Nicolas Pioch (Nap on IRC)
Nicolas.Pioch@grasp.insa-lyon.fr>
Text conversion by:
Owe Rasmussen (Sorg on IRC)
<d1rasmus@dtek.chalmers.se>
HTML conversion & update by:
Michelle A. Hoyle (Eingang on IRC)
<hoyle@ifi.unizh.ch>
Joseph Lo (Jolo on IRC)
<Joseph.Lo@duke.edu>
Edition 1.2 - January 1997
Abstract
Have you ever wanted to talk with other computer users in other parts of the world? Well guess what? You can! The program is called IRC, (Internet Relay Chat), and it is networked over much of North America, Asia Europe, and Oceania. This program is a substitute for 'talk', and many other multiple talk programs you might have read about. When you are talking on IRC, everything you type will instantly be transmitted around the world to other users that might be watching their terminals at the time. They can then type something and respond to your messages, and vice versa. I should warn you that the program can be very addictive once you begin to make friends and contacts on IRC, especially when you learn how to talk in 14 languages.Topics of discussion on IRC are varied, just like the topics of Usenet newsgroups are varied. Technical and political discussions are popular, especially when world events are in progress. IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, as people from many countries and cultures are on 24 hours a day. Most conversations are in English, but there are always channels in German, Japanese, French, Finnish, and occasionally other languages.
IRC gained international fame during the late Persian Gulf War, when updates from around the world came across the wire, and most people on IRC gathered on a single channel to hear these reports.
Table of Contents
- Getting started
- Let's go!
- General Commands
- Private Conversations and Communication
- Channels and Public Conversations
- Channel and User Modes
- Client to Client Protocol
- Network Related Commands
- Quick Reference Panel
- Further into ircII Wizardry
- Sample .ircrc
- Writing Automatons
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I set up an IRC client?
- Which server do I connect to?
- What are good channels to try while using IRC?
- How do I get nifty effects with ircII?
- What if someone tells me to type something cryptic?
- I get strange characters on my screen. What are they?
- What about NickServ?
- I'm being flooded and harassed by a jerk. Help!
- How do I get rid of a ghosted IRC session?
- About KILL usage.
- Where can I find more?
- Administrativia
- Revision history
- Release sites for the IRCprimer
- Copyright (C) 1993 Nicolas PIOCH
- Credits
List of Tables
1. Getting Started
1.1 Clients and Servers
IRC (original code was written by Jarkko Oikarinen) is a multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It allows people all over the internet to talk to one another in real-time. It is a functional replacement and improvement to 'talk'; 'talk' is an old, primitive, atrocious, minimalist sort of keyboard/screen conversation tool, using a grotesque, machine- dependent protocol (blah!). IRC does everything 'talk' does, but with better protocol, allowing more than 2 users to talk at once, with access across the aggregate Internet, and providing a whole raft of other useful features.There are two ways to enter IRC from a Unix system. If you are using the emacs (editor from Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation) lisp client, you just have to type "M-x irc", (if this doesn't work you may need to load the client into your emacs session). If you are using the C client, (easier for beginners), then you usually type "irc". Non-Unix boxes have special clients, each of which has to be configured using a special procedure. Check the manual or help screen for more information.
If you wish to be known by a nickname which is not your login name, type "irc nickname" instead. Each IRC user, ("client"), chooses a nickname. All communication with another user is either by nickname or by the channel that they or you are on (more information about channels later on).
The most important thing to remember about IRC is that you have to be willing to explore and learn to use it. Take your time, try not to get flustered, enjoy yourself, and you will soon be making new friends all over the world!
IRC is based on a client-server model. Clients are programs that connect to a server, a server is a program that transports data, (messages), from a user client to another. There are clients running on many different systems, (Unix, emacs, VMS, MSDOS, VM...), that allow you to connect to an IRC server. The client which will be spoken of here is the most widespread: ircII, (originally designed by Michael Sandrof). Other clients are similar, and often accept ircII commands.
1.2 How to behave on IRC
The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. However, as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no means the only language. If you want to speak some other language than English, (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate that. On the other hand, you should check the topic before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions about language. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise, change channels and set the topic accordingly.It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody to greet you back. On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know, do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes.
Also note that using your client facilities, (ircII "ON" command, for instance), to automatically say hello or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive auto-greets. They are not only obviously automatic, but even if you think you are polite, you are actually sounding insincere and also interfering with the personal environment of the recipient. If somebody wants to be auto-greeted on joining a channel, he will auto-greet himself.
Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your actions, writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" to a channel or user, (send large amounts of unwanted information). This is likely to get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes network "burps", connections going down because servers cannot handle the large amount of traffic anymore. Other prohibited actions include:
- Harassing another user. Harassment is defined as behavior towards another
user with the purpose of annoying them.
- Annoying a channel with constant beeping.
- Any behavior reducing the functionality of IRC.
1.3 Privacy on IRC
You should always keep in mind that messages you send to someone over IRC are passed along all the servers between you and and the person you are writing to. When you're sending a letter to someone, any postman on the way could open it and read its contents.Well, it's the same on the network. Any IRC-Admin could compile their server in "debug" mode and log whatever messages are transmitted through his node, (it has already been done), so a good rule of thumb is not to trust the servers.
IRC IS NOT A SECURE WAY OF COMMUNICATION!
How to establish direct communications between clients will be explained later, (see DCC CHAT in section 2.5). This should be used when you wouldn't want anybody else on IRC to intercept your private messages.
1.4 First Steps
Note: ircII, the client most people are using, has most of this information online. If you are stuck, type "/HELP" and hit
All ircII commands begin with a "/" character.
The slash is the default command character. Commands are not case
sensitive, and can be abbreviated to their first letters: "/SI" and
"/sign
Anything that does not begin with "/" is assumed to be a message to
someone and will be sent to your current channel, or to a person you are
QUERYing, (the QUERY command will be detailed later on, maybe in
section 2.2).
If you are not sure about the spelling of an ircII command, type the
prefix of that command, and press the ESCape key twice; ircII will give
you a listing of commands and aliases that start with that prefix. Don't
forget the "/" in front of the command though.
This is an example. Your screen may show more aliases, and less
commands than shown here, or less aliases and more commands - in other
words "your mileage may vary."
The ! command is used to recall previous commands in your command
history for re-execution. The ! command is unique in that when it is
used, it leaves the matching history entry in the input line for
re-editing. You can specify a history entry either by its number in the
history list, or by a match with a given wildcard expression. For
instance, "/!10" will put entry 10 in the history list into the input
line. "/!/MSG" will search the history for a line beginning with a /MSG,
(a "*" is implied at the end).
/! [<history number>|<history match>]
/HISTORY [<number>]
Almost everything happens in the upper bulk of the screen. This
includes both messages from other users, as well as the output of the
control commands. Normal messages from other users appear with the
originating nickname in <angle brackets>. Private messages arrive with
the originating nickname in *asterisks*. Messages you send to everyone
appear with a preceding "> " whereas messages you send privately to
another user appear with "-> *nickname*". Other output (invitations
from other users to join channels, and so forth), appears interspersed
with other activity on the screen.
