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1 perry 1 ----
2 __NAME__
3
4
5 epic4 - Internet Relay Chat client for UNIX like
6 systems
7 __SYNOPSIS__
8
9
10 epic4 [[-a] [[-b] [[-B] [[-c chan] [[-d] [[-f] [[-F] [[-h] [[-H
11 hostname] [[-l filename] [[-L filename] [[-n nickname] [[-p
12 port] [[-q] [[-v] [[-x] [[-z username] [[nickname] [[server
13 description list]
14 __DESCRIPTION__
15
16
17 The ircII/EPIC program is a unix-based character oriented
18 user agent ('client') to Internet Relay Chat. It is a fully
19 functional ircII client with many useful extensions. This
20 version works with all modern irc server classes as of early
21 1999.
22 __OPTIONS__
23 -a
24
25
26 Append the server description list to the defaultserver list. The default behavior is for the serverdescription list to replace the default server list.-bOperate in so called ``bot mode.'' This implies the[[-d] option. EPIC will fork(2) immediately and the parent process will exit, returning you to your shell. Some system administrators do not look kindly to their users running bots, and they have disabled this option. Even if your administrator has not disabled it, you should not assume this gives you automatic permission to run a bot. If you do run a bot without permission, your administrator may get very angry with you, and possibly revoke your account. In addition, most IRC operators on public irc networks have very little tol- erance for people who run bots. So just a word of cau- tion, make sure that your system administrator and your irc administrator have given you permission before you run a bot.
27
28
29 -B
30 Force the startup file to be loaded immediately rather than
31 waiting until a connection to a server is estab-
32 lished.
33
34
35 -c chan
36 Join the specified channel the first time you success- fully
37 connect to a server.
38
39
40 -d
41 Operate in ``dumb mode.'' The client will not put up a full
42 screen display, and will read from standard input and write
43 to standard output. This is useful if the output normally
44 looks awful (because you are using an incorrect
45 TERM setting, or your terminal description is
46 spectacularly broken), or you just don't want to use the
47 pretty interface. This option will be turned on
48 automatically if your current TERM setting is not
49 capa- ble of a full screen display.
50
51
52 -f
53 Force use of hardware flow control. With this option, the
54 control-S and control-Q keys are probably not available to
55 be bound to something else.
56
57
58 -F
59 Disable use of hardware flow control. With this option, the
60 control-S and control-Q keys are available to be bound to
61 something else. However, you will not have hardware flow
62 control.
63
64
65 -h
66 Display a moderately concise help message and exit
67 immediately.
68
69
70 -H hostname
71 Use the IP address of the specified hostname as your default
72 IP address. This can be used if you have mul- tiple IP
73 addresses on the same machine and you want to use an address
74 other than the default address. You might need to use this
75 option when gethostname(3) does not return a
76 hostname (in some poorly configured NIS environments). The
77 use of multiple IP addresses on a single machine is commonly
78 referred to as
79 IRCHOST
80 environment variable.
81
82
83 -l filename,[[filename]
84 Use the specified filename(s) as the startup file. The
85 startup file is loaded the first time you successfully
86 connect to a server, unless you specify the [[-B] option.
87 This overrides the IRCRC environment variable. If
88 this option is not specified, and the IRCRC
89 environ- ment variable is not set, then ~/.ircrc is
90 the default startup file.
91
92
93 -n nickname
94 Use the specified nickname as the default nickname whenever
95 you connect to an irc server. This option overrides the
96 IRCNICK environment variable. This option can be
97 overridden if you specify nickname argu- ment in the command
98 line (see below).
99
100
101 -p port
102 Use the specified port as the default port for new server
103 connections. The default port is usually 6667. Make sure
104 that the servers you want to connect to are listening on
105 this port before you try to connect there.
106
107
108 -q
109 Suppress the loading of any file when you first estab- lish
110 a connection to an irc server.
111
112
113 -v
114 Output version identification (VID) information and
115 exit.
116
117
118 -x
119 This undocumented feature turns on all of the XDEBUG flags.
120 Refer to the help files for XDEBUG if you want to know what
121 happens if you use this.
122
123
124 -z username
125 Use the specified username when negotiating a connec- tion
126 to a new irc server. This overrides the IRCUSER
127 environment variable. If this option is not specified, then
128 the user name specified in /etc/passwd for your
129 user is used. This feature was formerly undocumented, but
130 with the rise and popularity and use of identd(8)
131 this option is much less useful than it once was. Requests
132 to have this option removed will probably be ignored. If you
133 don't want your users to spoof their usernames, install
134 identd, and do everyone on IRC a favor.
135
136
137 nickname
138 The first bare word found is taken as the default nick- name
139 to use. This overrides all other options, includ- ing the -n
140 option and the IRCNICK environment variable. If all
141 else fails, then the client uses your login name as the
142 default nickname.
