Setting Up the IRC Bridge

So the userexample isbridge.yml removed.config Bothbelow setswill takeblock the bridging of a regularroom expression.if it has any User IDs within it from the badguys.com homeserver except @doubleagent:badguys.com, and limit the number of bridged rooms to 50.

  enable_provisioning: true
  provisioning_rules:
    userIds:
      exempt:
     # These users never conflict, even if matching
        - "@doubleagent:badguys.com"
      conflict:
     # These users will deny a room from being bridged.
        - "@.*:badguys.com"
  provisioning_room_limit: 50

IRC Ident

If you are using the Ident protocol you can enable it usage with the following config:

• enable_ident: Set this to true to enable the use of IRC Ident
• ident_port_type: Specify either 'HostPort' or 'NodePort' depending on your setup
• ident_port_number: Specify the port number that should be used

  enable_ident: false
  ident_port_type: 'HostPort'
  ident_port_number: 10230

Miscellaneous

Finally there are a few additional options to configure:

• logging_level: This specifies how detailed the logs should be for the bridge, by default this is info, but error, warn and debug are available.
  • You can see the bridge logs using kubectl logs IRC_POD_NAME -n element-onprem
    
• enable_presence: Set to true if presence is required.
  • This should be kept as false if presence is disabled on the homeserver to avoid excess traffic.
    
• drop_matrix_messages_after_seconds: Specify after how many seconds the bridge should drop Matrix messages, by default this is 0 meaning no messages will be dropped.
  • If the bridge is down for a while, the homeserver will attempt to send all missed events on reconnection. These events may be hours old, which can be confusing to IRC users if they are then bridged. This option allows these old messages to be dropped.
  • CAUTION: This is a very coarse heuristic. Federated homeservers may have different clock times which may be old enough to cause all events from the homeserver to be dropped.
    
• bot_username: Specify the Matrix User ID of the the bridge bot that will faciliate the creation of rooms and can be messaged by admins to perform commands.
  
• rmau_limit: 100 Set this to the maximum number of remote monthly active users that you would like to allow in a bridged IRC room.
  
• users_prefix: "irc_" SetSpecifiy a userthe prefix to be used on the Matrix User IDs created for ircusers users.who are communicating via IRC.
  
• alias_prefix: Specifiy the prefix to be used on room aliases when created via the !join command.

The defaults are usually best left as-is unless a specific need requires changing these, however for troubleshooting purposes, switching logging_level to debug can help identify issues with the bridge.

  logging_level: debug
  enable_presence: false
  drop_matrix_messages_after_seconds: 0
  bot_username: "ircbridgebot"
  rmau_limit: 100
  users_prefix: "irc_"
  alias_prefix: "irc_"

Advanced Additional Configuration

You can find more advanced configuration options by checking the config.yaml sample provided on the Matrix IRC Bridge repository.

You can ignore the servers: Setblock anas aliasconfig prefixin forthat ircsection users.should be added under the parameters: section associated with address: that will be setup per the below section. If you copy any config, ensure the identation is correct, as above, all entries within are initially indented ( ), so they are under the bridged_irc_servers: section.

IRC Settings

The final section of Bridge.yml, here you specify the IRC network(s) you want the bridge to connect with, this is done using address: and parameter: formatted like so:

• address: Specify your desired IRC Network

  address: irc.someserver.netexample.com
  parameters:

Aside adressfrom the address of the ircIRC serverNetwork, everything is configured within the parameters: section, and so is initially indented , all code blocks will include this indentation.

Required IRC Network Configuration

At a minimum, you will need to bridge.specify Nowthe name: of your IRC Network, as well as some details for the abovebots configuration on the IRC server, we have a setside of parametersthe thatconnection.

• name: "Server Name" The server name to show on the bridge. Now below that, you'll see the botConfig with these parameters:
• botConfig:
  • enabled: Keep this set as true Leave this on.
  • nick: "MatrixBot" NickSpecify the nickname of the bridgebot botuser within IRC
  • username: "matrixbot" UsernameSpecify the username of the bridgebot bot.user within IRC
  • password: "some_password" PasswordOptionally specify the password of the bridgebot bot.to Generategive to NickServ or IRC Server for this withnick. You can generate this by using the pwgen 32 1 command
  • joinChannelsIfNoUsers: Set to false to prevent the bot from joining channels even if there are no Matrix users on the other side of the bridge, this defaults to true so doesn't need to be specified unless false is required.

    name: "Example IRC"
    botConfig:
      enabled: true
      nick: "MatrixBot"
      username: "matrixbot"
      password: "some_password"

There are some additional configuration lines you may wish to make use of, as these are not required, if unspecified some of these will default to the advised values. You do not need to include any of these if you are happy with the defaults.

• additionalAddresses: Specify any additional addresses to connect to that can be used for load balancing between IRCDs
  • Specify each additional address within the [] as comma-separated values, for example:
    • [ "irc2.example.com", "irc3.example.com" ]
• onlyAdditionalAddresses: Set to true to exclusively use additional addresses to connect to servers while reserving the main address for identification purposes, this defaults to false
• port: Specify the exact port to use for the IRC connection
• ssl: Set to true to require the use SSL, this defaults to false
• sslselfsign: Set to true if the IRC network is using a self-signed certificate, this defaults to false
• sasl: Set to true should the connection attempt to identify via SASL, this defaults to false
• allowExpiredCerts: Set to true to allow expired certificates when connecting to the IRC server, this defaults to false
• botConfig:
  • joinChannelsIfNoUsers: Set to false to prevent the bot from joining channels even if there are no Matrix users on the other side of the bridge, this defaults to true so doesn't need to be specified unless false is required.

ForIf otheryou settingsend thatup canneeding alsoany of these additional configuration options, your parameters: section may look like the below example:

    name: "Example IRC"
    additionalAddresses: [ "irc2.example.com" ]
    onlyAdditionalAddresses: false
    port: 6697
      # Whether to use SSL or not. Default: false.
    ssl: true
      # Whether or not IRC server is using a self-signed cert or not providing CA Chain
    sslselfsign: false
      # Should the connection attempt to identify via SASL (if a server or user password is given)
      # If false, this will use PASS instead. If SASL fails, we do not fallback to PASS.
    sasl: false
      # Whether to allow expired certs when connecting to the IRC server.
      # Usually this should be appliedoff. Default: false.
    allowExpiredCerts: false
    botConfig:
      enabled: true
      nick: "MatrixBot"
      username: "matrixbot"
      password: "some_password"
      joinChannelsIfNoUsers: true

Deploying the IRC Bridge

Once you have make the required changes to thisyour configBridge.yml file,configuration, pleasemake see:sure you find and click the Save button at the bottom of the IRC Bridge configuration page to ensure your changes are updated.

https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/blob/develop/config.sample.yaml#L52

You will then need to re-run the installerDeploy for any changes to take effect.effect, as above ensure all changes made are saved then click Deploy.

Connecting to the Bridge

1. From Element, send a DM to the bridge bot /msg @ircbridgebot:element.local where element.local is you servers domain name
2. Send the bridge !whois to see if you can get logged in to the IRC network