.\" BitlBee is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
.\" (at your option) any later version.
.\"
.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\" along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
.\" the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
.\"
.TH bitlbee 8 "19 May 2010"
.SH NAME
BitlBee \- IRC gateway to IM chat networks
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
.B bitlbee
[\-I]
[\-c \fIconfiguration file\fP]
[\-d \fIconfiguration directory\fP]
.PP
.B bitlbee
\-D
[\-i \fIaddress\fP]
[\-p \fIport number\fP]
[\-n]
[\-v]
[\-c \fIconfiguration file\fP]
[\-d \fIconfiguration directory\fP]
.PP
.B bitlbee
\-h
.RI
.SH DESCRIPTION
BitlBee is an IRC daemon that can talk to instant messaging 
networks and acts as a gateway. Users can connect to the server
with any normal IRC client and see their 'buddy list' in
&bitlbee.

\fBbitlbee\fP is normally started as a system service (with init
scripts, systemd units or equivalent). It can also be run as an
.BR inetd (8)
/
.BR xinetd (8)
service or a stand-alone daemon with the options below.

To use it, connect to it with an IRC client with a command such as
"/connect localhost"

.PP
.SH RUN MODES
.PP
.IP "-I"
Run in 
.BR inetd (8)
mode. This is the default setting for historical reasons, but not the
recommended one (See ForkDaemon below).
.IP "-D"
Run in \fBDaemon\fP mode. In this mode, BitlBee forks to the background and
waits for new connections. All clients will be served from one process.
This mode is also useful for debugging.
.IP "-F"
Run in \fBForkDaemon\fP mode. This is similar to ordinary daemon mode, but every
client gets its own process. Easier to set up than inetd mode, and without
the possible stability issues. This is the recommended runmode for most
use cases.

.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.PP

.IP "-i \fIaddress\fP"
When running in daemon mode, specifies the network interface
(identified by IP address) to which the daemon should attach. Use this if
you don't want BitlBee to listen on every interface (which is the default
behaviour).
.IP "-p \fIport number\fP"
When running in daemon mode, specifies the port number on
which BitlBee should listen for connections. 6667 is the default value.
.IP "-n"
Wehn running in daemon mode, this option prevents BitlBee from
forking into the background.
.IP "-v"
Be more verbose. This only works together with the \fB-n\fP flag.
.IP "-c \fIpath to other configuration file\fP"
Use a different configuration file.
.IP "-d \fIpath to user settings directory\fP"
BitlBee normally saves every user's settings in \fB/var/lib/bitlbee/\fP. If
you want the settings to be stored somewhere else (for example, if you don't
have write permissions in the default location), use this option.
.IP "-h"
Show help information.
.SH COMMANDS
To get a complete list of commands, please use the \fBhelp commands\fP
command in the &bitlbee channel after connecting to bitlbee.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR inetd (8), 
.BR inetd.conf (5)

.BR http://www.bitlbee.org/

For more information on using BitlBee, once connected, you should use
the \fBhelp\fP command in the &bitlbee channel.
.SH BUGS
Of course there are bugs. If you find some, please report them at
\fBhttp://bugs.bitlbee.org/\fP.
.SH LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
.PP
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
\fBWITHOUT ANY WARRANTY\fR; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU 
General Public License for more details.
.PP
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple PLace, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
.SH AUTHORS
.PP
 Wilmer van der Gaast <wilmer@gaast.net>