tirc - Internet Relay Chat client

tirc [ -n nickname ] [ -s server ] [ -p port ] [ -x password ] [ -h hostname ] [ -d ] [ -v ]

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.

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 config 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.

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 channel 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 keybindings, 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 usually 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.

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 earlier 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.

TIRC can manage multiple pages in a fashion rudimentarily similar to the screen(1) tool. You can have up to 10 pages, each containing several windows. Pages are created and deleted with the /PAGE command and the Ctrl+X shortcuts.

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 reformatting the backscroll lines. The latter is not limited to X11.

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 introduction 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 probably 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).

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.

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 backslash ('\'). 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 command 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 .tircrc into your home directory and then modify according to your requirements.

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.

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 expressions are matched if available on your system (basic REs otherwise).

?

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.

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.

/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]).

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 System 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.

irc(1), ircd(8), ircII(1). vi(1) for a listing of vi motions, re_format(7) for an explanation of extended regular expression syntax.

doc/rfc1459.txt - J. Oikarinen, D. Reed, "Internet Relay Chat Protocol", May 1993. (RfC 1459)

doc/irc_dcc.txt - T. Rollo, "A description of the DCC protocol".

doc/dccresum.txt - T. Vonck, "DCC Resume".

Copyright (c) 1996, 1999 Matthias K. Buelow.

All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, 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 PURPOSE 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 BUSINESS 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

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.