blackened(1)

Usage

blackened [-c chan] [-p portno] [-f]] [-F] [-s] [-S] [-d] [nickname ["server list"]] [-l filename] [-L filename] [-a] [-v] [-q]

Overview

Blackened is a full screen, termcap based interface to Internet Relay Chat. Based on ircII-2.8.2, it gives full access to all of the normal IRC functions, plus a wide variety of additional options, including many that are highly useful to IRC server operators and administrators.

The Screen

The screen is split into two parts, separated by an inverse-video status line (if supported). The upper (larger) part of the screen displays responses from the IRC server. The lower part of the screen (a single line) accepts keyboard input.

Some terminals do not support certain features required by Blackened, in which case you receive a message stating this. If this occurs, try changing the terminal type or run Blackened with the -d option.

Irc Commands

Any line beginning with the slash character ‘/’ is regarded as a Blackened command (the command character may be changed; type “/help set cmdchar”). Any line not beginning with this character is treated as a message to be sent to the current channel. To produce a listing of commands, type “/help ?”. To receive information about the commands type “/help ⟨command⟩”.

The .ircrc File

When Blackened is executed, it checks the user's home directory for a .ircrc file, executing the commands in the file. Commands in this file do not need to have a leading slash character ‘/’. This allows predefinition of aliases and other features.

The Help Files

All of the Blackened commands are fully described in the help files package. The best way to start help is with the “/HELP ?” command as this prints a listing of all available help files.

Options

-c chan: Automatically join channel “chan”.
-p portno: Set the port number to “portno” (default: 6667, the standard IRC port). Only supply this if you connect to a server which uses a port other than 6667.
-f: Use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop and start the display. Normally these are both bound to other functions within Blackened. This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.
-F: Don't use flow control (^S and ^Q) to stop and start the display. This switch is ignored if the -d switch is used.
-s: Don't start up the ircserv process to connect to the IRC server (default).
-S: Start up the ircserv process to connect to the IRC server.
-d: Start in “dumb” mode. All input is taken directly from stdin and all output goes to stdout without using any of the termcap(5) screen control codes.
nickname: Set the nickname (overrides the environment variable IRCNICK; default: the username).
server: Set the list of servers with which Blackened will try to connect upon startup. This list is also used by the program's /server command. The format for lines in the list is:

hostname [:portno[:password[:nick]]]
-l filename: Selects a different file to be used as the .ircrc file for Blackened. There is no exansion of $ expandos when using this option. The default is $HOME/.ircrc.
-L filename: Selects a different file to be used as the .ircrc file for Blackened. Expansion of $ expandos happens with this option. The default is $HOME/.ircrc.
-a: This adds the normal IRC server list to the command line list of IRC servers.
-v: Print the version and release date of Blackened and exit.
-q: Start up Blackened quickly -- don't load the .ircrc file.

Environment

It can be helpful to predefine certain variables in in the .cshrc, .profile, or .login file:

IRCNICK: The user's nickname.
IRCNAME: The user's realname (otherwise retreived from /etc/passwd)
IRCSERVER: The default server(s) (see server for details)
IRCHOST: The hostname or IP from which to connect to IRC servers. Useful for virtual hosts.
IRC_HOST: Alternative name for IRCHOST.
MYHOSTADDR: Alternative name for IRC_HOST.
HOME: Overrides the default home path in /etc/passwd.
TERM: The type of terminal in use.

Files

/usr/local/bin/blackened: the executable program
~/.ircrc: default initialization file
~/.irc/: directory you can put your own Blackened scripts into, that can then be loaded with /load
/usr/local/share/blackened/@VERSION@/: directory containing message-of-the-day, master initialization, help files and Blackened scripts

Signals

SIGUSR1: Closes all DCC connections and processes spawned with exec(3).
SIGUSR2: Drops Blackened back to the command line.

Blackened handles the following signals:

Examples

blackened -c #irchelp -p 5555

Connect Blackened to port number 5555 of the default host and immediately join channel #irchelp.

blackened Mermaid

Use the nickname “Mermaid”.

blackened Mermaid server1:5000 server2::passwd server3

Use the nickname “Mermaid” and the modified server list.

blackened -d

Use dumb mode.

blackened -f

Allow use of ^S/^Q to stop/start screen display.

setenv IRCNICK Mermaid
setenv IRCNAME "The one and only :)"
blackened

Set the nickname (if not specified elsewhere) to “Mermaid”. The user's name (when provided in response to a /WHOIS command) is set to “The one and only :)”.

Referred to by

blackened-wserv(1) a little program to be a pipe between a screen or xterm window to the calling irc client process. blackened-ircserv(1) a quaint little program to make irc life PING free blackened-ircflush(1) a little program that tricks another program into line buffering its output.