# Go **irc** package
[Package Documentation][Documentation] @ godoc.org
[![Build Status](https://drone.io/github.com/sorcix/irc/status.png)](https://drone.io/github.com/sorcix/irc/latest)
## Features
Package irc allows your application to speak the IRC protocol.
- **Limited scope**, does one thing and does it well.
- Focus on simplicity and **speed**.
- **Stable API**: updates shouldn't break existing software.
- Well [documented][Documentation] code.
*This package does not manage your entire IRC connection. It only translates the protocol to easy to use Go types. It is meant as a single component in a larger IRC library, or for basic IRC bots for which a large IRC package would be overkill.*
### Message
The [Message][] and [Prefix][] types provide translation to and from IRC message format.
// Parse the IRC-encoded data and stores the result in a new struct.
message := irc.ParseMessage(raw)
// Returns the IRC encoding of the message.
raw = message.String()
### Encoder & Decoder
The [Encoder][] and [Decoder][] types allow working with IRC message streams.
// Create a decoder that reads from given io.Reader
dec := irc.NewDecoder(reader)
// Decode the next IRC message
message, err := dec.Decode()
// Create an encoder that writes to given io.Writer
enc := irc.NewEncoder(writer)
// Send a message to the writer.
enc.Encode(message)
### Conn
The [Conn][] type combines an [Encoder][] and [Decoder][] for a duplex connection.
c, err := irc.Dial("irc.server.net:6667")
// Methods from both Encoder and Decoder are available
message, err := c.Decode()
## Examples
Check these other projects for an example on how to use the package:
Clients:
- https://github.com/nickvanw/ircx (great simple example)
- https://github.com/FSX/jun
- https://github.com/jnwhiteh/wallops
- https://github.com/Alligator/gomero
- https://github.com/msparks/iq
- https://github.com/TheCreeper/HackBot
Servers:
- https://github.com/nightexcessive/excessiveircd
[Documentation]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc "Package documentation by Godoc.org"
[Message]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc#Message "Message type documentation"
[Prefix]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc#Prefix "Prefix type documentation"
[Encoder]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc#Encoder "Encoder type documentation"
[Decoder]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc#Decoder "Decoder type documentation"
[Conn]: https://godoc.org/github.com/sorcix/irc#Conn "Conn type documentation"
[RFC1459]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459.html "RFC 1459"