NAME

       ngIRCd - the "next generation" IRC daemon

SYNOPSIS

       ngircd [ Options ]

DESCRIPTION

       ngIRCd is a free, portable and lightweight Internet Relay Chat server for small or private
       networks, developed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

       The server is quite easy to configure, can handle dynamic  IP  addresses,  and  optionally
       supports  IDENT, IPv6 connections, SSL-protected links, and PAM for user authentication as
       well as character set conversion for legacy clients. The  server  has  been  written  from
       scratch and is not based on the "forefather", the daemon of the IRCNet.

       The  name  ngIRCd  means  next-generation  IRC  daemon, which is a little bit exaggerated:
       lightweight Internet Relay Chat server most probably would have been a better name :-)

       Currently supported platforms include AIX, A/UX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Hurd, IRIX, Linux, Mac OS
       X,  Minix,  NetBSD,  OpenBSD,  Solaris, and Windows with Cygwin.  As ngIRCd relies on UNIX
       standards and uses GNU automake and GNU autoconf there  are  good  chances  that  it  also
       supports other UNIX-based operating systems as well.

       By  default  ngIRCd logs diagnostic and informational messages using the syslog mechanism,
       or writes directly to the console when running in the foreground (see below).

OPTIONS

       The default behavior of ngircd is to read its standard configuration file (see below),  to
       detach from the controlling terminal and to wait for clients.

       You can use these options to modify this default:

       -f file, --config file
              Use file as configuration file.

       -n, --nodaemon
              Don't fork a child and don't detach from controlling terminal.  All log messages go
              to the console and you can use CTRL-C to terminate the server.

       -p, --passive
              Disable automatic connections to other servers. You can use the IRC command CONNECT
              later on as IRC Operator to link this ngIRCd to other servers.

       -t, --configtest
              Read, validate and display the configuration; then exit.

       -V, --version
              Output version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display a brief help text and exit.

FILES

       /etc/ngircd/ngircd.conf
              The system wide default configuration file.
       /etc/ngircd/ngircd.motd
              Default "message of the day" (MOTD).

SIGNALS

       The daemon understands the following signals:

       TERM   Shut down all connections and terminate the daemon.

       HUP    Shut  down  all listening sockets, re-read the configuration file and re-initialize
              the daemon.

HINTS

       It's wise to use "ngircd --configtest" to validate the configuration file  after  changing
       it.

DEBUGGING

       When  ngIRCd  is compiled with debug code, that is, its source code has been ./configure'd
       with "--enable-debug" and/or "--enable-sniffer" (witch enables debug mode automatically as
       well),  you  can  use two more command line options and two more signals to debug problems
       with the daemon itself or IRC clients:

       Options:

       -d, --debug
              Enable debug mode and log extra messages.

       -s, --sniffer
              Enable IRC protocol sniffer, which logs all sent and received IRC commands  to  the
              console/syslog.  This  option  requires  that  ngIRCd  has  been ./configure'd with
              "--enable-sniffer" and enables debug mode automatically, too.

       Signals:

       USR1   Toggle debug mode on and off during runtime.

       USR2   Dump internal server state to the console/syslog when debug mode is on (use command
              line option --debug or signal USR1).

AUTHORS

       Alexander Barton, <alex@barton.de>
       Florian Westphal, <fw@strlen.de>

       Homepage: http://ngircd.barton.de/

SEE ALSO

       ngircd.conf(5), ircd(8)