328 lines
10 KiB
Groff
328 lines
10 KiB
Groff
Written by Ronald van Loon, August 27, 1991 (IRCNICK : rvl)
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[ PART THREE : CUSTOMIZING YOUR OWN ENVIRONMENT - VARIABLES AND DEFAULTFILES ]
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Most of the information in this file can be obtained by issuing :
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man irc
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(NOTE : does not work when using the irc-program !)
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/HELP SET
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/HELP SET <variable-name>
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Prerequisites
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=============
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In this part, I will assume the following :
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- You have read Part One and Part Two of this introduction, and you understand
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most of it ; you know how to deal with messages send to you, and how to have
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conversations with people on channels.
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- You know what environment variables are and how to set them ; if you don't,
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a brief recap of the procedure follows below - you should however, go out
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and read a book on UNIX.
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Issue the following command :
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echo $SHELL
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if the computer's response is :
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.../sh or : .../bash or : .../ksh
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(where ... is a directory name (usually /bin))
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then use the following :
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<VARIABLE_NAME>="<value>" ; export <VARIABLENAME>
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---- Example :
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IRCNAME="Ronald van Loon" ; export IRCNAME
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(This sets the variable 'IRCNAME' to the value 'Ronald van Loon' and makes
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its value available to all programs)
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In all (?) other cases, (.../csh .../tcsh etc.)
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setenv <VARIABLE_NAME> "<value>"
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---- Example :
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setenv IRCNAME "Ronald van Loon"
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To make sure what you did was correct, issue the :
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echo $<VARIABLE_NAME>
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command, the computer's response should be the value you just gave it.
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This should be enough to help you understand, or in any case use the
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information in the next section.
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IRC II and Environment Variables
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================================
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IRC II will use the values of the following environmentvariables, if set :
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IRCNICK : Specifies the nickname you will have when you initially start irc.
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You can change it afterwards, obviously, with /NICK. See also part
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one of this tutorial.
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IRCNAME : Specifies the name people will see when they issue a /WHO or /WHOIS
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command. Useful for people who use other people's accounts, or in
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general to reflect the state of mind you are in today.
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---- Example :
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$ IRCNAME='Crazy Harry' ; export IRCNAME
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$ IRCNICK='rvl' ; export IRCNICK
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$ irc
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IRC : *** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, rvl
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: /WHOIS rvl
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IRC : *** rvl is rvloon@131.211.145.35 (Crazy Harry) on channel *private*
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----
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TERM : Specifies your terminal type ; if this variable is set to the wrong
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value, IRC may behave rather strange. Also beware that at some
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systems IRC II tends to disturb certain settings on your terminal,
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so your terminal may act strange after using IRC II.
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HOME : This tells IRC II where your Home directory is. (The directory where
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your files are).
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Note :
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TERM and HOME are usually set when you login, so in most cases there's no need
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to set them manually.
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There are three other environment variables IRC uses, but those will be
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mentioned at the appropriate places throughout this tutorial.
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IRC II and Initialisation Files
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===============================
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When you use IRC II on a (semi)regular basis, you will discover that every
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time you start the program you will issue the same initialisation sequence.
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If that is the case, I have good news for you : you don't have to do that
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anymore ! IRC II will, at start up, load a file called ".ircrc" (full path:
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$HOME/.ircrc). It will treat each line in that file as if you typed it
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manually. For example, if the contents or your .ircrc file is :
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.ircrc : /COMMENT This is definitely *NOT* a typical .ircrc file
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.ircrc : /NICK rvl
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.ircrc : /JOIN +my_channel
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Obviously, the ".ircrc :"-bit should not be present in the file. What will
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happen is the following :
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IRC II loads the .ircrc file, executing your commands one by one :
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The /COMMENT will be ignored, /COMMENT is typically used in .ircrc-files to add
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comments to following lines. Second, the /NICK rvl line is read and executed,
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thus setting your nick to 'rvl'. Last, you will join a channel called
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'+my_channel', when the /JOIN-line is read and executed. NOTE : it is in
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general not a good idea to set your nick in .ircrc files, as it makes using
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IRC II less flexible. Use the environment variable IRCNICK instead, or use the
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command-line option, described elsewhere.
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The .ircrc file is a so-called defaultfile; you use it to tailor IRC II to
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your needs ; you can, however, also create other files with IRC II commands in
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them - 'batch files' - and use the /LOAD command.
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/LOAD <filename> Loads the given file into irc, treating each line
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as an irc command, just as if it were typed into
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the command line. (Actually, there's more than
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meets the eye here, but I will postpone further
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explanation until I go into ALIASes and such.).
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IRC II provides a number of batchfiles, ready to
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/LOAD. See also /HELP LOAD.
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You can change where IRC II looks for files by setting the IRCPATH variable.
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The value of this variable should be a colon-separated (:) list of directories,
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in which your files are stored.
