Provided by: ircd-irc2_2.11.2p3~dfsg-5build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       ircd - The Internet Relay Chat Program Server

SYNOPSIS

       ircd   [  -abciqst ] [ -f configfile ] [ -x debuglevel ] [ -h hostname ] [ -T [ tunefile ]
              ] [ -p mode ]

       ircd   -v

DESCRIPTION

       ircd is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay Chat Program.  The  ircd  is  a
       server  in  that  its  function  is to "serve" the client program irc(1) with messages and
       commands.  All commands and user messages are passed directly to the ircd  for  processing
       and  relaying  to  other  ircd sites.  The irc(1) program depends upon there being an ircd
       server running somewhere (either on your local UNIX site or a remote ircd site) so that it
       will have somewhere to connect to and thus allow the user to begin talking to other users.

       ircd will reread its configuration file whenever it received a hangup signal, SIGHUP.

       Sending an interrupt signal to ircd process will cause it to restart.

OPTIONS

       -a     Instructs the server to automatically die off if it loses all it's clients.

       -b     If  the  ircd.tune  file  is corrupted, by default the server will not start.  This
              option will make the server start anyways, with the default  values  (ignoring  the
              corrupted file).

       -c     This  flag  must  be  given  if you are running ircd from /dev/console or any other
              situation where fd 0 isnt a tty and you want the server to fork off and run in  the
              background.  This  needs  to  be given if you are starting ircd from an rc (such as
              /etc/rc.local) file.

       -i     The server was started by inetd and it  should  start  accepting  connections  from
              standard  input.  The  following  inetd.conf-line  could  be  used to start up ircd
              automatically when needed:

       ircd stream tcp wait irc /etc/ircd ircd -i

              allows inetd to start up ircd on request.

       -q     Using this option stops the server from doing DNS lookups on  all  the  servers  in
              your  ircd.conf  file  when it boots. This can take a lengthy amount of time if you
              have a large number of servers and they are not all close by.

       -s     When this option is specified, iauth will not be started.  This means that the  IRC
              daemon   will   perform  "ident  lookups"  (RFC  1413)  internally  to  attempt  to
              authenticate incoming connections.  No other authentication mechanism will be used.

       -t     Instructs the server to direct debugging output to standard output and to not  fork
              nor detach from terminal.

       -f filename
              Specifies  the  ircd.conf file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option is used to
              override the default ircd.conf given at compile time.

       -x #   Defines the debuglevel for ircd. The higher the debuglevel,  the  more  stuff  gets
              directed to debugging file (or standard output if -t option was used as well).

       -h hostname
              Allows  the  user  to  manually set the server name at startup. The default name is
              hostname.domainname.

       -p mode
              Specify whether the server should enable built-in protections against various  type
              of  user  abuse  that is commonly found on big public networks.  Possible modes are
              strict (default), on and  off  and  standalone.   The  strict  option  enables  the
              protections,  and  refuses  to  establish  a link to a server not running with this
              option.  This is useful to force all servers on an IRC network to enable them.  The
              standalone option removes split checks and disallows any server to connect.

       -T tunefile
              Specifies  the  ircd.tune file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option is used to
              override the default ircd.tune given at compile time. If no  tune  file  is  given,
              reading and writing of tune file is disabled.

       -v     This option prevents the server from starting, and dumps some information about the
              version instead.

       If you plan to connect your ircd server to an existing Irc-Network,
              you will  need  to  alter  your  local  IRC  CONFIGURATION  FILE  (typically  named
              "ircd.conf")  so  that  it  will accept and make connections to other ircd servers.
              This file contains the hostnames, Network Addresses, and  sometimes  passwords  for
              connections  to  other  ircds  around the world.  Because description of the actual
              file format of the "ircd.conf" file is beyond the scope of  this  document,  please
              refer to the file INSTALL in the IRC source files documentation directory.

       BOOTING  THE SERVER:  The ircd server can be started as part of the UNIX boot procedure or
       just by placing the server into Unix Background.  Keep in mind that if it is *not* part of
       your  UNIXES  Boot-up  procedure then you will have to manually start the ircd server each
       time your UNIX is rebooted.  This means if your UNIX is prone to crashing or going for for
       repairs  a  lot  it  would make sense to start the ircd server as part of your UNIX bootup
       procedure.  In some cases the irc(1) will automatically attempt to boot the ircd server if
       the  user  is  on the SAME UNIX that the ircd is supposed to be running on.  If the irc(1)
       cannot connect to the ircd server it will try to start the server on  it's  own  and  will
       then try to reconnect to the newly booted ircd server.

EXAMPLE

              tolsun% ircd

       Places ircd into UNIX Background and starts up the server for use.  Note:  You do not have
       to add the "&" to this command, the program will automatically detach itself from tty.

              tolsun% ircd -v
              ircd 2.9.3 AaCDEfFHiIkMsu_V1
                      zlib not used
                      Tue Apr 1 1997 at 20:17:50 EDT #1

       This indicates that this binary is the version 2.9.3 of the  software.   AaCDEfFHiIkMsu_V1
       are the compile time options which were used.  This binary does not support compression of
       server-server links (does not use zlib) and was compiled on April the 1st.

COPYRIGHT

       (c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland,

       (c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Finland

       (c) 1988,1989,1990,1991 Jarkko Oikarinen

       For full COPYRIGHT see LICENSE file with IRC package.

FILES

        "ircd.conf"

SEE ALSO

       iauth(8) irc(1) ircdwatch(8)

BUGS

       None... ;-) if somebody finds one, please send mail to ircd-bugs@irc.org

AUTHOR

       Jarkko  Oikarinen,  currently  jto@tolsun.oulu.fi,  manual  page  written  by  Jeff  Trim,
       jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu, later modified by jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.

                                   $Date: 2006/04/26 20:26:07 $                           IRCD(8)