ngircd.conf(5)

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version 28 · 9 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this is ngircd.conf(5) — yes, that's the manual name, it's from the ngIRCd Manual — and it's literally the configuration file of ngIRCd. that's the whole vibe. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

/etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf

like. that's the path. she lives there. periodt. 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ngircd.conf is the config file for ngircd(8), the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) daemon. and here's the tea: every single config option is optional, and honestly the file itself is optional too. it's just there so you can configure ngircd(8) for your own local preferences and needs when the defaults simply aren't giving what they need to give. no cap. 💜

the best part? most variables can be changed while the ngIRCd daemon is already running. she'll reload her config file when she gets a HUP signal or when the "REHASH" IRC command shows up. obsessed. 🔥

🌸 FILE FORMAT 🌸

the file is made of sections and parameters. a section starts with the section name in square brackets and keeps going until the next section begins. simple as that bestie ✨

sections contain parameters that look like this:

name = value

empty lines — and any line that starts with a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#') character — are treated as a comment and get ignored. also, leading and trailing whitespaces get trimmed before any processing happens. she's tidy like that. 🧚

the file format is line-based, meaning every non-empty newline-terminated line is either a comment, a section name, or a parameter. one line, one job. 👑

section and parameter names are not case sensitive. okay so she's chill about that.

there are three types of variables: booleans, text strings, and numbers.

  • bling bling booleans 💎 are true when they're "yes", "true", or any non-null integer.
  • text strings get used 1:1 without leading and following spaces — and heads up, there is no way to quote strings. not even a little.
  • for numbers, all decimal integer values are valid.

and in addition, some string or numerical variables accept lists of values, separated by commas (","). slay. 🌈

🎀 SECTION OVERVIEW 🎀

the file can contain blocks of seven types:

  1. [Global]
  2. [Limits]
  3. [Options]
  4. [SSL]
  5. [Operator]
  6. [Server]
  7. [Channel]

the main configuration of the server lives in the [Global] section — that's the server name, the administrative info, the ports she should be listening on, all of it. and ngl, the variables in this section have to be adjusted to your local requirements most of the time. whereas all the variables in the other sections? those can be left on their defaults very often. she's low maintenance like that. 💜

options in the [Limits] block are for tweaking different limits and timeouts of the daemon, like the maximum number of clients allowed to connect to this server. variables in the [Options] section let you enable or disable specific features of ngIRCd — like support for IDENT, PAM, IPv6, and protocol and cloaking features. and the [SSL] block holds all the SSL-related configuration variables. these three sections are all optional. 🫶

IRC operators of this server get defined in [Operator] blocks. links to remote servers are configured in [Server] sections. and [Channel] blocks are for configuring pre-defined ("persistent") IRC channels. 💅

you can have more than one [Operator], [Server] and [Channel] section per config file — one for each operator, server, and channel. and [Global], [Limits], [Options], and [SSL] sections can occur multiple times too, but each variable overwrites itself, and only the last assignment is relevant. so don't be messy about it bestie 😭

👑 [GLOBAL] 👑

the [Global] section defines 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 make sure they correspond to your installation and setup! fr fr. 🔥

  • Name (string) — server name in the IRC network. this is an individual name of the IRC server, it's not related to the DNS host name. it must be unique in the IRC network and must contain at least one dot (".") character. when it's not set, ngIRCd tries to deduce a valid IRC server name from the local host name. 💫
  • AdminInfo1, AdminInfo2, AdminEMail (string) — info about the server and the administrator, used by the ADMIN command. this info is not required by the server, but it is required by RFC! so like. do it. 📜
  • HelpFile (string) — text file containing 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. 📖
  • Info (string) — info text of the server. this gets shown by WHOIS and LINKS requests for example. set to the server software name and version by default. ✨
  • Listen (list of strings) — a comma separated list of IP addresses on which the server should listen. if unset, the default 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. she's everywhere, she's that girl 🌐
  • MotdFile (string) — text file with the "message of the day" (MOTD). this message gets 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. Default: a built-in standard path. 🌸
  • MotdPhrase (string) — a simple phrase (<127 chars) if you don't want to use a MOTD file. short and sweet bestie 🎀
  • 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's 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 must 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 defines some limits and timeouts for this ngIRCd instance. default values should be safe, but it is wise to double-check :-) like, genuinely. go look. 💀

