TIRC(1)TIRC(1)NAMEtirc - Internet Relay Chat client
SYNOPSIStirc [ -n nickname ] [ -s server ] [ -p port ] [ -x password ] [
-h hostname ] [ -d ] [ -v ]
DESCRIPTION
TIRC is a client program for the Internet Relay Chat. It provides all
general functionality to participate in the global IRC networks. TIRC
is ircd 2.9/2.10 compatible and has extensions like CTCP (client-to-
client protocol), DCC (direct client connection) for transferring files
and private chat, easy to use multi-region support with searchable
backscroll, logfiles and message filtering. TIRC is termcap based and
should run with any reasonable terminal (and also on some pathetic
ones). It does not provide an extension scripting language since this
is more often abused for robots and warscripts and it is not really
needed with TIRC since the client is already quite luser- friendly.
Please help keeping the IRC network bot- and script-free.
INVOKING TIRC
TIRC can be invoked without arguments when you specified the required
parameters in the local TIRC runcom file or you can give server name
etc. explicitly on invocation which then overrides the respective con‐
fig file entries. Look below for an explanation on the config file
syntax.
TIRC will terminate immediately if you are the superuser, have an
invalid TERM or TERMCAP selection, are not on a tty or if you have
parse errors in an existing config file. You also require a sane GECOS
field in your password entry, since we want to know your real name.
TIRC does not need a config file. All you really need to fully use
TIRC is the binary program. However, the use of a personal config file
is advised.
When TIRC is started, it attempts to connect to the specified server on
the specified tcp-port number. If the connection is established, TIRC
will send the client registration to the remote IRC server. If you
specified a password, this will be used for registration. You require
this if your I:-line is password protected. Specifying the debug
option (-d) sets the debug dump flag on the main window which allows
you to look at the raw client-server communication right from the start
(you can later toggle this for any window with the WIN MODE command).
The -h option specifies a hostname; tirc will try to bind on that
interface so that you use IRC with the specified hostname.
In case the client can not connect to the server for any reason, you
can try a different server with the SERVER command.
If you're done with chatting, you can exit the client with the QUIT
command. TIRC will not reconnect automatically if you got forcibly
disconnected by ircd due to connection trouble or operator kills.
SCREEN LAYOUT
The TIRC screen generally consists of regions, also called windows (not
to be confused with X11 windows), which may contain channels or catch
several message types. TIRC can manage multiple pages, where each page
presents itself as a seperate screen.
At the bottom of each window, there is a status bar, which shows you
whether the window is focussed, what top channel it contains (the one
privmsgs get sent to if you type into the window), your nickname, user
and channel modes (the user modes are following the nickname, the chan‐
nel modes are following the channel name), the network-internal name of
the IRC server you are currently connected to, the current page number
and optionally the page numbers that have traffic since last visit. On
the far right of the status line, the window modes are shown. If you
enabled this feature, a clock is shown on the focussed status line. If
you have set away, the status line displays "away" instead of the user
modes.
At the bottom of the screen is the editor line where you enter text and
commands. The input line mainly supports vi(1)-like keybindings with
some additional emacs(1)-style keys. You can move the focus between
window regions with Ctrl+W/Ctrl+T. For a more complete listing on key‐
bindings, please refer to the KEYBINDINGS section and to HELP KEYS in
the help function.
If your screen gets messed up somehow, pressing Ctrl+L or Ctrl+R usu‐
ally puts it back into a sane state. Note that this will delete non-
logged lines (such as help text) from your windows and only redisplay
what's in the backscroll (usually the important stuff). Thus you can
also use Ctrl+L to get rid of help texts and redisplay a window that
has been CLEARed.
The editor line prompt usually displays the channel name if the window
contains a top channel followed by a '>'. The prompt is changed if you
have to enter a different nickname or a password. If instead of the
prompt there is a "+MORE...+", this tells you that current text output
didn't fit on one window page and you can go on by pressing any key or
'q' to abort displaying more.
