NAME

       ircd - ircd-hybrid: an advanced, lightweight Internet Relay Chat Daemon

SYNOPSIS

       ircd   [-configfile   filename]   [-klinefile   filename]  [-dlinefile  filename]  [-xlinefile  filename]
              [-resvfile filename] [-logfile filename] [-pidfile filename] [-foreground] [-version] [-help]

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)  and  other compatible programs with messages and
       commands. All commands and user messages are passed directly to the ircd for processing and  relaying  to
       other IRC servers.

       This is ircd-hybrid, the highly modified (and hopefully improved) variant of the original ircd program by
       Jarkko Oikarinen.

OPTIONS

       -configfile filename
              Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this ircd. The option is used to override the  default
              ircd.conf  given  at  compile  time.  By  default,  this  is "etc/ircd.conf" within the prefix you
              installed the ircd in.

       -klinefile filename

       -dlinefile filename

       -xlinefile filename

       -resvfile filename
              Specifies the database files to be used for D-lines (host bans), K-lines (hostmask bans),  X-lines
              (gecos  bans)  and  RESVs  (jupes)  which  by  default  are  within the var/lib/ directory of your
              installation prefix as dline.db, kline.db, xline.db and resv.db.

       -logfile filename
              Specifies an alternative logfile to be used than that specified in include/defaults.h

       -pidfile filename
              Specifies the file used by the ircd to store its process ID. The option is used  to  override  the
              default ircd.pid given at compile time.

       -foreground
              Makes ircd run in the foreground.

       -version
              Makes ircd print its version and exit.

       -help  Makes ircd print available options and exit.

USAGE

       If  you plan to connect your IRC 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 IRC
       servers.  This file contains the hostnames, IP addresses and sometimes passwords for connections to other
       ircds around the world.

       The example reference.conf in the etc/ directory documents itself. Read it carefully or you may expose  a
       risk on your network simply by having your ircd running!

BOOTING THE SERVER

       It  is  sufficient to type ircd at the command line to start ircd-hybrid into the background. If you wish
       to run ircd in the foreground (perhaps for debugging purposes), use the -foreground parameter.

       The ircd-hybrid package in your distribution may ship with an rc-script which handles this  for  you.  In
       Debian, it is /etc/init.d/ircd-hybrid.

EXAMPLE

       # ircd -configfile /usr/share/ircd/ircd.conf -logfile /var/log/ircd.log

       Starts  ircd  with  the  config  file /usr/share/ircd/ircd.conf and with a log file /var/log/ircd.log. It
       implicitly forks back to the console -- to prevent this, use -foreground.

       Many of the above paths are hard-coded at compile time in the  include/defaults.h  file,  so  it  may  be
       convenient to edit these to suit your needs before you compile the ircd.

COPYRIGHT

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

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

       (c) 1988-1991 Jarkko Oikarinen

       (c) 1997-2017 ircd-hybrid development team

       For full COPYRIGHT, see the COPYING file within the IRC source package.

BUGS

       If  you  find a bug and you have a core file from ircd as a result, use a debugger like gdb(1) to process
       the core file and send a backtrace to bugs@ircd-hybrid.org.

AUTHORS

       irc2.8 and earlier: Jarkko Oikarinen, currently jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.

       ircd-hybrid: ircd-hybrid development team, bugs@ircd-hybrid.org.

       Manual page written by Jeff Trim, jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu, later modified by jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.

       Updated by W.  Campbell,  wcampbel@botbay.net,  Edward  Brocklesby,  ejb@klamath.uucp.leguin.org.uk,  and
       highly revised by Joshua Kwan (joshk@triplehelix.org) for the Debian distribution.