LDP/LDP/howto/docbook/IRC.sgml

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<article id="index">
<articleinfo>
  <title>Linux IRC mini-HOWTO</title>
  <pubdate>v0.3 11 November, 2002</pubdate>
  <author><firstname>Fr<46>d<EFBFBD>ric</firstname><othername>L. W.</othername><surname>Meunier</surname></author>
  <authorinitials>fredlwm</authorinitials>
  <address><email>linuxdoc @ pervalidus.net</email></address>
  <publisher><publishername>The Linux Documentation Project</publishername></publisher>
   <revhistory>
     <revision>
       <revnumber>0.3</revnumber>
       <date>2002-11-21</date>
       <authorinitials>fredlwm</authorinitials>
       <revremark>
          Fourth revision.
       </revremark>
     </revision>
   </revhistory>     
  <abstract><para>This document aims to describe the basics of IRC and respective applications for Linux.</para></abstract>
</articleinfo>

<sect1 id="intro"><title>Introduction</title>

<para>This document is still WIP, and should be treated as such. I'll do my best to keep it updated and accurate.</para>
<para>The following bibles shouldn't be ignored:</para>
<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
RFC1459 by Jarkko Oikarinen and Darren Reed was the first about the Internet Relay Chat Protocol. It can be found at
<ulink url="http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1459.txt">http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1459.txt</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
RFC2810 by Christophe Kalt updates RFC1459 and describes the Architecture of the Internet Relay Chat. It can be found at
<ulink url="http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2810.txt">http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2810.txt</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
RFC2811 by Christophe Kalt updates RFC1459 and describes the Channel Management of the Internet Relay Chat. It can be found at
<ulink url="http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2811.txt">http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2811.txt</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
RFC2812 by Christophe Kalt updates RFC1459 and describes the Client Protocol of the Internet Relay Chat. It can be found at
<ulink url="http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2812.txt">http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2812.txt</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
RFC2813 by Christophe Kalt updates RFC1459 and describes the Server Protocol of the Internet Relay Chat. It can be found at
<ulink url="http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2813.txt">http://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2813.txt</ulink>.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist>
<para>Also be sure to check the following links:</para>
<para><ulink url="http://www.irchelp.org/">http://www.irchelp.org/</ulink>.</para>

<sect2><title>Objectives</title>

<para>Among others, the objectives of this mini-HOWTO are:</para>
<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Link important resources about IRC;
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Avoid common misuses of IRC by writing an IRC Etiquette;
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
List popular clients, servers, bots, and bouncers, along with their maintainers, #channel, small description, download
location, home page, and hints;
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
List IRC tools available in the latest release of all major distributions.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Miscellaneous</title>

<para>The latest version of this document is available at
<ulink url="http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/">http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/</ulink>.</para>
<para>A WIP of the next draft may be available at
<ulink url="http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/WIP/">http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/WIP/</ulink>.</para>
<para>All drafts are archived at
<ulink url="http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/old/">http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/old/</ulink>.</para>
<para>Everything is mirrored at
<ulink url="http://pervalidus.port5.com/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/">http://pervalidus.port5.com/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/</ulink>.</para>

<para>You can e-mail me (in English, French, or Portuguese) with suggestions about the mini-HOWTO. I know this is far from
finished, but hope you find it useful. Just don't ask me to add your application or site. Most likely I won't. Also don't ask
for technical support. I have no time to help everyone.</para>

<para>BTW, someone to work on the protocol and server sides would be very welcome.</para>

<para>Fr<46>d<EFBFBD>ric L. W. Meunier (<email>linuxdoc @ pervalidus.net</email>)</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Translations</title>

<para>Proposed translations will be linked here. Although I can write in Brazilian Portuguese and French, I'm not going to
translate this document in the near future, so feel free to make them.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="about"><title>About IRC</title>

<para>Excerpt from RFC2810:</para>
<para>The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol is for use with text based conferencing. It has been developed since 1989 when it
was originally implemented as a mean for users on a BBS to chat amongst themselves.</para>
<para>First formally documented in May 1993 by RFC 1459 [IRC], the protocol has kept evolving.</para>
<para>The IRC Protocol is based on the client-server model, and is well suited to running on many machines in a distributed
fashion.  A typical setup involves a single process (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers) to
connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing and other functions.</para> <para>This distributed model,
which requires each server to have a copy of the global state information, is still the most flagrant problem of the protocol
as it is a serious handicap, which limits the maximum size a network can reach.  If the existing networks have been able keep
growing at an incredible pace, we must thank hardware manufacturers for giving us ever more powerful systems.</para></sect1>