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Changing IRC II's behaviour
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===========================
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To make your life easier (or hopelessly complicated ;-) IRC II has about 543
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different variables, all of which control different parts of IRC II.
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Typically, you will store your favorite set of variable settings in your
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.ircrc. You set, reset and unset variables with the /SET command :
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/SET Shows settings of all variables
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/SET <variablename> Shows setting of <variablename>. It is also useful
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to show settings of variables starting with a
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certain prefix.
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/SET -<variablename> If <variablename> is a text (string) variable, it
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will be set to the NULL string ("").
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/SET <variablename> <value>
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Sets the value of <variablename> to <value>,
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provided <value> is a valid value for this
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particular variable.
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Flavours of Variables
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=====================
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There are five kinds of variables:
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Type Ref. Valid Values
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======= ==== =============================================
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Boolean : BOOL : ON, OFF, TOGGLE
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Level : LVL : PUBLIC, MSG, NOTICE, WALL, WALLOP, NOTE, CRAP
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Integer : INT : 0,1,2 ...
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String : STR : <Any text string>
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Hybrid : HYBR : A combination of the four above.
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Boolean
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-------
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This kind of variable is either ON or OFF. If you specify TOGGLE when
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/SETting, it will go from ON to OFF or vice versa.
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Level
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-----
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This kind of variable is used in situations where IRC II needs to classify
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kinds of messages :
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PUBLIC : Messages on a channel
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MSG : Private messages (MSGs)
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NOTICE : Notices
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WALL : WALL message (a message sent to everyone on IRC)
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WALLOP : a WALLOP message (you only get those when you are an IRC Operator)
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NOTE : A (server) NOTE message
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CRAP : Everything not covered by the six message levels above.
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NONE : None of the above.
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You can also specify multiple levels, separated by spaces, or specify ALL, and
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going down from there by preceding the levels you don't want included with a
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minus-sign '-'.
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So,
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ALL is equivalent to : PUBLIC MSG NOTICE WALL WALLOP NOTE CRAP
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Example:
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PUBLIC MSG NOTIC is equivalent to ALL -WALL -WALLOP -CRAP -NOTE
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Integer
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-------
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Your average cardinal type.
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String
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------
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A sequence of characters. For certain variables, certain restrictions apply.
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Hybrid
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------
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A combination of all or any of the above.
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General Purpose Variables
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=========================
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I will now describe the variables that are "General Purpose", which means that
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they are not connected with other IRC commands, like /ON or /ALIAS. In the
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following, I will not give many examples, as obviously a variable controls
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certain conditions rather than reflecting an immediate change of environment.
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Also note that the order in which variables are listed, is arbitrary.
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AUTO_UNMARK_AWAY : BOOL
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ON : whenever this variable is ON, you will be automatically unmarked as being
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AWAY whenever you send a message to a channel or send a private message.
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(Equivalent to issueing the /AWAY command with no arguments)
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OFF: Your AWAY-status remains the same, unless you issue the /AWAY command.
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See also : /AWAY in tutorial one.
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----
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AUTO_WHOWAS : BOOL
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ON : in cases where /WHOIS <nickname> would result in
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<nickname>: No such nickname
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a /WHOWAS <nickname> will automatically be generated.
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OFF: You will not be bothered by /WHOWAS's
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----
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BEEP - how to avoid or limit the amount of BEEPs (^G's) received
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================================================================
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BEEP : BOOL
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ON : All BEEPs will be heard at the terminal
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OFF: All ^G (Control-G) characters will be shown as reversed 'G's.
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The setting of this variable does not affect the BEEPs generated by the
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BEEP_ON_MSG variable and the BEEP_WHEN_AWAY variable.
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----
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BEEP_MAX : INT
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This variable indicates the maxinum number of beeps you will hear for any
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given message ; e.g. if this variable is set to '1', and a message sent to you
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contains 10 beeps, only '1' will be heard.
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0 : All BEEPs in the message will be heard
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>0: See explanation.
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----
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BEEP_ON_MSG : LVL
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The message in the class(es) indicated by this variable will generate an
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audible beep on your terminal. For example, if you set this variable to MSG,
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then every private MSG you receive will generate an audible BEEP.
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----
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BEEP_WHEN_AWAY : INT
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When you've /AWAYed, a number of BEEPs will be generated upon receipt of a
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MSG.
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0 : do not generate beeps
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>0: specifies the number of BEEPs generated.
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----
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MAIL : INT
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By setting this variable, IRC, will tell you when new mail arrives - the
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client must be installed properly for this to function. See also : part four,
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in which the wonders of the Status Line are revealed.
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0 : do not check for Mail
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1 : when mail arrives, display the message : You have new mail. Also, an
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optional indicator in your status line will tell you how many messages
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you have in your mailbox.
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2 : all the functionality of 1, but IRC will also show the three first lines
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of the message.
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----
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[ END OF PART THREE : PART FOUR WILL DEAL WITH THE REMAINING VARIABLES AND
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THE STATUSLINE ]
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