Last updated: 2020-07-30

Using IRC on 9front

While 9front comes with an irc client called ircrc, it can be quite annoying that it does not keep a persistent connection.

A different program irc7 provides a server part which keeps a connection open to an irc server, and a client part which allows for connecting to the server. This works great since it makes it possible to get all the messages on a channel without being online all the time.

Setup

Download the irc7 code via hg:

hg clone https://code.9front.org/hg/irc7/

Build and install

cd irc7
mk install

Usage

First the server program ircsrv must be started, so I would run

ircsrv -e -p VerySecretPassword pmikkelsen net!irc.freenode.net!7000

to connect as pmikkelsen to freenode over tls and with password for my nickname. After this, it is possible to connect to different channels by opening new rio windows and running

irc -t '#cat-v' -b

to connect to the cat-v channel. The -b option without any extra arguments prints the entire conversation since the ircsrv was started, so it might not always be desirable.

To see all the messages sent directly to me, I would run

irc -t MSGS

and maybe start a conversation with user 'mousehater' by running

irc -t mousehater

I run this on a remote cpu server that is rarely powered off, and then I just connect via drawterm from linux to chat, or via rcpu from other 9front machines.