Provided by: ngircd_22.1-2build1_amd64 
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 must be customized to the local preferences and needs.
Most variables can be modified while the ngIRCd daemon is already running: It will reload
its configuration file when a HUP signal or REHASH command 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.
There are three types of variables: booleans, text strings, and numbers. Boolean values
are true if they are "yes", "true", or any non-null integer. Text strings are used 1:1
without leading and following spaces; there is no way to quote strings. And for numbers
all decimal integer values are valid.
In addition, some string or numerical variables accept lists of values, separated by
commas (",").
SECTION OVERVIEW
The file can contain blocks of seven types: [Global], [Limits], [Options], [SSL],
[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.
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 their defaults very
often.
Options in the [Limits] block are used to tweak different limits and timeouts of the
daemon, like the maximum number of clients allowed to connect to this server. Variables in
the [Options] section can be used to enable or disable specific features of ngIRCd, like
support for IDENT, PAM, IPv6, and protocol and cloaking features. The [SSL] block contains
all SSL-related configuration variables. These three sections are all optional.
IRC operators of this server are defined in [Operator] blocks. Links to remote servers are
configured in [Server] sections. And [Channel] blocks are used to configure pre-defined
("persistent") IRC channels.
There can be more than one [Operator], [Server] and [Channel] section per configuration
file, one for each operator, server, and channel. [Global], [Limits], [Options], and [SSL]
sections can occure multiple times, too, but each variable overwrites itself, only the
last assignment is relevant.
[GLOBAL]
The [Global] 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!
Name (string; required)
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.
AdminInfo1, AdminInfo2, AdminEMail (string)
Information about the server and the administrator, used by the ADMIN command. This
information is not required by the server but by RFC!
HelpFile (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.
Info (string)
Info text of the server. This will be shown by WHOIS and LINKS requests for
example.
Listen (list of strings)
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 (string)
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.
MotdPhrase (string)
A simple Phrase (<256 chars) if you don't want to use a MOTD file.
Network (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.
Password (string)
Global password for all users needed to connect to the server. The default is
empty, so no password is required. Please note: This feature is not available if
ngIRCd is using PAM!
PidFile (string)
This tells ngIRCd to write its current process ID to a file. Note that the "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).
Ports (list of numbers)
Port number(s) on which the server should listen for unencrypted connections.
There may be more than one port, separated with commas (","). Default: 6667.
ServerGID (string or number)
Group ID under which the ngIRCd daemon 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!
ServerUID (string or number)
User ID under which the ngIRCd daemon 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!
[LIMITS]
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 :-)
ConnectRetry (number)
The server tries every <ConnectRetry> seconds to establish a link to not yet (or no
longer) connected servers. Default: 60.
IdleTimeout (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.
MaxConnections (number)
Maximum number of simultaneous in- and outbound connections the server is allowed
to accept (0: unlimited). Default: 0.
MaxConnectionsIP (number)
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 (number)
Maximum number of channels a user can be member of (0: no limit). Default: 10.
MaxNickLength (number)
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!
MaxListSize (number)
Maximum number of channels returned in response to a LIST command. Default: 100.
PingTimeout (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.
PongTimeout (number)
If a client fails to answer a PING with a PONG within <PongTimeout> seconds, it
will be disconnected by the server. Default: 20.
[OPTIONS]
Optional features and configuration options to further tweak the behavior of 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.
AllowedChannelTypes (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: #&+
AllowRemoteOper (boolean)
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.
ChrootDir (string)
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!
CloakHost (string)
Set this hostname for every client instead of the real one. Default: empty, don't
change. Use %x to add the hashed value of the original hostname.
CloakHostModeX (string)
Use this hostname for hostname cloaking on clients that have the user mode "+x"
set, instead of the name of the server. Default: empty, use the name of the server.
Use %x to add the hashed value of the original hostname
CloakHostSalt (string)
The Salt for cloaked hostname hashing. When undefined a random hash is generated
after each server start.
CloakUserToNick (boolean)
Set every clients' user name to their nickname and hide the one supplied by the IRC
client. Default: no.
ConnectIPv4 (boolean)
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC servers using the
IPv4 protocol. This allows the usage of ngIRCd in IPv6-only setups. Default: yes.
ConnectIPv6 (boolean)
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other IRC servers using the
IPv6 protocol. Default: yes.
DefaultUserModes (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.
DNS (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 perform a DNS
lookup if required. Default: yes.
