NAME
ircII - interface to the Internet Relay Chat system
SYNOPSIS
irc [-c chan] [-p portno] [-P portno] [-b] [-f] [-F] [-s] [-S] [-t]
[-T] [-d] [nickname [server list]] [-a] [-v] [-q] [-h hostname ] [-icb]
[-irc]
DESCRIPTION
The ircII program is a full screen, termcap based interface to Internet
Relay Chat. It gives full access to all of the normal IRC functions,
plus a variety of additional options.
OPTIONS
-c chan
Automatically join channel chan .
-p portno
Set the IRC port number to portno (default: 6667, the standard
IRC port). Only supply this if you connect to a server which
uses a port other than 6667.
-P portno
Set the ICB port number to portno (default: 7326, the standard
ICB port).
-b Load the .ircrc file before connection to a server, not
afterwards.
-f Use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop/start the display.
Normally these are both bound to other functions within irc.
This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.
-F Don’t use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop start the display.
This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.
-s Don’t start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server
(default).
-S Start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server.
-t Don’t use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and
exiting (default).
-T Do use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and exiting
if they exist.
-d Start in "dumb" mode. All input is taken directly from stdin
and all output goes to stdout without using any of the
termcap(5) screen control codes.
nickname
Set the nickname (overrides the environment variable IRCNICK;
default: the username).
server Set the list of servers with which irc will try to connect upon
startup. This list is also used by the program’s /server
command. The format for lines in the list is:
hostname [:portno[:password[:nick]]] for IRC connections. For
ICB connections, the format is:
ICB/hostname [:portno[::nick[:group[:mode]]]] with group being
the initial group and mode being the initial group mode. See
/HELP ICB for more information about ICB.
If the hostname is in the format :servergroup:host.com then
servergroup is taken to be the Server Group for this server
entry.
-a This adds the normal irc server list to the command line list of
irc servers.
-v Print the version and release date of ircII and exit.
-q Start up irc quickly -- don’t load the IRCRC file.
-h hostname
This option instructs ircII to use the given hostname as the
local address. Useful only on multi-homed hosts.
-icb Use ICB connections by default.
-irc Use IRC connections by default.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The Screen:
The screen is split into two parts, separated by an inverse-video
status line (if supported). The upper (larger) part of the screen
displays responses from the IRC server. The lower part of the screen
(a single line) accepts keyboard input.
Some terminals do not support certain features required by ircII, in
which case you receive a message stating this. If this occurs, try
changing the terminal type or run ircII with the -d option.
Irc Commands:
Any line beginning with the slash character ’/’ is regarded as an ircII
command (the command character may be changed; type ’/help set
cmdchar’). Any line not beginning with this character is treated as a
message to be sent to the current channel. To produce a listing of
commands, type ’/help ?’. To receive information about the commands
type ’/help <command> ’.
The .ircrc File:
When ircII is executed, it checks the user’s home directory for a
.ircrc file, executing the commands in the file. Commands in this file
do not need to have a leading slash character ’/’. This allows
predefinition of aliases and other features.
EXAMPLES
irc -c #users -p 5555
Connect IRC to port number 5555 of the default host and enter on
channel #users.
irc Mermaid
Use the nickname "Mermaid".
irc Mermaid server1:5000 server2::passwd server3
Use the nickname "Mermaid" and the modified server list.
irc piglet3 :ln:irc1.lamenet.org :ln:irc1.lamenet.org
Use the nickname "piglet3", initially connecting to
irc.au.lamenet.org, with also irc.us.lamenet.org added to the
server list, both having a server group name "ln".
irc oink ICB/www.icb.net
Use the nick "oink" making an ICB connection to www.icb.net.
irc -d Use dumb mode.
irc -f Allow use of ^S/^Q to stop/start screen display.
irc -e elisa
Interface IRC with a program called elisa.
setenv IRCNICK Mermaid
setenv IRCNAME "The one and only :)"
irc Set the username (if not specified elsewhere) to "Mermaid". The
user’s name (when provided inside parentheses in response to a
WHOIS command) is set to "The one and only :)".
FILES
/usr/bin/ircII the executable program
~/.ircrc default initialization file
~/.irc/ directory you can put your own ircII scripts
into, that can then be loaded with /load
/etc/irc/ directory containing message-of-the-day, master
initialization, help files and ircII scripts
/etc/irc/script/local is the master
initialization file for the site, loaded before
.ircrc is. This is a Debian GNU/Linux conffile.
/usr/share/ircII/ shared repository for help,
translation tables and distributed scripts.
THE HELP FILES
All of the ircII commands are fully described in the help files
package. The best way to start here is with the /HELP ? command as
this prints a listing of all available help files.
SIGNALS
ircII handles the following signals
SIGUSR1
Closes all DCC connections and EXECed processes.
SIGUSR2
Drops ircII back to the command line.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the .cshrc,
.profile, or .login file:
IRCNICK
The user’s IRC nickname.
IRCNAME
The user’s IRC realname (otherwise retreived from /etc/passwd)
IRCSERVER
The default IRC server(s) (see server option for details)
IRCSERVERSFILE
The file containing the default list of server(s), usually
PREFIX/lib/irc/ircII.servers. This file should contain one
server entry per line.
HOME Overrides the default home path in /etc/passwd.
TERM The type of terminal in use.
FILES
ircII uses the following files under the library directory, usually
PREFIX/share/irc.
ircII.servers
The initial list of servers if none are provided on the command
line.
ircII.motd
Message of the day. This file is displayed only once each time
it is changed.
SEE ALSO
ircd(8)
BUGS
Please notify the current developer of the software of any bugs in
current versions.
AUTHORS
Program written by Michael Sandrof (ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu). Now being
maintained by Matthew Green (mrg@eterna.com.au). Debian specific
extensions by the Debian Maintainer Bernd Eckenfels (ecki@debian.org).
Names of contributors and contact address can be retrieved with the
/info command. This manual page written by Darren Reed
(avalon@coombs.anu.EDU.AU), revised by R. P. C. Rodgers
(rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu), by the lynX, and by Matthew Green
(mrg@eterna.com.au).
31 October 2002