2 .\" ngircd.conf(5) manual page template
4 .TH ngircd.conf 5 "Jun 2011" ngircd "ngIRCd Manual"
6 ngircd.conf \- configuration file of ngIRCd
8 .B :ETCDIR:/ngircd.conf
11 is the configuration file of the
13 Internet Relay Chat (IRC) daemon, which must be customized to the local
14 preferences and needs.
16 Most variables can be modified while the ngIRCd daemon is already running:
17 It will reload its configuration file when a HUP signal or REHASH command
20 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the name
21 of the section in square brackets and continues until the next section
24 Sections contain parameters of the form
32 Empty lines and any line beginning with a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#')
33 character are treated as a comment and will be ignored. Leading and trailing
34 whitespaces are trimmed before any processing takes place.
36 The file format is line-based - that means, each non-empty newline-terminated
37 line represents either a comment, a section name, or a parameter.
39 Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
41 There are three types of variables:
48 if they are "yes", "true", or any non-null integer. Text strings are used 1:1
49 without leading and following spaces; there is no way to quote strings. And
50 for numbers all decimal integer values are valid.
52 In addition, some string or numerical variables accept lists of values,
53 separated by commas (",").
54 .SH "SECTION OVERVIEW"
55 The file can contain blocks of seven types: [Global], [Limits], [Options],
56 [SSL], [Operator], [Server], and [Channel].
58 The main configuration of the server is stored in the
60 section, like the server name, administrative information and the ports on
61 which the server should be listening. The variables in this section have to be
62 adjusted to the local requirements most of the time, whereas all the variables
63 in the other sections can be left on there defaults very often.
67 block are used to tweak different limits and timeouts of the daemon, like the
68 maximum number of clients allowed to connect to this server. Variables in the
70 section can be used to enable or disable specific features of ngIRCd, like
71 support for IDENT, PAM, IPv6, and protocol and cloaking features. The
73 block contains all SSL-related configuration variables. These three sections
76 IRC operators of this server are defined in
78 blocks. Links to remote servers are configured in
82 blocks are used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
84 There can be more than one [Operator], [Server] and [Channel] section per
85 configuration file (one for each operator, server, and channel), but only
86 exactly one [Global], one [Limits], one [Options], and one [SSL] section.
90 section of this file is used to define the main configuration of the server,
91 like the server name and the ports on which the server should be listening.
92 These settings depend on your personal preferences, so you should make sure
93 that they correspond to your installation and setup!
95 \fBName\fR (string; required)
96 Server name in the IRC network. This is an individual name of the IRC
97 server, it is not related to the DNS host name. It must be unique in the
98 IRC network and must contain at least one dot (".") character.
100 \fBAdminInfo1\fR, \fBAdminInfo2\fR, \fBAdminEMail\fR (string)
101 Information about the server and the administrator, used by the ADMIN
102 command. This information is not required by the server but by RFC!
105 Info text of the server. This will be shown by WHOIS and LINKS requests for
108 \fBListen\fR (list of strings)
109 A comma separated list of IP address on which the server should listen.
110 If unset, the defaults value is "0.0.0.0" or, if ngIRCd was compiled
111 with IPv6 support, "::,0.0.0.0". So the server listens on all configured
112 IP addresses and interfaces by default.
114 \fBMotdFile\fR (string)
115 Text file with the "message of the day" (MOTD). This message will be shown to
116 all users connecting to the server. Please note: Changes made to this file
117 take effect when ngircd starts up or is instructed to re-read its
120 \fBMotdPhrase\fR (string)
121 A simple Phrase (<256 chars) if you don't want to use a MOTD file.
123 \fBPassword\fR (string)
124 Global password for all users needed to connect to the server. The default is
125 empty, so no password is required. Please note: This feature is not available
126 if ngIRCd is using PAM!
128 \fBPidFile\fR (string)
129 This tells ngIRCd to write its current process ID to a file. Note that the
130 pidfile is written AFTER chroot and switching the user ID, e.g. the directory
131 the pidfile resides in must be writable by the ngIRCd user and exist in the
132 chroot directory (if configured, see above).
