| Sven Guckes guckes-irc@math.fu-berlin.de ©1995-2003 | Latest change: Wed Mar 12 18:18:18 CET 2003 |
IRC - International Relay Chat. A worldwide chat system.
The Book of Irc: The Ultimate Guide to Internet Relay Chat by Alex Charalabidis ISBN: 1886411298 ; Paperback - 350 pages (January 3, 2000) No Starch Pr; Dimensions (in inches): 0.98 x 9.11 x 7.09
Please read the following with care and report any errors to me. Enjoy!
A typical irc session can be described as this: The irc client connects to a server. The server gives a startup message. You join a channel, chat, and then quit irc.
So remember: When you type a command, make sure that the first character is a slash. Note that "the first character" is meant literally, ie there are no other characters before it, not even a space or tab.
Well, now that you are "online" you can give commands.
It pays to know how you can edit your input in case you need to correct something:
back and forth
^B backward Go to previous character
^F forward Go to next character
^A Anfang Jump to begin of input line
^E end Jump to end of input line
ESC B backword Jump to begin of (previous) word
ESC F foreword Jump to begin of next word
deleting
^D delete delete current char
^H delete delete previous char
highlight
^V start/end highlighted text
history
^P previous jump to previous command line
^N next jump to next command line
/quit
No response is given. Well, IRC may say that it has "ended the logfile"
(see below about "logging").
Please note that " /quit" will not work as there are spaces before the slash!
Therefore it is not a command!
(The quotes only show the boundaries of the input.)
Example: Your login name is "ab401". Now your nickname is "ab401". Now, "ab401" is a strange name for a conversation, don't you think? You should choose a name more like your real name.
Choosing a name ("nickname") is done with "/nick name".
/nick paul
Now you will be known as "paul".
The client will display this action like this:
/nick paul
*** ab401 is now known as paul.
Please note that a nickname can only be used only once.
If "name" already exists, ie someone uses this name on IRC already, then must
choose again.
You cannot have the same name as someone else as the server must be able to
tell people apart.
If your default name is "john" or "miller" then you should choose something
which is similar, but unique, such as "jmiller" or "johnm".
If this doesn't help, use an underscore ("_") in your nickname.
"john_miller", "johnny_m", "_jm".
/msg nick text
This message can only be seen by "nick".
Noone else will see this message!
Therefore it is often referred to as a "private message."
A private message looks like this:
*Sveng* Hi! How are you today?
If you are away then a message will have a time stamp, too:
*Sveng* so where are you now? <Thu Apr 6 12:07>
If the channel did not exist then your joining creates it. You automatically become the channel's operator. But more about this later.
However, you usually use IRC to meet people and you will join a channel which already exists. Several people might already be on the channel. This is where IRC really starts to be a "multichat system".
You may talk to more than one channel, but as this is confusing for "newbies" the default is to disable further "joins" for them. I won't tell you how to disable this - RTFM! :-)
Talking to some people can become very confusing, so you may want to leave quickly:
If you intend to stay around and talk, however, then you should know about the following commands:
Tim: what's new in your home town?
Then "Tim" will know that the question is for him, and he may answer:
Paul: well, it's pretty boring here in the middle of the desert.
Now you know who "paul" was asking, and you also see "tim" answering "paul".
/msg me
If you do not hear a beep then please consult a local tech geek to assist you.
A beep can also be part of your talk, but I would not recommend to send this to everyone on the channel. Usually a beep is only used as a means to notify someone personally. Sending a beep to everyone on a channel only causes distraction. So - please do not use beeps in talk!
You can add a nickname to the "watch list" with the command "/notify:
/notify +sveng
This adds "sveng" to the list of people to look for.
IRC will let you know about this:
*** sveng added to the notification list
When someone joins the IRC in your scope then it will tell you:
*** Signon by sveng detected
It also tells you about signoffs:
*** Signoff by sveng detected
/set log on
This will put everything into the logfile;
the default name for this file is "IrcLog".
If you want a different name for the logfile, say "irclog.fub", then you can set it like this:
/set logfile irclog.fub
Some people use all ten fingers to "touch type" at a blinding speed. But most people have to look up each key before they type them. Using abbreviations can help here, even though the cryptic style can lead to confusion to novices ("newbies").
Abbreviations are mostly used in a fast conversation. Here are some examples:
abbr abbreviated text meaning
==== ================ =======
brb be right back expect short pause
btw by the way
bye good bye
c u see you
mompls moment please expect short pause
re 'in reverse to' "welcome back", "please answer"
rotfl rolling on the floor laughing "You hear maniacal laughter near-by."
tel telephone i got a call on the telephone
oops oops (exclamation) used on error and typos -
eg sent message was for other person
thx thanks thank you
Personally, I do not like these abbreviations.
I use command aliases instead which are usually more clear:
/alias tel /me leaves the keyboard to answer a phone call.
/alias back /me is back.
/alias reply /me replies to a mail.
/alias mail /me reads his email.
/alias news /me reads News.
To open a new window use "/window new".
To be continued...
As far as I know, the best way to quit the habit is
/quit
To avoid nick collisons I chose a different one from time to time. But then people who set a "notify" on "Sven" were not able to find me but found others. This somewhat became annoying.
At that time someone came up with "nickserv" which gave the possibility to "register" nicknames. So I registered "Sven" for me. But nickserv was hacked - and people found out that the passwords used to register nicknames were also the passwords that people used for their accounts. As security could not be given to nickserv passwords, nickserv died. And so I lost the registration on the nickname "Sven".
Since then I got many more nick collisions. So I had to change my nickname to something which was used less frequently. I finally appended the initial of my last name to my nick making it "Sveng". And I never got a nick collision since. :-)
However, I keep changing my nickname from time to time to indicate my "status of awareness". When I go out then I'll change to "SvenG_out" and when I go to sleep I'll be "SvenG_zzz". However, this change of name takes away the possibility to use "notify" on my nickname. That's why I will use "SvenG" when I am awake - and "sveng" when I am "offline". And I promise to use "/away" for giving a reason more often. [2003-03-12]
disuns2.epfl.ch
irc.ethz.ch
irc.fu-berlin.de
irc.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
irc.informatik.uni-rostock.de
irc.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
irc.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
irc.uni-erlangen.de
irc.uni-paderborn.de
jello.qabc.uq.oz.au
noc.belwue.de
sokrates.informatik.uni-kl.de
You can switch to another server with the command "/server":
/server irc.fu-berlin.de
What did he do that for?
Here are some typical answers: [961221]
URL: http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/irc/ Created: Wed Jun 28 00:00:00 MET 1995Send feedback on this page to