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Listing Directories
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For the examples in this section, you will need a client that is able to show long
channel names. We will soon provide a page with hints on how to do this for various clients.
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As we have seen in the introduction, people chat in channels and the channels are located
in directories. But how do you view the list of channels? Let's start at the top
"directory". If you issue
the command "/list" in your IRC client (without the " symbols),
you will (hopefully) see the following
list:
*** Directory list for TOP; modes: none
*** Channel Users Mode
*** #talk 0 <Dir> mk-dir
*** #help 0 <Dir>
*** #rec 0 <Dir>
*** #mud 0 <Dir> mk-dir
*** #sex 0 <Dir> mk-chan mk-dir k12
*** #chat 0 <Dir>
*** #alt 0 <Dir> mk-chan mk-dir
*** #irc 0 <Dir> mk-chan mk-dir
*** #wwcn 0 <Dir>
*** #sci 0 <Dir>
*** #test 0 <Dir>
*** #comp 0 <Dir>
*** #cscw 0 <Dir>
*** #warez 0 <Dir>
*** #edu 0 <Dir>
*** #pics 0 <Dir> mk-dir
*** End of /LIST
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The order and precise layout may be different in your client. If you don't see anything
at all, then please try one of the following clients: ircII, circle (unix).
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So what does this mean? Let's start with "#talk". It may look like an ordinary channel,
but the "Mode" tells us that it's actually a directory (it says
<Dir>). Since it is a directory and not a channel, the
number of users is 0, as it says under the "Users" column.
Furthermore, the mode information says "mk-dir", indicating that a user is allowed to make a new directory
under #talk. If you look at "#rec" for example, you'll see that it is also a directory,
but it doesn't allow subdirectories to be created.
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But let's look a bit further into #rec. If you type "/list #rec" you will
see something like the following:
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*** Directory list for rec; modes: none
*** Channel Users Charter
*** #rec.music 0 <Dir>
*** #rec.cooking 0 <Dir> mk-dir
*** End of /LIST
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This tells you that the subdirectory "#rec" does not permit channels or directories to
be created (it says in the first line "modes: none"), and that it contains two subdirectories
being "#rec.music"
and "#rec.cooking". Only the latter one allows you to create a directory yourself.
This way, you can examine the entire tree: the next step you may perform is "/list
#rec.cooking".
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You will see the following list:
*** Directory list for rec.cooking; modes: mk-dir
*** Channel Users Charter
*** #rec.cooking.chinese 0 <Dir> mk-chan
*** #rec.cooking.mexican 0 <Dir> mk-chan
*** End of /LIST
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The first line tells us again that the directory "#rec.cooking" allows us to create directories
ourselves ("mk-dir"). We also see that the directory "#rec.cooking.mexican" allows channels
to be created. We will see soon how this can be done.
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Another example: let's see what is in the directory "#irc". Again (and please do as I do!)
we type "/list irc", and we notice that there's a channel:
*** Directory list for irc; modes: mk-chan mk-dir
*** Channel Users Charter
*** #irc.help 0 Charter unknown
*** End of /LIST
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Apparently, there's a channel with no users in it. But BEWARE! This is only the number of
users from the server YOU are on. It is very well possible that there are users on other
servers on the channel. The server you're on doesn't know everything of the channel, for
example the precise charter, and the number of users on it. It may be well worth
joining it. How this is done, is shown in the next section... I'll see you there!
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