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RFC 1459

Internet Relay Chat Protocol

Pages: 65
Experimental
Errata
Updated by:  28102811281228137194
Part 1 of 3 – Pages 1 to 13
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Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 1
Network Working Group                                      J. Oikarinen
Request for Comments: 1459                                      D. Reed
                                                               May 1993


                      Internet Relay Chat Protocol

Status of This Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Please refer to the current edition of the "IAB Official Protocol
   Standards" for the standardization state and status of this protocol.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   The IRC protocol was developed over the last 4 years since it was
   first implemented as a means for users on a BBS to chat amongst
   themselves.  Now it supports a world-wide network of servers and
   clients, and is stringing to cope with growth. Over the past 2 years,
   the average number of users connected to the main IRC network has
   grown by a factor of 10.

   The IRC protocol is a text-based protocol, with the simplest client
   being any socket program capable of connecting to the server.

Table of Contents

   1.  INTRODUCTION ...............................................    4
      1.1  Servers ................................................    4
      1.2  Clients ................................................    5
         1.2.1 Operators ..........................................    5
      1.3 Channels ................................................    5
      1.3.1  Channel Operators ....................................    6
   2. THE IRC SPECIFICATION .......................................    7
      2.1 Overview ................................................    7
      2.2 Character codes .........................................    7
      2.3 Messages ................................................    7
         2.3.1  Message format in 'pseudo' BNF ....................    8
      2.4 Numeric replies .........................................   10
   3. IRC Concepts ................................................   10
      3.1 One-to-one communication ................................   10
      3.2 One-to-many .............................................   11
         3.2.1 To a list ..........................................   11
         3.2.2 To a group (channel) ...............................   11
         3.2.3 To a host/server mask ..............................   12
      3.3 One to all ..............................................   12
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 2
         3.3.1 Client to Client ...................................   12
         3.3.2 Clients to Server ..................................   12
         3.3.3 Server to Server ...................................   12
   4. MESSAGE DETAILS .............................................   13
      4.1 Connection Registration .................................   13
         4.1.1 Password message ...................................   14
         4.1.2 Nickname message ...................................   14
         4.1.3 User message .......................................   15
         4.1.4 Server message .....................................   16
         4.1.5 Operator message ...................................   17
         4.1.6 Quit message .......................................   17
         4.1.7 Server Quit message ................................   18
      4.2 Channel operations ......................................   19
         4.2.1 Join message .......................................   19
         4.2.2 Part message .......................................   20
         4.2.3 Mode message .......................................   21
            4.2.3.1 Channel modes .................................   21
            4.2.3.2 User modes ....................................   22
         4.2.4 Topic message ......................................   23
         4.2.5 Names message ......................................   24
         4.2.6 List message .......................................   24
         4.2.7 Invite message .....................................   25
         4.2.8 Kick message .......................................   25
      4.3 Server queries and commands .............................   26
         4.3.1 Version message ....................................   26
         4.3.2 Stats message ......................................   27
         4.3.3 Links message ......................................   28
         4.3.4 Time message .......................................   29
         4.3.5 Connect message ....................................   29
         4.3.6 Trace message ......................................   30
         4.3.7 Admin message ......................................   31
         4.3.8 Info message .......................................   31
      4.4 Sending messages ........................................   32
         4.4.1 Private messages ...................................   32
         4.4.2 Notice messages ....................................   33
      4.5 User-based queries ......................................   33
         4.5.1 Who query ..........................................   33
         4.5.2 Whois query ........................................   34
         4.5.3 Whowas message .....................................   35
      4.6 Miscellaneous messages ..................................   35
         4.6.1 Kill message .......................................   36
         4.6.2 Ping message .......................................   37
         4.6.3 Pong message .......................................   37
         4.6.4 Error message ......................................   38
   5. OPTIONAL MESSAGES ...........................................   38
      5.1 Away message ............................................   38
      5.2 Rehash command ..........................................   39
      5.3 Restart command .........................................   39
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 3
      5.4 Summon message ..........................................   40
      5.5 Users message ...........................................   40
      5.6 Operwall command ........................................   41
      5.7 Userhost message ........................................   42
      5.8 Ison message ............................................   42
   6. REPLIES .....................................................   43
      6.1 Error Replies ...........................................   43
      6.2 Command responses .......................................   48
      6.3 Reserved numerics .......................................   56
   7. Client and server authentication ............................   56
   8. Current Implementations Details .............................   56
      8.1 Network protocol: TCP ...................................   57
         8.1.1 Support of Unix sockets ............................   57
      8.2 Command Parsing .........................................   57
      8.3 Message delivery ........................................   57
      8.4 Connection 'Liveness' ...................................   58
      8.5 Establishing a server-client connection .................   58
      8.6 Establishing a server-server connection .................   58
         8.6.1 State information exchange when connecting .........   59
      8.7 Terminating server-client connections ...................   59
      8.8 Terminating server-server connections ...................   59
      8.9 Tracking nickname changes ...............................   60
      8.10 Flood control of clients ...............................   60
      8.11 Non-blocking lookups ...................................   61
         8.11.1 Hostname (DNS) lookups ............................   61
         8.11.2 Username (Ident) lookups ..........................   61
      8.12 Configuration file .....................................   61
         8.12.1 Allowing clients to connect .......................   62
         8.12.2 Operators .........................................   62
         8.12.3 Allowing servers to connect .......................   62
         8.12.4 Administrivia .....................................   63
      8.13 Channel membership .....................................   63
   9. Current problems ............................................   63
      9.1 Scalability .............................................   63
      9.2 Labels ..................................................   63
         9.2.1 Nicknames ..........................................   63
         9.2.2 Channels ...........................................   64
         9.2.3 Servers ............................................   64
      9.3 Algorithms ..............................................   64
   10. Support and availability ...................................   64
   11. Security Considerations ....................................   65
   12. Authors' Addresses .........................................   65
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 4
1.  INTRODUCTION

