content/kb/using/findingchannels.md

   1 Title: Finding Channels
   2 ---
   3
   4 Finding Channels on freenode
   5 ============================
   6
   7 With many thousands of channels on freenode and more being registered all the
   8 time, a good way to search for channels of interest to you is useful.
   9
  10 Enter `alis`, a network service designed for exactly that purpose.
  11
  12 At the most simple, you can use `/msg alis LIST *searchterm*` to find channels
  13 whose name contains the term in question - for instance, `/msg alis LIST
  14 *linux*`.
  15
  16 You can also search on the channel's current topic, require a minimum number of
  17 users (to weed out barely-used channels), and use various wildcards to control
  18 your search - for instance, `/msg alis LIST #freenode* -min 10` would find all
  19 channels in the freenode namespace with at least 10 users.
  20
  21 For full details on how to use alis, `/msg alis HELP LIST` will send you back
  22 the following help text:
  23
  24 ```
  25 ***** alis Help *****
  26 Help for LIST:
  27
  28 LIST gives a list of channels matching the
  29 pattern, modified by the other options.
  30
  31 Syntax: LIST <pattern> [options]
  32
  33 Options are:
  34     -min <n>: show only channels with at least <n> users
  35     -max <n>: show only channels with at most <n> users
  36     -skip <n>: skip first <n> matches
  37     -show [m][t]: show modes/topicsetter
  38     -mode <+|-|=><modes>: modes set/unset/equal
  39     -topic <pattern>: topic matches pattern
  40     -showsecret: show secret channels (requires chan:auspex)
  41
  42 The pattern can contain * and ? wildcards. The pattern has to
  43 match the full channel name or a full topic, depending on where it
  44 is used; the wildcards are important. The pattern is also
  45 automatically surrounded by * wildcards if
  46  a channel name pattern starts with a wildcard or a #, or
  47  a topic pattern contains no * wildcards.
  48
  49 For example, for channel names, from most to least specific:
  50  ?bar       - any character followed by "bar" with no other characters
  51  #bar*      - anything starting with "#bar"
  52  ##*bar*    - anything starting with ## and containing "bar"
  53  *cows*moo* - anything containing "cows", 0 or more characters, and "moo"
  54  *bar*      - anything containing "bar" (equivalent to "bar")
  55
  56 Examples:
  57     /msg alis LIST searchterm
  58     /msg alis LIST * -topic multiple*ordered*search*terms
  59     /msg alis LIST * -min 50
  60     /msg alis LIST #foo*
  61     /msg alis LIST #foo* -mode =n
  62     /msg alis LIST *freetopic* -mode -t -show mt
  63     /msg alis LIST ##nocolors* -mode +c -show t
  64 ***** End of Help *****
  65 ```
  66
  67 An alternative method to search is to do so via the web, using
  68 [netsplit.de](http://irc.netsplit.de/channels/?net=freenode).
  69