Last ircII outputs can be recalled with:
Finally, if your screen gets garbage from a 'talk', 'write', 'wall' or
any other form of primitive communication (smirk), hit ^L to redraw it,
or CLEAR it.
/CLEAR
/NICK [<nickname>]
Everyone who wants to talk to you sees this name - also, at the
moment, nicknames are limited to 9 characters max. Your nickname will be
the same as your login name by default. You can also set an environment
variable, IRCNICK, the value of which will be used instead. Nickname
clashes are not allowed; this is enforced by the servers. If your
intended nickname clashes with someone else's as you enter IRC, you will
not be able to enter until you change it to something else.
/QUIT [<reason>]
/HELP [<command>]
/WHOIS [<nickname>]
Sometimes WHOIS won't help you much, because the person you want to
know more about just left IRC or changed nick. However, you can use
WHOWAS to get this information for a while:
/WHOWAS [<server>] [<nickname>]
Very often, an unsuccessful call to WHOIS will lead you to try WHOWAS.
That's why ircII allows you to "/SET AUTO_WHOWAS ON"; that way, a "***
<nickname>: No such nickname" message will auto-magically
generate a "/WHOWAS <nickname>". Try typing "/HELP SET
AUTO_WHOWAS" for more information on this topic.
You can use the MSG command, (usually "M" is an alias for it), to send
someone a message that only that person can read.
/MSG <nickname>|<channel> <text>
If you want to send a private message to more than one person, you can
specify a list of nicknames separated by commas, (no spaces).
Two special case nicknames are defined. If the nickname is "," (a
comma), the message is sent to the last person who sent you a MSG. If
the nickname is "." (a period), the message is sent to the last person to
whom you sent a message.
You can have a private conversation by only using /MSG. However,
typing "/MSG <nick> <text>" or "/MSG . <text>" gets
cumbersome. That's where the /QUERY command comes in handy.
/QUERY [<nickname>|<channel>]
All text you type that would normally be sent to your channel now goes
to the supplied nickname in the form of MSGs. To cancel a private
conversation, use QUERY with no arguments.
There is also another command to send messages, called NOTICE. Unlike
MSGs, NOTICEs are surrounded by '-' when printed, and no automated
responses, (such as generated by IGNORE or an automaton), will be sent in
reply. Services, (robots), on IRC often use this form of interaction.
/NOTICE <nickname>|<channel> <text>
As you begin to make new friends over IRC, you'll want to mark certain
nicknames such that you will be warned when they signon or off.
/NOTIFY [[-]<nickname>]
Eventually, you may wish some day not to see messages from a specific
user on your screen. This may happen when someone is dumping large
amounts of garbage, or if someone is harassing you. The proper response
to such a behavior is to IGNORE that person. IGNORE is a very powerful
command, and can be used in many ways. However the basic usage of this
tool is the following.
/IGNORE [<nickname>|<user@host> [[-]<message type>]]
All channels on IRC have names: a "#" sign followed by some kind of
text-string, like "#C++" or "#Asians" or "#EU-Opers". Usually, the name
of the channel will indicate the type of conversation that's going on in
there. Don't count on it, though.
Every channel has certain characteristics, called channel modes.
These will also be explained below. Remember the NAMES and LIST
commands; they will show you the names of the existing channels.
/LIST [[<flags>] <channel mask>]
/NAMES [[<flags>] <channel mask>]
To join in the conversation on a certain channel you may use the JOIN
command.
/JOIN [<channel>]
The CHANNEL command has the same effects. Note that if no parameters
are given, your current channel is displayed.
Upon entering a channel, you are given useful details about it: list
of users talking in that channel, topic... Joining a channel does not
cause you to leave your previous channel unless NOVICE is set to ON. See
"/HELP SET NOVICE".
Once in a channel, you may wish to get a detailed list of the people
IRCing inside. That's where the WHO command comes in handy:
/WHO[<channel>|<wildcard expression>]
The first field is the current channel, then nickname, status, real
name (in internet user@host form), and a small witty comment you can set
yourself with the environment variable IRCNAME, (this will be detailed in
section 2.8). Status indicates if a user is
"H"ere or "G"one, (see AWAY), if IRCop ("*"), and/or a
channel operator ("@").
It is also possible, when you are already on a channel, to ask someone
to join your channel. The command is called INVITE.
/INVITE <nickname> [<channel>]
If you receive an INVITE message, you can type "/JOIN -INVITE" to join
the channel to which you were last invited, or simply "/JOIN <channel>".
To leave a channel, just issue a LEAVE command, (PART has the same
effects):
/LEAVE <channel>
Well, you guessed it, if there is a way to invite someone on a
channel, there's also the possibility to KICK someone out of it, for
example if this person is behaving like a jerk, annoying people or
flooding the channel with unwanted information:
/KICK [<channel>] <nickname>
Channels have topics, that indicate the current topic of conversation.
You can change this topic on a channel with the TOPIC command.
/TOPIC [[<channel>] <topic for channel>]
At times, you may want to send a description of what you are doing or
how you are feeling or just anything concerning you to the current
channel or query. It is absolutely good style not to forget the period
at the end of the sentence!
/ME <action description>
The same goal can be achieved towards a specific nickname using:
(Note: The look of the result depends on each client version, and might
not be exactly the same as in the examples shown here.)
These commands make use of CTCP, a client-to-client protocol crafted to
perform specific actions, but not understood by all clients, (more about
CTCP in section 2.5). If you get an error
message, your description may not have arrived properly.
Public is the default mode for a channel. When someone is on a public
channel, he can be seen by all other users, (if his own user mode permits
this). Anyone can notice users on a public channel and join such a
conversation.
Private means that, although anyone can see members of such a channel,
you can't tell what channel they are on unless you are already on that
channel with them. They just appear as "Prv: *" in LIST or NAMES.
Since the number of potential channels is in the billions, this is quite
some security - all you give away is the acknowledgement that you're
IRCing.
If you are on a secret channel, someone who is not on the same channel
can't even see that you are there. Your name does not show up in a LIST
of active users. The only indication of your presence is that, when
entering IRC, all new users are told that there are "NNNNN users on XXX
servers". If someone checks on all users and finds less than NNNNN of
them, he knows that other people are hiding on secret channels. But a
secret channel user still cannot be found except by brute-force checking
through all channels, a hopeless proposition in the face of the huge
number of possible channel names. Security through obscurity finally
means something.
/MODE <channel>|<nickname> [[+|-]<modechars>
[<parameters>]]
A + or - sign determines whether the mode should be added or deleted.
Try typing "/HELP MODE" to get further information. Channels can be
moderated (only chanops can talk), secret, private, with a limited number
of users, anonymous, invite-only, topic-limited, with a list of banned
users.
The MODE command also allows you to modify your personal parameters,
your "user mode". You can check your usermode with the command "/MODE
<YourNick>" or sometimes "/UMODE". Note that user mode +i may be the
default on some servers, in order to protect privacy of users. This
should not be seen as a problem, since any user can change his/her
personal mode whatever defaults a server may set.
