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).  It is easy to  configure,
       can  cope  with dynamic IP addresses, and supports IPv6, SSL-protected connections as well
       as PAM for authentication.  It is written from scratch and not based on the original IRCd.

       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)