  • 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 shut down 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 option 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 a user nickname (Default: 9, as in RFC 2812). please note that all servers in an IRC network MUST use the same maximum nickname length! no arguing about it 📏
  • MaxPenaltyTime (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. ⏱️
  • 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 ✨

okay so this whole section is the optional girlies — extra features and config knobs that tweak how ngIRCd behaves. if you're just trying to get up and running fast, you can literally skip all of this, they're all optional, no cap 💅

  • 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 to the empty string and local clients literally cannot create new channels at all. Default: #&+
  • AllowRemoteOper (boolean) — flip this on and IRC operators connected to remote servers get to control this local server with admin commands, stuff like CONNECT, DIE, SQUIT etc. Default: no.
  • ChrootDir (string) — a directory to chroot into once 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 at all.
⚠️ attention bestie: 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 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. heads up: if this variable is empty, regular users cannot set mode +x themselves 🫶
  • CloakHostSalt (string) — the Salt for cloaked hostname hashing 🧂 when undefined, a random hash is generated after each server start.
  • CloakUserToNick (boolean) — set every client's user name and real name to their nickname, hiding whatever the IRC client supplied. Default: no.
  • ConnectIPv4 (boolean) — set this to no if you don't want ngIRCd connecting to other IRC servers over the IPv4 protocol. this is what lets you run ngIRCd in IPv6-only setups 🌈 Default: yes.
  • ConnectIPv6 (boolean) — set this to no if you don't want ngIRCd connecting to other IRC servers over the IPv6 protocol. Default: yes.
  • DefaultChannelModes (string) — default channel mode(s) to set on new channels. Default: none.
  • DefaultUserModes (string) — default user mode(s) to set on new local clients. ngl please note you can only set modes that the client itself could set using regular MODE commands — you can't set a (away) for example! Default: none.
  • DNS (boolean) — if set to false, ngIRCd won't make any DNS lookups when clients connect 🙈 but 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 was compiled with IDENT support, this disables IDENT lookups at run time. users identified via 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: a built-in directory name when no configuration file was explicitly given on the command line (check ngircd --configtest), none (empty) otherwise.

the way this works: no default include directory gets used when a possibly non-default config file was explicitly specified with --config/-f on the command line which (intentionally) did not specify an IncludeDir directive. iykyk 💅

  • MorePrivacy (boolean) — this makes ngIRCd censor user idle time, logon time, and the PART/QUIT messages (the ones people sometimes use to tell everyone which client software they're running 👀). WHOWAS requests get silently ignored too, and NAMES output doesn't list any clients for non-members. this option is most useful when ngIRCd is running alongside anonymizing software like TOR or I2P and you don't want it to be too easy to collect stats on the users. Default: no.
  • NoticeBeforeRegistration (boolean) — normally ngIRCd doesn't send any messages to a client until it's registered. enable this and the daemon will send NOTICE * messages to clients while they're still connecting. Default: no.
  • OperCanUseMode (boolean) — should IRC Operators be allowed to use the MODE command even when 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 cause compatibility problems with servers running 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 was compiled with PAM support, this disables all calls to the PAM library at runtime; every user connecting without a password is allowed to connect, and every password 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 auth isn't possible. set this option and clients that don't send a password are still allowed to connect — they just 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 all at the same time, because you wouldn't be able to tell Ident'ified users and PAM-authenticated users apart — both have no ~ character prepended to their respective user names! 😭 Default: no.
  • PAMServiceName (string) — when PAM is enabled, this value determines the PAM configuration used. this setting lets you run multiple ngIRCd instances with different PAM configs on each instance. set it to ngircd-foo and PAM will use /etc/pam.d/ngircd-foo instead of the default /etc/pam.d/ngircd 💅 Default: ngircd.
  • RequireAuthPing (boolean) — let ngIRCd send an "authentication PING" when a new client connects, and register that client only after receiving the corresponding PONG reply 🏓 Default: no.
  • ScrubCTCP (boolean) — set this to true and ngIRCd will silently drop all CTCP requests sent to it from both clients and servers. it also won't forward CTCP requests to any other servers. CTCP requests can be used to query user clients about which software they're using and which versions of it, and CTCP can also be used to reveal clients' IP numbers 👀 ACTION CTCP requests are not blocked, which means /me commands won't be dropped — but please note that blocking CTCP will disable file sharing between users! Default: no.
  • SyslogFacility (string) — the syslog "facility" ngIRCd should send log messages to. possible values are system dependent, but most probably auth, daemon, user and local1 through local7 are possible; see syslog(3). Default is local5 for historical reasons, and 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 it's not set or empty, the WEBIRC command can't be used. Default: not set.

