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The Debian Project hosts all its development IRC channels on irc.oftc.net and also has a thriving community on irc.libera.chat. The Debian Project no longer has control of #debian on the freenode IRC network. If you're still using freenode, please move to irc.oftc.net (or its alias irc.debian.org)
Introduction
IRC (in OFTC's #debian*) is used to get on-line Real Time Help with Debian releases. If you're running other than stock Debian stable, testing, or sid, you should instead go to the forum which supports your non-Debian system. Debian-derived or Debian-downstream are not Debian. You'd get more relevant support for your release from its community, not via Debian.
Read first: https://www.debian.org/support#irc
If you are asked to show some output of an command please use https://paste.debian.net and post the Link instead of pasting it into the Channel.
To connect, you need an IRC client, or use a Matrix interface such as Element.
More information can be found on GettingHelpOnIrc. The #debian channel has its own FAQ.
Debian IRC channels
The hostname irc.debian.org is an alias for irc.oftc.net. Most Debian IRC channels are on the OFTC IRC network:
#ddtp: Development of Debian Description Translation Project
#debian: Meant for Debian users support. Any questions related to using Debian are welcome. See how to get useful help on IRC.
#debian-3dprinting: Debian 3D-Printing Team - Mailing List - Wiki
#debian-a11y:https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-accessibility/ accessibility accessibility-maint accessibility-devel
#debian-android-tools: Debian Android Tools Team
#debian-boot: Meant for discussing the Debian Installer (and, occasionally, supporting users of it).
#debian-bpc: Discussion place for Debian BackupPC Team
#debian-br: Debian Brasil - support for users in portuguese [ajuda para usuários(as) em português]
#debian-br-eventos: Events in Brazil [discussions in portuguese]
#debian-bsb: Debian Brasília Community [discussions in portuguese]
#debian-bugs: Meant for discussing how to fix bugs. This channel is not for reporting bugs.
#debian-catalan: Debian en Català
#debian-cd: Discussion about development of the debian-cd package and the production and distribution of official CD and DVD images.
#debian-cinnamon: Discussion about cinnamon packages.
#debian-cl: Debian Chilean users. Also developers (spanish language).
#debian-cli: Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) runtimes, apps & libs for Debian Teams/DebianMonoGroup
#debian-co: Debian Colombia
#debian-contributors: Discussion about Debian Contributors website (https://contributors.debian.org)
#debian-ctte: Debian Technical Committee - https://www.debian.org/devel/tech-ctte
#debian-curiosa: All the funny stuff regarding Debian (mailing list)
#debian-cwb: Debian Curitiba Community [discussions in portuguese]
#debian-devel: Meant for discussions about the development of Debian. This channel is not a support channel. Asking support questions here is inappropriate.
#debian.de: German-language user channel, also developers.
#debian-design: Teams/Design, Design, DesignBlend, DebianArt
#debian-desktop: https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-desktop/
#debian-devel-changes: follow the stream of bug opening/closing and package uploads
#debian-devel-br: Brazilian developer channel. Not a support channel.
#debian-devel.de: German developer channel. Used when #debian.de is busy. Not a support channel.
#debian-devel-es: Spanish developer channel.
#debian-devel-fr: French developer channel. Not a support channel.
#debian-devel-it: Italian developer channel
#debian-devel-id: Indonesian developer channel. Not a support channel.
#debian-dpkg: Teams/Dpkg (used for dpkg development topics, not a user support channel).
#debian-dpl: DPL helpers
#debian-ec2: VMBuilder (?)
#debian-elts: https://wiki.debian.org/eLTS/ - there's also #debian-lts
#debian-es: for Hispanophone. Hispanohablantes: Por favor usen #debian-es, alli obtendran mas ayuda.
#debian-facile : Debian-Facile, french association - https://debian-facile.org
#debian-france: Association Debian France - https://france.debian.net/
#debian-fr: for Francophone. Les personnes qui parlent français mais peu ou pas anglais et qui ont besoin d'aide avec Debian peuvent demander sur #debian-fr.
