help

Syntax:

/help command

This will show a help section about the given command. The command should be specified without prefixing it with a /. At any given moment when using the help command you can issue a ? to be given a list of available topics and sub-topics.

leave or part

Syntax:

/leave channel

/part channel

Use this to leave a channel. If you do not specify a channel name, the client will assume that you want to leave the currently active channel.

list

Syntax:

/list expression

The /list command will present you with a list containing various information about the specified channels. In this list you will find channel name, how many users there are in the channel at the moment, and the topic of the channel (if one is set).

If you are in a channel and set the expression to a * character, you will only be shown information about the channel you are currently in. If you are not in a channel when you use a * character as an expression, then all available channels will be listed.

There are several options available for the /list command. These options are enabled by specifying one or several of the various switches together with the command. See Table 7.3 for a summary of the control switches that are available. Using the /list command without any expression or switches can produce quite a lot of output.

If the server you are connected to is under a high load you may not be allowed to run the /list command. If this occurs, you can usually retry the /list command again after a little while.

Table 7.3. Control Switches for the /list Command

names

Syntax:

/names switches channel

This command will list the nicknames of all the users in the specified channel. If you do not specify a channel, information for all channels will be listed. To get information only about the channel you currently are in, use a * for channel name. See Table 7.4 for a list of available switches.

Table 7.4. Control Switches for the /names Command

nick

Syntax:

/nick nickname

This command is used to set your nickname, or nick as it is often abbreviated. If someone else is using the nick you requested, you will be prompted for a new nickname. When you start the ircII client it will use your Linux login name as the default nickname. You can modify this behavior by creating an .ircrc configuration file for ircII.

On some IRC nets it is possible to register and reserve your nickname. Doing this makes sure that you are the only one that can use that nick on that net. This might be a good idea if you are going to use that IRC net a lot. Furthermore, your chat buddies can be reasonably sure that it is really you with whom they are chatting if you have a registered nick.

The behavior of nick registration can be different on different IRC nets. The most common method goes something like this: If you try to set your nickname to one that is already registered by someone else then you will be given 60 seconds to specify another nickname. If you do not change the name within the allotted 60 seconds, the server will change your nickname for you. It will set a nick patterned along the lines of guest<number>. Many IRC channels will not allow people with such a nickname to join them. Therefore, it is always best to change to a proper nickname as quickly as possible.

server

Syntax:

/server servername:port

/server number

This command allows you to connect to an IRC server. If you already are connected to a server, you will be disconnected from that one and the newly specified server will become your primary server. As long as you remain on the same IRC net, you should retain your nickname and stay within the channels. However, sometimes a server change is not performed fast enough. In such a case the new server will think that someone else is already using your nickname and that this user is logged in on the previous server. You will therefore be refused to use the same nick again. When this happens you will either need to wait a short while before setting your nick again and rejoining the channels you want, or you can specify a new nickname instead.

At the same time that you supply a server name you can also specify which port number the IRC server is to be contacted on. If you do not specify a port number, the default IRC port number will be used. The default port number for IRC traffic is 6667.

The ircII client has a built-in list of servers that you have visited. If you enter the /server command without any parameters, you will be shown a list of these servers. If you start the ircII client without naming a specific server, one will be picked from the built-in list.

version

Syntax:

/version server

This shows version information about your IRC client. You will also be shown information about the server you specified. If you do not supply a server parameter, the command defaults to the server you are currently connected to. If you are not connected to a server, there will be no output about any server.

who

Syntax:

/who expression

This will produce a list of users on the IRC server you are on. If you specify an * as the expression, only users on the current channel will be listed. If you specify a 0 as an expression, all users on the whole IRC net will be shown. Apart from these two special cases you can supply any valid string containing regular expressions and the command will try to list only those users who match this expression. See Table 7.5 for more information of switches that are available for the /who command.

Table 7.5. Control Switches for the /who Command

whois

Syntax:

/whois nicknames

This is used to get detailed information about users with the specified nicknames. You will get the following information about each user: user name, host, server, real name, and their away message. The real name has to be taken with a grain of salt because the user can set this to whatever he wants.

For example, you might get the following output if you try the following command: /whois wsb.

*** wsb is wsb@test.gnulix.org (William B.)
*** on channels: @#gnulix
*** on irc via server irc-2.mit.edu (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
*** wsb has been idle 27 seconds

whowas

Syntax:

/whowas nickname

This shows detailed information about the user who last used the specified nickname. This will be shown even if the user is not logged in. You will be shown the same information as the /whois command outputs.

