All about the IRC
Written by: David^
Abstract
Have you ever wanted to talk with other computer users in other parts of the world? Well guess what... You can! The program is called IRC, (Internet Relay Chat), and it is networked much over North America, Asia Europe, and Oceania. This program is a substitution for 'talk', and many other multiple talk programs you might have read about. When you are talking on IRC, everything you type will instantly be transmitted around the world to other users that might be watching their terminals at the time, they can then type something and respond to your messages, and vice versa. I should warn you that the program can be very addictive once you begin to make friends and contacts on IRC, especially when you learn how to discuss in 14 languages... Topics of discussion on IRC are varied, just like the topics of Usenet newsgroups are varied. Technical and political discussions are popular, especially when world events are in progress. IRC is also a way to expand your horizons, as people from many countries and cultures are on, 24 hours a day. Most conversations are in English, but there are always channels in German, Japanese, French, Finnish, and occasionally other languages. IRC gained international fame during the late Persian Gulf War, when updates from around the world came across the wire, and most people on IRC gathered on a single channel to hear these reports.
1. Getting started
1.1 Clients and Servers
1.2 How to Behave on IRC
1.3 Privacy on IRC
1.4 First Steps
1.5 Screen and Keyboard activity
2. Let's go!
2.1 General Commands
2.2 Communication and Private Conversations
2.3 Click for Next Page
IRC (original code was written by Jarkko Oikarinen) is a multi-user,
multi-channel chatting network. It allows people all over the internet
to talk to one another in real-time. It is a functional replacement and
improvement to 'talk'; 'talk' is an old, primitive, atrocious, minimalist
sort of keyboard/screen conversation tool, using a grotesque, machine-
dependent protocol (blah!). IRC does everything 'talk' does, but with
better protocol, allowing more than 2 users to talk at once, with access
across the aggregate Internet, and providing a whole raft of other useful
features.
There are two ways to enter IRC from a Unix system. If you are using
the emacs (editor from Richard Stallman and the Free Software
Foundation) lisp client, you just have to type "M-x irc", (if this
doesn't work you may need to load the client into your emacs session).
If you are using the C client, (easier for beginners), then you usually
type "irc". Non-Unix boxes have special clients, each of which has to be
configured using a special procedure. Check the manual or help screen for
more information.
If you wish to be known by a nickname which is not your login name,
type "irc nickname" instead. Each IRC user, ("client"), chooses a
nickname. All communication with another user is either by nickname or
by the channel that they or you are on (more information about channels
later on).
The most important thing to remember about IRC is that you have to be
willing to explore and learn to use it... Take you time, try not to get
flustered, enjoy yourself, and you will soon be making new friends all
over the world!
IRC is based on a client-server model. Clients are programs that
connect to a server, a server is a program that transports data,
(messages), from a user client to another. There are clients running on
many different systems, (Unix, emacs, VMS, MSDOS, VM...), that allow you
to connect to an IRC server. The client which will be spoken of here is
the most widespread: ircII, (originally designed by Michael Sandrof).
Other clients are similar, and often accept ircII commands.
[ table of contents]
1.2 How to behave on IRC
The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English.
However, as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no
means the only language. If you want to speak some other language than
English, (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and
set the topic to indicate that. On the other hand, you should check the
topic before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions
about language. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language
everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise,change channels and
set the topic accordingly.
It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally.
Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody
to greet you back... On a channel with 20 people that would mean one
screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude
to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know,
do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes.
Also note that using your client facilities, (ircII "ON" command for
instance), to automatically say hello or goodbye to people is extremely
poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive autogreets. They are not only
obviously automatic, but even if you think you are polite you are
actually sounding insincere and also interfering with the personal
environment of the recipient when using autogreets. If somebody wants to
be autogreeted on joining a channel, he will autogreet himself.
Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your
actions, writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use
offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" to a channel or
user, (send large amounts of unwanted information). This is likely to
get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes
network "burps", connections going down because servers cannot handle the
large amount of traffic anymore. Other prohibited actions include:
* Harassing another user. Harassment is defined as behavior
towards another user with the purpose of annoying them.
