User:KindOne/FAQ

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If your question isn't answered here, feel free join freenode or EFnet to talk about this or any other ZNC related issues. We are happy to help wherever we can.

Starting ZNC

Starting

Open a shell and type:

znc

You can see a list of options with:

znc --help

How can I restart ZNC automatically?

Add a cron entry to execute ZNC regularly. If there is already one copy of ZNC running on a particular config file, new copies won't be spawned. Example cron entry:

*/10 * * * *   /home/you/znc/bin/znc >/dev/null 2>&1

This will check if ZNC is running every 10 minutes. If you load a module like awaystore for example, that needs user input to run, you can add the input to the LoadModule line in your config file Example:

LoadModule = awaystore yourpassword

If you're using Vixie's cron, you can start it on start-up like this.

 @reboot your_username /home/you/znc/bin/znc >/dev/null 2>&1

Using ZNC

Connecting to ZNC

See Category:Clients for your IRC clients directions. If you are having any issues connecting, please check the page.

I keep getting "Incorrect Password" when I connect

There are a few ways to supply password:

See Category:Clients on how to supply the password to ZNC automatically.

You can also connect and manually send the password in your IRC client with the following command:

/quote pass username:password

or

/quote pass username/network:password

Also, make sure you did not accidentally load one of the Cyrusauth or imapauth modules.

How do I tell ZNC which network/server a channel belongs to?

You don't. That's not how ZNC works (because the IRC protocol isn't capable of handling multiple servers in one connection and therefore no IRC clients can support it). You need to add one ZNC user per network (Note: since 0.207 it has been changed, user can have several networks now, see Networks). Please also read the next question.

How to use multiple networks like with psybnc?

ZNC works differently. One user represents one network. (Note: since 0.207 it has been changed, user can have several networks now, see Networks) So you need to use a separate ZNC username for each network. You can have multiple ZNC users in one and the same config file, running in one and the same ZNC process.

See this feature request on sf.net for technical details.

I added several different servers, but ZNC connects only to one of them!

You need to have separate user per IRC network (see previous question). (Note: since 0.207 it has been changed, user can have several networks now, see Networks) Additional servers for the same user are for fallback. If one server doesn't work, ZNC tries to connect to another server. So you can add several servers of one network to server list of one user.

I have two ips on my server and I would like to add both to ZNC

By default user can choose any bindhost:

/znc setbindhost 1.2.3.5
/znc jump

If you want to limit users to choose only from the list, or simply to show the list at webadmin at all, you can do this:

/znc addbindhost 1.2.3.4
/znc addbindhost 1.2.3.5

How do I add a new user?

If you are admin, there are at least three ways to add a new user.

The easiest way is to load and use the webadmin module.

If you want to do it from IRC, load the controlpanel module and:

/msg *controlpanel adduser username password

It's not suggested if you are new to ZNC, but it's also possible to add a new user via the config file. To do that, edit znc.conf and add a new <User> section. After that, rehash ZNC by issuing /msg *status rehash from IRC or kill -SIGHUP `pidof znc` from the shell.

How do I add a new network?

You can add a network with the webadmin module.

If you want to do it from IRC, then enter:

/msg *status addnetwork network_name_here

Note: If you are admin, you can increase the max number of networks you are allowed to have in webadmin

How do I load / unload modules?

Depending on how you want to load the module, you can enter:

/msg *status loadmod --type=global|user|network module_name_here

Example:

/msg *status loadmod --type=network log

Loading as global will apply for everything.

Loading as user will apply for the network(s) the user has.

Loading as network will only apply for the specific network it was loaded from.

You can look at the modules pages for more information.

Depending on how you loaded the module, you can unload it by entering:

/msg *status unloadmod --type=global|user|network module_name_here

Example:

/msg *status unloadmod --type=network log

How do I use the loaded modules?

/msg *modulename command

or

/znc *modulename command

" * " is the StatusPrefix, which you can change by

/msg *controlpanel set statusprefix $me new_prefix_here 

How do I access webadmin with my browser?

By default webadmin runs on the same PORT as your ZNC is accessible.

If your webinterface won't come up, please ensure that you are using the correct protocol for connecting. If ZNC listens using SSL, use the HTTPS protocol (https://) instead of just HTTP (http://).

If you are using Google Chrome and keep getting an Error 312 (net::ERR_UNSAFE_PORT) then try calling Chrome with the following parameter or use a port that is not used by default for IRC. --explicitly-allowed-ports=PORT

How do I to change the timestamps?

See Timestamps for more information.

I got banned from #channel and ZNC keeps trying to rejoin

Enter the following command and ZNC will stop:

/part #channel 

I keep getting kicked for flood when I reattach ZNC!

This happens if you use "many" channels, due to IRC clients flooding the server with commands upon reattach. There is no throttling/fix for this yet. A workaround is disable AutoClearChanBuffer and setting some lines of buffer for each channel. (You should experiment how many is enough.) Some clients like xchat (and forks) will `/who #channel` when you join the channels to get the idle status to color the nicklist.