WINDOW MOTION
TIRC's windowy regions contain a backscroll which is by default 1200
lines for each window. You can use Ctrl+B to scroll backward (to ear‐
lier text) in the backscroll and Ctrl+F to scroll forward. Ctrl+G goes
to the bottom of the backscroll (i.e. the current text). If you have
scrolled back, no new lines will be displayed and a "[+]" mark appears
on the status line to inform you that you are somewhere else in the
buffer.
You can add new windows and resize them. You can move channels between
windows by JOINing them in a different window. The channel will then
be deleted from the old window and added to the new window as the top
channel. By this method, you can also put a channel to the top in the
same window. Window management is done with the /WIN command and key
shortcuts.
PAGE MANAGEMENT
TIRC can manage multiple pages in a fashion rudimentarily similar to
the screen(1) tool. You can have up to 10 pages, each containing sev‐
eral windows. Pages are created and deleted with the /PAGE command and
the Ctrl+X shortcuts.
WINDOW SYSTEM SUPPORT
TIRC doesn't have provisions to make special use of windowing systems,
like the X Window System. On X11, TIRC is being run from an xterm or
similar program. However, TIRC can set the xterm title to something
useful and it responds to window resizing in a sensible way by refor‐
matting the backscroll lines. The latter is not limited to X11.
GENERAL USAGE
I assume that you're already familiar with IRC and other IRC clients in
general and I will not go into explanations about the IRC network and
habits on IRC. If you are new to IRC, please refer to the IRC intro‐
duction that comes with the ircII client.
If you are already familiar with ircII, you won't have many problems
using TIRC. In fact you might see that many TIRC features do the same
as their ircII counterparts yet in a more consistent way. TIRC doesn't
have a scripting language. It is the author's belief that scripting
languages do more harm by abuse than they're useful. Many comfortable
functions are hardcoded into TIRC so that a script isn't really
required.
With TIRC you can communicate with users in the following ways:
By typing the text you want to say directly into the editor line, the
text will be sent to the top channel of that window. If there isn't
any channel in the window, an error will be displayed. Empty lines are
not sent to the server. This also works for windows which have a query
``channel'' on top, where the text is being send as privmsg to the
respective user.
You can use /MSG (or /M, which is even shorter) to write to channels
which are not the top channel and to write privmsgs to other users.
You can establish a DCC CHAT connection, which provides you with a
means of communicating directly with the other user's client (data does
not go through the IRC network). DCC can also be used to transfer files
between clients for situations where ftp might be unappropriate.
TIRC commands are entered like text but they must stand alone on a line
(not preceded or followed by other text) and they're introduced with
the command character. By default this is '/'. Although commands are
case-insensitive, they're displayed in the documentation and the client
itself as uppercase. For example, if you want to join the channel
#foobar, you will type the command "/join #foobar" and press return.
To get an overview on the available commands, read the section COMMANDS
in this manual page and use the HELP command.
TIRC doesn't have a restrictive novice mode like ircII. This is proba‐
bly because it isn't meant to be used by lusers.
If the user is keyboard-idle (no input) for a certain time (default is
48 hours), the client will exit with ``User idle limit exceeded''.
This is to prevent forgotten clients running for very long times. The
limit is compiled into and cannot be changed at runtime (see tirc.h if
you really want to change it).
GETTING HELP
The HELP command gives you a list available of help topics. To get
help on a certain topic, you will say "/HELP topic". Please read the
help and the manpage carefully. It is advised to have a look at all
the help topics if you're new to TIRC. Some commands differ from what
commands with the same name do in ircII, so reading the help might save
you from some trouble.
INITIALIZATION
On startup, TIRC attempts to read the runcom file .tircrc in your home
directory. If there are no syntax errors in it, TIRC configures itself
according to the entries in that file. The format is generally free
ASCII text. Comments are introduced with the hash ('#') character and
run to the end of the line. If you want to use the hash character in
the file (like in a channel name), you have to escape it with a back‐
slash ('\'). So the channel name #foobar will be written as \#foobar
in .tircrc. Empty lines are allowed.
