NAME

     swirc — curses icb and irc client

SYNOPSIS

     swirc [-46?CPRSXdipv] [-W password] [-c server[:port]] [-j join] [-n nickname] [-r rl name]
           [-u username] [-x config]

DESCRIPTION

     swirc is a BSD licensed, console based and lightweight ICB and IRC client written in C/C++,
     whose goals are to be portable and secure.

OPTIONS

     -4      Use IPv4 addresses only

     -6      Use IPv6 addresses only

     -?      Output help

     -C      Do not change color definitions.  If the terminal used to run swirc supports >= 256
             colors and can_change_color(3) is true swirc uses init_color(3) to initialize the
             extended IRC color palette.  Which may or may not already be set correctly by the
             terminal.  This option is useful in case the terminal look strange after exit, which
             is possible to fix by simply restarting it.

     -P      Permanently disable SASL authentication.  If specified, the effect is final (i.e. it
             overrides any config file value.)

     -R      Disable TLS/SSL peer verification

     -S      Force TLS (Transport Layer Security)

     -W password
             Equal effect as flag -p but operates in a non-interactive manner.  Be careful if you
             are using this option on a public computer with multiple other users because the
             password will then be visible to them in the output of ps(1).

     -X      Disable all IRCv3 extensions.  If you are connecting to an unmodern IRC server this
             flag is useful.  Because if the IRC server sees too many unknown commands during the
             connection process it may result in a connection failure.

     -c server[:port]
             Connect to given server.  If the port is omitted port 6667 will be chosen.  And if
             the port is 7326 ICB mode is turned on automatically.  Further, if the port is 6697
             swirc attempts to initiate a TLS/SSL connection.

     -d      Debug logging

     -i      Turn on Internet Citizen's Band mode

     -j join
             A comma-separated list of channels to join.  For example:

                   -j libera,linux,c,c++

     -n nickname
             Online nickname

     -p      Server password (for private servers). However: InspIRCd has a module called
             password forward, which means that if a server password is specified by this flag,
             it will be used to identify to NickServ.  If so: connect with a TLS/SSL connection,
             i.e. an encrypted connection, to prevent your password from being disclosed in clear
             text.  swirc also supports IRCv3 SASL authentication which is probably a better
             alternative.

     -r rl name
             Your real name

     -u username
             Your username

     -v      Output swirc version

     -x config
             Config file

KEYS

     CTRL+a      Move to beginning of line
     CTRL+e      Move to end of line
     CTRL+b      Move cursor backward
     CTRL+f      Move cursor forward
     CTRL+d      Delete
     CTRL+g      Clear readline input.  Also useful to trigger terminal resize signal.
     CTRL+l      Per window basis toggle logging on/off and works while IRC connected
     CTRL+n      Next window
     CTRL+p      Previous window
     PG UP       Scroll up
     PG DOWN     Scroll down
     Up arrow    History previous
     Down arrow  History next
     F2          Spell word
     F3          Scroll nicklist up
     F4          Scroll nicklist down
     F11         Close window
     F12         Close all private conversations

INSERTING TEXT-DECORATION

     F5          Blink
     F6          Bold
     F7          Color
     F8          Normal
     F9          Reverse
     F10         Underline

MITIGATIONS

     On OpenBSD pledge(2) is used per default in order to force swirc into a restricted-service
     operating mode.  This since version 1.1.  Further, as of 2.3, pledge(2) is used in
     combination with unveil(2).

FILES

     ~/.swirc/swirc.conf        swirc configuration file
     ~/.swirc/default.thm       swirc default theme
     ~/.swirc/log/error.log     swirc error log

SEE ALSO

     swirc.conf(5), swirc.theme(5)

HISTORY

     The first version of swirc was released in mid 2016.  Starting from Debian 12 (Bookworm)
     swirc is available for multiple architectures via Debian's official APT repository.  And on
     OpenBSD version 6.7 and greater swirc can be installed by using pkg_add(1).

AUTHORS

     swirc was written by Markus Uhlin ⟨markus@nifty-networks.net⟩

BUGS

     https://github.com/uhlin/swirc/issues

     If many errors regarding "In perform_convert_buffer: characters lost: Illegal byte sequence"
     are present in the error log, then additional encodings for your locale should be installed.
     See locale(1) for supported character encodings.  swirc can handle and are looking for:

     -   UTF-8
     -   ISO-8859-1
     -   ISO-8859-15

     Unfortunately some operating systems have decided to only support the UTF-8 character
     encoding.