Langue: en

Version: Dec 2008 (fedora - 01/12/10)

Section: 5 (Format de fichier)


ngircd.conf - configuration file of ngIRCd




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.


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.


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.


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.
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 text of the server. This will be shown by WHOIS and LINKS requests for example.
Global password for all users needed to connect to the server. The default is empty, so no password is required.
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.
AdminInfo1, AdminInfo2, AdminEMail
Information about the server and the administrator, used by the ADMIN command.
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.
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.
Filename of SSL Server Key to be used for SSL connections. This is required for SSL/TLS support.
(OpenSSL only:) Password to decrypt private key.
Certificate file of the private key.
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.
A comma separated list of IP address on which the server should listen. If unset, the defaults value is "" or, if ngIRCd was compiled with IPv6 support, "::,". So the server listens on all configured IP addresses and interfaces by default.
Text file with the "message of the day" (MOTD). This message will be shown to all users connecting to the server.
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.
User ID under which the server should run; you can use the name of the user or the numerical ID.
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!
Group ID under which the ngIRCd should run; you can use the name of the group or the numerical ID.
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.
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).
After <PingTimeout> seconds of inactivity the server will send a PING to the peer to test whether it is alive or not. Default: 120.
If a client fails to answer a PING with a PONG within <PongTimeout> seconds, it will be disconnected by the server. Default: 20.
The server tries every <ConnectRetry> seconds to establish a link to not yet (or no longer) connected servers. Default: 60.
Should IRC Operators be allowed to use the MODE command even if they are not(!) channel-operators? Default: no.
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.
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 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.
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.
If ngIRCd is compiled with IDENT support this can be used to disable IDENT lookups at run time. Default: no.
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.
Set this to no if you do not want ngIRCd to connect to other irc servers using IPv6. Default: yes.
Maximum number of simultaneous in- and outbound connections the server is allowed to accept (0: unlimited). Default: 0.
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.
Maximum number of channels a user can be member of (0: no limit). Default: 10.
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] sections are used to define IRC Operators. There may be more than one [Operator] block, one for each local operator.
ID of the operator (may be different of the nick name).
Password of the IRC operator.
Mask that is to be checked before an /OPER for this account is accepted. Example: nick!ident@*


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.

IRC name of the remote server.
Internet host name (or IP address) of the peer.
IP address to use as source IP for the outgoing connection. Default is to let the operating system decide.
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).
Own password for this connection. This password has to be configured as PeerPassword on the other server. Must not have ':' as first character.
Foreign password for this connection. This password has to be configured as MyPassword on the other server.
Group of this server (optional).
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.
Connect to the remote server using TLS/SSL. Default: false.
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".


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 of the channel, including channel prefix ("#" or "&").
Topic for this channel.
Initial channel modes.
Sets initial channel key (only relevant if channel mode "k" is set).
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:


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!

Set maximum user limit for this channel (only relevant if channel mode "l" is set).


It's wise to use "ngircd --configtest" to validate the configuration file after changing it. See ngircd(8) for details.


Alexander Barton,