.\" @(#)ircd.8 7b10 25 Oct 2001
.\" $Id$
.TH IRCD 8 "14 July 2014" "ircd-hybrid-8"
.SH NAME
ircd \- The IRCD-Hybrid Internet Relay Chat server
.SH SYNOPSIS
.hy 0
.IP \fBircd\fP
[-configfile filename] [-dlinefile filename] [-klinefile filename]
[-xlinefile filename] [-logfile filename] [-pidfile filename] [-foreground]
[-version]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
\fIircd\fP is the server (daemon) program for the Internet Relay Chat
Program. The \fIircd\fP is a server in that its function is to "serve"
the client program \fIirc(1)\fP and other compatible programs with
messages and commands. All commands and user messages are passed
directly to the \fIircd\fP for processing and relaying to other IRC
servers.

This is \fIircd-hybrid\fP, the highly modified (and hopefully improved)
variant of the original ircd program by Jarkko Oikarinen.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-configfile filename
Specifies the ircd.conf file to be used for this \fIircd\fP. The option
is used to override the default ircd.conf given at compile time. By default,
this is "etc/ircd.conf" within the prefix you installed the \fIircd\fP in.
.TP
.B \-dlinefile filename
.TP
.B \-klinefile filename
.TP
.B \-xlinefile filename
Specifies the files to be used for D-lines (host bans), K-lines (hostmask bans),
and X-lines (gecos bans), which by default are within the etc/ directory of your
installation prefix as dline.conf, kline.conf, and xline.conf.
.TP
.B \-logfile filename
Specifies an alternative logfile to be used than that specified in defaults.h
.TP
.B \-pidfile filename
Specifies the file used by the \fIircd\fP to store its process ID. The option is
used to override the default ircd.pid given at compile time.
.TP
.B \-foreground
Makes \fIircd\fP run in the foreground
.TP
.B \-version
Makes \fIircd\fP print its version, and exit.
.SH USAGE
If you plan to connect your \fIircd\fP server to an existing IRC network,
you will need to alter your local IRC configuration file (typically named
"ircd.conf") so that it will accept and make connections to other \fIIRC\fP
servers. This file contains the hostnames, IP addresses, and sometimes
passwords for connections to other ircds around the world.

The example reference.conf in the etc/ directory documents itself. Read it 
carefully or you may expose a risk on your network simply by having your 
ircd running!
.LP
.SH BOOTING THE SERVER
It is sufficient to type \fBircd\fP at the command line to start 
ircd-hybrid into the background. If you wish to run ircd in the 
foreground (perhaps for debugging purposes), use the \fB-foreground\fP 
parameter.

The ircd-hybrid package in your distribution may ship with an rc-script 
which handles this for you. In Debian, it is \fB/etc/init.d/ircd-hybrid.\fP

.SH EXAMPLE
# ircd -configfile /usr/share/ircd/ircd.conf -logfile /var/log/ircd.log

Starts \fBircd\fP with the config file /usr/share/ircd/ircd.conf and 
with a log file /var/log/ircd.log. It implicitly forks back to the 
console -- to prevent this use -foreground.

Many of the above paths are hardcoded at compile time in the 
\fBinclude/defaults.h\fP file, so it may be convenient to edit these to 
suit your needs before you compile the ircd.
.SH COPYRIGHT
(c) 1988,1989 University of Oulu, Computing Center, Finland,
.LP
(c) 1988,1989 Department of Information Processing Science,
University of Oulu, Finland
.LP
(c) 1988-1991 Jarkko Oikarinen
.LP
(c) 1997-2014 The IRCD-Hybrid project.
.LP
For full COPYRIGHT see the LICENSE file within the IRC source package.
.LP
.RE
.SH BUGS
If you find a bug and you have a core file from ircd as a result, use a 
debugger like \fBgdb(1)\fP to process the core file and send a backtrace 
to \fBbugs@ircd-hybrid.org\fP.

.SH AUTHORS
irc2.8 and earlier: Jarkko Oikarinen, currently jto@tolsun.oulu.fi. See 
doc/old/Authors for more credits.
.LP
ircd-hybrid-8: the IRCD-Hybrid Project, bugs@ircd-hybrid.org.
.LP
Manual page written by Jeff Trim, jtrim@orion.cair.du.edu,
later modified by jto@tolsun.oulu.fi.
.LP
Updated by W. Campbell, wcampbel@botbay.net, Edward Brocklesby, 
ejb@klamath.uucp.leguin.org.uk, and highly revised by Joshua Kwan 
(joshk@triplehelix.org) for the Debian distribution.