.\" $Old: README.me,v 1.2 1998/10/20 00:11:18 token Exp $
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TIRC Source Package Description
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Please read this document in entity before configuring, building
and installing the client
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.uh Abstract
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This is release 1.1 of token's IRC client for UNIX\**
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\**UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
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and similar systems.
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TIRC comes without warranty.  Please see the file ``COPYRIGHT'' for
the copyright statement, the usage and distribution license and the
warranty disclaimer.
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Since I wrote this program for myself, I am quite reluctant to add
"improvements" that reflect the personal taste of other people
(but not mine).  TIRC isn't a do-it-all tool for IRC and I place
stability and efficiency higher than featurism.  If you don't like
it, use ircII or whatever.  Nevertheless, I am grateful for bug
reports which you may send (no corefiles or similar heavy-weighted
junk!) to token@mayn.de.
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Please read the file ``FAQ'' for answers to some frequently asked
questions.
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TIRC is written for and tested on the following systems:
FreeBSD 2.1 and higher, OpenBSD 2.1, NetBSD 1.2, AIX 4.x, IRIX 5.3,
DEC Unix 3.x and 4.0, Solaris 2.5, RedHat, SuSe and Slackware GNU/-
Linux, and works on some more.  Look at the file ``Ported'' for a
complete listing of environments where TIRC has been successfully
run on.
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TIRC now uses a Gnu autoconf generated configure script and has been
enhanced to be a bit more portable.  See the building section below.
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The source code is written in portable C style and the operating
system should at best exhibit some 4.4BSD or SVR4 and POSIX
behaviour.  The source should translate with pre-Standard compilers
(K&R Unix compilers like those derived from pcc) as well as with
(ANSI/ISO) Standard C compilers.
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.uh Highlights
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(features that other clients probably don't have):
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Comfortable backscroll buffers with regex search mechanism
in multiple screen regions
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Full ircd 2.9 support
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DCC RESUME (mIRC compatible)
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vi-like editor line and general usage (rudimentary support
for emacs users exists, too)
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Multiple pages that contain window regions
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Nickname completion
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DCC is handled by child processes, allowing faster response
in the master client, higher DCC throughput and scheduling
of the DCC processes
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Efficient flood protection with source-mask detection and
ignore, you can't get flooded off with this client
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ChanOp-On-Demand facility; yes this is bot-like but it's
the smallest evil (compared to autoop and other stupid things)
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URL catcher with html generation
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Functionality that elsewhere needs to be implemented in scripts
is hardcoded, no need for a scripting language (bot operating
system, yuck)
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Fast terminal-i/o, no curses bugs (doesn't use curses for tty i/o)
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Terminal ANSI-colour support, freely configurable
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Fast and pretty small, doesn't eat much resources, neither
on disk nor when executing
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Relatively clean implementation (ISO-C and POSIX compliance
when possible, regularly linted and checked for memory leaks)
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All you need is a single binary (and probably a personal
tirc config-file, easy setup on boxes where you have no
administrational access)
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Comprehensive, well commented source code under BSD-style
license (freely distributable and usable)
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.uh Building
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TIRC 0.47-alpha and higher is using a Gnu autoconf configure script
for automated build-file adaptation.  To create Makefile, config.h etc.,
and compile all features, issue
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.ti +1c
%
.b "./configure --with-all"
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in the source directory.  The
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--help
parameter shows you what options configure understands.
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The following configure options might be interesting:
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--enable-debug
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builds a version with debug code and debug info and extra warnings
at compile time.
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--with-bundled-regex
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uses Henry Spencer's regular expression functions, which implement
POSIX-style extended regexps.  These will be used automatically if
your system only has the ancient re_comp/re_exec functions.
But also when you only have the (also old) regcmp/regex functions,
you might want to use Spencer's stuff, since regcmp/regex are only
basic regular expressions.  POSIX-style systems usually have a modern
regcomp/regexec implementation.
Note: the regular expression routines in the linux runtime library
are very slow and not entirely POSIX compatible.  Although TIRC
doesn't make heavy use of regex, you might want to use the bundled
regex lib if you can take the increased executable size.  This
probably has been fixed in newer library releases.
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--with-gnu-regex
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This is for linking TIRC with the GNU regular expression functions
which are mostly POSIX.
You can get the GNU regex lib from prep.ai.mit.edu or a mirror site
and try with that one.  Build the regex object file (regex.o) and
copy regex.o and regex.h into the TIRC source directory.  Then
specify --with-gnu-regex with configure and TIRC will link against
regex.o.  You should only do this if for some reason the system does
not have proper regex functions and the bundled regex lib won't
compile.
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--prefix=PREFIX
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specifies where the installation will take place;
For example if you want to install to /usr/contrib (instead of
/usr/local, which is the default), specify --prefix=/usr/contrib and
the TIRC executable will land in /usr/contrib/bin whereas the manpage
will be stored in /usr/contrib/man/man1.
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--with-ansi-colours
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ANSI terminal char cell colourization support (see the COLOUR command).