#debian-gdpr: Data Protection https://www.debian.org/legal/privacy
#debian-gr: for Greek users. Για χρήστες που ομιλούν Ελληνικά κανάλι υποστήριξης
#debian-ha: Debian-HA development and support channel - Debian-HA
#debian-i3: Support channel for i3 (and i3gaps) window manager users
#debian-id: Indonesian Debian Users
#debian-ie: Irish Debian Users
#debian-iot: Teams/pkg-iot, Debian for Internet of Things (IoT devices) (see #debian-arm etc for hardware questions)
#debian-installer: https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
#debian-ir: Iranian Debian GNU/Linux Users
#debian-it: for Italian speakers. Le persone che parlano italiano possono chiedere e ottenere aiuto in questo canale. it/IRC/debian-it.
#debian-japanese: Debian JP Project LocalGroups/Debian-JP; Coordination of l10n task force, organization of local meetings.
#debian-jr: https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr/ - DebianJr
#debian-js-changes: JS Team changes (used salsa KGB webhook)
#debian-kde: Support channel for KDE in Debian
#debian-kr: Debian Korea team
#debian-kubernetes: Kubernetes team
#debian-l10n-br: Brazilian Portuguese translators for Debian
#debian-l10n-russian: Russian localization team
#debian-llvm: LLVM packaging team
#debian-loongarch: Debian LoongArch port
#debian-lts: https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/ - there's also #debian-elts
#debian-lxc: About LXC packaging
#debian-mailman: Meant for discussions about Mailman packaging. Support available
#debian-mate: Debian MATE Desktop Environment - PkgMate
#debian-malaysia: Debian Malaysia - LocalGroups/Debian-Malaysia | https://malaysia-team.pages.debian.net/
#debian-meeting: Meant for meetings and training sessions, see scheduled sessions or book the channel for a meeting on IRC/debian-meeting
#debian-mentors: Support for new contributors with questions on packaging and Debian infrastructure projects/services. See also the debian-mentors mailing list.
#packaging: Meant for support for people doing packaging outside of Debian. See #debian-mentors for packaging within Debian.
#debian-mg: Debian Minas Gerais Community [discussions in portuguese]
#debian-mobile: Mobile (use #debian-arm for hardware stuff)
#debian-newmaint: New Maintainer Process - https://nm.debian.org/ - https://www.debian.org/devel/join/newmaint
#debian-next: for users of testing or unstable.
#debian-nginx: Nginx packaging related discussions.
#debian-nl: for Dutch speakers. Voor ondersteuning in het Nederlands.
#debian-nonupload: Non-uploading developers
#debian-nordic: Nordic Debian community LocalGroups/DebianNordic
#debian-ocaml: Packaging and development of OCaml-related stuff in Debian.
#debian-offtopic: offtopic banter
#debian-ontario: For users based in Ontario, Canada. Pour les utilisateurs et utilisatrices basées au Ontario, Canada.
#debian-openstack: Debian OpenStack packaging
#debian-openstack-commits: Debian OpenStack packaging bot channel: please don't chat here.
#debian-ops: #debian operators channel | IRC | https://ircbots.debian.net/
#debian-outreach: Debian Outreach team - Teams/Outreach - Outreachy, GSoC, GSoD, OSPP
#debian-perl-changes: Debian perl changes channel (Home for KGB notifications)
#debian-pkg-security: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/pkg-security - Debian Security Tools Packaging Team
#debian-pl: Polish Debian community
#debian-privacy: privacy issues while using Debian
#debian-private: equivalent to the debian-private mailing list, the password is available to Debian members using this command: ssh master.debian.org cat /home/debian/misc/irc-password
#debian-ps3: Debian on PlayStation3 - PS3
#debian-puppet: Packaging Puppet and modules for Debian, using puppet in Debian.