Ident (boolean)
If ngIRCd is compiled with IDENT support this can be used to disable IDENT lookups
at run time. Users identified using IDENT are registered without the "~" character
prepended to their user name. Default: yes.
IncludeDir (string)
Directory containing configuration snippets (*.conf), that should be read in after
parsing the current configuration file. Default: none.
MorePrivacy (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. 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.
NoticeAuth (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 while
connecting. Default: no.
OperCanUseMode (boolean)
Should IRC Operators be allowed to use the MODE command even if they are not(!)
channel-operators? Default: no.
OperChanPAutoOp (boolean)
Should IRC Operators get AutoOp (+o) in persistent (+P) channels? Default: yes.
OperServerMode (boolean)
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; only enable it if you have
ircd-irc2 servers in your IRC network.
PAM (boolean)
If ngIRCd is compiled with PAM support this can be used to disable all calls to the
PAM library at runtime; all users connecting without password are allowed to
connect, all passwords given will fail. Users identified using PAM are registered
without the "~" character prepended to their user name. Default: yes.
PAMIsOptional (boolean)
When PAM is enabled, all clients are required to be authenticated using PAM;
connecting to the server without successful PAM authentication isn't possible. If
this option is set, clients not sending a password are still allowed to connect:
they won't become "identified" and keep the "~" character prepended to their
supplied user name. Please note: To make some use of this behavior, it most
probably isn't useful to enable "Ident", "PAM" and "PAMIsOptional" at the same
time, because you wouldn't be able to distinguish between Ident'ified and PAM-
authenticated users: both don't have a "~" character prepended to their respective
user names! Default: no.
RequireAuthPing (boolean)
Let ngIRCd send an "authentication PING" when a new client connects, and register
this client only after receiving the corresponding "PONG" reply. Default: no.
ScrubCTCP (boolean)
If set to true, ngIRCd will silently drop all CTCP requests sent to it from both
clients and servers. It will also not forward CTCP requests to any other servers.
CTCP requests can be used to query user clients about which software they are using
and which versions said software is. CTCP can also be used to reveal clients IP
numbers. ACTION CTCP requests are not blocked, this means that /me commands will
not be dropped, but please note that blocking CTCP will disable file sharing
between users! Default: no.
SyslogFacility (string)
Syslog "facility" to which ngIRCd should send log messages. Possible values are
system dependent, but most probably "auth", "daemon", "user" and "local1" through
"local7" are possible values; see syslog(3). Default is "local5" for historical
reasons, you probably want to change this to "daemon", for example.
WebircPassword (string)
Password required for using the WEBIRC command used by some Web-to-IRC gateways. If
not set or empty, the WEBIRC command can't be used. Default: not set.
[SSL]
All SSL-related configuration variables are located in the [SSL] section. Please note that
this whole section is only recognized by ngIRCd when it is compiled with support for SSL
using OpenSSL or GnuTLS!
CertFile (string)
SSL Certificate file of the private server key.
CipherList (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.
DHFile (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 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.
KeyFile (string)
Filename of SSL Server Key to be used for SSL connections. This is required for
SSL/TLS support.
KeyFilePassword (string)
OpenSSL only: Password to decrypt the private key file.
Ports (list of numbers)
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.
[OPERATOR]
[Operator] sections are used to define IRC Operators. There may be more than one
[Operator] block, one for each local operator.
Name (string)
ID of the operator (may be different of the nickname).
Password (string)
Password of the IRC operator.
Mask (string)
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 (string)
IRC name of the remote server.
Host (string)
Internet host name (or IP address) of the peer.
Bind (string)
IP address to use as source IP for the outgoing connection. Default is to let the
operating system decide.
Port (number)
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 (string)
Own password for this connection. This password has to be configured as
PeerPassword on the other server. Must not have ':' as first character.
PeerPassword (string)
Foreign password for this connection. This password has to be configured as
MyPassword on the other server.
Group (number)
Group of this server (optional).
Passive (boolean)
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 (boolean)
Connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
ServiceMask (string)
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).
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", "*Serv,OtherNick", or
"NickServ,ChanServ,XyzServ".
[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 (string)
Name of the channel, including channel prefix ("#" or "&").
Topic (string)
Topic for this channel.
Modes (string)
Initial channel modes.
Key (string)
Sets initial channel key (only relevant if channel mode "k" is set).
KeyFile (string)
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 (number)
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, <alex@barton.de>
Florian Westphal, <fw@strlen.de>
Homepage: http://ngircd.barton.de/
SEE ALSO
ngircd(8)