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ERC IRCRelay Set-up Guide

ERC is a powerful, modular, and extensible Emacs IRC client.

Get the Client

First, you'll need to install ERC. If you are using Emacs 24 it is already included.

Configuration

ERC configuration is, of course, done in emacs lisp. Depending on where your configuration is stored this can vary greatly. You can use the following settings as a starting point to get IRCRelay working with ERC.

This configuration adds a few common niceties and handles connecting to multiple networks.

Save this as erc-settings.el somewhere in your emacs load-path.

(require 'erc)

(setq erc-user-full-name "Your Name"
      erc-part-reason-various-alist '(("^$" "Leaving"))
      erc-quit-reason-various-alist '(("^$" "Leaving"))
      erc-quit-reason 'erc-part-reason-various
      erc-part-reason 'erc-quit-reason-various)

(add-hook 'erc-mode-hook (lambda () (auto-fill-mode 0)))
(add-hook 'erc-insert-post-hook 'erc-save-buffer-in-logs)

;; Track channel activity in mode-line
(require 'erc-track)
(erc-track-mode t)
(setq erc-track-exclude-types '("JOIN" "NICK" "PART" "QUIT" "MODE"
                                "324" "329" "332" "333" "353" "477"))
(setq erc-hide-list '("JOIN" "PART" "QUIT" "NICK")) ;; stuff to hide!

;;;; Note: erc-join is not needed with ircrelay
;; (require 'erc-join)
;; (erc-autojoin-mode t)
;; (setq erc-autojoin-channels-alist
;;       '((".*\\.freenode." "#chef" "#chef-hacking")
;;         (".*\\ircrelay.com")
;;         )
;;       )

;; Highlight some keywords
(require 'erc-match)
(setq erc-keywords '("keywords" "to" "highlight" "username"))

;; enable an input history
(require 'erc-ring)
(erc-ring-mode t)

;; wrap long lines
(require 'erc-fill)
(erc-fill-mode t)

;; detect netsplits
(require 'erc-netsplit)
(erc-netsplit-mode t)

;; spellcheck, requires local aspell
(erc-spelling-mode t)

;; Truncate buffers so they don't hog core
(setq erc-max-buffer-size 40000) ;; chars to keep in buffer
(defvar erc-insert-post-hook)
(add-hook 'erc-insert-post-hook 'erc-truncate-buffer)
(setq erc-truncate-buffer-on-save t)

;; kill buffers when leaving
(setq erc-kill-buffer-on-part t)

;; keep input at bottom
(erc-scrolltobottom-mode t)

;; connect function
(defun irc-connect ()
  "Connect to IRC"
  (interactive)
  (when (y-or-n-p "Connect to IRC? ")
    (ircrelay-connect "nickname1" "Your Name" "user_network1" "supersecretircrelaypass")
    (ircrelay-connect "nickname2" "Your Name" "user_network2" "supersecretircrelaypass")
))

;; wrapper around erc-ssl, you could probably also 
;; call this directly instead of using irc-connect
(defun ircrelay-connect (nickname fullname userid password)
  (let ((erc-email-userid userid))
    (erc-ssl :server "irc.ircrelay.com" :port 6697 :password password
             :nick nickname :full-name fullname)))

Securely storing your password

Since it's generally not a good idea to store your password in plain text you may want to add the following bits to store it securely outside of your erc settings.

Emacs can easily parse gpg encrypted netrc/authinfo files so this is a simple way to securely store your password. Create ~/.authinfo.gpg with contents like this:

machine irc.ircrelay.com login username password supersecretpassword port 6697

Add the appropriate require:

(require 'netrc)

Next define a function that can parse this file and return the password

(defun get-authinfo (host port)
  (let* ((netrc (netrc-parse (expand-file-name "~/.authinfo.gpg")))
         (hostentry (netrc-machine netrc host port port)))
    (when hostentry (netrc-get hostentry "password"))))

Then use this instead of directly typing your password in the irc-connect function from the previous configuration example.

;; connect function
(defun irc-connect ()
  "Connect to IRC"
  (interactive)
  (when (y-or-n-p "Connect to IRC? ")
    (ircrelay-connect "nickname1" "Your Name" "user_network1" (get-authinfo "irc.ircrelay.com" "6697"))
    (ircrelay-connect "nickname2" "Your Name" "user_network2" (get-authinfo "irc.ircrelay.com" "6697"))
))

You will be prompted for your gpg password to decrypt the ~/.authinfo.gpg when needed. If you have two connections, as in the example, you will be prompted twice. Your ircrelay password is now a little more secure.

Connect

To start your connection to IRCRelay just use M-x irc-connect and answer y when prompted.

Support

If you're having trouble, please visit the support page.