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EPIC(1)			  BSD General Commands Manual		       EPIC(1)

NAME
     epic — Internet Relay Chat client for UNIX like systems

SYNOPSIS
     epic [-a] [-b] [-B] [-c chan] [-d] [-f] [-F] [-h] [-H hostname]
	  [-l filename] [-L filename] [-n nickname] [-o] [-O] [-p port] [-q]
	  [-v] [-x] [-z username] [nickname] [server description list]

DESCRIPTION
     The ircII/EPIC program is a unix-based character oriented user agent
     ('client') to Internet Relay Chat.	 It is a fully functional ircII client
     with many useful extensions.  This version works with all modern irc
     server classes as of early 1999.

OPTIONS
     -a	   Append the server description list to the default server list.  The
	   default behavior is for the server description list to replace the
	   default server list.

     -b	   Operate in so called “bot mode.” This implies the [-d] option.
	   EPIC will fork(2) immediately and the parent process will exit,
	   returning you to your shell.	 Some system administrators do not
	   look kindly to their users running bots, and they have disabled
	   this option.	 Even if your administrator has not disabled it, you
	   should not assume this gives you automatic permission to run a bot.
	   If you do run a bot without permission, your administrator may get
	   very angry with you, and possibly revoke your account.  In addi‐
	   tion, most IRC operators on public irc networks have very little
	   tolerance for people who run bots.  So just a word of caution, make
	   sure that your system administrator and your irc administrator have
	   given you permission before you run a bot.

     -B	   Force the startup file to be loaded immediately rather than waiting
	   until a connection to a server is established.

     -c chan
	   Join the specified channel the first time you successfully connect
	   to a server.

     -d	   Operate in “dumb mode.” The client will not put up a full screen
	   display, and will read from standard input and write to standard
	   output.  This is useful if the output normally looks awful (because
	   you are using an incorrect TERM setting, or your terminal descrip‐
	   tion is spectacularly broken), or you just don't want to use the
	   pretty interface.  This option will be turned on automatically if
	   your current TERM setting is not capable of a full screen display.

     -f	   Force use of hardware flow control.	With this option, the control-
	   S and control-Q keys are probably not available to be bound to
	   something else.

     -F	   Disable use of hardware flow control.  With this option, the con‐
	   trol-S and control-Q keys are available to be bound to something
	   else.  However, you will not have hardware flow control.

     -h	   Display a moderately concise help message and exit immediately.

     -H hostname
	   Use the IP address of the specified hostname as your default IP
	   address.  This can be used if you have multiple IP addresses on the
	   same machine and you want to use an address other than the default
	   address.  You might need to use this option when gethostname(3)
	   does not return a hostname (in some poorly configured NIS environ‐
	   ments).  The use of multiple IP addresses on a single machine is
	   commonly referred to as "virtual hosting", and each IP address is a
	   "virtual host".  Please understand that an irc client may not tell
	   the irc server what your hostname should be:	 the server alone
	   determines that.  Servers typically use the canonical hostname for
	   an IP address as your hostname.  Because of this, this option will
	   not permit you to use a CNAME (secondary hostname for an IP
	   address), because the server will use the canonical hostname
	   instead.  This option overrides the IRCHOST environment variable.

     -l filename,[filename]
	   Use the specified filename(s) as the startup file.  The startup
	   file is loaded the first time you successfully connect to a server,
	   unless you specify the [-B] option.	This overrides the IRCRC envi‐
	   ronment variable.  If this option is not specified, and the IRCRC
	   environment variable is not set, then ~/.ircrc is the default
	   startup file.

     -n nickname
	   Use the specified nickname as the default nickname whenever you
	   connect to an irc server.  This option overrides the IRCNICK envi‐
	   ronment variable.  This option can be overridden if you specify
	   nickname argument in the command line (see below).

     -o	   Force use of IEXTEN termios characters.  POSIX systems are allowed
	   to reserve additional control characters to perform special actions
	   when IEXTEN is turned on.  On 4.4BSD, the control-V and control-O
	   keys are used by IEXTEN and thus cannot be used in key bindings
	   within EPIC since the terminal never sends them to EPIC.

     -O	   Disable use of IEXTEN termios characters.  This makes all of the
	   keys reserved by your system's IEXTEN termios option available to
	   be used in key bindings.  On 4.4BSD, this flag is necessary if you
	   want to use control-V and control-O in your key bindings.

     -p port
	   Use the specified port as the default port for new server connec‐
	   tions.  The default port is usually 6667.  Make sure that the
	   servers you want to connect to are listening on this port before
	   you try to connect there.

     -q	   Suppress the loading of any file when you first establish a connec‐
	   tion to an irc server.

     -v	   Output version identification (VID) information and exit.

     -x	   This undocumented feature turns on all of the XDEBUG flags.	Refer
	   to the help files for XDEBUG if you want to know what happens if
	   you use this.

