.TH IRC 1
.SH NAME
ircsrv, irc \- internet relay chat client and ui
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ircsrv
[
.I -p
]
[
.I -s serv
]
[
.I -f file
]
[
.I -r realname
]
[
.I -f file
]
.I nickname
.I [tcp!]irc.server.org
.br
.B irc
[
.I -c charset
]
[
.I -t victim
]
[
.I -b lines
]
[
.I -r file
]
[
.I -p
]
[
.I /srv/serv
[
.I /tmp/file
]]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Ircsrv
makes a connection to an irc server and reconnects if the connection
gets broken. It posts a service to /srv and creates (if necessary) an
append-only log file to /tmp. Default file and service name is a 
concatenation of the current username and the string 
.IR irc .
The
.I -r
option will use
.I realname
as the user's real name in conversation with the server. The option
.I -p
instructs ircsrv to ask factotum for a password of the form
.EX
proto=pass service=irc server=irc.server.org user=mynic
.EE
and use it for authentication.
.PP
.I Irc
is a client program that makes use of the service provided by
.I ircsrv
and provides a user interface for sending and receiving
messages.
.PP
The command language understood by
.I irc
is as follows
.EX
/h	this message
/H	this message
/m	privmsg #chan/nick message
/M	mode #chan +nt
/j	join [ #chan ]
/p	part [ #chan ]
/q	send parameters raw to the server
/l	list [ #chan ]
/L	names [ #chan ]
/n	nick newnick
/N	notice #chan/nick message
/t	set [ victim ]
/T	topic [ #chan [ newtopic ]]
/W	whois nick
/w	who nick (a shorter whois)
.EE
.PP
The
.I -c
flag sets character set conversion using
.IR tcs (1).
The
.I -r
flag will cause irc to replay the conversation from the raw file supplied as
argument without user interaction; the
.I -b
flag causes the client to display the last n lines of the default target or 
conversations if no target is set. Without any arguments
.I -b
prints the conversation from the very beginning.
The
.I -q
option surpresses printing
.IR JOIN ,
.IR PART ,
.IR MODE ,
.IR QUIT,
and
.I TOPIC
messages, which can get overwhelming in crowded rooms.
The
.I -t
flag sets the target to which the messages are
sent by default if a line written to
.I irc
does not begin with /. Irc also prints messages to/from
the target exclusively if one is set. Irc prints only private messages if the
target is set to "MSGS", useful for being notified when a message is sent
to your nick without having to monitor all the status information.
.SH EXAMPLES
To start up ircsrv on a remote cpu server
.EX
cpu -c ircsrv glenda irc.freenode.net
.EE
.PP
To use ircsrv started earlier on a cpu server
.EX
import $cpu /srv
import $cpu /tmp
irc
.EE
.PP
To start/see/continue a conversation with a specific target (can be #chan or nick)
.EX
irc -t #plan9
irc -t f2f
.EE
.PP
To run irc within acme start irc inside 
"win -e":
.EX
win -e
irc -t f2f
.EE
.SH SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/ircsrv.c
.br
/sys/src/cmd/irc.c
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR tcs (1),
.IR faces (1),
.IR nedmail (1)
.SH BUGS
Probably.  Missing functionality includes opening new windows when a
message from a new target arrives.
.PP
Timestamps should be provided by
.IR ircsrv ,
not 
.IR irc ,
so that a reconnecting
.I irc
doesn't claim all of history is happening right now.
.PP
.I Ircsrv
will reconnect to a server if the connection is broken, but will not
automatically rejoin any rooms.