134 \fBPorts\fR (list of numbers)
135 Ports on which the server should listen. There may be more than one port,
136 separated with commas (","). Default: 6667, unless \fBSSL_Ports\fR are also
139 \fBServerGID\fR (string or number)
140 Group ID under which the ngIRCd should run; you can use the name of the
141 group or the numerical ID.
146 For this to work the server must have been started with root privileges!
149 \fBServerUID\fR (string or number)
150 User ID under which the server should run; you can use the name of the user
156 For this to work the server must have been started with root privileges! In
157 addition, the configuration and MOTD files must be readable by this user,
158 otherwise RESTART and REHASH won't work!
161 Define some limits and timeouts for this ngIRCd instance. Default values
162 should be safe, but it is wise to double-check :-)
164 \fBConnectRetry\fR (number)
165 The server tries every <ConnectRetry> seconds to establish a link to not yet
166 (or no longer) connected servers. Default: 60.
168 \fBMaxConnections\fR (number)
169 Maximum number of simultaneous in- and outbound connections the server is
170 allowed to accept (0: unlimited). Default: 0.
172 \fBMaxConnectionsIP\fR (number)
173 Maximum number of simultaneous connections from a single IP address that
174 the server will accept (0: unlimited). This configuration options lowers
175 the risk of denial of service attacks (DoS). Default: 5.
177 \fBMaxJoins\fR (number)
178 Maximum number of channels a user can be member of (0: no limit).
181 \fBMaxNickLength\fR (number)
182 Maximum length of an user nick name (Default: 9, as in RFC 2812). Please
183 note that all servers in an IRC network MUST use the same maximum nick name
186 \fBPingTimeout\fR (number)
187 After <PingTimeout> seconds of inactivity the server will send a PING to
188 the peer to test whether it is alive or not. Default: 120.
190 \fBPongTimeout\fR (number)
191 If a client fails to answer a PING with a PONG within <PongTimeout>
192 seconds, it will be disconnected by the server. Default: 20.
194 Optional features and configuration options to further tweak the behavior of
195 ngIRCd. If you want to get started quickly, you most probably don't have to
196 make changes here -- they are all optional.
198 \fBAllowRemoteOper\fR (boolean)
199 Are IRC operators connected to remote servers allowed to control this server,
200 e.g. are they allowed to use administrative commands like CONNECT, DIE,
201 SQUIT, ... that affect this server? Default: no.
203 \fBChrootDir\fR (string)
204 A directory to chroot in when everything is initialized. It doesn't need
205 to be populated if ngIRCd is compiled as a static binary. By default ngIRCd
206 won't use the chroot() feature.
211 For this to work the server must have been started with root privileges!
214 \fBCloakHost\fR (string)
215 Set this hostname for every client instead of the real one. Default: empty,
221 Don't use the percentage sign ("%"), it is reserved for future extensions!
224 \fBCloakUserToNick\fR (boolean)
225 Set every clients' user name to their nick name and hide the one supplied
226 by the IRC client. Default: no.
228 \fBConnectIPv4\fR (boolean)
229 Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC servers using
230 the IPv4 protocol. This allows the usage of ngIRCd in IPv6-only setups.
233 \fBConnectIPv6\fR (boolean)
234 Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC servers using
239 If set to false, ngIRCd will not make any DNS lookups when clients connect.
240 If you configure the daemon to connect to other servers, ngIRCd may still
241 perform a DNS lookup if required.
244 \fBIdent\fR (boolean)
245 If ngIRCd is compiled with IDENT support this can be used to disable IDENT
247 Users identified using IDENT are registered without the "~" character
248 prepended to their user name.
251 \fBMorePrivacy\fR (boolean)
252 This will cause ngIRCd to censor user idle time, logon time as well as the
253 part/quit messages (that are sometimes used to inform everyone about which
254 client software is being used). WHOWAS requests are also silently ignored.