143
144
145 server,[[server]
146 After the nickname, a list of one or more server speci-
147 fications can be listed. Unless you specify the -a option,
148 this will replace your default server list! The -a option
149 forces any servers listed here to be appended to the default
150 server list. The format for server specifications
151 is:
152
153
154 hostname:port:password:nick
155
156
157 Any item can be omitted by leaving the field blank, and any
158 trailing colons can also be omitted.
159
160
161 __DETAILED DESCRIPTION__
162
163
164 __The Screen:__
165
166
167 The screen is split into two parts, separated by an
168 inverse-video status line (if supported). The upper (larger)
169 part of the screen displays responses from the
170 ircd(8) server. The lower part of the screen (a
171 single line) accepts keyboard input.
172
173
174 Some terminals do not support certain features required by
175 epic4 , in which case you receive a message stating this. If
176 this occurs, try changing the terminal type or run epic4
177 with the -d option.
178
179
180 __Irc Commands:__
181
182
183 Any line beginning with the slash character ``/'' is
184 regarded as an epic4 command (the command character may be
185 changed). Any line not beginning with this character is
186 treated as a message to be sent to the current channel. The
187 client has a built in help system. Install the help files
188 (they should be available at the same place you got the
189 client) and then type ``/help'' to open up the help
190 system.
191
192
193 __The .ircrc File:__
194
195
196 When epic4 is executed, it checks the user's home directory
197 for a ~/.ircrc file, executing the commands in the
198 file. Commands in this file do not need to have a leading
199 slash character ``/'' This allows predefinition of aliases
200 and other features.
201 __PRACTICAL EXAMPLES__
202
203
204 Certainly any description of epic4 in this man page will be
205 sorely inadequate because most of the confusion doesn't even
206 start until after you get the client to connect to a server.
207 But if you really have problems getting the client to con-
208 nect to a server, try some of these:
209 epic4
210
211
212 Try this first. This will assume all the defaults.If the person who is maintaining epic4 at your sitehas done a halfway decent job, this will put you on aserver that is somewhat local to you.epic4 nickname irc.domain.comor something similar will attempt to connect to theirc server running on the host __FILES__
213 /usr/bin/epic4 the default location of the binary
214
215
216 ~/.ircrcdefault initialization file~/.irc/directory you can put your own epic4scripts into, that can then be loaded with/load/usr/share/epic4default directory containing mes-sage-of-the-day, master initialization,help files and epic4 scripts__THE HELP FILES__
217
218
219 Starting up the client is the easy part. Once you get con-
220 nected, you'll probably find you have no idea what you're
221 doing. That's where the help files come in. If the person
222 who maintains irc at your site didn't install the help
223 files, pester them until they do. Once the help files are
224 available, use the ``/help'' command to get started. There
225 are a bazillion commands and a multitude of nuances that
226 will take a few months to get down pat. But once you do, you
227 will be so firmly addicted to irc that your wife will
228 divorce you, your kids will leave you, your dog will run
229 away, and you'll flunk all your classes, and be left to sing
230 the blues.
231 __USEFUL WEB RESOURCES__
232
233
234 The EPIC home page
235
236
237 The Online EPIC
238 Help Pages
239
240
241 Lots of great help
242 for new irc users.
243 __SIGNALS__
244
245
246 epic4 handles the following signals gracefully
247 SIGUSR1 Closes all DCC connections and EXEC'd processes.
248
249
250 __ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES__
251
252
253 It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the
254 ~/.cshrc , ~/.profile , or
255 ~/.login file:
256 IRCNICK
257 The user's default IRC nickname
258
259
260 IRCNAME
261 The user's default IRC realname (otherwise retrieved from /etc/passwd )
262
263
264 IRCSERVER
265 The user's default IRC server list (see server option for
266 details)
267
268
269 HOME
270 Overrides the default home page in
271 /etc/password
272
273
274 TERM
275 The type of terminal emulation to use
276
277
278 __SEE ALSO__
279
280
281 ircd(8)
282 __BUGS__
283
284
285 Any non-trivial piece of software has bugs. ircII/EPIC is no
286 exception. You can refer to the KNOWNBUGS file that
287 is distributed with the client source code for a list of
288 prob- lems that are known to exist and may or may not be
289 fixed some day. If you find a bug that is not listed there,
290 you can refer to the BUG_FORM file that is also
291 distributed with the source code. It will give you
292 instructions on how to fill out the report and where to send
293 it.
294 __ERRATA__
295
296
297 The online documentation probably should be in docbook form
298 rather than in the current help format. The entire help
299 system is a hack.
300
301
302 This manual page only describes the options to epic4, but doesn't tell you what to do once you get connected.
303 __AUTHORS__
304
305
306 Program written by Michael Sandrof (ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu).
307 The copyright holder is Matthew Green (mrg@mame.mu.oz.au).
308 This software is maintained by Jeremy Nelson (jnel-
309 son@acronet.net) on behalf of the EPIC project (list@epic-
310 sol.org).
311
312
313 At one time or another, this man page has been edited by Darren Reed, R.P.C. Rodgers, the lynX, Matthew Green, and Jeremy Nelson.
314
315
316 BSD April 22, 1999 1
317 ----
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