25 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
25 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
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title = "The matrix.org IRC bridge now bridges all of Freenode!"
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path = "/blog/2015/06/22/the-matrix-org-irc-bridge-now-bridges-all-of-freenode"
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[taxonomies]
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author = ["Matthew Hodgson"]
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category = ["Tech"]
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We've been running an IRC gateway from Matrix to Freenode almost since day 1 - originally it was a <a href="/blog/project/perl-matrix-ircbridge/">simple perl bot</a> written by tm604 using Net::Async::Matrix; later it was rewritten by LeoNerd to be a bit more modular, and nowadays it's a full <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc">IRC/Matrix Application Service</a> written in Node.js by Kegan.
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Up until the end of last week the bridge was limited to synchronising a fixed number of channels between Freenode and Matrix (#matrix, #matrix-dev, #openwebrtc, #vuc and #hypothes.is, to be precise), as well as any PMs. But as of Friday, with huge thanks to the admins over at Freenode, we can now bridge *any* channel in Freenode through to Matrix.
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Doing this is trivial - you just `/join #freenode_#channelname:matrix.org` from a typical Matrix client - e.g. `/join #freenode_#Node.js:matrix.org` will give you access to all of #Node.js via Matrix, effectively using Matrix as a great big distributed IRC bouncer in the sky ;)
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There are a few limitations in the current setup:
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* We only incrementally synchronise the membership lists when folks speak in either IRC or Matrix. This is to avoid flooding either IRC or Matrix with lurkers when the bridge initially joins a channel. We have some plans to improve this in future - see <a href="/jira/browse/BOTS-53">BOTS-53</a> for some of the sordid details.
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* We don't synchronise joins/parts currently to avoid flooding Matrix with lots of IRC join/part spam. Again, this will improve in future.
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* You can't join +k channels.
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* Kicks/bans/invites and other ACLs currently don't propagate between IRC & Matrix. (I.e. a Matrix user can be kicked from IRC, but it'll continue to sit in Matrix unless also kicked for there). +i chanmode supported however.
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* Bridged public IRC rooms are not yet advertised in the public room list on matrix.org.
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* It should be possible to change the nickname of your IRC user by messaging <code>!nick irc.freenode.net MrFlibble</code> to @appservice-irc:matrix.org. (This isn't actually turned on right now, but should be fixed shortly. See <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/blob/master/HOWTO.md#changing-nicks">https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/blob/master/HOWTO.md#changing-nicks</a> for details.
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We'll keep chipping away at making the IRC<->Matrix mapping perfect, but in its current state it's still really usable. It's obviously beta still, but please give it a go and let us know in #matrix:matrix.org how you get on with it!
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