IRC

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat.

2-minute Intro to IRC

Using IRC with netcat

Basics

Once you are connected to an IRC server like irc.devdungeon.com you can start running commands. Commands start with a /. Here are the essential commands you need to know.

/list - List chat rooms and participant count
/who #general - See who is in the channel named #general
/join #general - Join channel named #general
/part #general - Leave channel named #general
/msg nanodano hey - Send private message to NanoDano
/quit - Disconnect from server

Other commands:

/away Be back in a few - Set an away message
/back - Turn off away status
/me is not surprised - Emote something; e.g. “NanoDano is not surprised”
/motd - See the server's message of the day

Clients

There are many clients out there, but here are a few:

XChat (GUI) - For Windows, download and install from the website. For Debian, install with apt install xchat.
Pidgin (GUI) - For Windows, download and install from the website. For Debian, install with apt install pidgin. Pidgin is nice because it supports other protocols too so you can have your XMPP account and IRC setup together.
irssi (Terminal) - For Windows, use Debian WSL. In Debian, install with apt install irssi. In Mac, brew install irssi. Use the normal IRC slash commands like /list and /join #general. Use alt keys plus window number to switch between chat windows. E.g. ALT-1 and ALT-2.
netcat - You can use netcat as a client if you understand the IRC protocol. Check out my video tutorial IRC with netcat.

Node.js Bot

simple_irc_bot.js

var net = require('net');  // https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/docs/api/net.html
 
var BOT_NAME = 'mybot2';
var BOT_CHANNEL = '#bots';
 
var client = new net.Socket();
 
client.connect(6667, 'irc.devdungeon.com', function() {
  client.write('USER ' + BOT_NAME +  ' 0 * :' + BOT_NAME + '\n');
  client.write('NICK ' + BOT_NAME + '\n'); // Must wait a second to register
 
  setTimeout(function(){ 
      client.write('JOIN ' + BOT_CHANNEL + '\n');
      client.write('PRIVMSG ' + BOT_CHANNEL + ' Hello my Node.js bot is online!\n');
   }, 3000);
 
});
 
client.on('data', function(data) {
  console.log('MESSAGE_FROM_SERVER: ' + data);
 var text = data.toString();
 var splitText = text.split(' ');
  // If data starts with PING, respond with PONG :whatever
  if (text.startsWith('PING')) {
    client.write('PONG ' + text.substring(5));  // Remove `PING ` and pong back what it sent me
    console.log('Recieved PING. PONGED.');
  } else if (splitText[1] == 'PRIVMSG') { // PM or chat room
    // If data comes from a channel (#general):
    //   :nanodano!johnd@107.181.165.217 PRIVMSG #general :Hello bot
    // If data comes from privmsg (dano):
    //   :nanodano!johnd@107.181.165.217 PRIVMSG danobot :hey
    console.log('Destination:' + splitText[2])
    // Was it a direct message or to the channel?
    if (splitText[2] == BOT_CHANNEL) {
       console.log('message was from ' + BOT_CHANNEL)
    } 
    if (splitText[2] == BOT_NAME) {
       console.log('message was directly to me (' + BOT_NAME + ')')
    }
    // Was the message a command?
    if (splitText[3].substring(1).startsWith('!')) {
      console.log('Command detected with ! prefix')
      // Cut off first character, and check command. Run appropriate function. !bitcoin. !ping !8-ball
      var command = splitText[3].substring(2).trim().toLowerCase();
      console.log('Command: `' + command + '`');
      if (command == 'ping') { 
        console.log('Ping command detected! Ponging.');
        client.write('PRIVMSG ' + BOT_CHANNEL + ' Pong\n');
      }
    }
    console.log('PrivMsg: ' + splitText[3].substring(1)); // Cut off : in front    
  } else {
    console.log('Discarded unexpected/unimportant message.');
  }
 
});

Inspircd

Inspircd is software for running your own IRC server.

Source (C++) https://github.com/inspircd/inspircd
Installation instructions https://docs.inspircd.org/3/installation/

Quick setup notes:

setup_inspircd.sh

# Get latest .deb from https://github.com/inspircd/inspircd/releases
cd ~
wget https://github.com/inspircd/inspircd/releases/download/v3.10.0/inspircd_3.10.0.deb10u1_amd64.deb
apt install ./inspircd_3.10.0.deb10u1_amd64.deb
cp /usr/share/doc/inspircd/inspircd.conf.example.gz ~
gunzip inspircd.conf.example.gz
mv inspircd.conf.example /etc/inspircd/inspircd.conf
echo "Welcome!" > /etc/inspircd/motd.txt
vim /etc/inspircd/inspircd.conf
  # Edit bind ip
  # Edit server name
  # Edit motd text file path to ''motd.txt''
systemctl start inspircd
# Then connect on port 6667

Anope is the partner service that should be installed for NickServ and ChanServ for people to register nicknames and channels.

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