IRCD-IRCU(8)

💖 IRCD-IRCU(8) — System Manager's Manual 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because we're about to talk about the Undernet Internet Relay Chat Daemon and honestly? she's iconic. this is the ircd-ircu page, section 8 of the System Manager's Manual, and yes we're doing the whole thing, no skimming, periodt.

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✨ NAME ✨

ircd-ircu — The Undernet Internet Relay Chat Daemon 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ircd   [-t] [-d directory] [-f configfile] [-x debuglevel] [-h hostname]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ircd is the Undernet Internet Relay Chat daemon. and like… she's a server in the sense that her whole job is to "serve" the client program irc(1) with messages and commands. that's the vibe. every single command and every single user message gets passed straight to ircd for processing and relaying to other servers. so basically irc(1) is nothing without her — she literally depends on there being an ircd server running somewhere for her to connect to, so that the user can start talking to other users. main character energy fr fr.

and the clients?? there are SO many common ones, bestie:

• ircII, EPIC, and BitchX for UNIX 🌈
• mIRC and pIRCh for Windows
• IRCle and Homer for the Macintosh

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -d directory — tells the server to change to that directory and use it as the reference point when it opens ircd.conf and other startup files. like a little home base, yk?
• -t — instructs the server to run in the foreground and send debugging output straight to standard output. no hiding, we're being ✨transparent✨.
• -x# — defines the debug level for ircd. the higher the debug level, the more messages get directed to the debugging file (or to standard output if you used the -t option). turn it up and she will Not stop talking.
• -w interface — this option is deprecated 🚫. outgoing connections are bound to the interface specified in the M: line, and incoming connections are accepted only on interfaces specified in the P: lines. so like, it's giving legacy, ok?
• -f filename — specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this server. this option is how you override the default ircd.conf that was given at compile time. custom config?? we love to see it.
• -c — this flag must be given if you're running ircd from /dev/console, or literally any other situation where fd 0 isn't a TTY and you want the server to fork off and run in the background. also needs to be given if you're starting ircd from an rc file (such as /etc/rc.local). don't skip her, she's not optional in those cases, no cap.
• -h hostname — lets you manually set the server name at startup. the default name is hostname.domainname. cute, but you can override.
• -p portname — this is deprecated in favor of specifying server ports in P: lines. bestie, use the P: lines.

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

if you're planning to connect your ircd server to an existing IRC network, you're gonna need to alter your local ircd configuration file (typically named ircd.conf) so it'll accept and make connections to other IRC servers. this file contains the hostnames, network addresses, and passwords for connections to other IRC servers around the world 🌍. and because describing the ircd.conf file is beyond the scope of this document, please refer to the INSTALL file in the ircd documentation directory. iykyk.

⭐ 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'll have to manually start the ircd server each time your UNIX is rebooted 😭. which means: if your UNIX is prone to crashing or going for repairs a lot, it would make sense to start the ircd server as part of your UNIX bootup procedure. lowkey just do it.

in some cases 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. and if irc(1) cannot connect to the ircd server, it will try to start the server on its own, and will then try to reconnect to the newly booted ircd server. she's resourceful like that 💁♀️.

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🔥 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. self-sufficient queen.

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👑 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 the LICENSE file with the IRC package.

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🍓 FILES 🍓

 /etc/utmp
 "ircd.conf"

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

irc(1)

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💀 BUGS 💀

see the file 'BUGS' included in the distribution. yes bestie, we know, just go read it.

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

the current authors of the undernet IRC daemon are coder-com@undernet.org, the original author was Jarkko Oikarinen. legends only 🫶

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and that's the whole page!! 10 July 2000 babes, and this was IRCD-IRCU(8) — go start your server, you got this 💖✨🎀