Customizing ircII with a .ircrc File

When ircII starts up it will try to access its local configuration file. This file is named .ircrc and simply contains ordinary ircII commands, just as those you use during your ircII sessions. By putting the commands you often use, especially during start up, in a file you can save a lot of typing and start up IRC sessions much faster.

Listing 7.1 is a sample .ircrc script that is distributed in the ircII package. You can find this sample file at /usr/share/irc/script/ircprimer. Notice that it defines many powerful macros and aliases. This could probably serve as a good basis for your own .ircrc file.

Example 7.1. A Sample .ircrc File

# Sample .ircrc script, from the IRCprimer v1.1
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
#    IRCII sample configuration file  (~/.ircrc)  (Nicolas Pioch)
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
# The aim of this file is to shorten all useful commands to 1 letter.

^set DISPLAY off
set NOVICE off
set INPUT_ALIASES off
set AUTO_WHOWAS on
set SHOW_CHANNEL_NAMES on
set SHOW_AWAY_ONCE on

# Speeds up ircII display 2 times
set SCROLL_LINES 2

# Put Hack notices down under
# Get rid of stupid 2.6 server messages "*** Nick: Channel not found"
on ^SERVER_NOTICE "% \*\*\* Notice -- Hack: *" set status_user Hack: $5-
on ^403 *

# Modified killpath script from YeggMan
ALIAS kpath ECHO ### Last received KILL for $nkp.path
ASSIGN nkp.path <empty>
ALIAS nkp.msg ECHO ### $Z -- KILL by $1 for $0 $2-
ALIAS nkp.idx ^ASSIGN FUNCTION_RETURN $({ [$RINDEX(! $0)] + 1} )
ALIAS nkp.srv ^ASSIGN FUNCTION_RETURN $INDEX(. $MID($nkp.idx($0) 512 $0))

ON ^SERVER_NOTICE "% \*\*\* Notice -- Received KILL*" {
        IF ( nkp.srv($12) > -1 )
            {  nkp.msg $8 $10 }
            {  nkp.msg $8 $10 $13- }
        ^ASSIGN nkp.path $8-
}

# Function to strip the less significant part of an internet hostname
alias userdomain {
  @ function_return = LEFT($INDEX(@ $0) $0)##[@]##MID(${ 1+INDEX(. $0)}  99 $0)
}

# Who is that ?
on ^msg * echo *$0!$userdomain($userhost())* $1-

# /w [<nickname>]                        get info on someone
# /q [<nickname>]                        query someone
# /m  <nickname> <text>                  send a message
# /n  <nickname> <text>                  send a notice
# /r <text>                              reply to last message I got
# /a <text>                              followup on my last message

alias w whois
alias q query
alias m msg
alias n notice
alias r msg $,
alias a msg $.

# /j <channel>                           join a channel
# /l <channel>                           list people in a channel
# /ll                                    list in the current channel
# /i <nickname> [<channel>]              invite someone
# /hop                                   leave the current channel

alias j join
alias l who
alias ll who *
alias i invite
alias hop part $C

# /o <nickname> [<nickname> <nickname>]  give channel op status
# /d <nickname> [<nickname> <nickname>]  remove channel op status
# /k <nickname>                          kick someone
# /mo [+|-]<modechars>                   change current channel mode

alias o mode $C +ooo
alias d mode $C -ooo
alias k kick $C
alias mo mode $C

# the "wrong person" alias! /oops <nickname> to resend message to
alias oops {
        ^assign _whoops $B
        msg $. Whooops ! Please ignore, that wasn't meant for you.
        msg $0 $_whoops
}

alias unset set -$*
alias unalias alias -$*
alias NickServ msg NickServ@Service.de
alias NoteServ msg NoteServ@Service.de

^set DISPLAY on

# -------------------------------------------------------------------

xchat

One of the most polished and feature-filled GUI IRC clients for Linux is xchat. It uses the GTK+ toolkit for its GUI and has a couple of extra features available if you run it with the Gnome Desktop. However, you can run it with any desktop or window manager and still have an excellent IRC client. The xchat client supports scripting in both Perl and Python, it supports dcc download/uploads of files, it has mIRC resumes for file transfers, and it also supports mIRC style color. It has all the features you can expect from a modern IRC client, and then some.

Starting xchat

Upon starting xchat you will be presented with a server list dialog, as shown in Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.1 The server list dialog of xchat.

