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ngircd

ngIRCd is a free, portable, and lightweight Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server for small or private networks, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

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ngIRCd is a free, portable, and lightweight Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server for small or private networks, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is easy to configure, handles dynamic IP addresses, and supports IPv6, SSL-protected connections, and PAM for authentication. It is written from scratch and not based on the original IRCd.

Platform availability

Available on 2 of 9 platforms

  • Unraid
  • TrueNAS (not listed)
  • Umbrel (not listed)
  • ZimaOS
  • Proxmox (not listed)
  • Helm (not listed)
  • Mac (not listed)
  • Windows (not listed)
  • Linux (not listed)

Health score?A 0-100 score computed nightly from four factors: maintained (40%: recent commits and steady activity), popular (25%: GitHub stars, log scale), easy to install (20%: platforms, install notes, setup guides, Docker image) and light to run (15%: minimum RAM, ARM support). When the source code has been checked, a fifth factor, security check (20%: automated scan for committed secrets, unsafe desktop-app settings, known-vulnerable dependencies and project hygiene; any serious finding caps it at 20), is added. Factors without data are left out and the rest are rescaled.

51/100 Fair

Maintained
71last commit 94 days ago
Popular
2414 GitHub stars
Easy to install
452 install platforms, install notes, Docker image
Light to run
No data

Based on 3 of 4 factors.

Availability: platform listings confirmed today, links checked 5 days ago

GitHub stars
14
Open issues
0
Last commit
2026-07-11
Latest release
27-r1-ls168
License
GPL-3.0
Activity
stale

Checked 4 days ago - source: GitHub (linuxserver/docker-ngircd)

Resources & Compatibility

ARM (e.g. Raspberry Pi) is supported.

Checked 15 days ago - source: Docker Hub image tags and published docs

First-install notes

  • Check SSL files and ports first If you enable SSL, point CertFile and KeyFile to your full certificate and private key, and set Ports to secure ports like 6697 or 6698; if these are wrong, encrypted clients will not be able to connect. source
  • Keep container config safe and tested Mount your host config folder to /opt/ngircd/etc/ngircd.conf.d and run the podman --configtest command after changes; this keeps your settings from being lost and catches errors before the server starts. source

Fetched 7 days ago - each note links to its source

Alternatives

No alternatives collected yet.

Common questions

Which Docker image should I pull if I am not sure about the CPU architecture?

Pull lscr.io/linuxserver/ngircd:latest and Docker's manifest should select the correct image for your architecture. You can also pull specific architecture images via tags.

Can ngIRCd protect client and server connections with TLS?

Yes. It supports SSL/TLS-protected client-server links and server-server links.

Can ngIRCd use PAM for user authentication?

Yes, ngIRCd can use Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) for user authentication.

Is ngIRCd suitable for a host with a dynamic IP address?

Yes, it is described as having no problems with servers that have dynamic IP addresses.

Where can I find the full list of ngIRCd command-line and configuration options?

It ships with ngircd(8) and ngircd.conf(5) manual pages. Those pages list the possible command-line parameters and configuration options.

Answers sourced from github.com, github.com, ngircd.barton.de

Community

Collected 9 days ago - public community threads