* Annoying a channel with constant beeping.
* Any behavior reducing the functionality of IRC.
[ table of contents ]
1.3
Privacy on IRC
You should always keep in mind that messages you send to someone over
IRC are passed along all the servers between you and and the person you
are writing to. When you're sending a letter to someone, any postman on
the way could open it and read its contents...
Well, it's the same on the network. Any IRC-Admin could compile its
server in "debug" mode and log whatever messages are transmitted through
his node, (it has already been done), so a good thumb rule is not to
trust the servers.
+-------------------------------------------+
| IRC IS NOT A SECURE WAY OF COMMUNICATION! |
+-------------------------------------------+
How to establish direct communications between clients will be
explained later, (see DCC CHAT in section 2.5). This should be used when
you wouldn't want anybody else on IRC to intercept your private messages.
[ table of contents ]
1.4
First Steps
Note: ircII, the client most people are using, has most of this
information online. If you are stuck, type "/HELP" and hit <return>. To
escape from HELP mode, keep pressing <return> until your edit line, (the
line at the bottom of the screen), is empty. Most of the information in
this file can be found typing these commands: "/HELP INTRO" or "/HELP
NEWUSER".
+------------------------------------------------+
| All ircII commands begin with a "/" character. |
+------------------------------------------------+
The slash is the default command character. Commands are not case
sensitive, and can be abbreviated to their first letters: "/SI" and
"/sign " stand for /SIGNOFF and will both end your IRC session,
(more in section 2.1).
Anything that does not begin with "/" is assumed to be a message to
someone and will be sent to your current channel, or to a person you are
QUERYing, (the QUERY command will be detailed later on, maybe even
section 2.2).
If you are not sure about the spelling of an ircII command, type the
prefix of that command, and press the ESCape key twice; ircII will give
you a listing of commands and aliases that start with that prefix. Don't
forget the "/" in front of the command though.
/W <ESC><ESC>
*** Commands:
*** WAIT WALL WALLOPS WHICH
*** WHILE WHO WHOIS WHOWAS
*** WINDOW
*** Aliases:
*** W
This is an example. Your screen may show more aliases, and less
commands than shown here, or less aliases and more commands - in other
words "your mileage may vary"...
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1.5 Screen and Keyboard activity
IRC is a full-screen utility. It takes over the screen, with the bulk
of activity happening in the top (N-2) lines, a status line, (vaguely
emacs-like), on the next to last line, and your input being entered on
the last line. When typing commands at ircII, you have a minimalist
line-editing facility in an emacs style.
Table 1: Editing keys
----------------------
Key Effects
~~~ ~~~~~~~
^P recalls previous command line
^N recalls next command line
^F moves forward one character
^B moves backward one character
^A moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
^E moves the cursor to the end of the line
^D deletes the character under the cursor
^K kills from the cursor to the end
^Y reinserts the last stretch of killed text
^U clears the whole line
^L redraws the screen
Table 2: Editing commands
--------------------------
Keyword Action
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
! recalls previous commands for re-editing
HISTORY displays the command history
LASTLOG lists the most recent messages
CLEAR puts some white space on your screen
The ! command is used to recall previous commands in your command
history for re-execution. The ! command is unique in that when it is
used, it leaves the matching history entry in the input line for
re-editing. You can specify a history entry either by its number in the
history list, or by a match with a given wildcard expression. For
instance, "/!10" will put entry 10 in the history list into the input
line. "/!/MSG" will search the history for a line beginning with a /MSG,
(a "*" is implied at the end).
/![<history number>|<history match>]
Recalls previous commands for re-editing.
The command history can be dumped using:
/HISTORY [<number>]
Displays the command history on the screen. You can specify the
number of history entries you wish to view as well.
