path: root/doc/ircd.8

.\" @(#)$Id ircd.8 2.0 (beta version) 29 Mar 1989 $
.TH IRCD 8 "$Date: 1999/04/08 22:12:19 $"
.SH NAME
ircd \- The Internet Relay Chat Program Server 
.SH SYNOPSIS
.hy 0
.IP \fBircd\fP
[
.B \-abcioqst
] [
.BI \-f " configfile"
] [
.BI \-x " debuglevel"
] [
.BI \-h " hostname"
] [
.BI \-T " tunefile"
] [
.BI \-p " mode"
]
.IP \fBircd\fP
.B \-v
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
\fIircd\fP is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay Chat
Program.  The \fIircd\fP is a server in that its function is to "serve"
the client program \fIirc(1)\fP with messages and commands.  All commands
and user messages are passed directly to the \fIircd\fP for processing
and relaying to other ircd sites.  The \fIirc(1)\fP program depends upon
there being an \fIircd\fP server running somewhere (either on your local
UNIX site or a remote ircd site) so that it will have somewhere to connect
to and thus allow the user to begin talking to other users.

\fIircd\fP will reread its configuration file whenever it received a hangup
signal, SIGHUP.

Sending an interrupt signal to \fIircd\fP process will cause it to restart.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-a
Instructs the server to automatically die off if it loses all it's clients.
.TP
.B \-b
If the ircd.tune file is corrupted, by default the server
will not start.  This option will make the server start
anyways, with the default values (ignoring the corrupted
file).
.TP
.B \-c
This flag must be given if you are running ircd from \fI/dev/console\fP or
any other situation where fd 0 isnt a tty and you want the server to fork
off and run in the background. This needs to be given if you are starting
\fIircd\fP from an \fIrc\fP (such as \fI/etc/rc.local\fP) file.
.TP
.B \-i
The server was started by inetd and it should start accepting connections
from standard input. The following inetd.conf-line could be used to start
up ircd automatically when needed:
.TP
.B
ircd stream tcp wait irc /etc/ircd ircd \-i

allows inetd to start up ircd on request.
.TP
.B \-o
Starts up a local ircdaemon. Standard input can be used to send IRC
commands to the daemon. The user logging in from standard input will
be given operator privileges on this local ircd. If ircd is a setuid program,
it will call setuid(getuid()) before going to local mode. This option
can be used in inetd.conf to allow users to open their own irc clients
by simply connecting their clients to the correct ports. For example:
.TP
.B
irc stream tcp nowait irc /etc/ircd ircd \\-f/etc/ircd.conf \\-o

allows users connecting to irc port (specified in /etc/services) to start
up their own ircdaemon. The configuration file should be used to check from
which hosts these connections are allowed from. This option also turns
on the autodie option -a.
.TP
.B \-q
Using this option stops the server from doing DNS lookups on all the
servers in your \fIircd.conf\fP file when it boots. This can take a lengthy
amount of time if you have a large number of servers and they are not all
close by.
.TP
.B \-s
When this option is specified, \fIiauth\fP will not be
started.  This means that the IRC daemon will perform "ident
lookups" (RFC 1413) internally to attempt to authenticate
incoming connections.  No other authentication mechanism
will be used.
.TP
.B \-t
Instructs the server to direct debugging output to standard output.
.TP
.BI \-f " filename"
Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option
is used to override the default ircd.conf given at compile time.
.TP
.BI \-x " #"
Defines the debuglevel for ircd. The higher the debuglevel, the more stuff
gets directed to debugging file (or standard output if -t option was used
as well).
.TP
.BI \-h " hostname"
Allows the user to manually set the server name at startup. The default
name is hostname.domainname.
.TP
.BI \-p " mode"
Specify whether the server should enable built-in
protections against various type of user abuse that is
commonly found on big public networks.  Possible modes are
.BR strict " (default),"
.BR on " and"
.BR off .
The
.B strict
option enables the protections, and refuses to establish a
link to a server not running with this option.  This is
useful to force all servers on an IRC network to enable
them.
.TP
.BI \-T " tunefile"
Specifies the ircd.tune file to be used for this ircdaemon. The option
is used to override the default ircd.tune given at compile
time.
.TP
.B \-v
This option prevents the server from starting, and dumps
some information about the version instead.
.TP
.SH
If you plan to connect your \fIircd\fP server to an existing Irc-Network,
you will need to alter your local IRC CONFIGURATION FILE (typically named
"ircd.conf") so that it will accept and make connections to other \fIircd\fP
servers.  This file contains the hostnames, Network Addresses, and sometimes
passwords for connections to other ircds around the world.  Because 
description of the actual file format of the "ircd.conf" file is beyond the
scope of this document, please refer to the file INSTALL in the IRC source
files documentation directory.
.LP
BOOTING THE SERVER:  The \fIircd\fP server can be started as part of the
UNIX boot procedure or just by placing the server into Unix Background.
Keep in mind that if it is *not* part of your UNIXES Boot-up procedure 
then you will have to manually start the \fIircd\fP server each time your
UNIX is rebooted.  This means if your UNIX is prone to crashing
or going for for repairs a lot it would make sense to start the \fIircd\fP
server as part of your UNIX bootup procedure.  In some cases the \fIirc(1)\fP
will automatically attempt to boot the \fIircd\fP server if the user is
on the SAME UNIX that the \fIircd\fP is supposed to be running on.  If the
\fIirc(1)\fP cannot connect to the \fIircd\fP server it will try to start
the server on it's own and will then try to reconnect to the newly booted
\fIircd\fP server.
.SH EXAMPLE
.RS
.nf
tolsun% \fBircd\fP
.fi
.RE
.LP
Places \fIircd\fP into UNIX Background and starts up the server for use.
Note:  You do not have to add the "&" to this command, the program will
automatically detach itself from tty.
.LP
.RS
.nf
tolsun% \fBircd \-v\fP
ircd 2.9.3 AaCDEfFHiIkMsu_V1
        zlib not used
        Tue Apr 1 1997 at 20:17:50 EDT #1
.fi
.RE
.LP
This indicates that this binary is the version 2.9.3 of the
software.  AaCDEfFHiIkMsu_V1 are the compile time options
which were used.  This binary does not support compression
of server\-server links (does not use zlib) and was compiled
on April the 1st.
.SH COPYRIGHT
(c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland,
.LP
(c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science,
University of Oulu, Finland
.LP
(c) 1988,1989,1990,1991 Jarkko Oikarinen
.LP
For full COPYRIGHT see LICENSE file with IRC package.
.LP
.RE
.SH FILES
 /etc/utmp
 "ircd.conf"
.SH "SEE ALSO"
iauth(8) irc(1) ircdwatch(8)
.SH BUGS
None... ;-) if somebody finds one, please send mail to ircd-bugs@irc.org
.SH AUTHOR
Jarkko Oikarinen, currently jto@tolsun.oulu.fi,
manual page written by Jeff Trim, jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu,
later modified by jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.