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--with-dlmod
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Allows runtime-loading, binding and unloading of shared libraries
through the /dlmod command.  Not supported on all platforms.
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--with-linux-glibc
On Gnu/Linux systems that use the new generic gnu libc library instead
of the traditional linux-specific gnu libc5, the System V IPC header
files sys/ipc.h and sys/shm.h may be broken.  Specifying this option
enables a workaround.
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--with-all
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Currently equivalent to --with-ansi-colours --with-dlmod.
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There're other switches which are explained in configure's help output.
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If configure succeeded in throwing together a Makefile and config.h
(if not, tell me), issue
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.ti +1c
%
.b "make depend"
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to create the dependencies.
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If your mkdep does everything else but create nice dependencies, or if
your system lacks mkdep, configure will decide to use the bundled mkdep.sh
script (which was borrowed from the 4.4BSD-Lite2 distribution).
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If you successfully updated the dependencies, try to compile the client:
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.ti +1c
%
.b "make clean all"
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*crunch* *crunch* *crunch*
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*plonk*
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.ti +1c
% _
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If that worked, you might have to get superuser (if you want to install
system-wide) and type:
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.ti +1c
#
.b "make install"
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which will copy the executable and the manual page to their target
location.  If you're using the csh or tcsh and have added the tirc
program to your path, you have to type "rehash" so that the shell
finds the new binary.
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In case you don't have a BSD-compatible install utility, configure
will use the bundled install-sh script, which was taken from X11R5.
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TIRC looks for a global startup file ``/usr/local/share/tircrc''.
This file is not automatically generated by ``make install'' and isn't
required for running the client.  However, it may be useful to provide
all users on the system with some default settings (which can be
overridden by a .tircrc file in their home directories).
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Please read the manual page if you are new to TIRC.
You can get help on commands and keybindings inside TIRC with the /help
command.
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If you're upgrading from an earlier version of TIRC, please have a look
at the Changelog file to see what has changed.
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.uh "Don't ask for these"
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Things that are different from other irc clients but will never be
implemented/changed (until you do it for yourself):
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mIRC lameness like inline colour support
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proprietary scripting language like in ircII
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automatic kicks, protection and other automatisms which influence
other users
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notify (it polls the server periodically - sucks)
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xdcc (use ftp or normal dcc, irc isn't an interface to a warez repository)
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CTCP USERINFO (stupid)
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DCC TALK (use talk(1) instead)
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.uh "Non-trivial modifications on the TIRC source"
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If you want to add your own stuff to TIRC, or change the source and
redistribute your modifications, you're welcome to do so.  However,
certain rules should be followed.
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First, please distinguish your version from the original (by changing
the origin identifier to the global version string in v.h).
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Second, make it clear in the documentation material that yours is not
the original version of TIRC.
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Third, never remove or change any copyrights on existing files.
Don't incorporate copyrighted source that does not allow free usage
and distribution.
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Then, if you want, contact me to get the RCS tree of the source (the
source archive is actually not the entire source tree, it lacks the
RCS files).
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You're encouraged to check-in your versions as a side-tree, also with
the possibility of later merging with the original tree.  If you
don't do this but use your own kind of versioning (or seperate RCS/
SCCS tree), please leave the RCS stamps of the last original source
version in the files (probably change the $Id to something like $token
or similar).  This assures that other people can easily track the source
when they have the original RCS files.
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NOTE: unfortunately I lost the rcs tree sometime back in 1998; since
the source ought to be retired sometime anyways (going to 2.0) I didn't
want to setup another tree for this source.
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Of course you can always propose modifications for merging into the
main source.
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.uh Acknowledgements
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Richard C. (rjc@rasi.demon.co.uk) has contributed dynamically
loadable modules support using the system's dynamic link interface,
and other ideas.
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Thanks to Michal Listos for testing many alpha releases and reporting
a lot of bugs at an early stage of development (since 0.28-alpha or
sth.).
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Vadim Kolontsov has contributed patches.
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Thanks to the other people who helped improving the client by
proposing new functionality, notifying me about bug-fixes and simply
testing the thing.
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The work of Henry Spencer (free posix regex library), Theo de Raadt
(snprintf.c), the Free Software Foundation (autoconf) and the University
of California at Berkeley (mkdep.sh, strtoul.c, regex) is highly
appreciated.
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.uh Resources
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You can get the latest version of this software via anonymous ftp 
from the host ftp.mayn.de, in the directory
/pub/unix/software/Network/Irc/tirc.
Log in with ``ftp'' as username and your complete e-mail address as
password.
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There's a mailing list for general discussion on the TIRC program.
It is quite low traffic and open to everyone who's interested.
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To subscribe, send e-mail to tirc-subscribe@mayn.de, subject and
body are irrelevant.  The list distribution address is tirc@mayn.de.
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To unsubscribe, send mail to tirc-unsubscribe@mayn.de.
It is NOT allowed to send commercial advertisement or other spam
(chain letters etc.) to the list.