PHP-IRCd

A modern, secure, and extensible IRC server in PHP!

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📑 Table of Contents

• PHP-IRCd
  • 📑 Table of Contents
  • 🚀 Features
    • Core IRC
    • IRCv3
    • Extended
    • Security
  • 📋 Prerequisites
  • 🛠️ Installation
  • ⚙️ Configuration
  • ▶️ Starting the Server
  • 🌐 Web Interface
  • 🧪 Testing
  • 📖 Documentation
  • 🔧 Advanced Configuration
  • 🚨 Security Notes
  • 🐛 Troubleshooting
  • 🤝 Contributing
  • 📄 License
  • 🙏 Acknowledgements

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🚀 Features

Core IRC

• Full IRC protocol support (RFC 1459, RFC 2812)
• User registration & management
• Channel management with permissions
• Operator commands & rights
• Ban/invite system
• Topic management
• Private messages
• CTCP support

IRCv3

• server-time, echo-message, extended-join, chathistory, batch, message-tags
• account-notify, away-notify, cap-notify, chghost, multi-prefix, userhost-in-names
• invite-notify, account-tag, SASL (PLAIN, EXTERNAL, SCRAM-SHA-1, SCRAM-SHA-256)

Extended

• 🌐 Web Interface (REST API + WebSocket)
• 🔒 SSL/TLS support
• 🛡️ IP filtering (whitelist/blacklist)
• 🕵️ Hostname cloaking
• 💾 Persistent channels
• 👁️ WATCH & SILENCE systems
• 🕰️ WHOWAS history
• 🌐 Server-to-server connections (optional)
• 📝 Logging (file & console)
• 🧪 Configuration validation

Security

• Input validation & sanitization
• Granular permission system
• Centralized error handling
• Rate limiting
• Reserved nicknames

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📋 Prerequisites

• PHP 8.0+
• Composer
• OpenSSL extension (for SSL/TLS)
• Socket extension (standard in PHP)

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🛠️ Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
$ git clone https://github.com/your-repo/php-ircd.git
$ cd php-ircd

# 2. Install dependencies
$ composer install

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⚙️ Configuration

Edit config.php to fit your needs. Example:

$config = [
    'name' => 'localhost',
    'port' => 6667,
    'bind_ip' => '0.0.0.0',
    'max_users' => 100,
    'ssl_enabled' => false,
    'cap_enabled' => true,
    // ... other settings
];

See config.php for all available options and documentation inline.

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▶️ Starting the Server

• Windows:

  server.bat

• Linux/macOS:

  php index.php

• As Daemon (Linux):

  nohup php index.php > ircd.log 2>&1 &

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🌐 Web Interface

• REST API: See src/Web/api_router.php

• WebSocket server:

  php src/Web/ws_server.php

  (Requires Ratchet and JWT via Composer)

Features:

• Live chat
• User list
• Channel management
• Server status

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🧪 Testing

• Run all tests:

  ./vendor/bin/phpunit

• Run specific test:

  ./vendor/bin/phpunit tests/Unit/ServerTest.php

• With code coverage:

  ./vendor/bin/phpunit --coverage-html coverage/html

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📖 Documentation

• API: See docs/API.md
• Configuration: See config.php for all options and defaults.

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🔧 Advanced Configuration

• SSL/TLS:

  $config['ssl_enabled'] = true;
  $config['ssl_cert'] = '/path/to/certificate.pem';
  $config['ssl_key'] = '/path/to/private.key';

• IP Filtering:

  $config['ip_filtering_enabled'] = true;
  $config['ip_filter_mode'] = 'blacklist'; // or 'whitelist'
  $config['ip_blacklist'] = ['192.168.1.100', '10.0.0.0/8'];

• Server-to-server:

  $config['enable_server_links'] = true;
  $config['server_password'] = 'secret_password';
  $config['auto_connect_servers'] = [
      'server2' => [
          'host' => 'server2.example.com',
          'port' => 6667,
          'password' => 'link_password',
          'ssl' => false
      ]
  ];

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🚨 Security Notes

• Enable SSL/TLS for production
• Use strong operator passwords
• Configure IP filtering and firewall
• Set appropriate log level
• Regularly update dependencies

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🐛 Troubleshooting

• Check logs: ircd.log

• SSL errors: Verify certificate and permissions

• Connection issues: Check PHP extensions and firewall

• Debug mode:

  $config['debug_mode'] = true;
  $config['log_level'] = 0; // 0=Debug, 1=Info, 2=Warn, 3=Error

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🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

• Follow PSR-12 code style
• Add tests for new features
• Update documentation
• Use centralized error handling (ErrorHandler)
• Validate all input
• Follow IRC RFCs

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📄 License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

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🙏 Acknowledgements

• Daniel Danopia - Original author (2008)
• Zhaofeng Li - Contributions
• Easton Elliott - Refactoring
• Avram Lyon - Improvements
• henrikhjelm - PHP 7.4 support
• Jonas Pfalzgraf (JosunLP) - PHP 8 support

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PHP-IRCd - A modern, secure, and extensible IRC server in PHP! 🚀