ircII - interface to the Internet Relay Chat system
SYNOPSIS
irc [-c chan] [-p portno] [-P portno] [-b] [-f] [-F] [-s]
[-S] [-d] [nickname [server list]] [-a] [-v] [-q] [-h
hostname ] [-icb] [-irc]
DESCRIPTION
The ircII program is a full screen, termcap based inter
face 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 dis
play. Normally these are both bound to other func
tions 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.
-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 vari
able 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
hostname [:portno[:password[:nick]]] for IRC con
nections. 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 infor
mation about ICB.
-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 host
name 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 begin
ning with this character is treated as a message to be
sent to the current channel. To produce a listing of com
mands, type '/help ?'. To receive information about the
commands type '/help <command> '.
The .ircrc File:
When ircII is executed, it checks the user's home direc
tory 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
EXAMPLES
irc -c 128 -p 5555
Connect IRC to port number 5555 of the default host
and enter on channel number 128.
irc Mermaid
Use the nickname "Mermaid".
irc Mermaid server1:5000 server2::passwd server3
Use the nickname "Mermaid" and the modified server
list.
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
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
.../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
.../lib/irc/ directory containing message-of-the-
day, master initialization, help
files and ircII scripts
.../lib/irc/script/global file
loaded at the start of every ircII
session.
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
Closes all DCC connections and EXEC'ed 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)
HOME Overrides the default home path in /etc/passwd.
TERM The type of terminal in use.
SEE ALSO
irc(1), 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)
Names of contributors and contact address can be retrieved
with the /info command. This manual page written by Dar
ren 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).
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