There are many other CTCP commands, and new ones are introduced all
the time. There is a mechanism for you to find out what you can use:
CTCP CLIENTINFO. To find out about your own client services, execute a
CLIENTINFO on yourself.
If you are interested in this powerful CTCP mechanism, have a look in
the various ircII help files. "/HELP CTCP" might tell you more.
However the client-to-client protocol has a very powerful feature:
Allowing two people to exchange files.
To send small text files, electronic mail is probably the best
solution, (don't rely on the user@host given by the WHOIS command to send
mail. However, ircII provides you a way to establish Direct Client
Connections ("DCC") to perform functions like sending and receiving
files.
If NickA wants to send a file to NickB, then NickA should type: "/DCC SEND
NickB filename". On NickB's screen will appear: "*** DCC SEND (filename)
request received from NickA". If he, (NickB), wants to get the file, he
just needs to type: "/DCC GET NickA filename"
Here's a quick overview of the subject:
/DCC SEND <nickname> <filename>
/DCC GET <nickname> <filename>
/DCC CLOSE <type> <nickname> [<arguments>]
/DCC LIST
More details can be found in ircII online help: try "/HELP DCC"
for more information.
If someone asks you to send him a file,
DCC also allows two clients to establish a direct client connection for
chat. This is a secure form of communication, since messages are not
sent through the IRC network.
/DCC CHAT
Each time you are prompted for a server name, remember you can supply
the nickname of someone being connected on that server instead. This may
be useful at times.
/ADMIN [<server>]
/LINKS [[<server>] <wildcard expression>]
/SERVER [<server>|<server number> [<port number>]]
Occasionally, you can switch servers faster than the IRC network can
send out the information that you have left your previous server. So
don't be surprised if you are told your nickname is already in use...
Just wait a moment and set it with /NICK again.
/MOTD [<server>]
/USERS [<server>]
/DATE [<server>]
/TRACE [<server>]
/STATS c|i|k|l|m|u|y [<server>]
/INFO [<server>]
/VERSION
Because ircII is not a simple client program, but an Operating System,
its programming language is just as simple as you could expect (it's
horrendous), but if you want to get into it, here's a little note for
you.
There are a few Unix environment variables you can set in your shell
configuration file, but you need to find out your shell name before that.
"echo $SHELL" should give you a hint.
The command character, (usually "/"), is only necessary when you type
commands interactively. When you program things it is no longer needed
although it used to be.
If you want to type to the channel from within an ALIAS or on BINDing,
you have to use SAY or SEND.
The ";" has a special meaning in ALIASes, BINDings and ONs: it's
treated as command separator, that means you can execute multiple
commands in a row separated by semicolons. The semicolons are not
considered separators when you use them interactively, (to be able to
type ";-)"), and within an ircII script file. You can escape the meaning
of ";" in an ALIAS with "\;".
When you use ircII on a (semi)regular basis, you will discover that
every time you start the program you will issue the same initialization
sequence. If that is the case, I have good news for you: you don't have
to do that anymore! ircII will, at startup, load a file called ".ircrc",
(full path: $HOME/.ircrc). It will treat each line in that file as if
you typed it manually.
For example, if the content of your .ircrc file is:
Advanced commands may come in handy if you need them. Feel free to
browse in ircII online help to find out more about them. A few of them
are probably worth learning.
However, you should know that setting up an automaton using ircII ON
facilities is quick and dirty, and should be reserved for robots that
rely on ircII specific features such as DCC (file servers for instance).
Writing a program in C, perl or any decent programming language should
take longer in the beginning, but your efforts will be rewarded. You can
download skeletons of such programs on some ftp sites that keep IRC
related stuff (check in the Frequently Asked Questions part).
Although most robots-writers believe they have created a "smart
thing", 99% of the robots online happen to be a nuisance to the IRC
community, because a few simple rules were not respected by their owners.
The main idea is that robots should neither be seen nor heard:
And this will get boring very soon, so don't be surprised if such
robots get banned from most channels. A good kludge is to wait until
someone asks explicitly the robot to be opped on a channel. This could
be:
If you don't respect rules 2 and 6 above, this may happen too:
See? Remember the golden rule:
For Unix machines, you either compile the source yourself, or have
someone else on your machine compile the source for you. The current
"official" ircII release is version 2.2.1. That means that it is said to
be quite bugfree (Hehe, you never know...) In addition to this "official"
distribution, you may find preversions of the client to come floating
around, for people who like to track down bugs and taste things to come.
However, you should be aware of that those clients are being worked on,
and may not have all features working properly.
Here are the commands to type to setup an ircII client:
You now have to go into ircII2.2.1 and read the files explaining how
to achieve a successful installation. Have a look at README and INSTALL,
edit config.h to define DEFAULT_SERVER, edit Makefile to define
INSTALL_EXECUTABLE, IRCII_LIBRARY and the C compiler you will be using,
then type make install and wait.
If you can't set up a client on any local machine, you can still use
any telnet client:
Please only use telnet when you have no other way of reaching IRC, as
this resource is quite limited.
This is by no means, a comprehensive list, but merely a start.
Connect to the closest of these servers and join the channel
#Twilight_Zone or, if you are in Europe, #EU-Opers. When you are there,
immediately ask what you want. Don't say "I have a question" because
then everyone will ignore you until you say it a few times, and then
they'll jump down your throat and rip your lungs out. No one knows if he
can answer your question until you ask it.
Many IRC Operators are in #Twilight_Zone, while European Operators
congregate in #EU-Opers. So if you join an Operator channel and don't
hear much talking, don't worry; it's not because you joined. Operators
don't talk much on such channels anyways!
In some cases keys are already bound to something. For instance, ^B
is normally bound to BACKWARD_CHARACTER, so you will need to define a
"quote-character" key: just enter "/BIND ^W QUOTE_CHARACTER" then "/BIND
^W^B SELF_INSERT" and it may work.
In addition to that, Japanese IRC'ers use a special ANSI escape
control sequences to transmit their Kanji alphabet. This may also look
funny if you get some of it. Here's a sample: [$B$?$K$7[$B;$m$K#
(nice, uh?)
Only a NickServ operator can change your NickServ password. To find
out which NickServ operators are on-line, send:
Note: As of this writing, NickServ is down and it is uncertain when or if it
will return.
If it's a matter of personal harassment, then you should set a proper IGNOREon that person, (preferably on his
userid@hostname). Remember you can use wildcard expressions for IGNORE.
Locate the line about your lost IRC session, (irc should appear in the
COMMAND field of the line), and its PID, (process number, second field of
the line here). In this example the PID is 25634, as shown here:
All you then need to type is "kill -KILL" or "kill -9" immediatly
followed by the PID found above: "kill -kill 25634" here.
You can get more details about the commands involved here in the
standard unix manual, ("man 1 ps" or "man 1 kill").
If your machine crashed, and your nick is still in use on the IRC
network, you'll have to wait 4 to 5 minutes for your server to recognize
the fact. Getting an Operator to kill the ghost is almost never
necessary, just sign on as another nickname and wait for the "Ping
timeout" or "Bad link" message, then you can change your nick back.