The rc-file entries consist of either variable assignments in the style
of variable = value and of commands. Commands in .tircrc are parsed as
if they were typed into the editor line in the order as they appear in
the rc-file. If the prefix ``immediate'' precedes a command, the com‐
mand will be executed right at start. Execution of other commands will
be delayed until the client has successfully registered with the
server.
The following variables can be assigned values:
server The domain name or numerical IP address of the default server
you want to connect to.
nick The nickname you want to use on IRC. You can change this later
with the NICK command. If the nickname already exists if you
register, TIRC will prompt you for a different one.
port The TCP port the server listens on.
pass If your connection requires an I:-line password, you can specify
it here.
clname Alternate domain name of your machine running the client. This
will be given to the server as the second argument on USER when
registering. Most IRC servers ignore this, though.
realname
Specify here the real name that should appear on WHO, WHOIS and
similar commands. If this isn't specified, TIRC uses the name
that appears in the GECOS field of your password entry. It is
good habit to actually use your own name.
TIRC comes with an example dot.tircrc file which you can copy as .tir‐
crc into your home directory and then modify according to your require‐
ments.
COMMANDS
This is a short overview of TIRC's commands. For a more thorough
explanation refer to the help function.
ABORT Terminates TIRC with SIGABRT.
ADMIN [<server>]
Server administrative contact.
AWAY [<away message>]
Marks the user as being away.
BYE [<comment>]
Quit TIRC (also QUIT, EXIT, SIGNOFF).
CLEAR Clear the window.
CLIST Display channel list.
CLOSE [<comment>]
Close connection without exiting.
CMDCH <character>
Changes command character.
CNAMES Print out channel user cache.
COLOUR Set colour values for colourization type.
CONNECT
Connect two servers.
CTCP <target> <ctcpcommand>
Send a privmsg in CTCP style format.
DATE [<server>]
Get time+date (also TIME).
DCC <function>
Control direct client connections.
DEOP <nickname>[ <nickname> ...]
Take chanop.
DESC <target> <description>
Send a CTCP ACTION privmsg to target.
DIE Terminate server.
IGN <nickname>
Ignores the user.
IGNORE <function> {<spec>|<identifier>}
Manage the ignore list.
INFO <server>
Display IRC info.
INVITE <nickname> <channel>
Inivites the user to channel.
ISON <nickname>[ <nickname> ...]
Check if nicks are online.
JOIN <channelname> [<key>]
Join channel in current window.
KB <nickname> [<comment>]
Ban+kick+[ignore] user. LART is almost the same.
KEYS Display keybindings.
KICK <channel> <user> [<comment>]
Kick user from channel.
KILL <user> <comment>
Remove user from IRC.
LAME <percentage>
The famous lame-o-metre.
LART <nickname> [<comment>]
Ban+kick+[ignore] user. Almost the same as KB.
LASTLOG [<num>]
Display logged private messages.
LEAVE <channel> [<comment>]
Leave channel. PART is the same.
LINKS [[<remote server>] <server mask>]
Display matching server links.
LIST [<channel>[,<channel>] [<server>]]
List channels.
LOG {MSG|[<channel>]} [<logfile>]
Log channel traffic or messages to logfile.
LUSERS [<wildcard> [<server>]]
List users.
M <target> <text>
Short for MSG.
MSG <target> <text>
Send privmsg to target.
MODE {<channel>|<nick>} {+|-}<modechars> [<parameters>]
Changes and displays user or channel mode.
MOTD {<server>|<nickname>}
Display server message-of-the-day.
N [<channel>[,<channel>]]
Short for NAMES.
NAMES [<channel>[,<channel>]]
Show nicknames on channels. Same as N.
