.\"
.\" ngircd.conf(5) manual page template
.\"
-.TH ngircd.conf 5 "Mar 2012" ngircd "ngIRCd Manual"
+.TH ngircd.conf 5 "Sep 2023" ngIRCd "ngIRCd Manual"
.SH NAME
ngircd.conf \- configuration file of ngIRCd
.SH SYNOPSIS
section, like the server name, administrative information and the ports on
which the server should be listening. The variables in this section have to be
adjusted to the local requirements most of the time, whereas all the variables
-in the other sections can be left on there defaults very often.
+in the other sections can be left on their defaults very often.
.PP
Options in the
.I [Limits]
blocks are used to configure pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels.
.PP
There can be more than one [Operator], [Server] and [Channel] section per
-configuration file (one for each operator, server, and channel), but only
-exactly one [Global], one [Limits], one [Options], and one [SSL] section.
+configuration file, one for each operator, server, and channel. [Global],
+[Limits], [Options], and [SSL] sections can occur multiple times, too, but
+each variable overwrites itself, only the last assignment is relevant.
.SH [GLOBAL]
The
.I [Global]
-section of this file is used to define the main configuration of the server,
+section is used to define the main configuration of the server,
like the server name and the ports on which the server should be listening.
These settings depend on your personal preferences, so you should make sure
that they correspond to your installation and setup!
.TP
-\fBName\fR (string; required)
+\fBName\fR (string)
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.
+IRC network and must contain at least one dot (".") character. When not set,
+ngIRCd tries to deduce a valid IRC server name from the local host name.
.TP
\fBAdminInfo1\fR, \fBAdminInfo2\fR, \fBAdminEMail\fR (string)
Information about the server and the administrator, used by the ADMIN
command. This information is not required by the server but by RFC!
.TP
+\fBHelpFile\fR (string)
+Text file which contains the ngIRCd help text. This file is required
+to display help texts when using the "HELP <cmd>" command.
+Please note: Changes made to this file take effect when ngircd starts up
+or is instructed to re-read its configuration file. Default: a built-in
+standard path.
+.TP
\fBInfo\fR (string)
Info text of the server. This will be shown by WHOIS and LINKS requests for
-example.
+example. Set to the server software name and version by default.
.TP
\fBListen\fR (list of strings)
A comma separated list of IP address on which the server should listen.
Text file with the "message of the day" (MOTD). This message will be shown to
all users connecting to the server. Please note: Changes made to this file
take effect when ngircd starts up or is instructed to re-read its
-configuration file.
+configuration file. Default: a built-in standard path.
.TP
\fBMotdPhrase\fR (string)
-A simple Phrase (<256 chars) if you don't want to use a MOTD file.
+A simple Phrase (<127 chars) if you don't want to use a MOTD file.
+.TP
+\fBNetwork\fR (string)
+The name of the IRC network to which this server belongs. This name is
+optional, should only contain ASCII characters, and can't contain spaces.
+It is only used to inform clients. The default is empty, so no network
+name is announced to clients.
.TP
\fBPassword\fR (string)
Global password for all users needed to connect to the server. The default is
.TP
\fBPidFile\fR (string)
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, e.g. the directory
-the pidfile resides in must be writable by the ngIRCd user and exist in the
-chroot directory (if configured, see above).
+"PID file" is written AFTER chroot and switching the user ID, therefore the
+directory the file resides in must be writable by the ngIRCd user and exist
+in the chroot directory (if configured, see above).
.TP
\fBPorts\fR (list of numbers)
-Ports on which the server should listen for unencrypted connections. There
-may be more than one port, separated with commas (","). Default: 6667.
+Port number(s) on which the server should listen for unencrypted connections.
+There may be more than one port, separated with commas (","). Default: 6667.
.TP
\fBServerGID\fR (string or number)
-Group ID under which the ngIRCd should run; you can use the name of the
+Group ID under which the ngIRCd daemon should run; you can use the name of the
group or the numerical ID.
.PP
.RS
.RE
.TP
\fBServerUID\fR (string or number)
-User ID under which the server should run; you can use the name of the user
-or the numerical ID.
+User ID under which the ngIRCd daemon should run; you can use the name of the
+user or the numerical ID.
.PP
.RS
.B Attention:
otherwise RESTART and REHASH won't work!