If you op someone on a channel, you take the consequences. If someone
joins #Whatever, you op them, then they kick everyone and lock the
channel with some "Mode change +ib *!*@*", then suffer it: it's your
fault, don't go whining to an IRC-op to fix it. If a channel is locked,
you should start a new one.
Effective methods to deal with obnoxious people are IGNORE, KICK and
various MODEs on channels, such as +i and/or +b.
If you have been unjustifiably killed by an IRC-Operator abusing his
power to gain illegal channel-operator status for instance, yell! Mail a
log to his server IRC-Administrator, (see ADMIN), join #Twilight_Zone or
#EU-Opers for European-related problems, and explain what happened.
You can also join various IRC related mailing lists. "Operlist"
discusses current (and past) server code, routing and protocol. Mail
operlist-request@eff.org to join. Another mailing list,
ircd-three@eff.org exists to discuss protocol revisions for the 3.0
release of ircd, currently in planning. Mail ircd-three-request@eff.org
to be added to that. There is also low-traffic mailing-lists for ircII
vmsirc and irchat clients.
The primer is available in 3 formats:
Here's how to get the latest primer postscript version for example:
This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this manual; if not, write to the:
It's impossible to give here a full list, however special thanx are
due to (in analphabetical order):
Feel free to bug me with your comments, I hope I'll have enough time
to reply.
/W <ESC><ESC>
*** Commands:
*** WAIT WALL WALLOPS WHICH
*** WHILE WHO WHOIS WHOWAS
*** WINDOW
*** Aliases:
*** W
1.5 Screen and Keyboard activity
IRC is a full-screen utility. It takes over the screen, with the bulk
of activity happening in the top (N-2) lines, a status line, (vaguely
emacs-like), on the next to last line, and your input being entered on
the last line. When typing commands at ircII, you have a minimalist
line-editing facility in an emacs style.
Table 1: Editing keys
Key Effects
^P recalls previous command line
^N recalls next command line
^F moves forward one character
^B moves backward one character
^A moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
^E moves the cursor to the end of the line
^D deletes the character under the cursor
^K kills from the cursor to the end
^Y reinserts the last stretch of killed text
^U clears the whole line
^L redraws the screen
Table 2: Editing commands
Keyword Action
! recalls previous commands for re-editing
HISTORY displays the command history
LASTLOG lists the most recent messages
CLEAR puts some white space on your screen
Recalls previous commands for re-editing.
Displays the command history on the screen. You can
specify the number of history entries you wish to view as well.
Table 3: Simple screen activity
What is displayed What you typed Sender Recipients
> Morning people Morning, people You Channel
<some1else> hello some1else Channel
-> *some1else* hi! /msg some1else hi! You some1else (only)
*some1else* wassup? some1else You (only)
/LASTLOG [<number of entries>|<text> [<from entry>]]
Displays the contents of the lastlog. This is a list of
the most recent messages that have appeared on the screen, useful
if you inadvertantly miss messages. If no arguments are given, the
entire lastlog is displayed. If the first argument is a number, it
determines how many log entries to show. Otherwise it is searched for
in every lastlog entry. The second argument determines how many lines
back to start display from.
/LASTLOG
> Public message I send to all in the channel
<some1else> Public message from some1else
*some1else* Private message sent to me by some1else
-> *some1else* Private message I send to some1else
Clears the screen.
2. Let's Go!
2.1 General Commands
Table 4: General commands
Keyword Action
NICK changes your nickname
QUIT exits your IRC session, (same as BYE, SIGNOFF and EXIT)
HELP prints help on the given command
WHOIS displays information about someone
WHOWAS displays information about someone who just left
AWAY leaves a message saying you're not paying attention
Changes your nickname to whatever you like.
/NICK Nappy
*** Nap is now known as Nappy
Exits your IRC session. You can also use BYE, SIGNOFF and
EXIT. If a reason is supplied, it is displayed to other people on your
channels.
/QUIT Lunch Time!
Shows help on the given command. Note: This is not installed
for all clients, which can be kind of annoying.
/HELP HELP
Usage: HELP [command]
Shows help on the given command. The help documentation is set
up in a hierarchical fashion. That means that certain help
topics have sub-topics under them.
[boring stuff deleted]
Shows information about someone.
/WHOIS Nap
*** Nap is pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Klein bottle for sale...
inquire within.)
*** on channels: @#Twilight_Zone @#EU-Opers
*** on via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Ecole Polytechnique,
Paris, FRANCE ! )
*** Nap has a connection to the twilight zone (is an IRC operator)
*** Nap has been idle 0 seconds
/WHOIS Nappy
*** Nappy: No such nickname
Shows information about who used the given nickname last,
even if no one is currently using it.
/WHOWAS Nappy
*** Nappy was pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Artistic ventures
highlighted. Rob a museum.) on channel *private*
*** on irc via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Signoff: Mon Jun 22
20:15:23)
Leave a message explaining that you are not currently paying
attention to IRC. Whenever someone sends you a MSG or does a WHOIS on
you, they automatically see whatever message you set. Using AWAY
with no parameters marks you as no longer being away.
/AWAY Gone to get a cup of coffee.
*** You have been marked as being away
/AWAY
*** You are no longer marked as being away
2.2 Communication and Private Conversation
Table 5: Private conversation commands
--------------------------------------
Keyword Action
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
MSG sends a private message
QUERY starts a private conversation
NOTICE sends a private message
NOTIFY warns you of people logging in or out IRC
IGNORE removes output from specific people off your screen
Send a private message to specified nickname.
/MSG Nap This message is for Nap only.
-> *Nap* This message is for Nap only.
On my screen will appear:
*YourNick* This message is for Nap only.
/MSG Nap,Sorg This message for both Nap and Sorg.
-> *Nap* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
-> *Sorg* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
Starts a private conversation with <nickname>.
/QUERY Nap
*** Starting conversation with Nap
Blahblahblah
-> *Nap* Blahblahblah
/QUERY
*** Ending conversation with Nap
Sends a private message to the specified
<nickname>.
/NOTICE Nap Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
-> -Nap- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
On my screen will appear:
-YourNick- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
Adds or removes
/NOTIFY Nap Nappy
*** Signon by Nap detected
/NOTIFY
*** Currently present: Nap
*** Currently absent: Nappy
Suppresses output from the given people from your screen.
IGNORE can be set by nickname or by specifying a userid@hostname format.
Wildcards may be used in all formats. Output that can be ignored
includes MSGs, NOTICEs, PUBLIC messages, INVITEs, ALL or NONE. Preceding
a type with a "-" indicates removal of ignoring of that type of
message.
/IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu ALL
*** Ignoring ALL messages from *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU
/IGNORE
*** Ignorance list:
*** *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU ALL
/IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu NONE
*** *@cheshire.oxy.edu removed from ignorance list
2.3 Channels and Public Conversations
On IRC, there are a lot of places where you can "hang out"; those
places are called 'channels', (most of the information in this section
can also be obtained by issuing "/HELP CHANNEL"). You can compare
conversations on a channel to a conversation among a group of people:
you see/hear everything that is said, and you can reply to anything
that's said. What you type is received by everyone who's willing to
listen - and everyone who is late will not hear what was said before,
unless repeated by one of the ones who were there. (Who said "real
life" ?)