NCOL [<function>] [<nick>|<id>] [<degree>] [<fg-colour>]
Sets the automatic colourization of nicknames with approximate
string matching.
NICK <nickname>
Change nickname.
NOTICE <target> <text>
Send notice to target.
OOD [<command> {<id>|<oline>}]
Show, ADD or DEL ChanOp-On-Demand lines.
OP <nickname>[ <nickname> ...]
Give chanop.
OPER [<nickname>] [<password>]
Gain IRC operator privileges.
PAGE {<command>|<number>}
Manage TIRC pages.
PART <channel> [<comment>]
Leave channel. Same as LEAVE.
PING Ping server.
QK <nickname>[ <nickname> ...]
Kick users from channel.
QUERY [<nickname>]
Route privmsgs from/to a user to this window.
QUIT [<comment>]
Quit TIRC. See BYE.
RAW <text>
Send IRC command directly.
REHASH Let ircd reread ircd.conf.
RESTART
Restart server.
SERVER <hostname> [<port>] [<password>]
Connect to specified server.
SET <variable> <value>
Control TIRC options.
SIGNAL <signal number>
Send signal to SYSTEM child process.
SIGNOFF
Quit TIRC. See BYE.
SPAM <blacklist>
Create spam discard keyword list.
SQUIT <server>
Unlink server from network.
STATS [<query>] [<server>]
Ask for server statistics.
SUMMON <user> [<server>]
Call a user logged into the server machine to IRC.
SYSTEM [-msg <target>] <commandstring>
Execute the specified shell-command in background and optionally
route output to a channel or user on IRC.
TIME [<server>]
Get time+date. Same as DATE.
TIRC Display version info.
TRACE [<server>]
Trace IRC route to server.
TOPIC <channel> [<newtopic>]
Display or set channel topic.
UHOST <nickname>[ <nickname> ...]
Send USERHOST query to server.
URL <command> [<filename>]
Manages the URL catching mechanism.
UMODE <modechars>
Changes user mode.
USERS [<server>]
List users logged into server machine.
VERSION [<server>]
Get ircd version.
W [<server>[,<nickmask>[,...]]
Short for WHOIS.
WALLOPS <text>
Write message to operators.
WHO <spec>
List matching users.
WHOIS [<server>[,<nickmask>[,...]]
Query information about users.
WHOWAS <nickname> [<count> [<server>]]
Search server's nickname history.
WIN <function>
Manage TIRC windows.
KEYBINDINGS
TIRC's editor line behaves similar yet not identically to the vi text
editor. In addition, the following keys are important to make optimal
use of TIRC.
Ctrl+W Switch focus to next TIRC window region in command mode. In
input/overstrike mode, erase the last word.
Ctrl+T Like Ctrl+W but backwards.
Ctrl+F or PageDn
Page down in the current window's backscroll buffer.
Ctrl+B or PageUp
Page up in the current window's backscroll buffer.
Ctrl+G Go to end of window's backscroll buffer.
Ctrl+L or Ctrl+R
Redisplay screen from the backscroll buffer. Also removes
unlogged text like help information.
Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Y
Suspend TIRC (depends on your susp/dsusp character).
Ctrl+C Interrupt blocking system calls or conditionally exits TIRC.
Tab If at the beginning of an empty line, writes a response template
for the last user you received/send a message from/to. Pressing
Tab several times then iterates through a small history. If you
press Tab in the middle of a line, it tries to complete the
nickname you're typing from the current window's top channel.
Ctrl+V (lnext character) Insert the next character literally. It might
be required that you press Ctrl+V twice. Control values are
displayed by a '_' in the command line.
Ctrl+E Go after the end of editor line.
Ctrl+A Go to beginning of line.
Ctrl+D Delete next character.
Ctrl+K Delete to end of line.
Cursor keys
Go left, right in line and up down in the command line history,
respectively.
Backspace
Delete char left to cursor.