Almost everything happens in the upper bulk of the screen. This
includes both messages from other users, as well as the output of the
control commands. Normal messages from other users appear with the
originating nickname in <angle brackets>. Private messages arrive with
the originating nickname in *asterisks*. Messages you send to everyone
appear with a preceding "> " whereas messages you send privately to
another user appear with "-> *nickname*". Other output (invitations
from other users to join channels, and so forth), appears interspersed
with other activity on the screen.
Table 3: Simple screen activity
--------------------------------
What is displayed What you typed Sender Recipients
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
> Morning people Morning, people You Channel
<some1else> hello some1else Channel
-> *some1else* hi! /msg some1else hi! You some1else (only)
*some1else* wassup? some1else You (only)
Last ircII outputs can be recalled with:
/LASTLOG [<number of entries>|<text> [<from entry>]]
Displays the contents of the lastlog. This is a list of the most
recent messages that have appeared on the screen, useful if you
inadvertantly miss messages. If no arguments are given, the entire
lastlog is displayed. If the first argument is a number, it determines
how many log entries to show. Otherwise it is searched for in every
lastlog entry. The second argument determines how many lines back to
start display from.
Example:
/LASTLOG
> Public message I send to all in the channel
<some1else> Public message from some1else
*some1else* Private message sent to me by some1else
-> *some1else* Private message I send to some1else
Finally, if your screen gets garbage from a 'talk', 'write', 'wall' or
any other form of primitive communication (smirk), hit ^L to redraw it,
or CLEAR it.
/CLEAR
Clears the screen.
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2.
LET'S GO!
Table 4: General commands
--------------------------
Keyword Action
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
NICK changes your nickname
QUIT exits your IRC session, (same as BYE, SIGNOFF and EXIT)
HELP prints help on the given command
WHOIS displays information about someone
WHOWAS displays information about someone who just left
AWAY leaves a message saying you're not paying attention
/NICK [<nickname>]
Changes your nickname to whatever you like.
Everyone who wants to talk to you sees this name - also, at the
moment, nicknames are limited to 9 characters max. Your nickname will be
the same as your login name by default. You can also set an environment
variable, IRCNICK, the value of which will be used instead. Nickname
clashes are not allowed; this is enforced by the servers. If your
intended nickname clashes with someone else's as you enter IRC, you will
not be able to enter until you change it to something else.
/NICK Nappy
*** Nap is now known as Nappy
/QUIT [<reason>]
Exits your IRC session. You can also use BYE, SIGNOFF and EXIT. If a
reason is supplied, it is displayed to other people on your channels.
/QUIT Lunch Time!
poly ~ >
/HELP [<command>]
Shows help on the given command.
/HELP HELP
Usage: HELP [command]
Shows help on the given command. The help documentation is set
up in a hierarchical fashion. That means that certain help
topics have sub-topics under them.
[boring stuff deleted]
/WHOIS [<nickname>]
Shows information about someone.
/WHOIS Nap
*** Nap is pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Klein bottle for sale...
inquire within.)
*** on channels: @#Twilight_Zone @#EU-Opers
*** on via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Ecole Polytechnique,
Paris, FRANCE ! )
*** Nap has a connection to the twilight zone (is an IRC operator)
*** Nap has been idle 0 seconds
/WHOIS Nappy
*** Nappy: No such nickname
Sometimes WHOIS won't help you much, because the person you want to
know more about just left IRC or changed nick. However, you can use
WHOWAS to get this information for a while:
/WHOWAS [[<server>] <nickname>]
Shows information about who used the given nickname last, even if no
one is currently using it.
/WHOWAS Nappy
*** Nappy was pioch@poly.polytechnique.fr (Artistic ventures
highlighted. Rob a museum.) on channel *private*
*** on irc via server poly.polytechnique.fr (Signoff: Mon Jun 22
20:15:23)
Very often, an unsuccess call to WHOIS will lead you to try WHOWAS.
That's why ircII allows you to "/SET AUTO_WHOWAS ON"; that way, a "***
<nickname>: No such nickname" message will automagically generate a
"/WHOWAS <nickname>". Try typing "/HELP SET AUTO_WHOWAS" for more
information on this topic.