In this dialog you can specify your nickname and a couple of fallback nicknames in case your first choice is taken. You can also set a real name and username to be presented instead of those that are set in your Linux account. All of these options are preset to names taken from the information available in your Linux account. You will probably want to set these to something better.

You can also toggle some options in the dialog. For example, you can tell the client to skip the Message of The Day, or MOTD, when logging in to a server. You can also tell the server dialog not to pop up each time you start xchat.

The most important use for this dialog is of course to maintain groups and lists of IRC servers. This is where you maintain your list of servers. From here you can add, edit, and delete servers. You can then use the list widget to connect to the servers that you have defined. To get a better overview of the servers it is possible to arrange them into groups. For example, you might want to collect all servers from a specific IRC net into a group named after the net. The xchat client comes with a large collection of predefined servers. These servers should probably last you quite a while.

Using xchat

Once you have connected to a server you will be presented with the main window of xchat. See Figure 7.2 for a typical IRC session using xchat. This is the screen where you will be spending most of your time when you are using xchat.

Figure 7.2 A typical xchat session.

The tab buttons at the bottom of xchat's screen show you which servers you are connected to and which channels you have currently joined. Clicking on one of the tabs will change the view to the chosen channel or server so that you can see what is going on. Above the tab buttons is a text input field where you can type messages or IRC commands. The majority of the screen is taken up by the chat traffic from the current IRC channel. On the left part of this you will see the nickname of the person chatting and on the right you will see what he is writing. The look and feel of this widget can be configured in many ways.

On the right-hand side of the screen is a list box that displays all the users who are currently online in the channel. By performing a right-clicking on one of the users you will be presented with a menu filled with options. The top option will show information about the chosen user. You will also be able to initiate private conversations with the user and so on. Most of the options on this menu are pretty self-explanatory. However, should you feel inclined to experiment with the various user commands on the menu, be sure to choose a user who will not be offended if you happen to do something stupid…

Finally, at the top of the screen, just below the menus, are various informational widgets. At the left are buttons that will allow you to rearrange the window and the tab buttons. In the middle is a string widget that shows the topic of the current channel. Toggle buttons that show which flags are in effect for the channel takes up the rest of this row. If you are the operator of the channel you can use these buttons to change the flags of the channel.

Joining Channels with xchat

Connecting to a channel is easy with xchat. Simply choose the Channel List Window menu option from the Windows menu and you will be presented with the dialog seen in Figure 7.3. There are a couple of options that let you customize the channel listings to some extent. You can specify a wildcard expression to list only channels that match this pattern. It is also possible to specify that only channels with a minimum number of users should be shown. When you are satisfied with your choices, click the Refresh button to get a channel list from the IRC server. Once the list is finished, you only have to double-click on a channel to join it. Of course, should you choose to, you can always use the /join command to join a channel.

Figure 7.3 The Channel List Window from xchat.

Configuring xchat

Using the setup option from the Settings menu will present you with a dialog with a score of options. These can be used to configure xchat to suit your personal preferences. As already noted it is very important that you change the download directory to something other than the default setting. See Figure 7.4 for an example of how the File Transfer Settings dialog might look.

Figure 7.4 The File Transfer Settings dialog of xchat.

The most important option here is the Directory To Save To setting. Be sure to change this to a directory where you have nothing important and can be reasonably sure that an unsuspected download cannot cause any harm. Make sure that the directory you specify actually exists.

Apart from this setting there are multitudes of others. However, there are far too many settings with too many options to cover in detail here. The default options are very good and should suit almost anyone's needs. It is probably better to keep them as they are while you get to know both IRC and the xchat client better. Be sure to take a look at http://xchat.org/docs.html, where you will find the online user documentation for xchat.

Running an IRC Server

Finally, it is possible to run your own IRC server. However, if you want to join one of the major IRC nets, you should be aware that this requires a huge amount of bandwidth and major computer power! Also you will need to tweak your system quite a lot to get the needed performance from your system. You may even need to compile a special version of the Linux kernel to be able to cope with the resource drains imposed by an IRC server. Because each connection to the IRC server will consume file handles, you will need to increase the number of file handles that each process can use. You can do this dynamically by changing the value in /proc/sys/fs/file-max. You will also need to increase the number of file handles available for the whole system. In the Linux 2.2 kernel series this can only be changed at compile time.

There is no IRC server included with the Red Hat 7 distribution even though there are several available in RPM format. Running an IRC server is not something the casual user would want to do, and to run one that is to have lots of traffic is something that is best left up to power users and gurus.

Share This