Table 6: Channel commands
Keyword Action
LIST lists channels, number of users, topic
NAMES shows the nicknames of the users on each channel
JOIN sets your current channel, (same as CHANNEL)
WHO gives a listing of users
INVITE sends an invitation to another user
LEAVE leaves a channel, (same as PART)
KICK gets rid of someone on a channel
TOPIC changes the topic of the channel
ME sends anything about you to a channel or QUERY
DESCRIBE sends anything about you to a person or channel
Lists all current "channels", number of users, and
topic. The displayed list may be quite long, so you can limit it
using flags. "/LIST -MIN n" for instance removes channels with less than
'n' users of the output.
/LIST -MIN 5
*** #aussies 5
*** #amiga 5 Daily Amiga Silence...join&enjoy
*** #hottub 21 Imagine sky, high above...
*** #tuebingen 11 Happy Borthday CHUCK!!!
*** #Christian 6 Jesus!
*** #Twilight_ 15 The Oper Bar & Grill
*** #initgame 5 More players needed!!!!!!!!!!!!
*** #Taiwan 8 Welcome good friends.
*** #espanol 6 EMERGENCIA SE Necesitan Mujeres!
*** #sherwood 7
*** #francais 6 on apprend le japonais (japanese welcome)
Shows the nicknames of all users on each "channel", (these may
be very long. Remember to filter them with "-MIN n" or "-MAX
n").
/NAMES -MIN 5
Pub: #twilight> Mycroft @sojge scorpio @Troy @Avalon @Nap phone
Merlinus Lumberjak @tzoper
Pub: #espanol Cacique Bonjovi leopardo Carina Miguel Cisco r2
Pub: #amiga @gio @Radix @xterm @mama @AmiBot
Pub: #aussies @Bleve @GrayElf @Insomniac @Morkeleb @titus
Pub: #hottub baby @Aldur KnightOrc @Toasty Gwydion @Belkira
@Aiken Edge @Spockobot @Nada @ZBot @Aurik @anna @RedBaron
@Katzen @esashi IceWolf @Eniigma @Digger @TheHeck
Sets your current channel to the supplied channel.
/JOIN #Twilight_Zone
*** Nap has joined channel #Twilight_Zone
*** Topic: The Gernsback Continuum
*** Users on #Twilight_Zone: Nap msa tober phone @julia @SirLance
igh @Daemon @Avalon @Waftam @Trillian @tzoper
Gives a listing of users. "/WHO *" for the list of users
in your current channel.
/WHO #Twilight_Zone
Channel Nickname S User@Host (Name)
#Twilight_ Nap H* pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr
(Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur)
#Twilight_ msa H msa@tel1.tel.vtt.fi (Markku Savela)
#Twilight_ tober H ircuser@kragar.eff.org (tober)
#Twilight_ phone H mrgreen@munagin.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Third
row seats to the Cure? WHO ME? nah.. *grin*)
#Twilight_ julia G*@ julie@turing.acs.Virginia.EDU
( Future graduate of ACME Looniversity)
#Twilight_ SirLance G*@ lancelot@tdsb-s.mais.hydro.qc.ca
(Sir Lancelot)
#Twilight_ igh G igh@micom1.servers.unsw.EDU.AU (igh)
#Twilight_ Daemon G*@ frechett@spot.Colorado.EDU
(-=Runaway Daemon=-)
#Twilight_ Avalon H*@ avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (Avalon...)
#Twilight_ Waftam G*@ danielce@munagin.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Daniel
Carosone)
#Twilight_ Trillian G*@ hrose@rocza.eff.org ( I turn to
stone when you are gone )
#Twilight_ tzoper H*@ tzoper@azure.acsu.buffalo.edu (/msg
tzoper help)
Invites another user to a channel. If no channel is
specified, your current channel is used.
/INVITE Nap
*** Inviting Nap to channel #Twilight_Zone
Leave a channel.
/LEAVE #Twilight_Zone
*** Nap has left #Twilight_Zone
Kicks named user off a given channel. Only 'channel
operators' are privileged to use this command.
/KICK #Twilight_Zone Target
*** Target has been kicked off channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap
Changes the topic for the channel.
/TOPIC The silent channel.
*** Nap has changed the topic on channel #EU-Opers to The silent
channel.
Tells the current channel or query about what you are
doing. You can also use your own nickname as command, i.e. you can type
the line with a leading slash.
/ME opens up the fridge.
* Nap opens up the fridge.
/Nap reaches out for the orange juice.
* Nap reaches out for the orange juice.
/DESCRIBE <nickname>|<channel> <action description>
Sends anything concerning you to the <nickname> or
<channel> you pass as first argument.
2.4 Channel and User Modes
Channels can have additional constraints, which can be set by the MODE
command, (most of the information in this section can also be obtained by
issuing "/HELP MODE"). To understand this, recall that the first person
to JOIN a channel effectively creates it and is initially "in charge" of
the channel, ("Channel Operator" or "chanop"). S/he can subsequently add
those constraints, make other people chanops at leisure.
Table 7: Mode commands
Keyword Action
MODE changes channel or user mode
Allows channel operators to change channel mode, or any user to
change their personal mode, (don't use this co mmand too often, it floods
the net with worthless information).
/MODE #Twilight_Zone +m
*** Mode change "+m" on channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap
/MODE Nap -i
*** Mode change "-i" for user Nap by poly.polytechnique.fr
And this is how to give 'chanop' status to someone on the channel
/MODE #Twilight_Zone +o sojge
*** Mode change "+o sojge" on channel #Twilight_Zone by Nap
Table 8: Channel modes
ModeChar Effects on channels
b <person> ban somebody, <person> in "nick!user@host" form
i channel is invite-only
l <number> channel is limited, <number> users allowed max
m channel is moderated, (only chanops can talk)
n external /MSGs to channel are not allowed
o <nick> makes
Table 9: User modes
--------------------
ModeChar Effects on nicknames
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
i makes yourself invisible to anybody that does
not know the exact spelling of your nickname
o IRC-operator status, can only be set
by IRC-ops with OPER
s receive server notices
w receive wallops (abused and deprecated)
2.5 Client to Client Protocol
/CTCP
Allows you to perform certain client specific actions on the
network.
/CTCP Nap VERSION
*** CTCP VERSION reply from Nap: ircII 2.2 *IX
:ircII 2.2, SL0 The one you thought you'd never see.
This can be used to get information about how long a person has
been idle:
/CTCP Nap FINGER
*** CTCP FINGER reply from Nap: PIOCH Nicolas - Nap on IRC, X90,
(pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr) Idle 0 seconds
Table 10: Client to Client Commands
Keyword Action
CTCP performs certain client specific actions
DCC handles direct connections to remote clients
DCC SEND initiates a file transfer
DCC GET accepts a file transfer
DCC CLOSE ends a DCC connection or offer
DCC LIST shows current DCC connections
DCC CHAT initiates a secure chat between two clients
/CTCP Nap CLIENTINFO
*** CTCP CLIENTINFO reply from Nap: SED VERSION CLIENTINFO
USERINFO ERRMSG FINGER TIME ACTION DCC UTC PING :Use
CLIENTINFO
A few seconds later
*** DCC GET connection with NickA established
*** DCC GET filename connection to NickA completed
will inform both users that data transfer has been successfully
completed.