   The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol has been designed over a
   number of years for use with text based conferencing.  This document
   describes the current IRC protocol.

   The IRC protocol has been developed on systems using the TCP/IP
   network protocol, although there is no requirement that this remain
   the only sphere in which it operates.

   IRC itself is a teleconferencing system, which (through the use of
   the client-server model) is well-suited to running on many machines
   in a distributed fashion.  A typical setup involves a single process
   (the server) forming a central point for clients (or other servers)
   to connect to, performing the required message delivery/multiplexing
   and other functions.

1.1 Servers

   The server forms the backbone of IRC, providing a point to which
   clients may connect to to talk to each other, and a point for other
   servers to connect to, forming an IRC network.  The only network
   configuration allowed for IRC servers is that of a spanning tree [see
   Fig. 1] where each server acts as a central node for the rest of the
   net it sees.


                           [ Server 15 ]  [ Server 13 ] [ Server 14]
                                 /                \         /
                                /                  \       /
        [ Server 11 ] ------ [ Server 1 ]       [ Server 12]
                              /        \          /
                             /          \        /
                  [ Server 2 ]          [ Server 3 ]
                    /       \                      \
                   /         \                      \
           [ Server 4 ]    [ Server 5 ]         [ Server 6 ]
            /    |    \                           /
           /     |     \                         /
          /      |      \____                   /
         /       |           \                 /
 [ Server 7 ] [ Server 8 ] [ Server 9 ]   [ Server 10 ]

                                  :
                               [ etc. ]
                                  :

                 [ Fig. 1. Format of IRC server network ]
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 5
1.2 Clients

   A client is anything connecting to a server that is not another
   server.  Each client is distinguished from other clients by a unique
   nickname having a maximum length of nine (9) characters.  See the
   protocol grammar rules for what may and may not be used in a
   nickname.  In addition to the nickname, all servers must have the
   following information about all clients: the real name of the host
   that the client is running on, the username of the client on that
   host, and the server to which the client is connected.

1.2.1 Operators

   To allow a reasonable amount of order to be kept within the IRC
   network, a special class of clients (operators) is allowed to perform
   general maintenance functions on the network.  Although the powers
   granted to an operator can be considered as 'dangerous', they are
   nonetheless required.  Operators should be able to perform basic
   network tasks such as disconnecting and reconnecting servers as
   needed to prevent long-term use of bad network routing.  In
   recognition of this need, the protocol discussed herein provides for
   operators only to be able to perform such functions.  See sections
   4.1.7 (SQUIT) and 4.3.5 (CONNECT).

