1 .\" @(#)ircd.8 2.0 (beta version) 29 Mar 1989
2 .TH IRCD 8 "8 July 2000"
4 ircd \- The Undernet Internet Relay Chat Daemon
8 [-t] [-d directory] [-f configfile] [-x debuglevel] [-h hostname]
11 \fIircd\fP is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay Chat
12 Program. The \fIircd\fP is a server in that its function is to "serve"
13 the client program \fIirc(1)\fP with messages and commands. All commands
14 and user messages are passed directly to the \fIircd\fP for processing
15 and relaying to other ircd sites. The \fIirc(1)\fP program depends upon
16 there being an \fIircd\fP server running somewhere (either on your local
17 UNIX site or a remote ircd site) so that it will have somewhere to connect
18 to and thus allow the user to begin talking to other users.
20 There are many common clients including ircii, epic, BitchX and other ones
21 for Non unix platforms as well, such as mIRC, Pirch, Ircle etc.
25 This option tells the server to change to that directory and use
26 that as a reference point when opening \fIircd.conf\fP and other startup
30 This option is obsolete.
33 This option is obsolete.
36 Instructs the server run in the foreground and to direct debugging output to
40 Defines the debuglevel for ircd. The higher the debuglevel, the more stuff
41 gets directed to debugging file (or standard output if -t option was used
45 This option is obsolete.
48 This command is depreciated. Outgoing connections are bound to the
49 interface specified in the M:, and Incoming connections are accepted only on
50 interfaces specified in the P:'s.
53 Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option
54 is used to override the default ircd.conf given at compile time.
57 This flag must be given if you are running ircd from \fI/dev/console\fP or
58 any other situation where fd 0 isnt a tty and you want the server to fork
59 off and run in the background. This needs to be given if you are starting
60 \fIircd\fP from an \fIrc\fP (such as \fI/etc/rc.local\fP) file.
63 This option is obsolete.
66 Allows the user to manually set the server name at startup. The default
67 name is hostname.domainname.
69 This is depreciated in favour of specifying server ports in P:'s
72 If you plan to connect your \fIircd\fP server to an existing Irc-Network,
73 you will need to alter your local IRC CONFIGURATION FILE (typically named
74 "ircd.conf") so that it will accept and make connections to other \fIircd\fP
75 servers. This file contains the hostnames, Network Addresses, and sometimes
76 passwords for connections to other ircds around the world. Because
77 description of the actual file format of the "ircd.conf" file is beyond the
78 scope of this document, please refer to the file INSTALL in the IRC source
79 files documentation directory.
81 BOOTING THE SERVER: The \fIircd\fP server can be started as part of the
82 UNIX boot procedure or just by placing the server into Unix Background.
83 Keep in mind that if it is *not* part of your UNIXES Boot-up procedure
84 then you will have to manually start the \fIircd\fP server each time your
85 UNIX is rebooted. This means if your UNIX is prone to crashing
86 or going for for repairs a lot it would make sense to start the \fIircd\fP
87 server as part of your UNIX bootup procedure. In some cases the \fIirc(1)\fP
88 will automatically attempt to boot the \fIircd\fP server if the user is
89 on the SAME UNIX that the \fIircd\fP is supposed to be running on. If the
90 \fIirc(1)\fP cannot connect to the \fIircd\fP server it will try to start
91 the server on it's own and will then try to reconnect to the newly booted
100 Places \fIircd\fP into UNIX Background and starts up the server for use.
101 Note: You do not have to add the "&" to this command, the program will
102 automatically detach itself from tty.
104 (c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland,
106 (c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science,
107 University of Oulu, Finland
109 (c) 1988,1989,1990,1991 Jarkko Oikarinen
111 For full COPYRIGHT see LICENSE file with IRC package.
120 See the file 'BUGS' included in the distribution.
122 The current authors of the undernet IRC daemon are coder-com@undernet.org,
123 the original author was Jarkko Oikarinen, currently jto@tolsun.oulu.fi,
124 manual page written by Jeff Trim, jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu, later modified by
125 jto@tolsun.oulu.fi and then isomer@coders.net.