/DCC <function> [<arguments>]
Handles direct connections to remote clients. The behaviour of
DCC is determined by the specified
Initiates a file transfer by direct client
connection.
Accepts a file transfer by direct client connection. The
sender must first have offered the file with DCC SEND.
Ends an unwanted DCC connection or offer. The
Shows current /DCC connections with their types, status and
nicknames involved.
Initiates a direct client connection chat to the given nick,
who must repond with DCC CHAT. Once established, messages are sent
over with "/MSG =Nickname ...".
2.6 Network Related Commands
If you encounter any problem, contact your local IRC-Administrator or
an IRC-Operator. An IRC-Admin is a person who has access to all files
concerning 'ircd' (the server program). An IRC-Operator or "IRC-op" is a
person who has privileges given to him by an IRC-Admin and tries to
maintain a fast reliable IRC network. Information on how you can find
out who s/he is, can be found below.
Table 11: Network related commands
Keyword Action
ADMIN displays information about a server
LINKS shows the servers on the IRC network
SERVER switches your primary server
MOTD displays the server message-of-the-day
USERS prints users logged on the server machine
DATE shows server current date and time
TIME shows server current date and time
LUSERS gives a brief listing of users, servers and operators
TRACE shows the server connections of the given server
STATS shows some irc server usage statistics
INFO shows useless information about IRC
VERSION shows client and server version number
Displays the administrative details about the given server.
If no server is supplied, the server you are connected to is
used.
/ADMIN
### Administrative info about poly.polytechnique.fr
### Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, FRANCE
### IRC-Administrator Nicolas Pioch (Nap@IRC)
###
Shows a list of servers currently connected to the IRC
network. If <wildcard expression> is given, /LINKS asks the given
<server> for a list of servers matching the given expression, (this
list can get very long!).
/LINKS *po*
*** nova.unix.portal.com 7 Cupertino California, USA
*** poe.acc.Virginia.EDU 6 University of Virginia 2.7.1f
*** polaris.utu.fi 9 University of Turku, Finland
*** polaris.ctr.columbia.edu 6 Columbia University, New York City
*** csd.postech.ac.kr 4 POSTECH Computer Science Dept.
*** cdc853.cdc.polimi.it 2 Polytechnic of Milan, Italy
*** poly.polytechnique.fr 0 Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, FRANCE
Switches your primary server to the supplied <server> at
the specified <port number>. If no port number is given, the
default port number is used (normally 6667).
/SERVER poly.polytechnique.fr 6667
*** Connecting to port 6667 of server poly.polytechnique.fr
*** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, Nap
*** Your host is poly.polytechnique.fr, running version 2.7.2g.ID
*** This server was created Sat Jan 16 1993 at 12:16:10 MET
Gives the Message-Of-The-Day for the named server. If no
server is given, your server is used.
/MOTD
MOTD - poly.polytechnique.fr message of the day -
MOTD - _____________________________________
MOTD - /\ \
MOTD - \_| Bienvenue sur le serveur |
MOTD - | Internet Relay Chat |
MOTD - | de l'Ecole Polytechnique, FRANCE |
MOTD - | _________________________________|__
MOTD - \_/___________________________________/
MOTD -
MOTD - | | | En cas de probleme,
MOTD - )_) )_) )_) tapez / admin
MOTD - )___))___))___)\
MOTD - )____)____)_____)\\ Nicolas PIOCH
MOTD - _____|____|____|____\\\__ Nap sur IRC
MOTD - --\ Welcome to IRC ! /---------
MOTD - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^
* End of /MOTD command
Shows the users logged into the machine where the server is
running, (it's up to the server administrator to implement this feature or
not. It may not work on some machines).
/USERS
*** UserID Terminal Host
*** pioch ttyp9 rotule.polytechn
*** pioch ttypc rotule.polytechn
*** pioch ttyq0 rotule.polytechn
*** pioch ttyq1 rotule.polytechn
/TIME [<server>]
Shows the current time of day and date. If a server is
specified, the time of day and date are reported from that server. DATE
and TIME are identical.
/DATE
*** poly.polytechnique.fr Saturday June 20 1992 -- 02: 35 +01:00
/LUSERS
Gives a brief listing of the number of servers, operators
and users matching the given <wildcard expression>, as seen from
the specified <server>.
/LUSERS
*** There are 1008 users and 291 invisible on 135 servers
*** 72 users have connection to the twilight zone
*** There are 458 channels
*** I have 16 clients and 4 servers
*** 22 maximum connections, 19 clients
Shows the server connections of the given
<server>.
/TRACE
*** Serv Class[9] ==> 134S 1331C eff.org[192.88.144.3]
*** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 6C Julia.Enst.FR
*** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 6C Eurecom8.Cica.FR[192.70.34.208]
*** Serv Class[1] ==> 2S 0C athina.cc.uch.gr[147.52.80.102]
*** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 5C dafne.mines.u-nancy.fr[192.70.66.2]
*** Serv Class[8] ==> 1S 0C cnam.cnam.fr
*** Class 0 Entries linked: 16
*** Class 9 Entries linked: 1
*** Class 8 Entries linked: 4
*** Class 1 Entries linked: 1
Shows some irc server usage statistics.
/STATS u
*** Server Up 12 days, 12:28:44
Shows information about the IRC creators, debuggers, slaves and
a lot of other people who no longer have much to do with
IRC.
Shows the ircII version number and the version number of the
server.
/VERSION
*** Client: ircII 2.2
*** Server poly.polytechnique.fr: ircd 2.7.2g.Nap+6(privacy).
2.7 Quick Reference Panel
Keyword Action
------- ------
! recalls previous commands for re-editing
ADMIN displays information about a server
AWAY leaves a message saying you're not paying attention
CLEAR puts some white space on your screen
CTCP performs certain client specific actions
DATE shows server current date and time
DCC handles direct connections to remote clients
DESCRIBE sends anything about you to a person or channel
HELP prints help on the given command
HISTORY displays the command history
IGNORE removes output from specific people off your screen
INFO shows useless information about IRC
INVITE sends an invitation to another user
JOIN sets your current channel
KICK gets rid of someone on a channel
LASTLOG lists the most recent messages
LEAVE leaves a channel
LINKS shows servers on the IRC network
LIST lists channels, number of users, topic
LUSERS gives a brief listing of users, servers and operators
ME sends anything about you to a channel or QUERY
MODE changes channel mode
MOTD displays the server message-of-the-day
MSG sends a private message
NAMES shows the nicknames of users on each channel
NICK changes your nickname
NOTICE sends a private message
NOTIFY warns you of people logging in or out IRC
QUERY starts a private conversation
QUIT exits your IRC session
SERVER switches your primary server
STATS shows some irc server usage statistics
TIME shows server current date and time
TOPIC changes the topic of the channel
TRACE shows the server connections of the given machine
USERS prints users logged on the server machine
VERSION shows client and server version number
WHO gives a listing of users
WHOIS displays information about someone
WHOWAS displays information about someone who just left
2.8 Further into ircII Wizardry
Note: This part should be reserved for experienced IRC'ers.