#debian-python: Packaging and development of Python-related stuff in Debian - DebianPython
#debian-python-changes: Commits, uploads and bugs notifications for DPMT and PAPT
#debian-qa: Debian Quality Assurance - https://qa.debian.org/.
#debian-quebec: For users based in Quebec, Canada. Pour les utilisateurs et utilisatrices basées au Québec, Canada.
#debian-qt-kde: Qt and KDE packaging discussions. This is NOT a support channel.
#debian-rant: get your grump on
#debian-remote: Debian Remote Maintainers Team
#debian-reproducible: ReproducibleBuilds related discussions
#debian-riscv: Debian RISC-V port
#debian-ro: Romanian Debian community and Romanian translators for Debian
#debian-robotics: Debian Robotics Team
#debian-ruby-changes: Teams/Ruby -- used for automatic notifications about git commits, CI pipeline stati, etc.
#debian-russian: Russian Debian community and user support
#debian-salt: Teams/DebianSaltTeam packaging the Salt Project automation infrastructure management tool
#debian.se: Swedish Debian community
#debian.si: For Slovene speakers. Kanal za slovenske uporabnike.
#debian-social: Debian Social team
#debian-sp: Debian São Paulo Community [discussions in portuguese]
#debian-sv: Salvadoran Debian Users - http://debian.org.sv
#debian-systemd: Debian systemd team and packagers
#debian-talk: DebTalk
#debian-til: Debian "Today I Learned"
#debian-toolchain: Debian toolchains - GCC/LLVM etc, though LLVM maintainers tend to not be in the channel
#debian-uk: Debian in the UK (United Kingdom, not Ukraine); NOT a support channel.
#debian-ukraine: Ukrainian Debian community
#debian-uy: Debian Uruguay - http://debian.org.uy
#debian-vim: Packaging and development of Vim-related stuff in Debian.
#debian-women: discussion about Debian Women.
#debian-worldmap: http://io.debian.net/~tar/debian-worldmap/
#debian-wsl: InstallingDebianOn/Microsoft/Windows/SubsystemForLinux
#debian-www: https://www.debian.org/devel/website/ - Teams/Webmaster
#debian-xen: Debian Xen Team - The Linux Foundation Xen Project (virtualization)
#debian-zh: for Chinese-speaking users and developers (中文群组); also LocalGroups/Debian-CN
#debian-zig: Packaging Zig
#mini-DebConf-fr: Mini-DebConf in France
#minidebconf-online: Mini-DebConf Online
#salsaci: Salsa CI Team channel.
#debconf-marseille: About mini-debconf Marseille
#debian channels have a Netiquette.
Debian Pure Blend IRC channels
Other DebianPureBlends project pages and IRC information.
How to create a new #debian-* channel
Join the chan you wish to create (e.g.: /join #debian-foo)
Register the chan with a proper description: /msg chanserv REGISTER #debian-foo <description>. You are automatically added as MASTER.
Set the channel URL /msg chanserv SET #debian-foo URL https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Foo
Set the channel email /msg chanserv SET #debian-foo EMAIL https://lists.debian.org/debian-foo/
Add @debian-master as MASTER: /msg chanserv ACCESS #debian-foo ADD @debian-master MASTER
For Debconf-related channels, also add @debconf-masters as MASTER: /msg chanserv ACCESS #debconf-foo ADD @debconf-masters MASTER
Add @debian-chanop as CHANOP: /msg chanserv ACCESS #debian-foo ADD @debian-chanop CHANOP
Add your channel to the list above.
Add your channel to your team or local group wiki page if appropriate.
Inform people about your channel via Planet Debian, DevNews, the mailing lists or the publicity team.
- Enjoy your brand new chan!
See also
IRC/DpkgBot: #debian and #debian-next factoid bot
judd bot: #debian's window into the Ultimate Debian Database for package information
IRC servers: https://www.irchelp.org/networks/
DebianMailingLists - Obtain support via email
IRC/ElementMatrix: Using Element web interface to access Debian IRC channels through Matrix