255 This option is most useful when ngIRCd is being used together with
256 anonymizing software such as TOR or I2P and one does not wish to make it
257 too easy to collect statistics on the users.
260 \fBNoticeAuth\fR (boolean)
261 Normally ngIRCd doesn't send any messages to a client until it is registered.
262 Enable this option to let the daemon send "NOTICE AUTH" messages to clients
263 while connecting. Default: no.
265 \fBOperCanUseMode\fR (boolean)
266 Should IRC Operators be allowed to use the MODE command even if they are
267 not(!) channel-operators? Default: no.
269 \fBOperServerMode\fR (boolean)
270 If \fBOperCanUseMode\fR is enabled, this may lead the compatibility problems
271 with Servers that run the ircd-irc2 Software. This Option "masks" mode
272 requests by non-chanops as if they were coming from the server. Default: no;
273 only enable it if you have ircd-irc2 servers in your IRC network.
276 If ngIRCd is compiled with PAM support this can be used to disable all calls
277 to the PAM library at runtime; all users connecting without password are
278 allowed to connect, all passwords given will fail.
279 Users identified using PAM are registered without the "~" character
280 prepended to their user name.
283 \fBPAMIsOptional\fR (boolean)
284 When PAM is enabled, all clients are required to be authenticated using PAM;
285 connecting to the server without successful PAM authentication isn't possible.
286 If this option is set, clients not sending a password are still allowed to
287 connect: they won't become "identified" and keep the "~" character prepended
288 to their supplied user name.
290 To make some use of this behavior, it most probably isn't useful to enable
291 "Ident", "PAM" and "PAMIsOptional" at the same time, because you wouldn't be
292 able to distinguish between Ident'ified and PAM-authenticated users: both
293 don't have a "~" character prepended to their respective user names!
296 \fBPredefChannelsOnly\fR (boolean)
297 If enabled, no new channels can be created. Useful if you do not want to have
298 other channels than those defined in [Channel] sections in the configuration
302 \fBRequireAuthPing\fR (boolean)
303 Let ngIRCd send an "authentication PING" when a new client connects, and
304 register this client only after receiving the corresponding "PONG" reply.
307 \fBScrubCTCP\fR (boolean)
308 If set to true, ngIRCd will silently drop all CTCP requests sent to it from
309 both clients and servers. It will also not forward CTCP requests to any
310 other servers. CTCP requests can be used to query user clients about which
311 software they are using and which versions said software is. CTCP can also be
312 used to reveal clients IP numbers. ACTION CTCP requests are not blocked,
313 this means that /me commands will not be dropped, but please note that
314 blocking CTCP will disable file sharing between users!
317 \fBSyslogFacility\fR (string)
318 Syslog "facility" to which ngIRCd should send log messages. Possible
319 values are system dependent, but most probably "auth", "daemon", "user"
320 and "local1" through "local7" are possible values; see syslog(3).
321 Default is "local5" for historical reasons, you probably want to
322 change this to "daemon", for example.
324 \fBWebircPassword\fR (string)
325 Password required for using the WEBIRC command used by some Web-to-IRC
326 gateways. If not set or empty, the WEBIRC command can't be used.
329 All SSL-related configuration variables are located in the
331 section. Please note that this whole section is only recognized by ngIRCd
332 when it is compiled with support for SSL using OpenSSL or GnuTLS!
334 \fBCertFile\fR (string)
335 SSL Certificate file of the private server key.
337 \fBDHFile\fR (string)
338 Name of the Diffie-Hellman Parameter file. Can be created with GnuTLS
339 "certtool \-\-generate-dh-params" or "openssl dhparam". If this file is not
340 present, it will be generated on startup when ngIRCd was compiled with GnuTLS
341 support (this may take some time). If ngIRCd was compiled with OpenSSL, then
342 (Ephemeral)-Diffie-Hellman Key Exchanges and several Cipher Suites will not be
345 \fBKeyFile\fR (string)
346 Filename of SSL Server Key to be used for SSL connections. This is required
349 \fBKeyFilePassword\fR (string)
350 OpenSSL only: Password to decrypt the private key file.
352 \fBPorts\fR (list of numbers)
353 Same as \fBPorts\fR , except that ngIRCd will expect incoming connections
354 to be SSL/TLS encrypted. Common port numbers for SSL-encrypted IRC are 6669
355 and 6697. Default: none.