.RE
.SH [LIMITS]
-Define some limits and timeouts for this ngIRCd instance. Default values
-should be safe, but it is wise to double-check :-)
+This section is used to define some limits and timeouts for this ngIRCd
+instance. Default values should be safe, but it is wise to double-check :-)
.TP
\fBConnectRetry\fR (number)
The server tries every <ConnectRetry> seconds to establish a link to not yet
(or no longer) connected servers. Default: 60.
.TP
+\fBIdleTimeout\fR (number)
+Number of seconds after which the whole daemon should shutdown when no
+connections are left active after handling at least one client (0: never). This
+can be useful for testing or when ngIRCd is started using "socket activation"
+with systemd(8), for example. Default: 0.
+.TP
\fBMaxConnections\fR (number)
Maximum number of simultaneous in- and outbound connections the server is
allowed to accept (0: unlimited). Default: 0.
Default: 10.
.TP
\fBMaxNickLength\fR (number)
-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
+Maximum length of an user nickname (Default: 9, as in RFC 2812). Please
+note that all servers in an IRC network MUST use the same maximum nickname
length!
.TP
+\fBMaxPenaltyTime\fR (number)
+Maximum penalty time increase in seconds, per penalty event. Set to -1 for no
+limit (the default), 0 to disable penalties altogether. ngIRCd doesn't use
+penalty increases higher than 2 seconds during normal operation, so values
+greater than 1 rarely make sense.
+.TP
+\fBMaxListSize\fR (number)
+Maximum number of channels returned in response to a LIST command. Default: 100.
+.TP
\fBPingTimeout\fR (number)
After <PingTimeout> seconds of inactivity the server will send a PING to
the peer to test whether it is alive or not. Default: 120.
seconds, it will be disconnected by the server. Default: 20.
.SH [OPTIONS]
Optional features and configuration options to further tweak the behavior of
-ngIRCd. If you want to get started quickly, you most probably don't have to
-make changes here -- they are all optional.
+ngIRCd are configured in this section. If you want to get started quickly, you
+most probably don't have to make changes here -- they are all optional.
+.TP
+\fBAllowedChannelTypes\fR (string)
+List of allowed channel types (channel prefixes) for newly created channels
+on the local server. By default, all supported channel types are allowed.
+Set this variable to the empty string to disallow creation of new channels
+by local clients at all. Default: #&+
.TP
\fBAllowRemoteOper\fR (boolean)
-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.
+If this option is active, IRC operators connected to remote servers are allowed
+to control this local server using administrative commands, for example like
+CONNECT, DIE, SQUIT etc. Default: no.
.TP
\fBChrootDir\fR (string)
A directory to chroot in when everything is initialized. It doesn't need
generated after each server start.
.TP
\fBCloakUserToNick\fR (boolean)
-Set every clients' user name to their nick name and hide the one supplied
-by the IRC client. Default: no.
+Set every clients' user name and real name to their nickname and hide the one
+supplied by the IRC client. Default: no.
.TP
\fBConnectIPv4\fR (boolean)
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC servers using
the IPv6 protocol.
Default: yes.
.TP
+\fBDefaultUserModes\fR (string)
+Default user mode(s) to set on new local clients. Please note that only modes
+can be set that the client could set using regular MODE commands, you can't
+set "a" (away) for example!
+Default: none.
+.TP
\fBDNS\fR (boolean)
If set to false, ngIRCd will not make any DNS lookups when clients connect.
If you configure the daemon to connect to other servers, ngIRCd may still
prepended to their user name.
Default: yes.
.TP
+\fBIncludeDir\fR (string)
+Directory containing configuration snippets (*.conf), that should be read in
+after parsing the current configuration file.
+Default: a built-in directory name when no configuration file was explicitly
+given on the command line (check "ngircd --configtest"), none (empty)
+otherwise.
+.PP
+.RS
+This way no default include directory is used when a possibly non-default
+configuration file was explicitly specified using "--config"/"-f" on the
+command line which (intentionally) did not specify an
+.I "IncludeDir"
+directive.
+.RE
+.TP
\fBMorePrivacy\fR (boolean)
This will cause ngIRCd to censor user idle time, logon time as well as the
-part/quit messages (that are sometimes used to inform everyone about which
-client software is being used). WHOWAS requests are also silently ignored.
+PART/QUIT messages (that are sometimes used to inform everyone about which
+client software is being used). WHOWAS requests are also silently ignored,
+and NAMES output doesn't list any clients for non-members.
