Slack is a popular chat platform for developers and teams. It has a built-in IRC gateway that allows you to connect to other Slack teams and chat with them using your own IRC client. However, sometimes you may need to authenticate yourself to the Slack IRC gateway in order to join or join conversations. There are a few ways to do this. One way is to use the irssi command line tool. Another way is to use the Slack team’s authentication feature. Both of these methods require you to set up some environment variables before you can start using them. First, set up your environment variables: SLACK_TOKEN: Your Slack token (you can find it in your settings) IRSSI_USERNAME: Your username (you can find it in your settings) IRSSI_PASSWORD: Your password (you can find it in your settings) Next, set up the irssi command line tool: $ irssi -a “slack://ircgateway/login” -u “irssiuser” -p “irssipassword”
Also when working on a server or command line orientated environment, you might not have access to a web browser to login to Slack.
So running an IRC client with access to the gateway provided, is the supported solution and remedy for this. The rest of this post shows one relatively straight forward way of using irssi IRC chat client to connect and authenticate with the gateway.
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1 – Enable IRC on Slack Team
In the Slack team’s web browser session navigate to:
1 – Enable IRC on Slack Team2 – Install irssiArch Linux3 – Run irssi4 – Slack Team Gateway Credentials5 – Add Slack Network Details6 – Add Slack Server Details7 – Save Default Slack Channels8 – Save Configuration9 – Run irssi
Team settings > Permissions > Gateways > Expand
Tick “Enable IRC gateway (SSL only)” and then click Save Settings.
XMPP as pictured can also be enabled here for services such as Jabber
2 – Install irssi
Arch Linux
The simplest most accessible way is by using the system’s package manager:
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$ sudo pacman -S irssi
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Debian / Ubuntu
The simplest most accessible way is by using the system’s package manager:
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$ sudo apt-get install irssi
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3 – Run irssi
Here are two methods, either on its own:
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$ irssi
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Or in a screen session:
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$ screen -S irssi-irc-client irssi
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4 – Slack Team Gateway Credentials
Navigate to the new page that contains your team’s Slack gateway credentials.
Account & Profile > Settings tab > Gateways > Gateway configuration Here are the details you need for the next few steps in order to setup IRC authentication to the Slack team.
Refer back to them as needed for these next steps.
5 – Add Slack Network Details
Where
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/network add -nick
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6 – Add Slack Server Details
Now add the server details to the network defined in the previous step, the command to do this comes next. Remember to replace loy-slack with the name you gave the network, and substitute the details from your Slack team’s IRC credentials into the command.
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/server add -auto -ssl -network loy-slack
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7 – Save Default Slack Channels
Entering this command will ensure irssi always joins the channel and network name whenever you connect to the server:
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/channel add -auto #general loy-slack
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8 – Save Configuration
Save all changes to the irssi configuration file in your user’s Linux home directory.
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/save
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Then quit the program:
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/quit
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9 – Run irssi
Once again run the program as down in the earlier step:
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$ irssi
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Or in a screen session:
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$ screen -S irssi-irc-client irssi
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The below output or similar appears upon launch of irssi:
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3:43 -!- Irssi: Looking up
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The persistent Slack connection is now setup and will be active each time you run irssi.