/AWAY [<away message>]
Leave a message explaining that you are not currently paying attention
to IRC. Whenever someone sends you a MSG or does a WHOIS on you, they
automatically see whatever message you set. Using AWAY with no
parameters marks you as no longer being away.
/AWAY Gone to get a cup of coffee.
*** You have been marked as being away
/AWAY
*** You are no longer marked as being away
[ table of contents ]
2.2 Communication and Private
Conversation
Table 5: Private conversation commands
--------------------------------------
Keyword Action
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
MSG sends a private message
QUERY starts a private conversation
NOTICE sends a private message
NOTIFY warns you of people logging in or out IRC
IGNORE removes output from specific people off your screen
You can use the MSG command, (usually "M" is an alias for it), to send
someone a message that only that person can read.
/MSG <nickname>|<channel> <text>
Send a private message to specified nickname.
/MSG Nap This message is for Nap only.
-> *Nap* This message is for Nap only.
On my screen will appear:
*YourNick* This message is for Nap only.
If you want to send a private message to more than one person, you can
specify a list of nicknames separated by commas, (no spaces).
/MSG Nap,Sorg This message for both Nap and Sorg.
-> *Nap* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
-> *Sorg* This message for both Nap and Sorg.
Two special case nicknames are defined. If the nickname is "," (a
comma), the message is sent to the last person who sent you a MSG. If
the nickname is "." (a period), the message is sent to the last person to
whom you sent a message.
You can have a private conversation by only using /MSG. However,
typing "/MSG <nick> <text>" or "/MSG . <text>" gets cumbersome. That's
where the /QUERY command comes in handy.
/QUERY [<nickname>|<channel>]
Starts a private conversation with <nickname>.
All text you type that would normally be sent to your channel now goes
to the supplied nickname in the form of MSGs. To cancel a private
conversation, use QUERY with no arguments.
/QUERY Nap
*** Starting conversation with Nap
Blahblahblah
-> *Nap* Blahblahblah
/QUERY
*** Ending conversation with Nap
There is also another command to send messages, called NOTICE. Unlike
MSGs, NOTICEs are surrounded by '-' when printed, and no automated
responses, (such as generated by IGNORE or an automaton), will be sent in
reply. Services, (robots), on IRC often use this form of interaction.
/NOTICE <nickname>|<channel> <text>
Sends a private message to the specified <nickname>.
/NOTICE Nap Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
-> -Nap- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
On my screen will appear:
-YourNick- Better use /MSG instead of /NOTICE.
As you begin to make new friends over IRC, you'll want to mark certain
nicknames such that you will be warned when they signon or off.
/NOTIFY [[-]<nickname>]
Adds or removes <nickname> to the list of people you'll be warned when
they enter or quit IRC (in ircII versions prior to 2.2, too many people
in the NOTIFY list cause excessive slowness).
/NOTIFY Nap Nappy
*** Signon by Nap detected
/NOTIFY
*** Currently present: Nap
*** Currently absent: Nappy
Eventually, you may wish some day not to see messages from a specific
user on your screen. This may happen when someone is dumping large
amounts of garbage, or if someone is harassing you. The proper response
to such a behavior is to IGNORE that person. IGNORE is a very powerful
command, and can be used in many ways. However the basic usage of this
tool is the following.
/IGNORE [<nickname>|<user@host> [[-]<message type>]]
Suppresses output from the given people from your screen. IGNORE can
be set by nickname or by specifying a userid@hostname format. Wildcards
may be used in all formats. Output that can be ignored includes MSGs,
NOTICEs, PUBLIC messages, INVITEs, ALL or NONE. Preceding a type with a
"-" indicates removal of ignoring of that type of message.
/IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu ALL
*** Ignoring ALL messages from *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU
/IGNORE
*** Ignorance list:
*** *@CHESHIRE.OXY.EDU ALL
/IGNORE *@cheshire.oxy.edu NONE
*** *@cheshire.oxy.edu removed from ignorance list