
A directory to chroot in when everything is initialized. It
doesn’t need to be populated if ngIRCd is compiled as a static
binary. By default ngIRCd won’t use the chroot() feature.
Attention:
For this to work the server must have been started with root
privileges!
PidFile
This tells ngIRCd to write its current process ID to a file.
Note that the pidfile is written AFTER chroot and switching the
user ID, i. e. the directory the pidfile resides in must be
writeable by the ngIRCd user and exist in the chroot directory
(if configured, see above).
PingTimeout
After <PingTimeout> seconds of inactivity the server will send a
PING to the peer to test whether it is alive or not. Default:
120.
PongTimeout
If a client fails to answer a PING with a PONG within
<PongTimeout> seconds, it will be disconnected by the server.
Default: 20.
ConnectRetry
The server tries every <ConnectRetry> seconds to establish a
link to not yet (or no longer) connected servers. Default: 60.
OperCanUseMode
Should IRC Operators be allowed to use the MODE command even if
they are not(!) channel-operators? Default: no.
OperServerMode
If OperCanUseMode is enabled, this may lead the compatibility
problems with Servers that run the ircd-irc2 Software. This
Option "masks" mode requests by non-chanops as if they were
coming from the server. Default: no.
AllowRemoteOper
Are IRC operators connected to remote servers allowed to control
this server, e. g. are they allowed to use administrative
commands like CONNECT, DIE, SQUIT, ... that affect this server?
Default: no.
PredefChannelsOnly
If enabled, no new channels can be created. Useful if you do not
want to have channels other than those defined in [Channel]
sections in the configuration file. Default: no.
NoDNS If set to true, ngIRCd will not make DNS lookups when clients
connect. If you configure the daemon to connect to other
servers, ngIRCd may still perform a DNS lookup if required.
Default: no.
NoIdent
If ngIRCd is compiled with IDENT support this can be used to
disable IDENT lookups at run time. Default: no.
ConnectIPv4
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC
servers using IPv4. This allows usage of ngIRCd in IPv6-only
setups. Default: yes.
ConnectIPv6
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other irc
servers using IPv6. Default: yes.
MaxConnections
Maximum number of simultaneous in- and outbound connections the
server is allowed to accept (0: unlimited). Default: 0.
MaxConnectionsIP
Maximum number of simultaneous connections from a single IP
address that the server will accept (0: unlimited). This
configuration options lowers the risk of denial of service
attacks (DoS). Default: 5.
MaxJoins
Maximum number of channels a user can be member of (0: no
limit). Default: 10.
MaxNickLength
Maximum length of an user nick name (Default: 9, as in RFC
2812). Please note that all servers in an IRC network MUST use
the same maximum nick name length!
[OPERATOR]
[Operator] sections are used to define IRC Operators. There may be more
than one [Operator] block, one for each local operator.
Name ID of the operator (may be different of the nick name).
Password
Password of the IRC operator.
Mask Mask that is to be checked before an /OPER for this account is
accepted. Example: nick!ident@*.example.com
[SERVER]
Other servers are configured in [Server] sections. If you configure a
port for the connection, then this ngIRCd tries to connect to to the
other server on the given port (active); if not, it waits for the other
server to connect (passive).
ngIRCd supports "server groups": You can assign an "ID" to every server
with which you want this ngIRCd to link, and the daemon ensures that at
any given time only one direct link exists to servers with the same ID.
So if a server of a group won’t answer, ngIRCd tries to connect to the
next server in the given group (="with the same ID"), but never tries
to connect to more than one server of this group simultaneously.
There may be more than one [Server] block.
Name IRC name of the remote server.
Host Internet host name (or IP address) of the peer.
Bind IP address to use as source IP for the outgoing connection.
Default is to let the operating system decide.
Port Port of the remote server to which ngIRCd should connect
(active). If no port is assigned to a configured server, the
daemon only waits for incoming connections (passive, default).
MyPassword
Own password for this connection. This password has to be
configured as PeerPassword on the other server. Must not have
’:’ as first character.
PeerPassword
Foreign password for this connection. This password has to be
configured as MyPassword on the other server.
Group Group of this server (optional).
Passive
Disable automatic connection even if port value is specified.
Default: false. You can use the IRC Operator command CONNECT
later on to create the link.
SSLConnect
Connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
ServiceMask
Define a (case insensitive) mask matching nick names that should
be treated as IRC services when introduced via this remote
server. REGULAR SERVERS DON’T NEED this parameter, so leave it
empty (which is the default).
When you are connecting IRC services which mask as a IRC server
and which use "virtual users" to communicate with, for example
"NickServ" and "ChanServ", you should set this parameter to
something like "*Serv".
[CHANNEL]
Pre-defined channels can be configured in [Channel] sections. Such
channels are created by the server when starting up and even persist
when there are no more members left.
Persistent channels are marked with the mode ’P’, which can be set and
unset by IRC operators like other modes on the fly.
There may be more than one [Channel] block.
Name Name of the channel, including channel prefix ("#" or "&").
Topic Topic for this channel.
Modes Initial channel modes.
Key Sets initial channel key (only relevant if channel mode "k" is
set).
KeyFile
Path and file name of a "key file" containing individual channel
keys for different users. The file consists of plain text lines
with the following syntax (without spaces!):
user : nick : key
user and nick can contain the wildcard character "*".
key is an arbitrary password.
Valid examples are:
*:*:KeY
*:nick:123
~user:*:xyz
The key file is read on each JOIN command when this channel has
a key (channel mode +k). Access is granted, if a) the channel
key set using the MODE +k command or b) one of the lines in the
key file match.
Please note:
The file is not reopened on each access, so you can modify and
overwrite it without problems, but moving or deleting the file
will have not effect until the daemon re-reads its
configuration!
MaxUsers
Set maximum user limit for this channel (only relevant if
channel mode "l" is set).
HINTS
It’s wise to use "ngircd --configtest" to validate the configuration
file after changing it. See ngircd(8) for details.
AUTHOR
Alexander Barton,
Homepage:
SEE ALSO
ngircd(8)