Help File Library: BitchX on Red Hat

What is BitchX?

BitchX is an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client originally based on ircii v2.8, however, today it is largely influenced by the current ircii-EPIC4 project.

Why would you want to use BitchX?

* BitchX's user interface has more information on it than a standard irc client. For example, BitchX tells you how many mail messages you have, the mode status of the the current channel you are on, and the modes set on yourself. A mode, if you are wondering, is a property you set on yourself or on a channel that you have operator status on. For example, you could set a channels mode to limit the number of people on that channel or make the channel an invite only channel. In that same trend you can set properties on yourself. You could, for example, choose to be invisible to queries from anyone not on a channel common to you and hidden from /whois unless they specifically name you. After you get BitchX up you can read more about this using the /ehelp 1 mode command.

* BitchX has an unbelievable amount of settings you can customize. For example ajoin (auto join a channel on startup), adduser (have BitchX automatically give privileges to a friend), shitlist (have a running list of people that you don't like or are trouble makers and ban them from any channel you have op status on, kick from the channel, and more), etc.

* DCC is a convenient way of transferring files.

Where do you get BitchX?

The BitchX homepage is here.

Two ways to download BitchX: (I use ncftp for my examples)
1. Long way...
ncftp ftp.bitchx.com
cd pub/BitchX/source
get BitchX-1.0c15.tar.gz

2. One liner - ncftpget
ftp://ftp.bitchx.com/pub/BitchX/source/BitchX-1.0c15.tar.gz

Compiling, Installing,& Basic Configuration

Compiling BitchX is straight forward...

1. tar zxvf BitchX-1.0c15.tar.gz (a note on the tar options...z filters the file through gzip, x extracts the file from the archive, v is for verbal output, and f is the named file)

2. cd BitchX/

3. ./configure --with-plugins (creates a Makefile used for compiling based on your system the --with-plugins allows you to use plugins with BitchX. BitchX, by default, will install to /usr/local..if you want a different install spot use --prefix=x where the x is the path you want it installed to and example would be --prefix=/usr which is the standard RPM install path)

4. make (creates the actual program)

5. su (su is a command to get super user or root privileges)

6. make install (installs all of the programs components)

7. exit

Next you need to set some enviornmental variables:
1. edit your ~/.bash_profile with the editor of your choice

2. add export IRCNAME='your irc name here' (any name you want to be)

3. add export IRCNICK='your nickname' (nickname used when connecting to a server)

4. add export IRCSERVER='irc server you want to use' (the name of the irc server you want to use by default)

5. source ~/.bash_profile (when you source a file it means you want to reload or reprocess it. In this case your IRCNAME, IRCNICK, and IRCSERVER variables become available to the system)

6. confirm that /usr/local/bin is in your $PATH...you can do that by typing echo $PATH and visually confirming that /usr/local/bin is listed...if you chose a different prefix when you did the ./compile make sure that it is in your $PATH

Eterm& Enlightenment (16.x) Users

I use the following line to launch an Eterm in the upper left corner of my screen at 80x25 lines, launch BitchX with my alias and connect to the irc server, and set the title of the Eterm to "BitchX - YourAliasHere". If you would like to do the same simply:

1. edit your ~/.enlightenment/user_apps.menu with the editor of your
choice
2. add "BitchX" NULL exec "Eterm -T 'BitchX - YourAliasHere' --geometry 80x25+0+20 -e BitchX YourAliasHere YourIRCServerHere"
3. restart Enlightenment, and fire it up

Usage

You can run BitchX in console or in a terminal in X Windows. Syntax is:

BitchX YourAlias YourIRCServer (example...BitchX JonDoe irc.ircserver.com)

Final Thoughts

All I have shown you is the bare minimum to get BitchX installed and working. It is now up to you to spend some time with the documentation. An excellent place to begin is by issuing the command /ehelp after you start BitchX. A couple other places to begin would be /ehelp 7 new_user and /ehelp 7 introduction. These last two will get you a quick introduction into BitchX.

Getting ANSI Fonts to work
By: Yath

BitchX enhances its display with graphic characters that are only available in ANSI fonts. The default fonts for most X terminals don't include these characters, so you tend to see characters like ú and í instead.

Most Linux distributions include the ANSI font linux8x16. To use this font with BitchX, start the terminal with the -fn option, i.e. xterm -fn linux8x16.

More ANSI fonts, and instructions on installing them, can be found at Stumpy's X ANSI Fonts page.

Last modified: Date: 2000/01/24 20:05:44