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IRC

The BBS has an IRC server, and its channels are the chat rooms. Someone in HexChat, irssi, WeeChat or any other IRC client talks with callers on telnet, SSH, 3270s, the web terminal and the API. IRC is just one more way into the same chat.

[irc]
address = :6667
tls_address = :6697
tls_cert = /etc/bbs/tls.crt
tls_key = /etc/bbs/tls.key
Setting Default What it sets
address :6667 plain IRC (none: TLS only)
tls_address (none) IRC over TLS, with tls_cert and tls_key
server_name the host's name the server's name to clients
network the BBS's name the NETWORK clients show
max_clients 64 connections at once
max_per_ip 4 from one address
service BBSServ the services bot's nick

bbs check warns about a plain address without a tls_address, because passwords then travel in the clear. The deny list and bans in [security] apply as they do everywhere else.

Logging in

Every IRC user is a BBS user, logged in with their BBS name and password in one of these ways:

  • SASL PLAIN, which most clients offer as "SASL" or "account login";
  • the server password (PASS), set to name:password, or to the password alone with your nick as your name.

Failed logins count towards the throttle and the hack log, like any other login. The user's access level must allow chat.

Your nick is your BBS name. Spaces and dots become underscores, so Carol Ann is Carol_Ann. A client that asked for another nick is told of the change, and NICK can't change it later.

Each connection is a node, shown in Who's online as irc. Others can send it node messages, and the sysop can throw it off like any caller.

Channels

#ROOM is the room ROOM: #main is the main room, and any other name (letters, digits and -, up to 20) makes a room. One client can be in up to 20 at once. Joining shows the room's last 20 lines.

On IRC On the BBS
PRIVMSG #room :text a line in the room
/me waves (CTCP ACTION) * alice waves
PRIVMSG nick :text a message to that user's nodes; to one not on, kept for them (301 says so)
a caller's node message a PRIVMSG to you
NAMES, WHO, WHOIS who is in a room, on which node and how (bob!telnet@node3)
LIST the rooms in use
a page, mail, a notice a NOTICE from the server

Sysops show as channel operators (@), but there's little to operate: rooms have no modes, kicks or bans, and only permanent rooms have topics. Colours and other formatting are stripped from lines going into the rooms.

A sysop is told of a page by a NOTICE. Joining #sysop-N answers the page from node N, just as /answer does in the BBS's chat.

Messages kept for you while you were away come as PRIVMSGs once you log in, each with its time: as server-time if your client takes it, otherwise at the start of the line.

The server offers the IRCv3 capabilities sasl, server-time (the time of each line, the history replayed on join included), echo-message, multi-prefix and userhost-in-names.

Permanent rooms

A room closes when its last caller leaves, unless the sysop makes it permanent. BBSServ holds a permanent room open, empty or not and across restarts. It sits in the channel as an operator (@BBSServ in NAMES and WHO), and LIST and BBSServ's ROOMS show the room with its topic even when no one is in it. Permanent rooms are the BBS's own: on the text BBS and 3270s too, /rooms lists them with their topics, and coming in shows the topic.

Command What it does
/msg BBSServ ROOMS the permanent rooms (anyone)
/msg BBSServ ROOM ADD #room [topic] make a room permanent (the sysop)
/msg BBSServ ROOM TOPIC #room [topic] set its topic, or clear it
/msg BBSServ ROOM DEL #room permanent no more: it goes with its last caller
TOPIC #room :text the sysop sets the topic from the channel
/topic [text] in the BBS's chat: the room's topic; the sysop sets it
bbs room list, add, topic, del the same from the shell

When a topic is set, everyone in the room is told: on IRC as a TOPIC from BBSServ, on the BBS as a line ("sysop set the topic: ..."). Changes made with the bbs command reach a running BBS at its next start; those made through BBSServ apply at once.

BBSServ

BBSServ is a services bot, like an IRC network's NickServ, for your BBS account. Everyone on the server is logged in, so it always acts on the account of whoever asks. Talk to it with /msg BBSServ COMMAND, or with its own command, /BS COMMAND (/BBSSERV also works). Its answers come as notices.

Command What it does
HELP [command] the commands, or how to use one
INFO your account: level, where you call from, alias, signature, settings, unread mail, keys, tokens, new scan
SET LOCATION, ABOUT, ALIAS value your profile's fields (no value, or -, clears one)
SET SIGNATURE line \| line up to three lines under what you write
SET ANSI, UTF8, SIXEL, RIP, WIDTH, EDITOR, EXPERT value your terminal and menu settings; cleared, a terminal setting goes back to what your terminal says
PASSWD now new your password
SCAN, SCAN ON|OFF area|ALL the areas of your new scan (and of your QWK packets)
KEYS, KEYS ADD password key, KEYS DEL n your SSH keys. Adding one asks for your password, since a key opens your account
TOKENS, TOKENS REVOKE id your HTTP API tokens
ROOMS; ROOM ADD|DEL|TOPIC #room the permanent rooms; making them (the sysop)
FRIENDS, FRIENDS ADD|DEL nick your friends list, and who on it is on
HISTORY, HISTORY nick [lines] those you have talked with; your last lines with one (50, up to 500)

The same checks apply as on the BBS: an alias that is someone's name is refused, and so is a setting's wrong value. A wrong password (KEYS ADD, PASSWD) counts as a failed login. CTCP VERSION, PING and TIME are answered, and notices sent to the bot are ignored. A user whose BBS name is the bot's nick can't be reached by nick over IRC.

service = Account in [irc] gives the bot another nick, and its own command becomes /ACCOUNT.

Ergo

The IRC protocol's parts come from ergo:

  • messages are read and written by ergo's irc-go library (ircmsg, ircreader, and ircfmt for stripping formatting);
  • the numerics and the ISUPPORT list builder are taken from ergo's source, under its MIT license (internal/ircd/LICENSE.ergo);
  • BBSServ's framework (its command table, parameters, HELP, CTCP) is adapted from ergo's services (irc/services.go), on which its NickServ and ChanServ run.

Its tests also use irc-go's client (ircevent).

See also: Chat and paging, IRC server linking, MRC, Security