How can I use ERC with an IRC offered over SSL?

Question

I'm trying to connect to Gitter's IRC servers to join the chat room vermiculus/stack-mode, but according to Gitter, they offer this service over SSL:

      _                 _ _   _            _           
     (_)_ __ ___   __ _(_) |_| |_ ___ _ __(_)_ __ ___  
     | | '__/ __| / _` | | __| __/ _ \ '__| | '_ ` _ \ 
     | | | | (__ | (_| | | |_| ||  __/ |_ | | | | | | |
     |_|_|  \___(_)__, |_|\__|\__\___|_(_)|_|_| |_| |_|
                  |___/                                

"Life is really simple, and so is to use Gitter IRC" - Confucius
what is Gitter?

man irc.gitter.im (this service is still very much beta)
1. Connect to irc.gitter.im with your IRC client using SSL
2. /PASS <my token has been redacted for obvious reasons>
3. /NICK vermiculus
4. Profit

100% compatible with Lynx. Seriously.

However, I cannot find any mention of SSL in ERC's Info manual. How can I specify that the connection should be secure? I believe this is the reason I receive the error:

[Sun Nov 23 2014]


Connection failed!  Re-establishing connection...               [23:21]



[Sun Nov 23 2014]
ERC> /join vermiculus/stack-mode                                [23:22]
ERC> /join vermiculus/stack-mode


Connection failed!  Re-establishing connection...



[Sun Nov 23 2014]


Connection failed!  Re-establishing connection...               [23:23]



[Sun Nov 23 2014]
ERC> /PASS <again, redacted>                                    [23:23]
ERC> /NICK vermiculus


Connection failed!  Re-establishing connection...               [23:24]



[Sun Nov 23 2014]


Connection failed!  Re-establishing connection...               [23:24]


ERC>

I tagged this question as [tag:gnutls] because it will likely be used in the solution. — Sean Allred, Nov 24 '14 at 04:43

Jonathan Leech-Pepin · Answer 1 · 2014-11-24T13:15:58.033

8

Testing it this morning:

(require 'erc)
(erc-tls :server "irc.gitter.im" :port 6667) ;; M-x erc-tls -> irc.gitter.im -> accept default PORT.

Then when prompted:

NICK: jleechpe
PASS: <redacted>

/join #vermiculus/stack-mode

edited Nov 24 '14 at 13:15

answered Nov 24 '14 at 12:57

Jonathan Leech-Pepin

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Are we on different erc versions? My `erc` command only accepts keyword arguments. – Malabarba Nov 24 '14 at 13:05
Oops. That would be my mistake because of just using prompts. Fixing – Jonathan Leech-Pepin Nov 24 '14 at 13:15

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 24 '14 at 05:35

7

However, I cannot find any mention of SSL in ERC's Info manual.

I've found a mention of SSL here

How can I specify that the connection should be secure?

What about M-x erc-tls ?

answered Nov 24 '14 at 05:35

Nsukami _

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I guess I just wasn't searching for the right thing :) – Sean Allred Nov 25 '14 at 04:48

How can I use ERC with an IRC offered over SSL?

2 Answers2