NAME

     ircII — interface to the Internet Relay Chat system

SYNOPSIS

     irc [-abdFfqrSsTtv] [-c chan] [-D level] [-e protocol level] [-H host[:port]] [-h host[:port]]
         [-I ircrcquick] [-icb] [-irc] [-l ircrc] [-o file] [-P portno] [-p portno] [-R host[:port]]
         [nickname [server list]] [--]

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

     The following options are supported:

     -a                  This adds the normal irc server list to the command line list of irc servers.

     -b                  Load the .ircrc file before connection to a server, not afterwards.

     -c chan             Automatically join channel chan.

     -d                  Start in non-full screen mode.  All input is taken directly from stdin and all output
                         goes to stdout without using any of the termcap(5) screen control codes.

     -D level            Enable debugging of level.  This option is only available if ircII is built with
                         -DDEBUG.

     -e protocol level   For protocol protocol, set the default encryption (SSL) level to level.  Currently,
                         only "IRC" is supported for the protocol and the values that level can take are
                         "check", "nocheck", and "off".  Please also see the description of the "server list"
                         below.

     -F                  Don't use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop start the display.  This switch is ignored
                         if the -d switch is used.

     -f                  Use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop/start the display.  Normally these are both bound
                         to other functions within ircII.  This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.

     -H host[:port]      This option instructs ircII to use the given host as the local address for DCC, and
                         works otherwise identically to the -h option.

     -h host[:port]      This option instructs ircII to use the given host as the local address.  Useful only on
                         multi-homed hosts.  If the optional port segment is included, ircII will attempt to
                         bind to this local port as well as local host address.  If host is an IPv6 "number", it
                         must be provided in the common file ... [12:34:ab:cd] format.  This means for an IPv6
                         "number" and port, it would be written [12:34:ab:cd]:6669.

     -icb                Use ICB connections by default.

     -irc                Use IRC connections by default.

     -l ircrc            Use ircrc Instead of the default ~/.ircrc.

     -o file             Set the debug output file to file.  This option is only available if ircII is built
                         with -DDEBUG.

     -P portno           Set the ICB port number to portno (default: 7326, the standard ICB port).

     -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.

     -q                  Start up ircII quickly.  Don't load the IRCRC file, only the quick IRCRC file set by
                         the

     -I                  option.

     -R host[:port]      Set the default HTTP proxy host for server connections to host:port.

     -r                  Reverse the normal default foreground and background colours.

     -S                  Start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server.

     -s                  Don't start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server (default).

     -T                  Do use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and exiting if they exist.

     -t                  Don't use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and exiting (default).

     -v                  Print the version and release date of ircII and exit.

     --                  End all option processing.

     The remaining command line arguments are:

     •   nickname Set the nickname (overrides the environment variable IRCNICK; default: the username).

     •   server list Set the list of servers with which ircII will try to connect upon startup.  This list is
         also used by the program's /server command.

     For IRC connections, the format is: host[:portno[:password[:nick]]]

     For ICB connections, the format is: ICB/host [: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 host is in the format :servergroup:host.com then servergroup is taken to be the Server Group for
     this server entry.

     If the host is prefixed with SSLIRC/ or SSLIRCNOCHECK/ then an attempt will be made to initiate an SSL/TLS
     connection for this host.  The SSLIRCNOCHECK/ form does not verify the remote server's certificate, which
     may have security implications.  Please see SSL/TLS documentation for more information.

     If the host is prefixed with PROXY/host:port/ then this server will be connected via specified HTTP proxy
     server.  The NO_PROXY/ prefix will disable any global proxy setting for this server.

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.

ENVIRONMENT

     It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the .cshrc, .profile, or .login file:

     IRCNICK       The user's ircII nickname.

     IRCNAME       The user's IRC realname (otherwise retrieved 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/share/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

     ~/.ircrc              default initialization file

     ~/.irc/               directory into which you can put your own ircII scripts, that can then be loaded with
                           /load

     .../share/irc/        directory containing message-of-the-day, master initialization, help files, and ircII
                           scripts

     .../share/irc/script/global
                           file loaded at the start of every ircII session.

     PREFIX/share/irc/ircII.servers
                           The initial list of servers if none are provided on the command line.

     PREFIX/share/irc/ircII.motd
                           Message of the day.  This file is displayed only once each time it is changed.

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:irc.us.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
           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 :)”.

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 EXEC'ed processes.

     SIGUSR2          Drops ircII back to the command line.

SEE ALSO

     irc(1), ircd(8)

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 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>.

BUGS

     Please notify the current developer of the software of any bugs in current versions.