man.in

.TH QUIRC 1 2012-06-14 Linux "User Manuals"
.mso www.tmac
.SH NAME
quirc \- console-mode IRC client
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B quirc
.BI [--server= server "] [--nick=" nick "] [--chan=" chan "]"
.BR [ options... ]
.br
.B quirc -h|--help
.br
.B quirc -V|--version
.SH DESCRIPTION
This man page briefly documents the
.B quirc
command.  The full documentation is available in
.SM XHTML
format at
.I "$PREFIX/share/doc/quirc/readme.htm"
and there is a tutorial for new users at
.IR "$PREFIX/share/doc/quirc/tutorial.htm" .
.P
.B quirc
is an
.SM IRC
(Internet Relay Chat) client with a roguelike interface.
The main body of the display shows lines typed by you and others, output of
commands, etc.  At the bottom are a tab strip indicating the servers and
channels to which you're connected (and which one you are viewing at present)
and, on the last row, a space to enter commands.
.P
If you have used an
.SM IRC
client before, very little about quirc should be surprising to you.
Ctrl-cursors switch tabs and scroll the display;
.RI F n
switches to tab
.I n
(except for F12 which switches to tab 0).
The commands
.IR /server ,
.IR /join ,
.IR /part ,
.IR /nick ,
.I /me
and
.I /quit
all do exactly what you would expect them to do.
.SH OPTIONS
For a full listing of command-line options run
.BR "quirc --help" ;
the most commonly used options are:
.TP
.B --no-server
Overrides any servers listed in the rc file, preventing
.B quirc
from auto-connecting.
.TP
.B --no-chan
Overrides any channels listed in the rc file, preventing
.B quirc
from auto-joining.  Implied by
.BR --no-server .
.TP
.B --check,--lint
Parses the configuration, including the rc file and command line, and reports
any errors; then exits.
.TP
.BI --width= width " --height=" height
Set the width and height of the terminal.  Normally
.B quirc
will determine this from envvars and ioctls, but these options allow you to
override that.
.TP
.B --quiet
Start up in Quiet Mode; various status messages will be suppressed.  This can
also be changed during runtime with
.IR "/set quiet" .
.TP
.B --debug
Start up in Debug Mode; extra diagnostic output will be produced, including
transcripts of the
.SM IRC
protocol messages send and received.
This can also be changed during runtime with
.IR "/set debug" .
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.IP HOME
The user's home directory.  Configuration files will be read from
.I $(HOME)/.quirc/
.IP USER
The user's login name.  This is sent to the
.SM IRC
server at connect time as part of the
.B USER
command.
.IP LINES,COLUMNS
The size of the user's terminal;
.B quirc
uses this when painting the screen.  If not set, it falls back on other
methods including ioctls and the
.B --width
and
.B --height
command-line options.  The ioctls will also be used when catching
.BR SIGWINCH .
.SH FILES
.I ~/.quirc/rc
.RS
Runtime configuration file.  For details see the manual and
.IR "$PREFIX/share/doc/quirc/config_ref.htm" .
.RE
.I ~/.quirc/keys
.RS
Keymapping file.  Users of
.SM ANSI
terminals can probably ignore this.
.RE
.SH CONFORMING TO
.IP \(bu
RFC 1459, "Internet Relay Chat Protocol"
.URL "http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459"
.IP \(bu
"The Client-To-Client Protocol",
.URL "http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/ctcpspec.html"
.IP \(bu
"IRC RPL_ISUPPORT Numeric Definition",
.URL "http://www.irc.org/tech_docs/draft-brocklesby-irc-isupport-03.txt"
(Draft specification)
.SH BUGS
The rc file has its own format; arguably, it should just be a series of
commands to run.  However, there are certain parts to it that can't yet be
done that way; servlists and chanlists, custom colours.
.P
Unicode (particularly double-width characters) can confuse the line-breaking
code.
.P
Connecting to some servers may hang (if they don't say anything until we've
identified ourselves).
.P
If malloc ever fails, everything goes horribly wrong because we don't check it
in most places.
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR "$PREFIX/share/doc/quirc/readme.htm" ", " "$PREFIX/share/doc/quirc/tutorial.htm"