_Last updated: 2020-07-30_ # Using IRC on 9front While 9front comes with an irc client called `ircrc`, it can be quite annoying that it does not keep a persistent connection. A different program `irc7` provides a server part which keeps a connection open to an irc server, and a client part which allows for connecting to the server. This works great since it makes it possible to get all the messages on a channel without being online all the time. ## Setup Download the irc7 code via `hg`: hg clone https://code.9front.org/hg/irc7/ Build and install cd irc7 mk install ## Usage First the server program `ircsrv` must be started, so I would run ircsrv -e -p VerySecretPassword pmikkelsen net!irc.freenode.net!7000 to connect as `pmikkelsen` to freenode over tls and with password for my nickname. After this, it is possible to connect to different channels by opening new rio windows and running irc -t '#cat-v' -b to connect to the cat-v channel. The `-b` option without any extra arguments prints the entire conversation since the ircsrv was started, so it might not always be desirable. To see all the messages sent directly to me, I would run irc -t MSGS and maybe start a conversation with user 'mousehater' by running irc -t mousehater I run this on a remote cpu server that is rarely powered off, and then I just connect via drawterm from linux to chat, or via rcpu from other 9front machines.