<sect1 id="beginners"><title>Beginner's guide on using IRC</title>

<para>The standard IRC client is the original ircII client. It's part of most Linux distributions.</para>

<sect2><title>Running the ircII program</title>

<para>It's easy to use ircII. Let's say you want to connect to irc.freenode.net as mini-HOWTO.</para>
<para>At the command line, type:</para>
<para>$ irc mini-HOWTO irc.freenode.net</para>
<para>You can also export variables, so you won't need to use them at the command line:</para>
<para>$ export IRCNICK=mini-HOWTO IRCSERVER=irc.freenode.net</para>
<para>Add them to your shell profile (e.g. ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile) when you're done.</para>
<para>Other common variables are IRCNAME and IRCUSER, to respectively set the ircname part of a /whois and username as seen at
the first line 'mini-HOWTO is ~username@hostname (ircname)'. Keep in mind that IRCUSER won't work if you run an ident daemon
(default on most distributions). If you still need to change your username (not recommended, and I hope you're not using IRC
logged as root !), install oidentd from <ulink url="http://ojnk.sourceforge.net/">http://ojnk.sourceforge.net/</ulink>. To
configure, read the oidentd.conf man page. Finally run '/usr/local/sbin/oidentd -g nobody -u nobody'. Add this to your startup
scripts (e.g. /etc/rc.d/rc.local) when you're done.</para> <para>If not set, IRCNICK, IRCUSER, and IRCNAME will be retrieved
from /etc/passwd .</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Commands</title>

<para>Use /help to get a list on all available commands (/help help is a good start). Replace <emphasis>nick</emphasis> by any
IRCNICK.</para>
<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
First, /set NOVICE off
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/nick IRC-mini-HOWTO changes your IRCNICK to <emphasis>IRC-mini-HOWTO</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/set realname The Linux IRC mini-HOWTO changes your IRCNAME to <emphasis>The Linux IRC mini-HOWTO</emphasis> (doesn't change
on the same connection)
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/j #mini-HOWTO joins channel <emphasis>#mini-HOWTO</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/j #unmaintained-HOWTO joins channel <emphasis>#unmaintained-HOWTO</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/j #mini-HOWTO changes the active current channel to <emphasis>#mini-HOWTO</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/msg <emphasis>nick</emphasis> Hi. sends a private message to <emphasis>nick</emphasis> containing <emphasis>Hi.</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/notice <emphasis>nick</emphasis> (or #mini-HOWTO) Hi. sends a notice to <emphasis>nick</emphasis> (or #mini-HOWTO) containing <emphasis>Hi.</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/query <emphasis>nick</emphasis> starts a private conversation with <emphasis>nick</emphasis>. /query ends the private conversation
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/me loves <emphasis>Linux.</emphasis> sends an action to the current channel or query containing <emphasis>IRC-mini-HOWTO loves Linux.</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/dcc chat <emphasis>nick</emphasis> starts a chat with <emphasis>nick</emphasis>. Use /msg =<emphasis>nick</emphasis> (notice the <emphasis>=</emphasis>) to send messages over the chat
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/dcc send <emphasis>nick</emphasis> /etc/HOSTNAME sends the given file to <emphasis>nick</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/dcc get <emphasis>nick</emphasis> receives the file offered by <emphasis>nick</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/part leaves the active current channel
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/part #unmaintained-HOWTO leaves channel <emphasis>#unmaintained-HOWTO</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/discon disconnects from current IRCSERVER
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/server irc.us.freenet.net connects to IRCSERVER <emphasis>irc.us.freenet.net</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
/quit Bye. quits your IRC session with a reason <emphasis>Bye.</emphasis>
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>IRC Etiquette</title>

