Libera.Chat IRC¶

Libera.Chat is an IRC network used to discuss peer-directed projects. Libera.Chat is a popular choice for Open Source project collaboration and having your project use this network makes it easy to cross collaborate with other communities.

The Linux Foundation operates support channels to provide community help.

Important

Due to prolonged SPAM attacks, all Linux Foundation project channels now require registered accounts to join. Register your account with the instructions below.

Register your username¶

To register you must set your nick, register it and authenticate.

Set your IRC nick:

/nick <username>

/msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <youremail@example.com>

To Authenticate:

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY <username> <password>

Note

If you are already registered and encounter “-!- Nick YourNick is already in use” you will need to ghost your nick:

/msg NickServ ghost <username> <password>

This command kicks whoever is using your nick allowing you to take it back.

Your IRC client will have a way of automating your login identification please refer to the docs of your IRC client for instructions.

For further details on the Libera.Chat registration process, please see https://libera.chat/guides/registration

Channel management¶

Use the ChanServ service to manage IRC Channels. Use the command /msg chanserv help to get detailed documentation of ChanServ commands and more specific help by adding specific sections /msg chanserv help [section] ... to the end of the command.

The first person who joins a channel creates the channel and becomes OPs as marked by the @ symbol next to their name. This person can choose to register the channel, in which case they become the Founder of the channel. The channel Founder will have full permissions to manage the channel.

We recommend registering any channels that the project plans to use for an extended period of time.

Register a channel¶

New projects can register their project specific channel by using the REGISTER command and passing the channel name they’d like to register.

/msg chanserv register <channel>

After registering the channel we recommend providing Founder permissions to one of the following LF Staff to ensure that the channel is managable by LF Staff should the original founder move on from the project. Provide the flags +F to one of:

aricg
bramwelt
tykeal
zxiiro

/msg chanserv flags <channel> <nick> +F

Once done notify LF Staff about the new channel registration.

Linux Foundation Channels¶

The Linux Foundation operates the following channels on IRC. We recommend project developers to at least join the #lf-releng channel for releng or CI related questions.

Channel	Details
#lf-docs	For cross community documentation collaboration.
#lf-releng	Linux Foundation Release Engineering channel for asking general support questions as well as LF projects such as jjb / lftools / packer / etc…
#lf-unregistered	Redirect channel for unauthenicated users.

IRC Best Practices¶

For users¶

Skip the formalities and ask your question¶

Avoid the unnecessary 3-way handshake when asking a question. Eg.

user1> Hi, I have a question. user2> Hello user1, what is your question? user1> My question is…

Asking the question upfront allows everyone watching the channel to respond to the question. People may be away from their terminals and not see the question when you ask, and hours later you may no longer be around to respond with the question causing an unnecessary feedback loop.

Be patient¶

People who might know the answer to your question may not be available but may see it later on. If you are not in the channel when someone who can answer is around then they will not be able to answer.

Try the mailing list¶

If you cannot stick around in the channel for a response try leaving your question on the project’s mailing list. Most projects have one at lists.example.org where example.org is the domain of the project.

For channel moderators¶

DO NOT use ops unless necessary¶

Setting yourself as ops targets you to the top of the channel list, making you the obvious choice to direct questions to. Have everyone in the channel deopped and then use /msg chanserv commands to administrate the channel. This ensures anonymity when running commands in the channel.