MOTD and Rules

When you connect to your IRC server you will see a MOTD (Message Of The Day). Similarly there are MOTD's for IRC Operators and Bots and there is a related command /RULES.

Important notes
By default the MOTD, RULES, OPERMOTD and BOTMOTD files don't exist, so you need to create them. These files are ordinary plaintext files. You can write anything you like in there. Don't make the lines too long, as most IRC clients will cut off text if you type more than 78 characters per line.

IMPORTANT: After making any changes to your MOTD and RULES files you must rehash the IRCd for the changes to become visible!

MOTD
The MOTD for normal users is configured by creating/editing the file ircd.motd in your conf/ directory.

Short MOTD
Normally the MOTD you see on connect and the one you see with the /MOTD command are the same. However some users may prefer to have a "short MOTD" on connect and then another (longer) MOTD to be shown if you issue the /MOTD command. If you want this, then you need to create an ircd.smotd file. When both an ircd.smotd and ircd.motd exist then the former will be displayed on-connect and the latter when you issue the /MOTD command.

OPERMOTD
The OPERMOTD is shown when a user becomes IRC Operator via the /OPER command. This file is called oper.motd in the conf/ directory.

BOTMOTD
The BOTMOTD is shown when a user becomes a bot. A user becomes a bot when it sets usermode +B (/mode yournick +B). This file is called bot.motd in your conf/ directory.

SVSMOTD
Services can remotely add and remove lines to the SVSMOTD file ( by default). The contents of the SVSMOTD are shown at the end of the MOTD (unless a shortmotd is used).

This way you can have a per-server MOTD and still have a centrally managed bottom part of the MOTD handled through SVSMOTD.

RULES
When you execute the /RULES command the rules file will be shown to the user. This can be useful if you want to keep your MOTD short and tell the user he/she can read the full set of rules by issuing the /RULES command. The file you need to create is called ircd.rules in the conf/ directory.