This option is most useful when ngIRCd is being used together with
anonymizing software such as TOR or I2P and one does not wish to make it
too easy to collect statistics on the users.
Default: no.
.TP
-\fBNoticeAuth\fR (boolean)
+\fBNoticeBeforeRegistration\fR (boolean)
Normally ngIRCd doesn't send any messages to a client until it is registered.
-Enable this option to let the daemon send "NOTICE AUTH" messages to clients
+Enable this option to let the daemon send "NOTICE *" messages to clients
while connecting. Default: no.
.TP
\fBOperCanUseMode\fR (boolean)
don't have a "~" character prepended to their respective user names!
Default: no.
.TP
-\fBPredefChannelsOnly\fR (boolean)
-If enabled, no new channels can be created. Useful if you do not want to have
-other channels than those defined in [Channel] sections in the configuration
-file on this server.
-Default: no.
+\fBPAMServiceName\fR (string)
+When PAM is enabled, this value determines the used PAM configuration.
+This setting allows running multiple ngIRCd instances with different
+PAM configurations on each instance. If you set it to "ngircd-foo",
+PAM will use /etc/pam.d/ngircd-foo instead of the default
+/etc/pam.d/ngircd.
+Default: ngircd.
.TP
\fBRequireAuthPing\fR (boolean)
Let ngIRCd send an "authentication PING" when a new client connects, and
section. Please note that this whole section is only recognized by ngIRCd
when it is compiled with support for SSL using OpenSSL or GnuTLS!
.TP
+\fBCAFile\fR (string)
+Filename pointing to the Trusted CA Certificates. This is required for
+verifying peer certificates.
+.TP
\fBCertFile\fR (string)
SSL Certificate file of the private server key.
.TP
+\fBCipherList\fR (string)
+Select cipher suites allowed for SSL/TLS connections. This defaults to
+"HIGH:!aNULL:@STRENGTH:!SSLv3" (OpenSSL) or "SECURE128:-VERS-SSL3.0" (GnuTLS).
+Please see 'man 1ssl ciphers' (OpenSSL) and 'man 3 gnutls_priority_init'
+(GnuTLS) for details.
+.TP
+\fBCRLFile\fR (string)
+Filename of Certificate Revocation List.
+.TP
\fBDHFile\fR (string)
Name of the Diffie-Hellman Parameter file. Can be created with GnuTLS
"certtool \-\-generate-dh-params" or "openssl dhparam". If this file is not
block, one for each local operator.
.TP
\fBName\fR (string)
-ID of the operator (may be different of the nick name).
+ID of the operator (may be different of the nickname).
.TP
\fBPassword\fR (string)
Password of the IRC operator.
Other servers are configured in
.I [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);
+tries to connect to the other server on the given port (active);
if not, it waits for the other server to connect (passive).
.PP
ngIRCd supports "server groups": You can assign an "ID" to every server
\fBSSLConnect\fR (boolean)
Connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
.TP
+\fBSSLVerify\fR (boolean)
+Verify the TLS certificate presented by the remote server. Default: yes.
+.TP
\fBServiceMask\fR (string)
-Define a (case insensitive) list of masks matching nick names that should be
+Define a (case insensitive) list of masks matching nicknames that should be
treated as IRC services when introduced via this remote server, separated
by commas (","). REGULAR SERVERS DON'T NEED this parameter, so leave it empty
(which is the default).
Topic for this channel.
.TP
\fBModes\fR (string)
-Initial channel modes.
+Initial channel modes, as used in "MODE" commands. Modifying lists (ban list,
+invite list, exception list) is supported.
+.PP
+.RS
+This option can be specified multiple times, evaluated top to bottom.
+.RE
.TP
-\fBKey\fR (string)
-Sets initial channel key (only relevant if channel mode "k" is set).
+\fBAutojoin\fR (boolean)
+Should ngIRCd automatically join ("autojoin") all users to this channel on
+connect? Note: The users must have permissions to access the channel, otherwise
+joining them will fail!
.TP
\fBKeyFile\fR (string)
Path and file name of a "key file" containing individual channel keys for
without problems, but moving or deleting the file will have not effect until
the daemon re-reads its configuration!
.RE
-.TP
-\fBMaxUsers\fR (number)
-Set maximum user limit for this channel (only relevant if channel mode "l"
-is set).
.SH HINTS
It's wise to use "ngircd \-\-configtest" to validate the configuration file
after changing it. See
projects / ngircd-alex.git / blobdiff