README.org

app/irc

Table of Contents

• Description
  • Module Flags
  • Plugins
• Prerequisites
  • macOS
  • Debian / Ubuntu
  • Arch Linux
  • NixOS
• Features
  • An IRC Client in Emacs
• Configuration
  • Pass: the unix password manager
  • Emacs’ auth-source API
• Troubleshooting

Description

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

Module Flags

This module provides no flags.

Plugins

• circe
• circe-notifications

Prerequisites

This module requires gnutls for secure IRC connections to work.

macOS

brew install gnutls

Debian / Ubuntu

apt install gnutls-bin

Arch Linux

pacman -S gnutls

NixOS

environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.gnutls ];

Features

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

Configuration

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

;; if you omit =:host=, ~SERVER~ will be used instead.
(after! circe
  (set-irc-server! "chat.freenode.net"
    `(: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:

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! "chat.freenode.net"
  `(:tls t
    :port 6697
    :nick "doom"
    :sasl-username ,(+pass-get-user   "irc/freenode.net")
    :sasl-password ,(+pass-get-secret "irc/freenode.net")
    :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! "chat.freenode.net"
  `(:tls t
    :port 6697
    :nick "doom"
    :sasl-username ,(+pass-get-user "irc/freenode.net")
    :sasl-password (lambda (&rest _) (+pass-get-secret "irc/freenode.net"))
    :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

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.freenode.net"))

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

Troubleshooting