Internet Technologies/IRC
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
[edit] Introduction
Internet Relay Chat, commonly abbreviated IRC is a real-time text-based multi-user communication protocol specification and implementation; it relays messages between users on the network. According to Efnet.org, IRC was born sometime in 1988. According to IRChelp.org, the official specification for IRC was written in 1993 in the RFC format. The specification "RFC 1459: Internet Relay Chat Protocol" is a really excellent source for both and introduction to and for detailed information about the IRC protocol. Today IRC has a very wide range of users and anyone can find a place to participate in chat.
IRC's largest unit of architecture is the IRC network. There are perhaps hundreds of IRC networks in the world each one running parallel and disjoint from the others. A client logged into one network can communicate only with other clients on the same network, not with clients on other networks. Each network is composed of one or more IRC servers. An IRC client is a program that connects to a given IRC server in order to have the server relay communications to and from other clients on the same network but not necessarily the same server.
Messages on IRC are sent as blocks. That is, other IRC clients will not see one typing and editing as one does so. One creates a message block (often just a sentence) and transmits that block all at once, which is received by the server and based on the addressing, delivers it to the appropriate client or relays it to other servers so that it may be delivered or relayed again, et cetera.
Once connected to a server, addressing of other clients is achieved through IRC nicknames. A nickname is simply a unique string of ASCII characters identifying a particular client. Although implementations vary, restrictions on nicknames usually dictate that they be composed only of characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, underscore, and dash.
Another form of addressing on IRC, and arguably one of its defining features, is the IRC channel. IRC channels are often compared to CB Radio (Citizen's Band Radio) channels. While with CB one is said to be "listening" to a channel, in IRC one's client is said to be "joined" to the channel. Any communication sent to that channel is then "heard" or seen by the client. On the other hand, other clients on the same network or even on the same server, but not on the same channel will not see any messages sent to that channel.
While IRC is by definition not a P2P protocol, IRC does have some extensions that support text and file transmission directly from client to client without any relay at all. These extensions are known as DCC (Direct Client Connect) and CTCP (Client To Client Protocol). For CTCP, clients like mIRC implement commands such as "ctcp nickname version" or "ctcp nickname ping" to get some interesting infos about other users.
[edit] IRC clients
IRC is very easy to use. First, you'll need an IRC client. There are a variety of IRC clients- each having their own advantages and disadvantages.Here is a list of clients:
- BitchX
- Chatzilla
- IRSSI
- mIRC (Good for beginners)
- XChat (Silverex's XChat for Windows builds)
- Colloquy (For Mac OS X only)
You can also connect to IRC through hybrid-software:
Opera web browser has integrated IRC client.
[edit] IRC commands
[edit] Basic commands
Here are some basic commands for IRC:
| Command | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
/attach
|
Sign on to a server | /attach irc.freenode.net
|
/nick |
Set your nickname | /nick YourName |
/join |
Join a channel | /join #wikibooks |
/msg |
Sends a message (can either be private or to the entire channel) | Message the channel: /msg #wikibooks hello world!
Send a private message: |
/whois |
Display information about a user on the server | /whois JohnDoe |
/clear
|
Clears a channel's text.
Clears all open channel's text. |
/clear
|
/away |
Sets an away message. Note: Type /away again to return from away. | /away I'm away because... |
/me |
Sends an action to the channel. See example. | The following:
would output to the chat in the case of JohnDoe:
|
[edit] Privileged User Commands
Commands for half-operators, channel operators, channel owners, and admins:
| Command | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
/kick |
Kicks, or boots a user from the channel. You must be a half-operator or greater to do this. | Kick a user from the channel with a reason: /kick #channel JohnDoe I kicked you because... |
/ban
|
Bans a user from the channel. You must be a channel operator or greater to do this.
Unbans a user from the channel. You must be a channel operator or greater to do this. |
/ban JohnDoe
|