358 sections are used to define IRC Operators. There may be more than one
360 block, one for each local operator.
363 ID of the operator (may be different of the nick name).
365 \fBPassword\fR (string)
366 Password of the IRC operator.
369 Mask that is to be checked before an /OPER for this account is accepted.
370 Example: nick!ident@*.example.com
372 Other servers are configured in
374 sections. If you configure a port for the connection, then this ngIRCd
375 tries to connect to to the other server on the given port (active);
376 if not, it waits for the other server to connect (passive).
378 ngIRCd supports "server groups": You can assign an "ID" to every server
379 with which you want this ngIRCd to link, and the daemon ensures that at
380 any given time only one direct link exists to servers with the same ID.
381 So if a server of a group won't answer, ngIRCd tries to connect to the next
382 server in the given group (="with the same ID"), but never tries to connect
383 to more than one server of this group simultaneously.
385 There may be more than one
390 IRC name of the remote server.
393 Internet host name (or IP address) of the peer.
396 IP address to use as source IP for the outgoing connection. Default is
397 to let the operating system decide.
400 Port of the remote server to which ngIRCd should connect (active).
401 If no port is assigned to a configured server, the daemon only waits for
402 incoming connections (passive, default).
404 \fBMyPassword\fR (string)
405 Own password for this connection. This password has to be configured as
406 \fBPeerPassword\fR on the other server. Must not have ':' as first character.
408 \fBPeerPassword\fR (string)
409 Foreign password for this connection. This password has to be configured as
410 \fBMyPassword\fR on the other server.
413 Group of this server (optional).
415 \fBPassive\fR (boolean)
416 Disable automatic connection even if port value is specified. Default: false.
417 You can use the IRC Operator command CONNECT later on to create the link.
419 \fBSSLConnect\fR (boolean)
420 Connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
422 \fBServiceMask\fR (string)
423 Define a (case insensitive) mask matching nick names that should be treated as
424 IRC services when introduced via this remote server. REGULAR SERVERS DON'T NEED
425 this parameter, so leave it empty (which is the default).
428 When you are connecting IRC services which mask as a IRC server and which use
429 "virtual users" to communicate with, for example "NickServ" and "ChanServ",
430 you should set this parameter to something like "*Serv".
432 Pre-defined channels can be configured in
434 sections. Such channels are created by the server when starting up and even
435 persist when there are no more members left.
437 Persistent channels are marked with the mode 'P', which can be set and unset
438 by IRC operators like other modes on the fly.
440 There may be more than one
445 Name of the channel, including channel prefix ("#" or "&").
448 Topic for this channel.
451 Initial channel modes.
454 Sets initial channel key (only relevant if channel mode "k" is set).
456 \fBKeyFile\fR (string)
457 Path and file name of a "key file" containing individual channel keys for
458 different users. The file consists of plain text lines with the following
459 syntax (without spaces!):
473 can contain the wildcard character "*".
476 is an arbitrary password.
488 The key file is read on each JOIN command when this channel has a key
489 (channel mode +k). Access is granted, if a) the channel key set using the
490 MODE +k command or b) one of the lines in the key file match.
494 The file is not reopened on each access, so you can modify and overwrite it
495 without problems, but moving or deleting the file will have not effect until
496 the daemon re-reads its configuration!
499 \fBMaxUsers\fR (number)
500 Set maximum user limit for this channel (only relevant if channel mode "l"
503 It's wise to use "ngircd \-\-configtest" to validate the configuration file
504 after changing it. See
508 Alexander Barton, <alex@barton.de>
510 Florian Westphal, <fw@strlen.de>
512 Homepage: http://ngircd.barton.de/
projects / ngircd-alex.git / blob