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<!--
  Title: KISS for IRC (kirc)
  Description: A tiny IRC client written in POSIX C99.
  Author: mcpcpc
-->

<h3 align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcpcpc/kirc/master/.github/kirc.png" alt="logo" height="170px"></h3>
<p align="center">KISS for IRC, a tiny IRC client written in POSIX C99.</p>
<p align="center">
<a href="./LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg"></a>
<a href="https://github.com/mcpcpc/kirc/releases"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/mcpcpc/kirc.svg"></a>
<a href="https://repology.org/metapackage/kirc"><img src="https://repology.org/badge/tiny-repos/kirc.svg" alt="Packaging status"></a>
<a href="https://www.codacy.com/manual/mcpcpc/kirc/dashboard?utm_source=github.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=mcpcpc/kirc&amp;utm_campaign=Badge_Grade"><img src="https://app.codacy.com/project/badge/Grade/5616c0ed4b2f4209826038dbc270dbf5" alt="Codacy status"></a>
</p>

## Features

*   Excellent cross-platform compatibility (due to [POSIX](https://opensource.com/article/19/7/what-posix-richard-stallman-explains) standard compliance).
*   No dependencies other than a [C99 compiler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C99).
*   Native [SASL PLAIN and EXTERNAL](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4422) authentication support.
*   [TLS/SSL](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security) protocol capable (via external TLS utilities).
*   Chat history logging.
*   Multi-channel joining at server connection.
*   Simple shortcut commands and full support for all IRC commands in the [RFC 2812](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2812) standard:

```shell
<message>                 Send a PRIVMSG to the current channel.
@<channel|nick> <message> Send a message to a specified channel or nick 
/<command>                Send command to IRC server (see RFC 2812 for full list).
/#<channel>               Assign new default message channel.
/?                        Print current message channel.
```

*   Color scheme definition via [ANSI 8-bit colors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code). Therefore, one could theoretically achieve uniform color definition across all shell applications and tools.

## Screenshots

![Screenshot 1](/.github/example.png)

![Screenshot 1](/.github/example2.png)

## Installation

Building and installing on **KISS Linux** using the Community repository:

```shell
kiss b kirc
kiss i kirc
```

Building and installing on **Arch** and **Arch-based** distros using the AUR:

```shell
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/kirc-git.git
cd kirc
makepkg -si
```

Building and installing from source (works on **Raspbian**, **Debian**, **Ubuntu** and many other Unix distributions):

```shell
git clone https://github.com/mcpcpc/kirc.git
cd kirc
make
make install
```

## Usage

```shell
usage: kirc [-s hostname] [-p port] [-c channel] [-n nick] [-r real name] [-u username] [-k password] [-x init command] [-w columns] [-W columns] [-o path] [-e|v|V]
-s     server address (default: 'irc.freenode.org')
-p     server port (default: '6667')
-c     channel name(s), delimited by a "," or "|" character (default: 'kirc')
-n     nickname (required)
-u     server username (optional)
-k     server password (optional)
-a     PLAIN SASL authentication token (optional, specified with nick)
-e     EXTERNAL SASL authentication (optional)
-r     real name (optional)
-v     version information
-V     verbose output (e.g. raw stream)
-o     output path to log irc stream
-x     send command to irc server after inital connection
-w     maximum width of the printed left column (default: '20')
-W     maximum width of the entire printed stream (default '80')
```

## Transport Layer Security (TLS) Support

There is no native TLS/SSL support. Instead, users can achieve this functionality by using third-party utilities (e.g. stunnel, socat, ghosttunnel, etc).

*   [socat](https://linux.die.net/man/1/socat) example (remember to replace items enclosed with `<>`):

    ```shell
    socat tcp-listen:6667,reuseaddr,fork,bind=127.0.0.1 ssl:<irc-server>:6697
    kirc -s 127.0.0.1 -c 'channel' -n 'name' -r 'realname'
    ```

## SASL PLAIN Authentication

In order to connect using `SASL PLAIN` mechanism authentication, the user must provide the required token during the initial connection. If the authentication token is base64 encoded and, therefore, can be generated a number of ways. For example, using Python, one could use the following:

```shell
python -c 'import base64; print(base64.encodebytes(b"nick\x00nick\x00password"))'
```

For example, lets assume an authentication identity of `jilles` and password `sesame`:

```shell
$ python -c 'import base64; print(base64.encodebytes(b"jilles\x00jilles\x00sesame"))'
b 'amlsbGVzAGppbGxlcwBzZXNhbWU=\n'
$ kirc -n jilles -a amlsbGVzAGppbGxlcwBzZXNhbWU=
```

## SASL EXTERNAL Authentication

Similar to `SASL PLAIN`, the `SASL EXTERNAL` mechanism allows us to authenticate using credentials by external means. An example where this might be required is when trying to connect to an IRC host through [Tor](https://www.torproject.org/). To do so, we can using third-party utilities (e.g. stunnel, socat, ghosttunnel, etc).

*   [socat](https://linux.die.net/man/1/socat) example (remember to replace items enclosed with `<>`):

    ```shell
    socat TCP4-LISTEN:1110,fork,bind=0,reuseaddr SOCKS4A:127.0.0.1:<onion_address.onion>:<onion_port>,socksport=9050
    socat TCP4-LISTEN:1111,fork,bind=0,reuseaddr 'OPENSSL:127.0.0.1:1110,verify=0,cert=<path_to_pem>'
    kirc -e -s 127.0.0.1 -p 1111 -n <nick> -x 'wait 5000'
    ```

## Contact

For any further questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to me on `#kirc`
or `#kisslinux` channels of the _irc.freenode.org_ server.