   A more controversial power of operators is the ability  to  remove  a
   user  from  the connected network by 'force', i.e. operators are able
   to close the connection between any client and server.   The
   justification for  this  is delicate since its abuse is both
   destructive and annoying.  For further details on this type of
   action, see section 4.6.1 (KILL).

1.3 Channels

   A channel is a named group of one or more clients which will all
   receive messages addressed to that channel.  The channel is created
   implicitly when the first client joins it, and the channel ceases to
   exist when the last client leaves it.  While channel exists, any
   client can reference the channel using the name of the channel.

   Channels names are strings (beginning with a '&' or '#' character) of
   length up to 200 characters.  Apart from the the requirement that the
   first character being either '&' or '#'; the only restriction on a
   channel name is that it may not contain any spaces (' '), a control G
   (^G or ASCII 7), or a comma (',' which is used as a list item
   separator by the protocol).

   There are two types of channels allowed by this protocol.  One is a
   distributed channel which is known to all the servers that are
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 6
   connected to the network. These channels are marked by the first
   character being a only clients on the server where it exists may join
   it.  These are distinguished by a leading '&' character.  On top of
   these two types, there are the various channel modes available to
   alter the characteristics of individual channels.  See section 4.2.3
   (MODE command) for more details on this.

   To create a new channel or become part of an existing channel, a user
   is required to JOIN the channel.  If the channel doesn't exist prior
   to joining, the channel is created and the creating user becomes a
   channel operator.  If the channel already exists, whether or not your
   request to JOIN that channel is honoured depends on the current modes
   of the channel. For example, if the channel is invite-only, (+i),
   then you may only join if invited.  As part of the protocol, a user
   may be a part of several channels at once, but a limit of ten (10)
   channels is recommended as being ample for both experienced and
   novice users.  See section 8.13 for more information on this.

   If the IRC network becomes disjoint because of a split between two
   servers, the channel on each side is only composed of those clients
   which are connected to servers on the respective sides of the split,
   possibly ceasing to exist on one side of the split.  When the split
   is healed, the connecting servers announce to each other who they
   think is in each channel and the mode of that channel.  If the
   channel exists on both sides, the JOINs and MODEs are interpreted in
   an inclusive manner so that both sides of the new connection will
   agree about which clients are in the channel and what modes the
   channel has.

1.3.1 Channel Operators

   The channel operator (also referred to as a "chop" or "chanop") on a
   given channel is considered to 'own' that channel.  In recognition of
   this status, channel operators are endowed with certain powers which
   enable them to keep control and some sort of sanity in their channel.
   As an owner of a channel, a channel operator is not required to have
   reasons for their actions, although if their actions are generally
   antisocial or otherwise abusive, it might be reasonable to ask an IRC
   operator to intervene, or for the usersjust leave and go elsewhere
   and form their own channel.

   The commands which may only be used by channel operators are:

        KICK    - Eject a client from the channel
        MODE    - Change the channel's mode
        INVITE  - Invite a client to an invite-only channel (mode +i)
        TOPIC   - Change the channel topic in a mode +t channel
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 7
   A channel operator is identified by the '@' symbol next to their
   nickname whenever it is associated with a channel (ie replies to the
   NAMES, WHO and WHOIS commands).

2. The IRC Specification

2.1 Overview

   The protocol as described herein is for use both with server to
   server and client to server connections.  There are, however, more
   restrictions on client connections (which are considered to be
   untrustworthy) than on server connections.

2.2 Character codes

   No specific character set is specified. The protocol is based on a a
   set of codes which are composed of eight (8) bits, making up an
   octet.  Each message may be composed of any number of these octets;
   however, some octet values are used for control codes which act as
   message delimiters.

   Regardless of being an 8-bit protocol, the delimiters and keywords
   are such that protocol is mostly usable from USASCII terminal and a
   telnet connection.

   Because of IRC's scandanavian origin, the characters {}| are
   considered to be the lower case equivalents of the characters []\,
   respectively. This is a critical issue when determining the
   equivalence of two nicknames.

2.3 Messages

   Servers and clients send eachother messages which may or may not
   generate a reply.  If the message contains a valid command, as
   described in later sections, the client should expect a reply as
   specified but it is not advised to wait forever for the reply; client
   to server and server to server communication is essentially
   asynchronous in nature.

   Each IRC message may consist of up to three main parts: the prefix
   (optional), the command, and the command parameters (of which there
   may be up to 15).  The prefix, command, and all parameters are
   separated by one (or more) ASCII space character(s) (0x20).