<para>WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING</para>
<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Never use IRC logged as root or any user with excessive privileges. Bad things may happen sooner or later. You were warned.
It's safe if you create 2 users, one of them to only use IRC.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist>
<para>$ man adduser</para>
<para>On Linux channels you shouldn't:</para>
<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Act as an idiot. If you want to be respected, then first respect each other.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Use colors (^C). Most Linux users don't tolerate such mIRC crazes, and ircII doesn't really support them. The same should
apply for ANSI.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Use full CAPS, bold (^B), reverse (^V), underline (^_), blink (^F), and bell (^G). The first 4 are here to emphasize words,
not the whole text. The last 2 are just very annoying.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Ask if you can ask a question. Just ask, but first read all documentation available on the subject. Start looking at <ulink
url="file:/usr/doc/">/usr/doc/</ulink> , otherwise go to <ulink
url="http://www.tldp.org/">http://www.tldp.org/</ulink> or <ulink
url="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/">http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/</ulink>. And don't repeat your question
immediately. Wait at least 10 minutes. If you don't get any answer it's because nobody knows or wants to help. Respect their
choice, they're not your personal assistant. Also never send mass private messages. It's like SPAM.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="console"><title>Console IRC Clients</title>

<sect2><title>ircII</title>
<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> ircII project (<email>ircii @ eterna.com.au</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #ircII (official channel ?) on <ulink url="http://www.efnet.org/servers.html">EFNet</ulink></para>

<para>Originally written by Michael Sandrof, ircII comes with most Linux distributions. It uses termcap and shouldn't be a
choice for most users, but is a standard. Mathusalem and other gurus will use it. Less ventured will regret to have it
installed.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of ircII from <ulink url="ftp://ircftp.au.eterna.com.au/pub/ircII/">ftp://ircftp.au.eterna.com.au/pub/ircII/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.eterna.com.au/ircii/">http://www.eterna.com.au/ircii/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>EPIC</title>
<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> EPIC Software Labs (<email>ircii-epic @ concentric.net</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #EPIC on EFNet</para>

<para>Based on ircII, EPIC (Enhanced Programmable ircII Client) is meant for real scripters and users searching freedom. When
you start it for the first time you'll notice that you should really learn the basics of scripting.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of EPIC from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.epicsol.org/pub/epic/">ftp://ftp.epicsol.org/pub/epic/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.epicsol.org/">http://www.epicsol.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>BitchX</title>
<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Colten Edwards (<email>edwards @ bitchx.dimension6.com</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #BitchX on EFNet</para>

<para>Based on ircII and EPIC, BitchX could be compared to the Pine MUA. Bloatware (doesn't mean you shouldn't use it) and
widely used. The choice for users that want a client with built-in facilities. It can be compiled with the GNOME libraries by
using the configure option --with-gtk. Don't be surprised if all you get is a XTerm-BitchX instead.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of BitchX from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.bitchx.org/pub/BitchX/source/">ftp://ftp.bitchx.org/pub/BitchX/source/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.bitchx.com/">http://www.bitchx.com/</ulink>.
Homepage of gtkBitchX at <ulink url="http://www.bitchx.org/gtk/">http://www.bitchx.org/gtk/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>irssi</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Timo Sirainen (<email>tss @ iki.fi</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #irssi on <ulink url="http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml">freenode</ulink> and <ulink url="http://www.ircnet.org/">IRCnet</ulink></para>

<para>Timo released yagIRC ~3 years ago. It was a GUI client using the GTK+ toolkit. The army called on him, and the new
maintainers wouldn't do the job. yagIRC passed away and he started irssi as a replacement. It used GTK+. GNOME and curses
versions would appear later. As of 0.7.90 it's only a modular text mode client. Supports Perl scripting.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of irssi from <ulink url="http://irssi.org/?page=download">http://irssi.org/?page=download</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://irssi.org/">http://irssi.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Other Console IRC Clients</title>

<para>There are a few others ircII based clients.</para>

<para>Blackened <ulink url="http://www.blackened.com/blackened/">http://www.blackened.com/blackened/</ulink>.</para>
<para>Ninja <ulink url="http://ninja.qoop.org/">http://ninja.qoop.org/</ulink>.</para>
<para>ScrollZ <ulink url="http://www.scrollz.com/">http://www.scrollz.com/</ulink>.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="xfree"><title>X Window IRC Clients</title>

