Infrastructure/IRC

As a large amount of communication between contributors takes place over IRC, a number of services are available to the community to facilitate interaction. KDE currently uses the Freenode network to host official channels and a list of commonly frequented channels is published on Userbase.

Official KDE IRC Channels

Official channels start with #kde-, and due to the age of KDE however we also have some legacy channels that do not meet the freenode guidelines. In the future non #kde-* channels may be removed/redirected, all new channels need to start with #kde-

KDE IRC channels are managed by the KDE freenode Group Contacts, currently Kenny Duffus (seaLne) and Eike Hein (Sho_). To minimise any problems in the future, with people leaving KDE, official channels are owned by a special KDE_GC account. If you manage an existing channel that KDE_GC doesn’t have +F permissions on please file a ticket and we can help you give it access.

All KDE projects are entitled to a #kde-* IRC channel. If you represent a project and would like a new channel please file a ticket.

Normally each channel manages itself with established members of the project having “Ops” (Operator Permissions), extra permissions for managing the channel. However sometimes there are problems when no Op in the channel is around. In this case you can try asking for help in #kde-ops, where members of the https://ev.kde.org/workinggroups/cwg.php and people with Ops in all the official channels hang about and are happy to help. This is also a good place if you are a new KDE channel Op and need some help with the use of the freenode network.

In case of urgent need and no KDE channel Ops around, e.g. when some spamming bot entered the channel, there are also freenode staffers who are happy to help. The command /stats p should list staff that is on call, if none are listed feel free to poke around in #freenode and to message any of them directly.

Commit notifications

To allow contributors to follow the development of KDE projects in real time, a bot known as pursuivant will announce all commits which are published in either Git or Subversion repositories (with the exception of scratch and clone repositories) on KDE infrastructure. This is done for all commits in and #kde-commits but can also be done for a certain subset of commits in other channels.

This subset is created by defining rules in the bot configuration, which use regular expressions to determine if a match exists. Matches can cover the name of the repository, the path changed in the repository and the branch altered. It is also possible for the bot to ignore silent commits, depending on the particular rule.

The repository where the source code for the bot and the configuration is stored is located at sysadmin/irc-notifications.git on git.kde.org. The configuration can be found at gateway/notifications.cfg and can be altered by all holders of a KDE developer account.

RSS feed announcement

To allow monitoring of websites within the KDE umbrella, it is also possible to get notifications of changes to RSS feeds announced in particular IRC channels. This service is primarily offered to monitor posts made on the KDE Community Forums at this time.

Channel operators should file a ticket to request setup of these notifications.

Cloak

A cloak provides some privacy by hiding the host you are connecting to IRC from and also shows that you are a member of the KDE community. Normal cloaks are of the form kde/developer/identity_username, but developer can be replaced with something more suitable. Members of KDE e.V. may ask for a kde/identity_username cloak.

As a registered project, KDE is able to offer cloaks to KDE contributors. Those people who would like to request a cloak should file a ticket. It is a requirement that your nick be registered in order for you to receive a cloak.

BNC

Due to the global spread of the KDE community it can be desirable to keep a constant presence on IRC. To provide for this, a bouncer (BNC account) is operated to allow for community members to keep a stable, always on presence.

If you wish to request an account on the BNC, please file a ticket, making sure to include your current Freenode nick. It is required that the nick is registered. More details about the configuration of your bouncer can be found at the KDE Community Wiki

Matrix Bridge

Matrix can be used as IRC bouncer thanks to the native IRC bridge.

Telegram Bridge

Many members of the community prefer using Telegram over IRC. KDE does not register or maintain Telegram groups as a matter of policy, but does provide a service to bridge Telegram groups to IRC channels, through a bot called IrcsomeBot.

To bridge your Telegram group to an IRC channel, please file a ticket with the name of the Telegram group and the name of the IRC channel. Once we have added the pair to our bot, a nick called IrcsomeBot will join your IRC channel. Invite the @IrcsomeBot bot to your Telegram group, and say something in the group to complete the setup.

It is strongly recommended to bridge Telegram groups to their counterpart IRC channels, because IRC is the only officially supported and endorsed method of communication by the system administrators. For non offtopic channels, actively refusing to use IRC in favour of keeping the entire conversation on Telegram may be found in violation of the KDE Manifesto, and will be considered grounds for ejection from the KDE Community.