SIC(1)

📦
version 1.3 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

💖 SIC(1) — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, you're looking at sic — that's the simple irc client — and it lives in the General Commands section of your manual pages. it's tiny, it's fast, it's iconic, and I'm about to walk you through every single byte of it. no skips. no skimming. we're doing this properly. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

sic — the simple irc client. that's it, that's the name, and it's giving minimalist queen. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sic [-h host] [-p port] [-n nick] [-k pass] [-v]

like… look at that. one line. beautiful. not a single wasted character. 😭

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the whole vibe: sic is an extremely fast, small and simple irc client. that's not me being hype, that's literally the description. it really is all three.

the way it works is honestly so clean:

  • it reads commands from standard input
  • it prints all server output to standard output
  • and it multiplexes all channel traffic into one output

that last one? that's the moment. bestie, you don't have to switch between different channel buffers at all. everything just… shows up. together. one stream. one vibe.

and the manpage itself says, and I quote: "So that's actually a feature." — which is the most unbothered, self-aware thing a piece of software has ever said, and I'm obsessed. 👑

💜 OPTIONS 💜

every flag, right here, no crumbs left behind:

  • -h host — overrides the default host, which is irc.oftc.net
  • -p port — overrides the default port, which is 6667
  • -n nick — overrides the default nick, and that default is $USER (yes, it just takes your username, it's not asking for your government name)
  • -k pass — specifies the PASS connection password
  • -v — prints version information to stderr, then exits. that's it. it peaces out immediately. 🫡

🎀 COMMANDS 🎀

this is the part where you actually do things. commands get typed into standard input, and here's the whole menu:

  • :j #channel — join a channel. welcome to the group chat. 🌈
  • :l #channel — leave a channel. sometimes you gotta go, that's valid. ✌️
  • :m #channel/user message — send a message to a channel or to a user. talk your talk.
  • :s #channel/user — set the default channel or user. this is your home base, your main character location. ⭐
  • :command — any line beginning with : gets sent as a command. so if it starts with a colon, it's a command, periodt.
ngl the : prefix is doing a lot of heavy lifting here and it's working. iykyk. ✨

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

there are no SEE ALSO entries in this page, bestie — it's just us, sic, and the void. 🤍

so anyway, that's the whole manual. written by the sic-1.3 girlies, shipped under the General Commands Manual, and you now know absolutely everything it contains. go forth, join a channel, multiplex that traffic, and be the fastest, smallest, simplest client in the room. 💖🎀🦋🌸🫶👑

📦 where this page comes from