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### 7.1 Connecting to an IRC Server

The easiest way to connect to an IRC server is to call `M-x erc`. If you want to assign this function to a keystroke, the following will help you figure out its parameters.

— Function: erc

> Select connection parameters and run ERC. Non-interactively, it takes the following keyword arguments.

> - server
> - port
> - nick
> - password
> - full-name

> That is, if called with the following arguments, server and full-name will be set to those values, whereas `erc-compute-port`, `erc-compute-nick` and `erc-compute-full-name` will be invoked for the values of the other parameters.

>               (erc :server "irc.freenode.net" :full-name "Harry S Truman")

#### Server

— Function: erc-compute-server &optional server

> Return an IRC server name.

> This tries a number of increasingly more default methods until a non-nil value is found.

> - server (the argument passed to this function)
> - The `erc-server` option
> - The value of the IRCSERVER environment variable
> - The `erc-default-server` variable

— User Option: erc-server nil

> IRC server to use if one is not provided.

#### Port

— Function: erc-compute-port &optional port

> Return a port for an IRC server.

> This tries a number of increasingly more default methods until a non-nil value is found.

> - port (the argument passed to this function)
> - The `erc-port` option
> - The `erc-default-port` variable

— User Option: erc-port

> IRC port to use if not specified.

> This can be either a string or a number.

#### Nick

— Function: erc-compute-nick &optional nick

> Return user's IRC nick.

> This tries a number of increasingly more default methods until a non-nil value is found.

> - nick (the argument passed to this function)
> - The `erc-nick` option
> - The value of the IRCNICK environment variable
> - The result from the `user-login-name` function

— User Option: erc-nick

> Nickname to use if one is not provided.

> This can be either a string, or a list of strings. In the latter case, if the first nick in the list is already in use, other nicks are tried in the list order.

— User Option: erc-nick-uniquifier

> The string to append to the nick if it is already in use.

— User Option: erc-try-new-nick-p

> If the nickname you chose isn't available, and this option is non-nil, ERC should automatically attempt to connect with another nickname.

> You can manually set another nickname with the /NICK command.

#### Full name

— Function: erc-compute-full-name &optional full-name

> Return user's full name.

> This tries a number of increasingly more default methods until a non-nil value is found.

> - full-name (the argument passed to this function)
> - The `erc-user-full-name` option
> - The value of the IRCNAME environment variable
> - The result from the `user-full-name` function

— User Option: erc-user-full-name

> User full name.

> This can be either a string or a function to call.