Table 12: Setting environment variables
Shell type Shell name Command
Bourne shells sh $ VARNAME="value" ; export VARNAME
ksh $ export VARNAME="value"
bash $ export VARNAME="value"
C-shells csh % setenv VARNAME "value"
tcsh > setenv VARNAME "value"
Table 13: Environment variables
Name Effects
HOME where your home directory is
IRCNAME any lunacy you want instead of your real name
(text that appears between parentheses in a WHOIS)
IRCNICK your default IRC nickname
IRCPATH a directory path to LOAD scripts
IRCRC a file to use instead of your $HOME/.ircrc
IRCSERVER a default server list for ircII
TERM your terminal type
Table 14: Advanced commands
Keyword Action
# same as COMMENT except for the lenght
@ performs variable expressions
ALIAS creates command aliases
ASSIGN creates user variables (expandable with $)
BIND binds a keystroke sequence to a function
CD changes ircII working directory
COMMENT does nothing, but very useful. Strange, uh?
ECHO displays all of its arguments
EXEC allows you to start subprocesses
FLUSH flushes all pending output from the server
IF standard boolean expression checker
LOAD loads an ircII command script file
ON sets up actions to occur when certain events happen
REDIRECT forwards the output from a command
SAVE saves all ircII settings into a file
SAY same as sending text to a channel
SEND same as sending text to a channel
SET sets a variable to a given value
SLEEP suspends ircII for a few seconds
TYPE simulates keystrokes
WAIT waits for all server output to finish
WHILE another control command to make loops
WINDOW lets you manipulate multiple "windows" in ircII
XECHO like ECHO, but takes flag arguments
JOIN #Twilight_Zone
then each time you will start IRC, you will join this channel.
2.9 Sample .ircrc
As a sample, here's part of my .ircrc file. Since ircII2.2, this file
can be found in the "script" directory, and loaded with "/load ircprimer"
# Sample .ircrc script, from the IRCprimer v1.1
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
# IRCII sample configuration file (~/.ircrc) (Nicolas Pioch)
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
# The aim of this file is to shorten all useful commands to 1 letter.
set NOVICE off
set INPUT_ALIASES off
set AUTO_WHOWAS on
set SHOW_CHANNEL_NAMES on
set SHOW_AWAY_ONCE on
# Speeds up ircII display 2 times
set SCROLL_LINES 2
# Put Hack notices down under
on ^SERVER_NOTICE "\*\*\* Notice -- Hack: *" set status_user Hack: $4-
# Modified killpath script from YeggMan
ALIAS kpath ECHO ### Last received KILL for $nkp.path
@ nkp.path = [
2.10 Writing automatons
An automaton, (also called robot or service), is a program that is
connected to the IRC network to provide services. Many people try to set
that up with a few ircII commands like:
on ^msg "% help" notice $0 This is LameBot 1.0
on -JOIN "Lamer #BotTub" mode #BotTub +o Lamer
then you are wrong. Because this is what you will get:
*** Lamer (clueless@where.the.hell) has joined channel #bottub
*** Mode change "+o Lamer" on channel #bottub by LameBot
*** Mode change "+o Lamer" on channel #bottub by StupidSrv
*** Mode change "+ooo Lamer Lamer Lamer" on channel #bottub by FloodServ
*** Mode change "+o Lamer" on channel #bottub by Dumbbot
on -MSG "Lamer op me on #BotTub" mode #BotTub +o Lamer
*** TalkBot (clueless@where.the.hell) has joined channel #bottub
<LameBot> Hi TalkBot!
<TalkBot> Hello LameBot! How are you?
*** Mode change "+o TalkBot" on channel #bottub by LameBot
<LameBot> Fine thanx.
<TalkBot> Thank you for the op, LameBot.
<LameBot> No problem, TalkBot.
*** Signoff: Talkbot (ircserver.irc.edu where.the.hell)
*** TalkBot (clueless@where.the.hell) has joined channel #bottub
*** Mode change "+o TalkBot" on channel #bottub by where.the.hell
*** Mode change "+o LameBot" on channel #bottub by TalkBot
*** Mode change "+o TalkBot" on channel #bottub by LameBot
<TalkBot> Thank you for the op, LameBot.
<LameBot> No problem, TalkBot.
...
A smart bot won't act unless explicitly asked by someone to.
3. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
3.1 How do I set up an IRC client?
Here is a list of FTP sites from which you can download a client for
your specific operating system.
Table 15: FTP sites with IRC clients
UNIX ircII
calypso.cs.uregina.ca - /public/outgoing
ftp.acsu.buffalo.edu - /pub/irc
slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com - /pub/irc
plod.cmbe.unsw.oz.au - /pub
coombs.anu.edu.au - /pub/irc
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/ircII
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de - /pub/net/irc
EMACS elisp
slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com - /pub/irc/emacs
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/Emacs
lehtori.cc.tut.fi - /pub/irchat
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de - /pub/net/irc
VMS
coombs.anu.edu.au - /pub/irc/vms
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/vms
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de - /pub/net/irc
REXX for VM
ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de - /pub/irc/rxirc
ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de - /pub/net/irc/VM
coombs.anu.edu.au - /pub/irc/rxirc
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/rxirc
MSDOS
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/msdos
Macintosh
calypso.cs.uregina.ca
nic.funet.fi - /pub/unix/irc/mac
sumex.stanford.edu - /info-mac/comm
ftp.ira.uka.de - /pub/systems/mac
~ > ftp
ftp> verbose off
Verbose mode off.
ftp> open cs.bu.edu
Name (cs.bu.edu:yourname) : ftp
Password: yourname@yourhost
ftp> cd irc/clients
ftp> bin
ftp> get ircII2.2.1.2.tar.Z "|zcat|tar xf -"
ftp> get ircII2.2.1help.tar.Z "|zcat|tar xf -"
ftp> quit
~ >
Table 16: Open telnet clients
Area Command login name
America telnet bradenville.andrew.cmu.edu
telnet chatsubo.nersc.gov bbs
Asia telnet cc.nsysu.edu.tw irc
Europe telnet ircclient.itc.univie.ac.at 6668
telnet irc.ibmpcug.co.uk 9999
3.2 Which server do I connect to?
It's usually best to try and connect to one geographically close, even
though that may not be the best. You can always ask when you get on IRC.
Here's a list of servers available for connection:
Table 17: Open IRC servers
America Canada ug.cs.dal.ca
USA csa.bu.edu
ucsu.coloradu.edu
irc.caltech.edu
Europe Finland nic.funet.fi
France poly.polytechnique.fr
Germany noc.belwue.de
Sweden irc.nada.kth.se
Oceania Australia munagin.ee.mu.oz.au
3.3 What are good channels to try while using IRC?
#Hottub and #riskybus are almost
always teeming with people. #Hottub is meant to simulate a hot tub,
and #riskybus is a non-stop quiz show similar to Jeopardy. Just join the
fun and find out! (German users may try channels named after German
university towns...)