<sect2><title>Zircon</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Lindsay F. Marshall (<email>Lindsay.Marshall @ ncl.ac.uk</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> None ?</para>

<para>Written in Tcl/Tk, uses the native network communications of Tcl.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of Zircon from <ulink url="ftp://catless.ncl.ac.uk/pub/">ftp://catless.ncl.ac.uk/pub/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Programs/Zircon/">http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Programs/Zircon/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>KVIrc</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Szymon Stefanek (<email>stefanek @ tin.it</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #KVIrc on freenode</para>

<para>Also written with the Qt toolkit, KVIrc is a beast. Supports DCC Voice, built-in scripting language, and plugins.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of KVIrc from <ulink url="http://www.kvirc.net/?id=download">http://www.kvirc.net/?id=download</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.kvirc.net/">http://www.kvirc.net/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>X-Chat</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Peter Zelezny (<email>zed @ linux.com</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #Linux on <ulink url="http://www.chatjunkies.org/servers.html">ChatJunkies</ulink></para>

<para>Using GTK+ and optionally GNOME, supports Perl and Python scripting.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of X-Chat from <ulink url="http://xchat.org/download.html">http://xchat.org/download.html</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://xchat.org/">http://xchat.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>QuIRC</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Patrick Earl (<email>quirc @ patearl.net</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #QuIRC on <ulink url="http://www.dal.net/servers/">DALnet</ulink></para>

<para>Using Tk, supports Tcl for scripting.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of QuIRC from his Homepage at <ulink url="http://quirc.org/">http://quirc.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="servers"><title>IRC Servers</title>

<sect2><title>IRCD</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> ircd developers(<email>ircd-dev @ irc.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #ircd on IRCnet</para>

<para>The original IRC daemon, mainly used by IRCnet.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of IRCD from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.irc.org/irc/server/">ftp://ftp.irc.org/irc/server/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.irc.org/">http://www.irc.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>IRCD-Hybrid</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> (<email>ircd-hybrid @ the-project.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> None ?</para>

<para>Mainly used by EFNet.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of IRCD-Hybrid from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.blackened.com/pub/irc/hybrid/">ftp://ftp.blackened.com/pub/irc/hybrid/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/">http://www.ircd-hybrid.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>ircu</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Undernet Coder Committee (<email>coder-com @ undernet.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #ircu on <ulink url="http://www.undernet.org/servers.php">Undernet</ulink></para>

<para>Mainly used by Undernet.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of ircu from <ulink url="http://ftp1.sourceforge.net/undernet-ircu/">http://ftp1.sourceforge.net/undernet-ircu/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://coder-com.undernet.org/">http://coder-com.undernet.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Bahamut</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> DALnet Coding Team (<email>bahamut @ bahamut.net</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #Bahamut on DALnet</para>

<para>Based on DreamForge and Hybrid, Bahamut is the DALnet server.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of Bahamut from <ulink url="http://bahamut.dal.net/download/">http://bahamut.dal.net/download/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://bahamut.dal.net/">http://bahamut.dal.net/</ulink>.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="bots"><title>IRC Bots</title>

<sect2><title>eggdrop</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> (<email>eggdev @ eggheads.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> #eggdrop on Undernet</para>

<para>eggdrop is the most known Tcl enabled application on the Net. It's 
a channel robot for IRC that can be tailored to any situation.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of eggdrop from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.eggheads.org/pub/eggdrop/source/">ftp://ftp.eggheads.org/pub/eggdrop/source/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://www.eggheads.org/">http://www.eggheads.org/</ulink>.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="bouncers"><title>IRC Bouncers (IRC Proxy)</title>

<sect2><title>bnc</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> None ?</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> None ?</para>

<para>bnc is the original bouncer.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of bnc from <ulink url="http://gotbnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi">http://gotbnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://gotbnc.com/">http://gotbnc.com/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>muh</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Sebastian Kienzl (<email>zap @ riot.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> None ?</para>

<para>muh is a smart and versatile irc-bouncing tool that will also go
on IRC as soon as it's launched, guarding or attempting to get your
nick.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of muh from <ulink url="http://ftp1.sourceforge.net/muh/">http://ftp1.sourceforge.net/muh/</ulink>.
Homepage at <ulink url="http://mind.riot.org/muh/">http://mind.riot.org/muh/</ulink>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>ezbounce</title>

