Provided by: epic4_2.10.10-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
epic4 — Internet Relay Chat client for UNIX like systems
SYNOPSIS
epic4 [-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 addition, 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 description 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 control-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 environments). 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
environment 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 environment 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 connections. 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 connection 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 everyone 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 trailing 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
single line) accepts keyboard input.
Some terminals do not support certain features required by epic4 , in which case you receive a message
stating this. If this occurs, try changing the terminal type or run epic4 with the -d option.
Irc Commands:
Any line beginning with the slash character “/” is regarded as an epic4 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 epic4 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 epic4 in this man page will be sorely inadequate 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:
epic4 Try this first. This will assume all the defaults. If the person who is maintaining epic4 at
your site has done a halfway decent job, this will put you on a server that is somewhat local to
you.
epic4 nickname irc.domain.com
or something similar will attempt to connect to the irc server running 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.
epic4 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
connections 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.
epic4 nickname irc.efnet.net
If you're totally stumped and trying to get on efnet, try this.
epic4 nickname irc.undernet.org
If you're totally stumped and trying to get on undernet, try this.
epic4 nickname irc.dal.net
If you're totally stumped and trying to get on dalnet, try this.
FILES
/usr/bin/epic4 the default location of the binary
~/.ircrc default initialization file
~/.irc/ directory you can put your own epic4 scripts into, that can then be loaded with /load
/usr/share/epic4 default directory containing message-of-the-day, master initialization, help files and
epic4 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
epic4 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 epic4, 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 EPIC(1)