Users

In private mode, only authorized users can access and use The Lounge.

All user configurations are stored as JSON files in the ${THELOUNGE_HOME}/users/ folder. These are being read upon server startup to connect users to their IRC networks and channels.

In public mode, none of the commands listed below are available.

In this page:

1. Listing all users
2. Adding a user
3. Removing a user
4. Resetting a user’s password
5. Editing a user configuration file

Listing all users

To get a list of all existing users, use the list command:

thelounge list

If you run it right after installation, you will get the following message because no users are created by default:

Adding a user

To add a new user, use the add command:

thelounge add <name>

This will ask for a few details:

• Password: Along with <name>, this will be used to authenticate the user on the login page. Note that when typing it, characters will not appear on the screen for security and privacy reasons. Once created, users can change their passwords directly from the UI.
• Logs: By default, user logs are stored at ${THELOUNGE_HOME}/users/. You can disable this by entering no.

Once the user is created, thelounge list should now report it correctly:

If The Lounge is currently running, the new user will be directly available without having to restart. In fact, this is reported as such in the output of thelounge start:

Removing a user

Similarly, the following command deletes the configuration of a given user:

thelounge remove <name>

This takes effect immediately. If The Lounge is already running, its output will report:

Note that this does not delete the logs for this user.

Resetting a user’s password

If a user loses their password, you can reset it with the reset command:

thelounge reset <name>

This will interactively ask you for a new password, similarly to the add command. The previous password is not required. The new password will take effect immediately, without having to restart the server, and any running instance of The Lounge will report:

Editing a user configuration file

The edit command opens vi (or whatever program you set in your $EDITOR environment variable if any) with the configuration file of a given user:

thelounge edit <name>

You can directly edit it by opening the corresponding ${THELOUNGE_HOME}/users/<name>.json file.

Note that apart from the password field, all changes to the configuration file will require a server restart to take effect.