🔒 SSL 🔒

all the SSL-related config variables live in the [SSL] section 💖 but ngl, please note that this whole section is only recognized by ngIRCd when it's compiled with support for SSL using OpenSSL or GnuTLS!

  • CAFile (string) — filename pointing to the Trusted CA Certificates. this is required for verifying peer certificates. Default: not set, so no certificates are trusted 🔐
  • 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 👑
  • CRLFile (string) — filename of Certificate Revocation List.
  • DHFile (string) — name of the Diffie-Hellman Parameter file. can be created with GnuTLS certtool --generate-dh-params or openssl dhparam. if this file isn't 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 the 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 how you 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 from the nickname).
  • Password (string) — password of the IRC operator.
  • Mask (string) — mask that gets checked before an /OPER for this account is accepted. Example: nick!ident@*.example.com

🌈 [SERVER] 🌈

Other servers live in [Server] sections, bestie — this is where your network links get made. So here's the vibe: if you give a connection a port, then this ngIRCd actively reaches out to the other server on that port. If you don't give it a port? It just sits there looking cute and passively waits for the other server to come to it. 💅

ngIRCd also does "server groups", which is honestly iconic. You can slap an "ID" on every server you want this ngIRCd to link with, and the daemon makes sure that at any given moment there's only one direct link to servers sharing that same ID. So if one server in a group ghosts you and won't answer, ngIRCd goes and tries the next server in that group (a.k.a. "with the same ID") — but it will never try to connect to more than one server of the group at the same time. No cap.

And yes, you can have more than one [Server] block. Stack 'em. 👑

  • Name (string) — the IRC name of the remote server.
  • Host (string) — internet host name (or IP address) of the peer.
  • Bind (string) — the IP address to use as the source IP for the outgoing connection. Default is to just let the operating system decide. Let the OS cook. 🍳
  • Port (number) — the port of the remote server that ngIRCd should connect to (active). If no port is assigned to a configured server, the daemon only waits for incoming connections (passive, which is the default).
  • MyPassword (string) — your own password for this connection. This one has to be configured as PeerPassword on the other server. ⚠️ Must not have : as the first character.
  • PeerPassword (string) — the foreign password for this connection. This one has to be configured as MyPassword on the other server.
  • Group (number) — group of this server (optional).
  • Passive (boolean) — disables automatic connection even if a port value is specified. Default: false. You can use the IRC Operator command CONNECT later on to create the link yourself.
  • SSLConnect (boolean) — connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
  • SSLVerify (boolean) — verify the TLS certificate presented by the remote server. Default: yes.
  • ServiceMask (string) — defines 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, conveniently, the default. ✨

When you're connecting IRC services that mask as an IRC server and that use "virtual users" to communicate with, like "NickServ" and "ChanServ", you should set this parameter to something like "*Serv", "*Serv,OtherNick", or "NickServ,ChanServ,XyzServ".

🎀 [CHANNEL] 🎀

Pre-defined channels get configured in [Channel] sections, and the slay here is real: these channels are created by the server when it starts up, and they even persist when there are no more members left. Emptiness cannot defeat them. 💀

Persistent channels get marked with the mode 'P', and IRC operators can set and unset it on the fly just like any other mode. Sick.

There may be more than one [Channel] block. Obviously. 🫶

  • Name (string) — name of the channel, including the channel prefix ("#" or "&").
  • Topic (string) — the topic for this channel.
  • Modes (string) — initial channel modes, as used in "MODE" commands. Modifying lists (ban list, invite list, exception list) is supported.

This option can be specified multiple times, evaluated top to bottom.

  • Autojoin (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! Lowkey important, bestie.
  • KeyFile (string) — path and file name of a "key file" containing individual channel keys for different users. The file is made of plain text lines with this syntax (no 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 no effect until the daemon re-reads its configuration! 🚨

💖 HINTS 💖

It's wise to use ngircd --configtest to validate the configuration file after changing it. Go read ngircd(8) for the details, bestie. 🔥

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Alexander Barton, <alex@barton.de> Florian Westphal, <fw@strlen.de>

Homepage: http://ngircd.barton.de/

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

ngircd(8)

and that's the whole thing, we ate and left absolutely no crumbs 🍓✨ this is ngircd.conf(5) from ngIRCd, dated May 2026 — go forth and configure, main character 💅🦋🌸

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