.\" @(#)ircd.8 2.0 (beta version) 29 Mar 1989 .TH IRCD 8 "29 March 1989" .SH NAME ircd \- The Internet Relay Chat Program Server .SH SYNOPSIS .hy 0 .IP \fBircd\fP [-a] [-c] [-i] [-o] [-q] [-t] [-d directory] [-f configfile] [-w interface] [-x debuglevel] [-h hostname] [-p portnum] .SH DESCRIPTION .LP \fIircd\fP is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay Chat Program. The \fIircd\fP is a server in that its function is to "serve" the client program \fIirc(1)\fP with messages and commands. All commands and user messages are passed directly to the \fIircd\fP for processing and relaying to other ircd sites. The \fIirc(1)\fP program depends upon there being an \fIircd\fP server running somewhere (either on your local UNIX site or a remote ircd site) so that it will have somewhere to connect to and thus allow the user to begin talking to other users. .SH OPTIONS .TP .B \-d directory This option tells the server to change to that directory and use that as a reference point when opening \fIircd.conf\fP and other startup files. .TP .B \-o Starts up a local ircdaemon. Standard input can be used to send IRC commands to the daemon. The user logging in from standard input will be given operator privileges on this local ircd. If ircd is a setuid program, it will call setuid(getuid()) before going to local mode. This option can be used in inetd.conf to allow users to open their own irc clients by simply connecting their clients to the correct ports. For example: .TP .B irc stream tcp nowait irc /etc/ircd ircd \\-f/etc/ircd.conf \\-o allows users connecting to irc port (specified in /etc/services) to start up their own ircdaemon. The configuration file should be used to check from which hosts these connections are allowed from. This option also turns on the autodie option -a. .TP .B \-a Instructs the server to automatically die off if it loses all it's clients. .TP .B \-t Instructs the server run in the foreground and to direct debugging output to standard output. .TP .B \-x# Defines the debuglevel for ircd. The higher the debuglevel, the more stuff gets directed to debugging file (or standard output if -t option was used as well). .TP .B \-i The server was started by inetd and it should start accepting connections from standard input. The following inetd.conf-line could be used to start up ircd automatically when needed: .TP .B ircd stream tcp wait irc /etc/ircd ircd \-i allows inetd to start up ircd on request. .TP .B \-w interface \fIinterface\fP is passed to gethostbyname(3) in order to retrieve the IP-number of the default interface to bind to. An example would be to use `-w localhost' after which the server listens by default on the loopback interface. Use `ifconfig -a' to see which interfaces you have. Without this option the hostname in the M: line is used as default interface and if that doesn't resolve, all interfaces are used. The server uses the default interface to listen for UDP packets (UPING) and for each listen port without a specified interface to bind to. Interfaces can be specified per listen port in the configuration file (ircd.conf) using P: lines. Note that the last P: line in the ircd.conf specifying an interface (not localhost) overrules the default CONNECT interface (outgoing connections) but does not change the default listen interface as described above. .TP .B \-f filename Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option is used to override the default ircd.conf given at compile time. .TP .B \-c This flag must be given if you are running ircd from \fI/dev/console\fP or any other situation where fd 0 isnt a tty and you want the server to fork off and run in the background. This needs to be given if you are starting \fIircd\fP from an \fIrc\fP (such as \fI/etc/rc.local\fP) file. .TP .B \-q Using the -q option stops the server from doing DNS lookups on all the servers in your \fIircd.conf\fP file when it boots. This can take a lengthy amount of time if you have a large number of servers and they are not all close by. .TP .B \-h hostname Allows the user to manually set the server name at startup. The default name is hostname.domainname. .B \-p portname Specifies the server port where the daemon should start waiting for connections from other servers. Clients should connect to ports as specified in the ircd.conf file by means of a P: line. .TP .SH If you plan to connect your \fIircd\fP server to an existing Irc-Network, you will need to alter your local IRC CONFIGURATION FILE (typically named "ircd.conf") so that it will accept and make connections to other \fIircd\fP servers. This file contains the hostnames, Network Addresses, and sometimes passwords for connections to other ircds around the world. Because description of the actual file format of the "ircs.conf" file is beyond the scope of this document, please refer to the file INSTALL in the IRC source files documentation directory. .LP BOOTING THE SERVER: The \fIircd\fP server can be started as part of the UNIX boot procedure or just by placing the server into Unix Background. Keep in mind that if it is *not* part of your UNIXES Boot-up procedure then you will have to manually start the \fIircd\fP server each time your UNIX is rebooted. This means if your UNIX is prone to crashing or going for for repairs a lot it would make sense to start the \fIircd\fP server as part of your UNIX bootup procedure. In some cases the \fIirc(1)\fP will automatically attempt to boot the \fIircd\fP server if the user is on the SAME UNIX that the \fIircd\fP is supposed to be running on. If the \fIirc(1)\fP cannot connect to the \fIircd\fP server it will try to start the server on it's own and will then try to reconnect to the newly booted \fIircd\fP server. .SH EXAMPLE .RS .nf tolsun% \fBircd\fP .fi .RE .LP Places \fIircd\fP into UNIX Background and starts up the server for use. Note: You do not have to add the "&" to this command, the program will automatically detach itself from tty. .SH COPYRIGHT (c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland, .LP (c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Finland .LP (c) 1988,1989,1990,1991 Jarkko Oikarinen .LP For full COPYRIGHT see LICENSE file with IRC package. .LP .RE .SH FILES /etc/utmp "irc.conf" .SH "SEE ALSO" irc(1) .SH BUGS None... ;-) if somebody finds one, please inform author .SH AUTHOR Jarkko Oikarinen, currently jto@tolsun.oulu.fi, manual page written by Jeff Trim, jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu, later modified by jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.