Provided by: ircii_20060725-1build1_amd64 
NAME
ircII - interface to the Internet Relay Chat system
SYNOPSIS
irc [-c chan] [-p portno] [-P portno] [-b] [-f] [-F] [-s] [-S] [-t] [-T] [-d] [nickname [server list]]
[-a] [-v] [-q] [-h hostname ] [-icb] [-irc]
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
-c chan
Automatically join channel chan.
-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.
-P portno
Set the ICB port number to portno (default: 7326, the standard ICB port).
-b Load the .ircrc file before connection to a server, not afterwards.
-f Use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop/start the display. Normally these are both bound to other
functions within irc. This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.
-F Don't use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop start the display. This switch is ignored if the -d
switch is used.
-s Don't start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server (default).
-S Start up the ircio process to connect to the IRC server.
-t Don't use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and exiting (default).
-T Do use the termcap ti and te sequences when starting and exiting if they exist.
-d Start in "dumb" mode. All input is taken directly from stdin and all output goes to stdout
without using any of the termcap(5) screen control codes.
nickname
Set the nickname (overrides the environment variable IRCNICK; default: the username).
server Set the list of servers with which irc will try to connect upon startup. This list is also used
by the program's /server command. The format for lines in the list is:
hostname [:portno[:password[:nick]]] for IRC connections. For ICB connections, the format is:
ICB/hostname [: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 hostname is in the format :servergroup:host.com then servergroup is taken to be the Server
Group for this server entry.
-a This adds the normal irc server list to the command line list of irc servers.
-v Print the version and release date of ircII and exit.
-q Start up irc quickly -- don't load the IRCRC file.
-h hostname
This option instructs ircII to use the given hostname as the local address. Useful only on multi-
homed hosts.
-icb Use ICB connections by default.
-irc Use IRC connections by default.
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.
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:irc1.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 "The one and only :)"
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 :)".
FILES
/usr/bin/ircII the executable program
~/.ircrc default initialization file
~/.irc/ directory you can put your own ircII scripts into, that can then be loaded with
/load
/etc/irc/ directory containing message-of-the-day, master initialization, help files and
ircII scripts /etc/irc/script/local is the master initialization file for the site,
loaded before .ircrc is. This is a Debian GNU/Linux conffile.
/usr/share/ircII/ shared repository for help, translation tables and distributed scripts.
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.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the .cshrc, .profile, or .login file:
IRCNICK
The user's IRC nickname.
IRCNAME
The user's IRC realname (otherwise retreived 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/lib/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
ircII uses the following files under the library directory, usually PREFIX/share/irc.
ircII.servers
The initial list of servers if none are provided on the command line.
ircII.motd
Message of the day. This file is displayed only once each time it is changed.
SEE ALSO
ircd(8)
BUGS
Please notify the current developer of the software of any bugs in current versions.
AUTHORS
Program written by Michael Sandrof (ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu). Now being maintained by Matthew Green
(mrg@eterna.com.au). Debian specific extensions by the Debian Maintainer Bernd Eckenfels
(ecki@debian.org). 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).
31 October 2002 IRCII(1)