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Setup IRC

IRC

What is IRC?

The OpenStack community uses Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as its primary chat service.

IRC allows you to:

  • Communicate with project teams, technical committee, SIGs, and other Working Groups.
  • Participate in regular meetings with the above groups.

Set up IRC on Linux & Windows

Install an IRC Program

This section explains how you can install an IRC program called Hexchat.

For a Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, or Mint open a terminal and type:

sudo apt install hexchat

For a Linux distributions like Redhat, Fedora 21 or earlier, or CentOS open a terminal and type:

sudo yum install hexchat

For Fedora 22 or later open a terminal and type:

sudo dnf install hexchat

For Windows environment, download latest Hexchat installation binary from Hexchat download and install it. You will probably also need extra components shown just under Hexchat.

Now open the hexchat program just like you would for any Linux program.

Edit Nick Name Settings

  1. Lets first fill out the Nick name and User name field with our choice of a nickname:
  2. From the list of Networks you should see Freenode. Select that and click 'edit'.

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Edit Server Settings

  1. Click the edit button and
  2. Make sure that Use SSL for all the servers on this network is checked.

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Troubleshooting

  • If you get a notice that the nick name is already taken, quit and go back to the first set of steps to pick a different nickname.

Register Your Nick Name

If all goes well you will get a dialog window indicating the connection to Freenode has completed, and what to do next. For now, select "Nothing, I'll join a channel later."

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When you login to the server for the first time with your nickname, it will be used by you, but it's still not registered yet.

In order to register you need to send a message to nickserv on Freenode, which is a bot that allows you to register and identify yourselves as the owner of a nick name.

Type the following to register your nick name with nickserv replacing mysecretpassword and test@domain.com with your own password and email address:

/msg nickserv register mysecretpassword test@domain.com

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If all goes well you should receive a message back instantly that the nick name is registered by you and an activation email will be sent to the email address you provided.

Auto-Login On Connecting To Freenode

In order to identify yourselves that you own the nick name upon logging in, you need to tell Hexchat to communicate your password upon connecting.

  1. Click Hexchat from the menu and then click Network List. You will see a familiar first screen of servers listed. Make sure Freenode is highlighted and click edit.
  2. In the Password put in the password you picked in the previous step and click close.

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Done

Congratulations you're now ready to communicate with the OpenStack community and have a registered nick name on Freenode! From here on out when you connect to Freenode with Hexchat you will be identified with your nickname.

A good channel to join right away is the #openstack-dev channel. A lot of people hang around in that channel so come on in and say hello! If there is a specific project you are also interested in working on, feel free to join that one as well and introduce yourself there. Interested in joining more channels or need to look up what one is called? Check out irc-channels for more information.

It's also important to note that given that the majority of contributors reside in the United States, channels will likely be quieter outside of United States work hours and it might be a while before they respond.

Set up IRC on Mac OS

Install an IRC Program

This section explains how you can install an IRC program called Colloquy.

  1. Go to http://colloquy.info and follow the download link.
  2. From your downloads folder, drag the Colloquy application icon to your applications folder to install.

Add A New Connection

  1. First fill out the Nickname and User name field with your choice of a nickname.
  2. For the Chat server type in irc.freenode.net.
  3. For the Chat Server Port type in 6697 and check the SSL Connection box.

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If all goes well in the second window you will see your new connection and your client connected.

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Troubleshooting

  • If you get a notice that the nick name is already taken:

    • Click cancel.
    • Click the info icon.
    • Type in a different user/nick name as shown in the previous step.
    • Click disconnect and click connect to retry connecting with the new nick name.

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Register Your Nick Name

If all goes well you should be connected and not get any pop ups as indicated in the previous step's Troubleshooting section.

When you login to the server for the first time with your nickname, it will be used by you, but it's still not registered yet.

In order to register you need to send a message to nickserv on Freenode, which is a bot that allows you to register and identify yourselves as the owner of a nick name.

Click the message user icon and type:

nickserv

A message dialog window will come up. Type the following to register your nick name with nickserv replacing mysecretpassword and test@domain.com with your own password and email address:

register mysecretpassword test@domain.com

image

If all goes well you should receive a message back instantly that the nick name is registered by you and an activation email will be sent to the email address you provided.

Auto-Login On Connecting To Freenode

In order to identify yourselves that you own the nick name upon logging in, you need to tell Colloquy to communicate your password upon connecting.

  1. Going back to your connection window, highlight your Freenode connection and click the info icon.
  2. In the Password field type your password.

image

Done

Congratulations you're now ready to communicate with the OpenStack community and have a registered nick name on Freenode! From here on out when you connect to Freenode with Colloquy you will be identified with your nickname.

A good channel to join right away is the #openstack-dev channel. A lot of people hang around in that channel so come on in and say hello! If there is a specific project you are also interested in working on, feel free to join that one as well and introduce yourself there. Interested in joining more channels or need to look up what one is called? Check out irc-channels for more information.

It's also important to note that given that the majority of contributors reside in the United States, channels will likely be quieter outside of United States work hours and it might be a while before they respond.

IRC Channels

Each project and working group has its own IRC channel. The common syntax for naming the IRC channels is: #openstack-<name-of-project>. See the list of OpenStack-related IRC channels.

IRC Meetings

In OpenStack all the meetings are happening either on generic meeting channels channels like #openstack-meeting, or on specific project channels. Check the list of meetings for meetings times, IRC channels, and archives of meetings.

IRC Archives

Most IRC channels are archived, you can read the logs on eavesdrop.

IRC bots

IRC allows different programs to listen to the IRC channels and do some actions. These programs are called IRC bots. There are several bots used in the OpenStack IRC channels, this section contains the ones which are useful from the first days of OpenStack development. A more comprehensive list can be found in the Infrastructure team IRC page.

Thanksbot

This bot allows people to recognize each other and be thankful. Anyone can post a message in the OpenStack IRC channels to say thanks. The way to say thanks is:

#thanks <irc_nick> <message>

The irc_nick is the IRC nick of the person who is receiving the thanks. The message is a short text to explain the reason for the thanks. The bot collects all thanks to a wiki page.

Statusbot

Statusbot is used to distribute urgent information from the Infrastructure team to OpenStack channels.

Successbot

Succesbot is an IRC bot to express small successes in OpenStack development. To celebrate in the OpenStack IRC channel way just type:

#success <message>

to any OpenStack IRC channel where the Statusbot is listening. The message will be posted to the Successes wiki page.