     -z username
	   Use the specified username when negotiating a connection to a new
	   irc server.	This overrides the IRCUSER environment variable.  If
	   this option is not specified, then the user name specified in
	   /etc/passwd for your user is used.  This feature was formerly
	   undocumented, but with the rise and popularity and use of identd(8)
	   this option is much less useful than it once was.  Requests to have
	   this option removed will probably be ignored.  If you don't want
	   your users to spoof their usernames, install identd, and do every‐
	   one on IRC a favor.

     nickname
	   The first bare word found is taken as the default nickname to use.
	   This overrides all other options, including the -n option and the
	   IRCNICK environment variable.  If all else fails, then the client
	   uses your login name as the default nickname.

     server,[server]
	   After the nickname, a list of one or more server specifications can
	   be listed.  Unless you specify the -a option, this will replace
	   your default server list!  The -a option forces any servers listed
	   here to be appended to the default server list.  The format for
	   server specifications is:

		 hostname:port:password:nick

	   Any item can be omitted by leaving the field blank, and any trail‐
	   ing colons can also be omitted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
   The Screen:
     The screen is split into two parts, separated by an inverse-video status
     line (if supported).  The upper (larger) part of the screen displays
     responses from the ircd(8) server.	 The lower part of the screen (a sin‐
     gle line) accepts keyboard input.

     Some terminals do not support certain features required by epic , in
     which case you receive a message stating this.  If this occurs, try
     changing the terminal type or run epic with the -d option.

   Irc Commands:
     Any line beginning with the slash character “/” is regarded as an epic
     command (the command character may be changed).  Any line not beginning
     with this character is treated as a message to be sent to the current
     channel.  The client has a built in help system.  Install the help files
     (they should be available at the same place you got the client) and then
     type “/help” to open up the help system.

   The .ircrc File:
     When epic is executed, it checks the user's home directory for a ~/.ircrc
     file, executing the commands in the file.	Commands in this file do not
     need to have a leading slash character “/” This allows predefinition of
     aliases and other features.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
     Certainly any description of epic in this man page will be sorely inade‐
     quate because most of the confusion doesn't even start until after you
     get the client to connect to a server.  But if you really have problems
     getting the client to connect to a server, try some of these:

     epic  Try this first.  This will assume all the defaults.	If the person
	   who is maintaining epic at your site has done a halfway decent job,
	   this will put you on a server that is somewhat local to you.

     epic nickname irc.domain.com
	   or something similar will attempt to connect to the irc server run‐
	   ning on the host "irc.domain.com" (fill in a real irc server here)
	   with the nickname of well, "nickname".  This is the most common way
	   to specify an alternate server to use.

     epic nickname irc.domain.com:6664
	   Sometimes, some servers are really busy, and it can take them a
	   long time to establish a connection with you on the default port
	   (6667).  Most major servers on big public networks accept connec‐
	   tions on many different ports, with the most common being most or
	   all of the ports between 6660 and 6675.  You can usually connect
	   much faster if you use a port other than 6667, if the server you're
	   connecting to supports an alternate port.

     epic nickname irc.efnet.net
	   If you're totally stumped and trying to get on efnet, try this.

     epic nickname irc.undernet.org
	   If you're totally stumped and trying to get on undernet, try this.

     epic nickname irc.dal.net
	   If you're totally stumped and trying to get on dalnet, try this.

FILES
     /usr/local/bin/epic    the default location of the binary

     ~/.ircrc		    default initialization file

     ~/.irc/		    directory you can put your own epic scripts into,
			    that can then be loaded with /load

     /usr/local/share/epic  default directory containing message-of-the-day,
			    master initialization, help files and epic scripts

THE HELP FILES
     Starting up the client is the easy part.  Once you get connected, you'll
     probably find you have no idea what you're doing.	That's where the help
     files come in.  If the person who maintains irc at your site didn't
     install the help files, pester them until they do.	 Once the help files
     are available, use the “/help” command to get started.  There are a
     bazillion commands and a multitude of nuances that will take a few months
     to get down pat.  But once you do, you will be so firmly addicted to irc
     that your wife will divorce you, your kids will leave you, your dog will
     run away, and you'll flunk all your classes, and be left to sing the
     blues.

USEFUL WEB RESOURCES
     <http://www.epicsol.org/> The EPIC home page

     <http://help.epicsol.org/> The Online EPIC Help Pages

     <http://www.irchelp.org/> Lots of great help for new irc users.

SIGNALS
     epic handles the following signals gracefully

     SIGUSR1	Closes all DCC connections and EXEC'd processes.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the ~/.cshrc ,
     ~/.profile , or ~/.login file:

     IRCNICK	The user's default IRC nickname

     IRCNAME	The user's default IRC realname (otherwise retrieved from
		/etc/passwd )

     IRCSERVER	The user's default IRC server list (see server option for
		details)

     HOME	Overrides the default home page in /etc/password

     TERM	The type of terminal emulation to use

SEE ALSO
     ircd(8)

BUGS
     Any non-trivial piece of software has bugs.  ircII/EPIC is no exception.
     You can refer to the KNOWNBUGS file that is distributed with the client
     source code for a list of problems that are known to exist and may or may
     not be fixed some day.  If you find a bug that is not listed there, you
     can refer to the BUG_FORM file that is also distributed with the source
     code.  It will give you instructions on how to fill out the report and
     where to send it.

ERRATA
     The online documentation probably should be in docbook form rather than
     in the current help format.  The entire help system is a hack.

     This manual page only describes the options to epic, but doesn't tell you
     what to do once you get connected.

AUTHORS
     Program written by Michael Sandrof (ms5n+@andrew.cmu.edu).	 The copyright
     holder is Matthew Green (mrg@mame.mu.oz.au).  This software is maintained
     by Jeremy Nelson (jnelson@acronet.net) on behalf of the EPIC project
     (list@epicsol.org).

     At one time or another, this man page has been edited by Darren Reed,
     R.P.C. Rodgers, the lynX, Matthew Green, and Jeremy Nelson.

				April 22, 1999
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