:app irc

how neckbeards socialize

1. Description

This module turns Emacs into an IRC client, capable of OS notifications.

1.1. Maintainers

This module has no dedicated maintainers. Become a maintainer?

1.2. Module flags

This module has no flags.

1.4. Hacks

No hacks documented for this module.

2. Prerequisites

This module requires gnutls for secure IRC connections to work.

2.1. macOS

# ⎘
brew install gnutls

2.2. Debian / Ubuntu

# ⎘
apt install gnutls-bin

2.3. Arch Linux

# ⎘
pacman -S gnutls

2.4. NixOS

# ⎘
environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.gnutls ];

3. TODO Usage

This module’s usage documentation is incomplete. Complete it?

3.1. An IRC Client in Emacs

To connect to IRC you can invoke the =irc function using M-x or your own custom keybinding.

command description
=irc Connect to IRC and all configured servers

When in a circe buffer these keybindings will be available.

command key description
+irc/tracking-next-buffer <leader> m a Switch to the next active buffer
circe-command-JOIN <leader> m j Join a channel
+irc/send-message <leader> m m Send a private message
circe-command-NAMES <leader> m n List the names of the current channel
circe-command-PART <leader> m p Part the current channel
+irc/quit <leader> m Q Kill the current circe session and workgroup
circe-reconnect <leader> m R Reconnect the current server

4. Configuration

Use the (set-irc-server! SERVER PLIST) function to configure IRC servers. Its second argument (a plist) takes the same arguments as circe-network-options:

# ⎘
;; if you omit =:host=, ~SERVER~ is used instead.
(after! circe
  (set-irc-server! "irc.libera.chat"
    `(:tls t
      :port 6697
      :nick "doom"
      :sasl-username "myusername"
      :sasl-password "mypassword"
      :channels ("#emacs"))))

However, it is a obviously a bad idea to store your password in plaintext, so here are ways to avoid that:

4.1. Pass: the unix password manager

Pass is my tool of choice. I use it to manage my passwords. If you activate the :tools pass module you get an elisp API through which to access your password store.

set-irc-server! accepts a plist can use functions instead of strings. +pass-get-user and +pass-get-secret can help here:

# ⎘
(set-irc-server! "irc.libera.chat"
  `(:tls t
    :port 6697
    :nick "doom"
    :sasl-username ,(+pass-get-user   "irc/libera.chat")
    :sasl-password ,(+pass-get-secret "irc/libera.chat")
    :channels ("#emacs")))

But wait, there’s more! This stores your password in a public variable which could be accessed or appear in backtraces. Not good! So we go a step further:

# ⎘
(set-irc-server! "irc.libera.chat"
  `(:tls t
    :port 6697
    :nick "doom"
    :sasl-username ,(+pass-get-user "irc/libera.chat")
    :sasl-password (lambda (&rest _) (+pass-get-secret "irc/libera.chat"))
    :channels ("#emacs")))

And you’re good to go!

Note that +pass-get-user tries to find your username by looking for the fields listed in +pass-user-fields (by default login, user=, username= and email)=). An example configuration looks like 

mysecretpassword
username: myusername

4.2. Emacs’ auth-source API

auth-source is built into Emacs. As suggested in the circe wiki, you can store (and retrieve) encrypted passwords with it.

# ⎘
(setq auth-sources '("~/.authinfo.gpg"))

(defun my-fetch-password (&rest params)
  (require 'auth-source)
  (let ((match (car (apply #'auth-source-search params))))
    (if match
	(let ((secret (plist-get match :secret)))
	  (if (functionp secret)
	      (funcall secret)
	    secret))
      (error "Password not found for %S" params))))

(defun my-nickserv-password (server)
  (my-fetch-password :user "forcer" :host "irc.libera.chat"))

(set-irc-server! "irc.libera.chat"
  '(:tls t
    :port 6697
    :nick "doom"
    :sasl-password my-nickserver-password
    :channels ("#emacs")))

5. Troubleshooting

There are no known problems with this module. Report one?

6. TODO Appendix

This module has no appendix yet. Write one?