MANUAL

                                              Author: Karl Kleinpaste
                                                      karl@cis.ohio-state.edu
                                                Date: 04 Apr 1989
                                   Last modification: 04 Apr 1989

			 INTERNET RELAY CHAT
		  a real-time conversational system


* 1: Irc - replacement for talk(1)

Irc is a functional replacement for and improvement to talk(1).  Talk
is an old, primitive, atrocious, minimalist sort of keyboard/screen
conversation tool, using a grotesque, machine-dependent protocol.
Irc does everything talk does, but with a 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.

* 2: Entering Internet Relay Chat

Type `irc'.  If one wishes to be known by a nickname which is not
one's login name, type `irc chosen-nickname' instead.

* 3: How much can be seen from here

The universe - seriously.

This is most formally called Internet Relay Chat.  Server hosts are
connected via a tree structure.  The various servers relay control and
message data among themselves to advertise the existence of other
servers, users, and the channels and other resources being occupied by
those users.

* 4: Structure

There is quite a lot of structure to the operation of irc, as
compared to crufty old talk(1).  Since so little could be done with
talk(1), it needed little structure.  But to keep track of people
spread literally around the world (the system was written by Jarkko
Oikarinen of Finland, usually seen on the system as `Wiz'), the
structure is useful so that one can speak to exactly those people with
whom one wishes to speak.

** 4.1: Nicknames

All users of irc are known to the system by a `nickname.'  By
default, one's nickname is one's login name.  Nickname clashes are not
allowed; this is enforced by the servers.  If one's intended nickname
clashes with someone else as one enters chat, one will not be able to
complete entry to irc until one changes one's nickname to something
else.

** 4.2: Presence on a channel

Fundamental to the operation of irc is the concept of a channel.  All
users are `on a channel' while inside irc.  One enters the `null
channel,' channel 0, first.  One cannot send any messages while in
channel 0 unless one has set up a private conversation in some way.
The number of channels is essentially unlimited - whatever will fit in
a 32-bit integer.

** 4.3: Types of channels

There are 3 channel types, with increasing levels of privacy afforded
them.

*** 4.3.1: Public channels

Public channels are channels 1-999.  If one is on one of these
channels, one can be seen by all other users.  Anyone can notice users
on a public channel and join such a channel's conversation.

*** 4.3.2: Secret channels

Channels 1000-up are called `secret.'  This means that, although
anyone can see that one is using chat, no one can tell what channel
one is using unless one is already on that channel with oneself.
Since the number of potential channels is in the billions, this is
quite some security - all one gives away is the acknowledgement that
one is using chat.

*** 4.3.3: Hidden channels

Negative channel numbers are called `hidden.'  While one is on a
hidden channel, no one who is not on one's channel with oneself can
even see that one is there.  One's name does not show up in a list of
active users.  The only indication of one's presence is that, when
entering chat, all new users are told that there are "N users on P
servers."  If one checks on all users and finds less than N of them,
one knows that others are hiding on negative channels.  But a hidden
channel user still cannot be found except by brute-force checking
through all channels, a hopeless proposition in the face of 10-digit
channel numbers.  Security through obscurity finally means something.

** 4.4: Channel limits

Most channels are limited by server design to accommodate 10 users
each.  The exceptions to this are channels 1-9, where no limits on
user population are enforced.  But keeping track of conversations
among more than 10 people is, shall we say, troublesome at best.
Users experienced in CompuServe's CB service, a fairly close
conceptual equivalent to chat, should understand this if they think
about CB channel 1 on a Friday night.

** 4.5: Conversations not using channels

It is possible to conduct conversations with others without using the
formalized channel structure.  Doing so requires that two people set
themselves up for private conversation using special commands; see
User Commands below.

* 5: Screen/keyboard structure

Chat is a full-screen utility.  It takes over the screen, with the
bulk of activity happening in the top N-2 lines, a modeline (vaguely
emacs-like) on the next to last line, and one's input being entered on
the last line.  The rightmost position of the modeline indicates
either OWR, meaning overwrite mode on input, or INS, meaning insert
mode.  Default is OWR.

** 5.1: Keyboard input

When typing commands at irc, one has a minimalist line-editing
facility in an emacs style.  That is, ^A moves the cursor to the
beginning of the line, ^E goes to the end, ^D deletes the character
under the cursor, ^K kills from the cursor to the end, and so on.  If
one is in overwrite mode, then typing occurs on top of any characters
already present in the input line.  If insert mode is active, then
characters in front of the cursor are pushed farther out as one types.

** 5.2: Screen activity

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 which one sends to everyone appear
with a preceding "> " whereas messages which one sends privately to
one other user appear with "-> *nickname*."

Other output (e.g., /who commands, invitations from other users to
join channels, and so forth) appears interspersed with other activity
on the screen.

* 6: Command structure

Ordinary text typed at irc is sent as one's messages to everyone else
on the same channel, modulo personal choices for private messages and
the like.  Commands to irc itself all begin with a command character,
which is initially `/' but may be changed to any other character
desired.

Commands may in general be abbreviated to a unique prefix.

** 6.1: Leaving irc

The way to get out of irc is to enter the /signoff command.  "/si" is
sufficient.  Also equivalent are "/exit," "/bye," and perhaps "quit."

** 6.2: Getting help

Type "/help."  Follow the instructions.