<para><emphasis>Maintainer:</emphasis> Murat Delig<69>n<EFBFBD>l (<email>druglord @ freelsd.org</email>)</para>
<para><emphasis>IRC Channel:</emphasis> None ?</para>

<para>ezbounce's basic features include password protection, remote
administration, logging and listening on multiple ports.</para>

<para>You can get the latest version of ezbounce from his Homepage at <ulink url="http://druglord.freelsd.org/ezbounce/">http://druglord.freelsd.org/ezbounce/</ulink>.</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="install"><title>Installation</title>

<sect2><title>Clients</title>

<para>All popular clients use <emphasis>GNU</emphasis> autoconf and <emphasis>GNU</emphasis> automake, thus come with a
configure script. Read the installation instructions after you unpack the sources. Be sure you have the required libraries in
order to compile. Doing cd sources; mkdir objdir; cd objdir; ../configure --help; ../configure
<emphasis>your_options_here</emphasis>; make; make install (or make install_strip) &gt; ~/sources_install.log is the right
procedure. Also note that for ircII, EPIC, and BitchX you should really edit include/config.h to suit your
needs.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Servers</title>

<para>Do you really need help to set up a server ?</para>

<para>~$ vim ircd.conf</para></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="distribution"><title>But what's already included in my distribution ? (Linux on x86)</title>

<sect2><title>Debian</title>

<para>IRC Channel: #Debian on freenode (irc.debian.org -> irc.freenode.net)</para>

<para><ulink url="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</ulink> includes too many IRC tools to list. You can find them at the
following places:</para>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Debian <ulink url="http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/">stable</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Debian <ulink url="http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/">unstable</ulink> (didn't receive enough testing).
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
Also be sure to check the <ulink url="http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/proposed-updates/">proposed updates</ulink>. It may contain IRC clients as well.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Red Hat</title>

<para>IRC Channel: #RedHat on freenode (irc.redhat.com -> irc.freenode.net)</para>

<para><ulink url="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</ulink> 8.0 includes the following clients:</para>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/epic-1.0.1-8.i386.rpm">EPIC 1.0.1</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ksirc-3.0.3-3.i386.rpm">KSirc from KDE Network 3.0.3</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/8.0/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/xchat-1.8.10-8.i386.rpm">X-Chat 1.8.10</ulink>.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Red Hat Raw Hide (current development)
</para></listitem>                                                              
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/rawhide/">ftp://rawhide.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/rawhide/</ulink>. Use at your own risk.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Slackware</title>

<para>IRC Channel: #Slackware on freenode</para>

<para><ulink url="http://www.slackware.com/">Slackware</ulink> 8.1 includes the following clients:</para>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8.1/slackware/n/bitchx-1.0c19-i386-1.tgz">BitchX 1.0c19</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8.1/slackware/n/epic4-1.0.1-i386-2.tgz">EPIC4 1.0.1</ulink>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
KSirc from <ulink url="ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8.1/slackware/kde/kdenetwork-3.0.1-i386-2.tgz">KDE Network 3.0.1</ulink>.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8.1/slackware/gnome/xchat-1.8.9-i386-1.tgz">X-Chat 1.8.9</ulink>.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Slackware -current (current development)
</para></listitem>                                                              
<listitem><para>
<ulink url="ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/">ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/</ulink>. Use at your own risk.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="thanks"><title>Hell and Paradise</title>

<sect2><title>Gods (developers)</title>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Thanks to all authors. Without their hard and volunteer work I'd never write it, and we'd never get our hands on Linux nor IRC.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Saints (contributors)</title>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
See <ulink url="http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/">http://www.pervalidus.net/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/</ulink>.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Angels (feedback)</title>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
See above.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2>

<sect2><title>Devils</title>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
Khaled Mardam-Bey must be stopped <emphasis>:-)</emphasis>
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
'If idiots could fly, IRC would be an airport'. I don't know who wrote that, but it makes sense. For those of you using IRC to
annoy people I ordered a /kill.
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect2></sect1>

<sect1 id="history"><title>Revision History</title>

<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
20021121 - v0.3, fourth draft
</para></listitem></itemizedlist></sect1></article>