Ctrl+U (or whatever you have as the line kill character) Kills the line
as expected. You can undo a kill or modification by typing u in
command mode.
Ctrl+P Toggles paste mode. In paste mode, commands are not recognized
and text is sent unaltered to the top channel/query.
/ In command mode, this lets you search forward in the current
window's backscroll buffer. Extended (POSIX) regular expres‐
sions are matched if available on your system (basic REs other‐
wise).
? Like / but searches backwards (finds latest occurances first).
n (command mode) Find the next match for a previously entered
regex search string.
N Like n but searches in opposite direction.
q Aborts 'MORE' prompts.
: Insert the command character at beginning of line and set insert
mode.
o Invoke the options and colours editor.
Ctrl+X-o or Ctrl+N
Switch to next window (like Ctrl+W in command mode).
Ctrl+X-O
Switch to previous window (like Ctrl+T in command mode).
Ctrl+X-2
Create new window (like /WIN NEW).
Ctrl+X-0
Delete current window (like /WIN DEL).
Ctrl+X-n
Switch to next page.
Ctrl+X-p
Switch to previous page.
Ctrl+X-b-<0-9>
Switch to page number 0-9.
Ctrl+X-x
Switch between last visited page and current one.
ENVIRONMENT
TIRC uses the TERM environmental variable to obtain your terminal type.
The LC_* variables are used by the C runtime system to determine the
correct locale. The SHELL variable will be used to determine your
login shell for the SYSTEM command. If no SHELL variable is available,
TIRC will use /bin/sh. HOME is used to obtain the pathname of your
home directory.
FILES
/usr/local/share/tircrc
Global startup file.
$HOME/.tircrc
Your personal initialization config file.
/tmp The directory where temporary files go (only used at startup
[eventually]).
BUGS
Since TIRC is in alpha development version (experimental state), be
prepared to encounter bugs.
There is a security hole in the DCC file and chat offer. DCC accepts a
connection from any host after sending the CTCP privmsg notifying your
peer about the DCC offer. Any person can connect instead of the one
the DCC offer was intended for. This is due to bad design of the DCC
protocol, which doesn't provide any means of authentication. Please
take care never to transfer any confidential material over IRC or on
DCCs.
If you are on a system for which we use SVIPC shared memory segments
for providing shared memory, you have to cope with the oddities of Sys‐
tem V IPC. In particular that means, if TIRC exits abnormally (killed
by signal), the resources used by the kernel for the shared segments
don't get freed and hang around until you remove them manually or the
system gets rebooted. Have a look at ipcs(8) and ipcrm(8) on how to
detect and get rid of them.
SEE ALSOirc(1), ircd(8), ircII(1). vi(1) for a listing of vi motions, re_for‐
mat(7) for an explanation of extended regular expression syntax.
doc/rfc1459.txt - J. Oikarinen, D. Reed, "Internet Relay Chat Proto‐
col", May 1993. (RfC 1459)
doc/irc_dcc.txt - T. Rollo, "A description of the DCC protocol".
doc/dccresum.txt - T. Vonck, "DCC Resume".
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1996, 1999 Matthias K. Buelow.
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without mod‐
ification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the author nor the names of any co-contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PUR‐
POSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSI‐
NESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
TIRC comes with several bundled libc complementary functions, which are
used only if the respective functionality is not available in libc.
The following copyrights are taken from the bundled code and are herein
reproduced as demanded by the authors and for giving credit to whom
credit is due:
Copyright (c) 1990, 1993 The Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994 Henry Spencer. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1997 Theo de Raadt
AUTHORS
TIRC has been developed by Matthias K. Buelow <token@mayn.de>.
The dynamically loadable modules support and other things have been
contributed by Richard Corke <rjc@rasi.demon.co.uk>.
I'm very thankful to everyone who reported bugs and proposed fixes and
enhancements.
Contributed Software Feb 23th, 1999 TIRC(1)