** 6.3: User commands

Other commands supported by irc are:

      help   signoff       who     whois
      list     topic      join   channel
     links       msg    invite    summon
     users     stats      nick      away
      info     clear     query     cmdch
      date

*** 6.3.1: help

Information on how to use the rest of the system is available via
/help.  The modeline says so as well.

*** 6.3.2: signoff

/signoff exits chat.

*** 6.3.3: who

/who returns information on who is using chat.  /who without arguments
prints info on all users that can be seen.  Users of public channels
show up with their channel identified.  Users of secret channels
appear, but they are specified as being on a private, unspecified
channel.  Users of hidden channels do not appear at all.

Giving a numeric argument to /who returns only those users of the
specified channel.  This still doesn't show users of secret or hidden
channels unless one is actually on that channel.

*** 6.3.4: whois

This returns information about individual users.  Say "/whois
nickname" to get information on the login name and host from which the
nicknamed user comes.

*** 6.3.5: topic

Channels can be given off-the-cuff "topics."  Saying "/topic some
string of text" will associate that topic with the current channel.

*** 6.3.6: list

/list will give lists of active channels, the number of users of each,
and the topics therewith associated.  Again, secret and hidden
channels do not appear.

*** 6.3.7: join & channel

/join or /channel are the means to enter a channel.  Give a numeric
argument for the channel one wishes to enter.  If this is a secret or
hidden channel, /who commands will show oneself and any other users of
one's channel.

One's arrival on a channel is announced to the rest of the users
already on that channel.  Silent, anonymous "lurking" is not
supported.

*** 6.3.8: links

/links lists the currently-active set of chat servers.  Beware: this
list can be quite long, and will undoubtedly get longer as chat gains
wider use.  As of 22 March 1989, about 15-20 servers is typical.

*** 6.3.9: msg

A single message can be sent privately to a certain user with /msg.
Type /msg nickname and the text to be sent.  It will be sent privately
to the indicated nickname.

*** 6.3.10: invite

If there is a user online to whom one wishes to speak, one may invite
that user to join oneself on a certain channel.  One types "/invite
nickname" with an optional channel number.  The receiving user gets a
one-line message indicating the sender and the invitation.  The
receiving user is free to ignore the invitation, of course.

*** 6.3.11: summon

An extreme form of /invite is /summon.  "/summon user@host" will
request the user on the specified host to enter the chat system.  Do
not do this unless one is fairly sure that one's request will be
welcome - it can be a fairly disturbing and sometimes irritating
intrusion.  In order for /summon to work, the specified host must be a
connected chat server - one can't summon random people from around the
Internet.

*** 6.3.12: users

/users will return a list of the users logged into one's system.  With
an optional hostname identifying a chat server host, the users logged
into that system will be listed.

*** 6.3.13: stats

This command returns counts of various protocol operations of one's
chat server.  It is neither particularly useful nor interesting; it
was, at one time, a debugging aid.

*** 6.3.14: nick

One can change nicknames by issuing "/nick new-nickname."  All users
on one's channel will be advised of the change.  NOTE: If one enters
chat with a nickname clash (e.g., one's login name is the same as
someone else's, and the other user got there first), the system will
not let one enter until one issues a /nick command with a unique
nickname.

*** 6.3.15: away

Sometimes, one wishes to remain connected to the chat system, but one
must be elsewhere for a while.  One can issue an /away command with
arbitrary text as argument, which will mark oneself as being away.  If
someone sends an away'd user a private message (via /msg or in a
private session set up via /query; see below), the sender will get a
message back from the server indicating the away-ness and the message
which was set.

*** 6.3.16: info

/info returns information regarding the author and copyright of the
chat system.

*** 6.3.17: clear

At times, one wishes that one's screen weren't so cluttered.  /clear
makes it so.

*** 6.3.18: query

This command is used to set up private communications `outside' the
normal channel system.

When one enters "/query nickname," the indicated nickname is set up as
the sole recipient of anything which one types thereafter.  Thus, if
user A executes "/query B" and user B executes "/query A," they have
set up a private communication between themselves.  Significantly, it
remains possible for them to stay on their respective channels, which
need not be the same, and listen to whatever conversation is going on
around them as well, though they cannot respond to that ambient
conversation without leaving the private conversation they have set up.

One leaves this private mode by issuing /query without arguments.

*** 6.3.19: cmdch

The `/' character may not be best for some people to use as their
command character.  It can be changed with "/cmdch <character>."

** 6.4: Operator commands

The chat system administrators on each host have additional
responsibilities and power over the configuration and operation of the
servers.  The commands to do so are delineated below.

*** 6.4.1: oper

Users who have the potential for operator privileges initially invoke
those privileges by "/oper nickname password," where nickname is the
nickname under which operation is intended, and password is the
password known to the chat system for that nickname.

*** 6.4.2: kill

Obnoxious users had best beware the operator who's fast on the /kill
command.  "/kill nickname" blows any given nickname completely out of
the chat system.

Obnoxiousness is not to be tolerated.  But operators do not use /kill
lightly.

*** 6.4.3: quote

Raw access to the underlying server protocol is possible through the
user of the /quote command.  "/quote any text at all" is used to send
direct, unmodified commands to the servers.  This has a wide variety
of uses, such as deliberately killing a local or remote chat daemon,
invoking operator privileges for otherwise-operator-priv-forbidden
users, and related tasks.  It is, again, a very powerful operation,
and not to be used lightly.

* 7: Questions, problems, troubles?

Write mail to local irc coordinator.