Internet Relay Chat: Server Protocol
RFC 2813
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(April 2000; Errata)
Updates RFC 1459
Was draft-kalt-irc-server (individual)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Author | Christophe Kalt | ||
Last updated | 2020-01-21 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized with errata bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2813 (Informational) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group C. Kalt Request for Comments: 2813 April 2000 Updates: 1459 Category: Informational Internet Relay Chat: Server Protocol Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. Abstract While based on the client-server model, the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol allows servers to connect to each other effectively forming a network. This document defines the protocol used by servers to talk to each other. It was originally a superset of the client protocol but has evolved differently. First formally documented in May 1993 as part of RFC 1459 [IRC], most of the changes brought since then can be found in this document as development was focused on making the protocol scale better. Better scalability has allowed existing world-wide networks to keep growing and reach sizes which defy the old specification. Kalt Informational [Page 1] RFC 2813 Internet Relay Chat: Server Protocol April 2000 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................... 3 2. Global database ............................................ 3 2.1 Servers ................................................ 3 2.2 Clients ................................................ 4 2.2.1 Users ............................................. 4 2.2.2 Services .......................................... 4 2.3 Channels ............................................... 4 3. The IRC Server Specification ............................... 5 3.1 Overview ............................................... 5 3.2 Character codes ........................................ 5 3.3 Messages ............................................... 5 3.3.1 Message format in Augmented BNF ................... 6 3.4 Numeric replies ........................................ 7 4. Message Details ............................................ 7 4.1 Connection Registration ................................ 8 4.1.1 Password message .................................. 8 4.1.2 Server message .................................... 9 4.1.3 Nick .............................................. 10 4.1.4 Service message ................................... 11 4.1.5 Quit .............................................. 12 4.1.6 Server quit message ............................... 13 4.2 Channel operations ..................................... 14 4.2.1 Join message ...................................... 14 4.2.2 Njoin message ..................................... 15 4.2.3 Mode message ...................................... 16 5. Implementation details .................................... 16 5.1 Connection 'Liveness' .................................. 16 5.2 Accepting a client to server connection ................ 16 5.2.1 Users ............................................. 16 5.2.2 Services .......................................... 17 5.3 Establishing a server-server connection. ............... 17 5.3.1 Link options ...................................... 17 5.3.1.1 Compressed server to server links ............ 18 5.3.1.2 Anti abuse protections ....................... 18 5.3.2 State information exchange when connecting ........ 18 5.4 Terminating server-client connections .................. 19 5.5 Terminating server-server connections .................. 19 5.6 Tracking nickname changes .............................. 19 5.7 Tracking recently used nicknames ....................... 20 5.8 Flood control of clients ............................... 20 5.9 Non-blocking lookups ................................... 21 5.9.1 Hostname (DNS) lookups ............................ 21 5.9.2 Username (Ident) lookups .......................... 21 6. Current problems ........................................... 21 6.1 Scalability ............................................ 21 6.2 Labels ................................................. 22 Kalt Informational [Page 2] RFC 2813 Internet Relay Chat: Server Protocol April 2000 6.2.1 Nicknames ......................................... 22 6.2.2 Channels .......................................... 22 6.2.3 Servers ........................................... 22Show full document text