spacemacs/layers/+chat/rcirc

RCIRC layer

• Description
  • Features:
• Install
  • Layer
  • Configuring authentication
    • Storing the credentials in your dotfile
      • Example:
    • Storing the credentials in your Dropbox
      • Example:
    • Storing the credentials in authinfo
    • Connecting behind a ZNC bouncer and storing the credentials in authinfo
      • Disclaimer
      • Note
  • Enabling s/foo/bar/
• Key bindings
• Rcirc documentation
• Spacemacs Layout Support

Description

This layer provide support for rcirc with optional support for authinfo and ZNC.

Features:

• Store channel logs into ~/.emacs.d/.cache/rcirc-logs/<channel>
• Support for credentials stored in ~/.authinfo.gpg (need to have gnutls)
• Support ZNC support (with optional ~/.authinfo.gpg)
• Colored nicknames
• Real-time change when people use s/foo/bar/ in chat
• Completion of Emojis using company-emoji (still needs a way of showing, either using the emoji layer or having a proper font) 👏

Install

Layer

To use this configuration layer, add it to your ~/.spacemacs. You will need to add rcirc to the existing dotspacemacs-configuration-layers list in this file.

Configuring authentication

There are several ways to configure rcirc supported by the layer:

• By storing your credentials in rcirc-server-alist in your dotfile (not secured)
• By storing your credentials in rcirc-server-alist in your Dropbox (better but still not secured)
• By storing your credentials in authinfo (secured)
• By using a ZNC bouncer and storing your credentials (secured)

Storing the credentials in your dotfile

You can store your servers configuration along with your credentials in the dotspacemacs/user-config of your dotfile.

Important: This method is the less secured and it is not recommended since your dotfile is often stored in a public repository and is not crypted. This is convenient but not recommended.

Example:

  (setq rcirc-server-alist
    '(("irc.freenode.net"
        :user-name "spacemacs_user"
        :port "1337"
        :password "le_passwd"
        :channels ("#emacs"))))

Storing the credentials in your Dropbox

You can store your servers configuration along with your credentials in your dropbox in the file ~/Dropbox/emacs/pinit-rcirc.el.

Important: This method is more secured since your file is stored in a private location but it is still not crypted on your drive. Moreover since Dropbox automatically sync your files you may have a lot of copies of the file containing your credentials. This is convenient but not recommended.

Example:

  (setq rcirc-server-alist
    '(("irc.freenode.net"
        :user-name "spacemacs_user"
        :port "1337"
        :password "le_passwd"
        :channels ("#emacs"))))

Storing the credentials in authinfo

This method is considered secured and is the recommended way to configure rcirc.

1. If you want to use authinfo.gpg you have to enable the support for it by setting rcirc-enable-authinfo-support to t in your dotfile:

     (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(
       (rcirc :variables rcirc-enable-authinfo-support t)))

2. In your ~/.authinfo.gpg file store your credentials like this:

     machine irc.freenode.net port nickserv user <user> password <passwd>
   

3. At last you need to provide your servers configuration in the dotspacemacs/user-config function of your dotfile:

     (setq rcirc-server-alist
     '(("irc.freenode.net"
         :user-name "spacemacs_user"
         :port "1337"
         :channels ("#emacs"))))

Connecting behind a ZNC bouncer and storing the credentials in authinfo

This methods is also secured since it uses authinfo but you must secure your ZNC server configuration as well!

ZNC is a popular bouncer which is easy to setup. A bouncer is a proxy that connects to your IRC channels on your behalf, instead of connecting to the IRC server you connect to your ZNC server. The ZNC server can store the discussions in a buffer while you are not connected.

Disclaimer

This assumes that you are familiar with ZNC and you have a ZNC server properly setup. If it is not the case then it is recommended to read about ZNC here. There is also an installation guide for Ubuntu here.

Note

For now authinfo is mandatory to use the ZNC configuration.

1. To enable ZNC support set the variable rcirc-enable-znc-support to t in your dotfile:

     (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(
       (rcirc :variables rcirc-enable-znc-support t)))

2. In your ~/.authinfo.gpg file store your credentials like this:

     machine freenode.spacemacsserver.me port irc user spacemacs_user/freenode password ZNC_PASSWORD
     machine geekshed.spacemacsserver.me port irc user spacemacs_user/geekshed password ZNC_PASSWORD
   

   Important port must be set to irc. This is a convention of the layer to retrieve the credentials for the ZNC configuration.

3. Then setup your servers configuration using subdomains in the dotspacemacs/user-config function of your dotfile. The :auth keyword arguments will be replaced by the credentials stored in your ~/.authinfo.gpg.

     (setq rcirc-server-alist
      ;; This will replace :auth with the correct thing, see the doc for that function
      '(("freenode"
          :host "freenode.spacemacsserver.me"
          :port "1337"
          :auth "spacemacs_user/freenode"
          :channels ("#emacs"))
      ("geekshed"
          :host "geekshed.spacemacsserver.me"
          :port "1337"
          :auth "spacemacs_user/geekshed"
          :channels ("#jupiterbroadcasting"))))

Enabling s/foo/bar/

To configure rcirc to update buffers when people use s/foo/bar/, set the variable rcirc-enable-late-fix to t in your dotfile:

  (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers '(
    (rcirc :variables rcirc-enable-late-fix t)))

Key bindings

Key binding	Description
SPC a i r	Open rcirc
SPC l o i	Open rcirc in a custom perspective “@RICRC” (need perspectives layer enabled)

In normal state:

Key binding	Description
C-j	next item in history
C-k	previous item in history

Rcirc documentation

The rcirc documentation can be found here.

Spacemacs Layout Support

RCIRC buffers are added automatically to the default layout for RCIRC controlled by the variable rcirc-spacemacs-layout-name (defaults to “@RCIRC”) and the default binding (“i”) is controlled by rcirc-spacemacs-layout-binding