   The presence of a prefix is indicated with a single leading ASCII
   colon character (':', 0x3b), which must be the first character of the
   message itself.  There must be no gap (whitespace) between the colon
   and the prefix.  The prefix is used by servers to indicate the true
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 8
   origin of the message.  If the prefix is missing from the message, it
   is assumed to have originated from the connection from which it was
   received.  Clients should not use prefix when sending a message from
   themselves; if they use a prefix, the only valid prefix is the
   registered nickname associated with the client.  If the source
   identified by the prefix cannot be found from the server's internal
   database, or if the source is registered from a different link than
   from which the message arrived, the server must ignore the message
   silently.

   The command must either be a valid IRC command or a three (3) digit
   number represented in ASCII text.

   IRC messages are always lines of characters terminated with a CR-LF
   (Carriage Return - Line Feed) pair, and these messages shall not
   exceed 512 characters in length, counting all characters including
   the trailing CR-LF. Thus, there are 510 characters maximum allowed
   for the command and its parameters.  There is no provision for
   continuation message lines.  See section 7 for more details about
   current implementations.

2.3.1 Message format in 'pseudo' BNF

   The protocol messages must be extracted from the contiguous stream of
   octets.  The current solution is to designate two characters, CR and
   LF, as message separators.   Empty  messages  are  silently  ignored,
   which permits  use  of  the  sequence  CR-LF  between  messages
   without extra problems.

   The extracted message is parsed into the components <prefix>,
   <command> and list of parameters matched either by <middle> or
   <trailing> components.

   The BNF representation for this is:


<message>  ::= [':' <prefix> <SPACE> ] <command> <params> <crlf>
<prefix>   ::= <servername> | <nick> [ '!' <user> ] [ '@' <host> ]
<command>  ::= <letter> { <letter> } | <number> <number> <number>
<SPACE>    ::= ' ' { ' ' }
<params>   ::= <SPACE> [ ':' <trailing> | <middle> <params> ]

<middle>   ::= <Any *non-empty* sequence of octets not including SPACE
               or NUL or CR or LF, the first of which may not be ':'>
<trailing> ::= <Any, possibly *empty*, sequence of octets not including
                 NUL or CR or LF>

<crlf>     ::= CR LF
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 9
NOTES:

  1)    <SPACE> is consists only of SPACE character(s) (0x20).
        Specially notice that TABULATION, and all other control
        characters are considered NON-WHITE-SPACE.

  2)    After extracting the parameter list, all parameters are equal,
        whether matched by <middle> or <trailing>. <Trailing> is just
        a syntactic trick to allow SPACE within parameter.

  3)    The fact that CR and LF cannot appear in parameter strings is
        just artifact of the message framing. This might change later.

  4)    The NUL character is not special in message framing, and
        basically could end up inside a parameter, but as it would
        cause extra complexities in normal C string handling. Therefore
        NUL is not allowed within messages.

  5)    The last parameter may be an empty string.

  6)    Use of the extended prefix (['!' <user> ] ['@' <host> ]) must
        not be used in server to server communications and is only
        intended for server to client messages in order to provide
        clients with more useful information about who a message is
        from without the need for additional queries.

   Most protocol messages specify additional semantics and syntax for
   the extracted parameter strings dictated by their position in the
   list.  For example, many server commands will assume that the first
   parameter after the command is the list of targets, which can be
   described with:

   <target>     ::= <to> [ "," <target> ]
   <to>         ::= <channel> | <user> '@' <servername> | <nick> | <mask>
   <channel>    ::= ('#' | '&') <chstring>
   <servername> ::= <host>
   <host>       ::= see RFC 952 [DNS:4] for details on allowed hostnames
   <nick>       ::= <letter> { <letter> | <number> | <special> }
   <mask>       ::= ('#' | '$') <chstring>
   <chstring>   ::= <any 8bit code except SPACE, BELL, NUL, CR, LF and
                     comma (',')>

   Other parameter syntaxes are:

   <user>       ::= <nonwhite> { <nonwhite> }
   <letter>     ::= 'a' ... 'z' | 'A' ... 'Z'
   <number>     ::= '0' ... '9'
   <special>    ::= '-' | '[' | ']' | '\' | '`' | '^' | '{' | '}'
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 10
   <nonwhite>   ::= <any 8bit code except SPACE (0x20), NUL (0x0), CR
                     (0xd), and LF (0xa)>

