IRCD(8) 						      System Manager's Manual							   IRCD(8)

NAME

       ircd - The Undernet Internet Relay Chat Daemon

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       ircd  is  the  Undernet	Internet  Relay  Chat  daemon.	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 ircd for processing and relaying to  other  servers.   irc(1)
       depends upon there being an ircd server running somewhere for it to connect to and thus allow the user to begin talking to other users.

       There  are  many  common  clients  including  ircII,  EPIC,  and  BitchX  for UNIX, mIRC and pIRCh for Windows, and IRCle and Homer for the
       Macintosh.

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.

       -t     Instructs the server run in the foreground and to direct debugging output to standard output.

       -x#    Defines  the  debug level for ircd. The higher the debug level, the more messages get directed to debugging file (or standard output
	      if the -t option is used).

       -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.

       -f filename
	      Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this server. 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 isn't 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.

       -h hostname
	      Allows the user to manually set the server name at startup. The default name is hostname.domainname.

       -p portname
	      This is deprecated in favor of specifying server ports in P: lines.

CONFIGURATION

       If  you	plan  to connect your ircd server to an existing IRC network, you will need to alter your local ircd configuration file (typically
       named ircd.conf) so that it will 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.  Because the description of the ircd.conf file is beyond the scope of
       this document, please refer to the INSTALL file in the ircd 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
	"ircd.conf"

SEE ALSO

       irc(1)

BUGS

       See the file 'BUGS' included in the distribution.

AUTHOR

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

								   10 July 2000 							   IRCD(8)