3.4 How do I get nifty effects with ircII?
You can highlight messages you send using control chars: parts of
text surrounded by control-b (^B) will appear in video reverse to most
ircII users for instance. However the appearance of such effects relies
on the terminal abilities of the user you're writing to.
Table 18: Highlighting ircII output
Key Effect
^V Video reverse
^_ Underline
^B Bold
3.5 What if someone tells me to type something cryptic?
3.6 I get strange characters on my screen, what are they?
IRC has quite a few people from Scandinavian countries, }{|][\ are
letters in their alphabet (IRC is supposed to support the ISO Latin-1
8-bit character set, but your client must be able to display them.)
This has been explained on IRC about a thousand and one times, so read
the following, do not ask it on IRC:
Table 19: Nordic countries character translations
Character Description
[, { 'a' with two dots over it
], } 'a' with a small circle above it
\, | 'o' with two dots over it, or a dash ("/") through it
("[", "]", and "\" = upper case)
3.7 What about NickServ?
To quote from NickServ's help text, NickServ's purpose is to help
avoiding nickname confusions on IRC. There's no such thing as "nickname
ownership", however NickServ sends a warning to anyone else who signs on
with your nickname. If you don't use IRC for 10 weeks, your nickname
registration expires for reuse.
/MSG NickServ@Service.de OPERWHO
Nicknames with a "*" next to them are online at the time.
3.8 I'm being flooded or harassed by a jerk. HELP!
If somebody is behaving like a jerk on IRC, like dumping to a channel
Mb's of garbage, then he should be KICKed and eventually banned from the
channel, (see "/HELP MODE" for details).
3.9 How do I get rid of a ghosted IRC session?
Sometimes you may have a "ghosted" IRC session, a process still
running on your machine you would like to get rid of, but can't control
anymore to issue a QUIT command. Going back to a unix shell, try listing
your processes: ("ps -ux" or "ps -f" depending on your system)
poly ~ > ps -ux
USER PID %CPU %MEM SZ RSS TT STAT TIME COMMAND
pioch 10410 1.4 0.2 839 402 pf S 0:00 /usr/local/bin/emacs
pioch 25441 0.6 0.9 2888 1908 ? S 0:32 xterm -ls
pioch 25444 0.4 0.2 550 341 pf S 0:17 -tcsh (tcsh)
pioch 10404 0.1 0.3 897 624 pf S 0:00 irisVx 5 4 10403
pioch 25634 0.0 0.3 1022 678 p6 S 0:22 irc
pioch 25451 0.0 0.2 953 326 ? S 0:07 xmailbox
pioch 25452 0.0 0.1 386 147 ? S 0:00 xdaliclock
pioch 25459 0.0 0.3 1109 617 ? S 0:02 xman
pioch 10403 0.0 0.1 574 124 pf I 0:00 mapleV
pioch 10423 0.0 0.2 614 459 pf R 0:00 /bin/ps -ux
USER PID %CPU %MEM SZ RSS TT STAT TIME COMMAND
pioch 25634 0.0 0.3 1022 678 p6 S 0:22 irc
3.10 About KILL usage
KILL is a command restricted to IRC-Operators to deal with protocol
errors heavily reducing the IRC network functionality. It's to be used
with extreme caution, if at all.
KILL should never interfere with channel-operator status.
3.11 Where can I find more?
Should your question not be listed above, you may want to check the
"Frequently Unasked Questions", (FUQ) list, which will be shipping real
soon now, featuring replies to:
<lamer1>> Are there any good FTP sites? (1)
<lamer2> How do I join a channel?
<lamer3> How do I become an IRCop?
If you have access to Usenet News, (usually through a program called
rn, trn, xrn or nn), you may want to join alt.irc debates, flamings and
whinings.
Table 20: IRC related mailing lists
E-mail for subscriptions What's being talked about
operlist-request@eff.org Server code, routing and protocol.
ircd-three-request@eff.org ircd 3.0 protocol
listserv@grasp1.univ.lyon1.fr European IRC-Operators mailing list
dl2p+@andrew.cmu.edu ircII mailing list
vmsirc-request@vax1.elon.edu VMS IRC mailing list
irchat-request@cc.tut.fi irchat mailing list
4. ADMINISTRATIVIA
4.1 Revision history
This is version 1.1 of this paper. Version 1.0 of the IRCprimer was
released in postscript form in June 1992 because I was sick of people
asking for an IRC or ircII manual (and it was a good way to learn
LaTeX!). During summer 1992 Owe Rasmussen did a very nice text
conversion of the paper. Due to the support and many remarks I got, a
new version is finally completed (special thanks to Olaf Titz !), along
with Owe's plain ascii conversion.
4.2 Release sites for the IRCprimer
The latest version of the primer can be found on the following ftp
sites, thanks to their admins:
Table 21: IRCprimer release sites
ftp site location
nic.funet.fi /pub/unix/irc/docs
cs.bu.edu /irc/support
coombs.anu.edu.au /pub/irc/docs
~ > ftp
ftp> verbose off
Verbose mode off.
ftp> open cs.bu.edu
Name (cs.bu.edu:yourname): ftp
Password: yourname@yourhost
ftp> cd irc/support
ftp> bin
ftp> get IRCprimer.ps.Z
ftp> quit
~ > uncompress IRCprimer.ps.Z
~ >
4.3 Copyright (C) 1993 Nicolas PIOCH
This manual is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2 of the license, or (at your option)
any later version.
Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
4.4 Credits
The Interesting information contained in this paper is due to the work
of various people interested in IRC improvement; I'm only responsible for
omissions and mistakes :-)
Real life (uh ?) IRC E-mail
Christopher Davis ckd ckd@eff.org
Christophe Wolfhugel Zolf wolf@grasp.insa-lyon.fr
Darren Reed Avalon avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au
Greg Lindahl, Wumpus gl8f@virginia.edu
Helen Rose Trillian hrose@eff.org
Ian Frechette Daemon frechett@spot.colorado.edu
Jarkko Oikarinen WiZ jto@tolsun.oulu.fi
Jeff Trim jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu
Jonathon E. Tidswell Ernie jont@cs.su.oz.au
Karl Kleinpaste poptart KarlKleinpaste@cs.cmu.edu
Matthew Alderson thecure thecure@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au
Matthew Green phone phone@coombs.anu.edu.au
Mauri Haikola Mauri mjh@stekt.oulu.fi
Michael Sandrof BigCheese ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu
Olaf Titz praetorius stitz@ira.uka.de
Ove Ruben R. Olsen Gnarfer rubenro@viggo.blh.no
Ronald van Loon rvl rvloon@cv.ruu.nl
Troy Rollo Troy troy@cbme.unsw.edu.au
A Short IRC Primer, converted from plain text to HTML by
Michelle A. Hoyle,
see the
original version at her site or email her at
hoyle@ifi.unizh.ch.
Last updated: Jan 2, 1997.
Copyright © 1996,1997 Joseph Lo and many others.
