ircd
NAME
ircd - The Internet Relay Chat Program Server
SYNOPSIS
ircd [-a] [-c] [-i] [-o] [-q] [-t] [-d directory] [-f
configfile] [-x debuglevel] [-h hostname] [-p portnum]
DESCRIPTION
ircd is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay
Chat Program. The ircd is a server in that its function is
to "serve" the client program irc(1) with messages and
commands. All commands and user messages are passed
directly to the ircd for processing and relaying to other
ircd sites. The irc(1) program depends upon there being an
ircd 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.
OPTIONS
-d directory
This option tells the server to change to that
directory and use that as a reference point when
opening ircd.conf and other startup files.
-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:
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.
-a Instructs the server to automatically die off if it
loses all it's clients.
-t Instructs the server to direct debugging output to
standard output.
-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).
-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:
ircd stream tcp wait irc /etc/ircd ircd -i
allows inetd to start up ircd on request.
-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.
-c This flag must be given if you are running ircd from
/dev/console 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
ircd from an rc (such as /etc/rc.local) file.
-q Using the -q option stops the server from doing DNS
lookups on all the servers in your ircd.conf 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.
-h hostname
Allows the user to manually set the server name at
startup. The default name is hostname.domainname. -p
portname Specifies the port where the daemon should
start waiting for connections. This overrides the
default which is given at compile time.
If you plan to connect your ircd 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 ircd servers. This file
contains the hostnames, Network Addresses, and sometimes
passwords for connections to other ircds around the world.
Because description of the actual file format of the
"ircs.conf" file is beyond the scope of this document,
please refer to the file INSTALL in the IRC source files
documentation directory.
BOOTING THE SERVER: The ircd 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 ircd 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
ircd server as part of your UNIX bootup procedure. In some
cases the irc(1) will automatically attempt to boot the ircd
server if the user is on the SAME UNIX that the ircd is
supposed to be running on. If the irc(1) cannot connect to
the ircd server it will try to start the server on it's own
and will then try to reconnect to the newly booted ircd
server.
EXAMPLE
tolsun% ircd
Places ircd 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.
COPYRIGHT
(c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland,
(c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science,
University of Oulu, Finland
(c) 1988,1989,1990,1991 Jarkko Oikarinen
For full COPYRIGHT see LICENSE file with IRC package.
FILES
/etc/utmp
"irc.conf"
SEE ALSO
irc(1)
BUGS
None... ;-) if somebody finds one, please inform author
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.