I keep seeing the channel buffer from the last time I connected

If you have a large channel buffer, it may be annoying to see the channel buffer every time you reconnect. To have ZNC erase the channel buffer every time you connect, set:

AutoClearChanBuffer = true 

using the webadmin module or by controlpanel

/msg *controlpanel set AutoClearChanBuffer $me true

This will result in only the missed messages being played back to you upon reconnecting. Be careful if you use more than one client as znc will still see you as connected when one drops off and messages will not be buffered. Also, if your connection to znc dies unnaturally, znc might take a little bit to realize you're gone and thus not buffer a few of the messages that you haven't yet seen.

What are VHOSTS and why can't I make mine work?

ZNC VHOST option controls the IP address ZNC will attempt to make connections to the IRC servers from. For this to be successful the computer you're running ZNC on must have this IP address configured and usable for your user. For it to show up as a host name on IRC there must be matching forward and reverse DNS in place. You can check this with:

% host demo.znc.in
demo.znc.in has address 208.84.148.90
% host 208.84.148.90
90.148.84.208.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer demo.znc.in.

As long as the response looks similar then you should be able to enter the following command and connect to IRC:

/msg *status SetVHost 208.84.148.90

If you find you are unable to connect to IRC after attempting to set VHOST options then it is likely you have set an IP address or host name that is not available on your computer. The easiest way to resolve this and get connected to IRC is to enter the following command try connecting again:

/msg *status ClearVHost

Note: To get rid of several misunderstandings vhost was renamed to bindhost since version 0.096.

I get 'Could not find znc-config. Please (re)install' when using znc-buildmod

If you manually provided a --prefix option when building znc then you will need to ensure that this prefix is in PATH. For example, if you did

./configure --prefix=$HOME/local

you will need to ensure that

echo $PATH

includes $HOME/local/bin (expanded to your home dir, not literally $HOME). If it doesn't then a quick, one-time fix is to type

export PATH=$HOME/local/bin:$PATH

and retry. You can also put the above line into your ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc so it gets set when you login.

I keep getting /who replies when I have multiple clients

See the Route_replies module.

ZNC ExpandString

See ExpandString for more infomation.

My IRC-Client doesn't allow multiple connections to one server/host

Try to use different local aliases for the bnc-host.

How to reload ZNC config without restart?

The best way is NOT to change znc.conf and other files manually while ZNC is running. Use webadmin or controlpanel instead, or use

/msg *status help

If you really need to do something in znc.conf, stop ZNC, make your changes and start it again.

If you really need to rehash config from file without restart, there're 2 ways to do that, from IRC or shell: /msg *status rehash then pkill -SIGHUP znc

But don't complain if something is broken, because it will be broken for sure

How to store private messages even when user is attached, so other clients can see them?

Here's simple workaround.

First, you should know number of wanted clients. Let's say that you want 3 clients: 1 xchat and 2 irssi-s. Let's say that your username is johndoe.

Make following users: johndoe_ircd, johndoe_xchat, johndoe_irssi1, johndoe_irssi2. This naming scheme isn't strict - everything is up to you. Set StatusPrefix for "client users" to something else, for example ^, because otherwise you won't be able to speak to both *status-es.

Connect user johndoe_ircd to IRC server. Connect users johndoe_xchat, johndoe_irssi1 and johndoe_irssi2 to 127.0.0.1 to the same ZNC, to user johndoe_ircd.

Connect xchat to johndoe_xchat, and irssi to johndoe_irssiN.

           ___________________________________________________
          /                                                   \
         |                         ZNC                         |
         |                                 via 127.0.0.1       |
xchat ------> user "johndoe_xchat"------------\                |
         |                                     v               |
irssi1 -----> user "johndoe_irssi1" ---> user "johndoe_ircd" -----> IRC server
         |                                     ^               |
irssi2 -----> user "johndoe_irssi2" ----------/                |
         |                                                     |
          \___________________________________________________/

This way, every private message that johndoe_ircd gets, is sent to all "client users", and they remain in those buffers until that client reads them.

Networks

What is this new network support?

It means you can add multiple IRC networks such as EFnet and freenode onto a single user. Instead of creating multiple users for each network like you did in versions before 1.0.

How do I connect to my networks?

When you supply your username to ZNC in your client, you can include the network. Each network requires a seperate connection.

/server ip:port username/network:password

If you store your password in the IRC client, use the following example in the password field:

username/network:password

Is it the same as in psybnc?

No, ZNC doesn't use stupid tags for networks, which mix up different channels and nick together to one big network with prefixes. Instead, you should connect to ZNC multiple times, once for each network, see previous question on how to do that. Also you may switch between networks on the fly via the following command:

/msg *status JumpNetwork 

If ZNC ever supports connecting to all networks together, it will be done properly, without those prefixes, but via an IRC protocol extension instead. Also that extension should be standardized at IRCv3, to allow client developers to support it easier.

Troubleshooting

I forgot my ZNC password

If you forgot your ZNC password, you can generate a new one and copy/paste the new password over your old one in the znc.conf (Usually located at ~/.znc/configs/znc.conf) with the following command:

znc --makepass

Note: Its best to do this while ZNC is not running.

My SSL certificate has expired

If your ZNC SSL certificate has expired, you can delete the old one (Usually located at ~/.znc/znc.pem) and generate a new one with the following command:

znc --makepem

Note: You can do this while ZNC is running.

My question isn't answered here

Hop on freenode or EFnet and ask! Even if nobody's around, you shouldn't have to wait long for someone to get back.

Debugging

See Debugging.

Where do I report bugs?

• Verify the bug exists in the latest version
• Report it at Github