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.