2.4 Numeric replies

   Most of the messages sent to the server generate a reply of some
   sort.  The most common reply is the numeric reply, used for both
   errors and normal replies.  The numeric reply must be sent as one
   message consisting of the sender prefix, the three digit numeric, and
   the target of the reply.  A numeric reply is not allowed to originate
   from a client; any such messages received by a server are silently
   dropped. In all other respects, a numeric reply is just like a normal
   message, except that the keyword is made up of 3 numeric digits
   rather than a string of letters.  A list of different replies is
   supplied in section 6.

3. IRC Concepts.

   This section is devoted to describing the actual concepts behind  the
   organization  of  the  IRC  protocol and how the current
   implementations deliver different classes of messages.



                          1--\
                              A        D---4
                          2--/ \      /
                                B----C
                               /      \
                              3        E

   Servers: A, B, C, D, E         Clients: 1, 2, 3, 4

                    [ Fig. 2. Sample small IRC network ]

3.1 One-to-one communication

   Communication on a one-to-one basis is usually only performed by
   clients, since most server-server traffic is not a result of servers
   talking only to each other.  To provide a secure means for clients to
   talk to each other, it is required that all servers be able to send a
   message in exactly one direction along the spanning tree in order to
   reach any client.  The path of a message being delivered is the
   shortest path between any two points on the spanning tree.

   The following examples all refer to Figure 2 above.
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 11
Example 1:
     A message between clients 1 and 2 is only seen by server A, which
     sends it straight to client 2.

Example 2:
     A message between clients 1 and 3 is seen by servers A & B, and
     client 3.  No other clients or servers are allowed see the message.

Example 3:
     A message between clients 2 and 4 is seen by servers A, B, C & D
     and client 4 only.

3.2 One-to-many

   The main goal of IRC is to provide a  forum  which  allows  easy  and
   efficient  conferencing (one to many conversations).  IRC offers
   several means to achieve this, each serving its own purpose.

3.2.1 To a list

   The least efficient style of one-to-many conversation is through
   clients talking to a 'list' of users.  How this is done is almost
   self explanatory: the client gives a list of destinations to which
   the message is to be delivered and the server breaks it up and
   dispatches a separate copy of the message to each given destination.
   This isn't as efficient as using a group since the destination list
   is broken up and the dispatch sent without checking to make sure
   duplicates aren't sent down each path.

3.2.2 To a group (channel)

   In IRC the channel has a role equivalent to that of the multicast
   group; their existence is dynamic (coming and going as people join
   and leave channels) and the actual conversation carried out on a
   channel is only sent to servers which are supporting users on a given
   channel.  If there are multiple users on a server in the same
   channel, the message text is sent only once to that server and then
   sent to each client on the channel.  This action is then repeated for
   each client-server combination until the original message has fanned
   out and reached each member of the channel.

   The following examples all refer to Figure 2.

Example 4:
     Any channel with 1 client in it. Messages to the channel go to the
     server and then nowhere else.
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 12
Example 5:
     2 clients in a channel. All messages traverse a path as if they
     were private messages between the two clients outside a channel.

Example 6:
     Clients 1, 2 and 3 in a channel.  All messages to the channel are
     sent to all clients and only those servers which must be traversed
     by the message if it were a private message to a single client.  If
     client 1 sends a message, it goes back to client 2 and then via
     server B to client 3.

3.2.3 To a host/server mask

   To provide IRC operators with some mechanism to send  messages  to  a
   large body of related users, host and server mask messages are
   provided.  These messages are sent to users whose host or server
   information  match that  of  the mask.  The messages are only sent to
   locations where users are, in a fashion similar to that of channels.

3.3 One-to-all

   The one-to-all type of message is better described as a broadcast
   message, sent to all clients or servers or both.  On a large network
   of users and servers, a single message can result in a lot of traffic
   being sent over the network in an effort to reach all of the desired
   destinations.

   For some messages, there is no option but to broadcast it to all
   servers so that the state information held by each server is
   reasonably consistent between servers.

3.3.1 Client-to-Client

   There is no class of message which, from a single message, results in
   a message being sent to every other client.

3.3.2 Client-to-Server

   Most of the commands which result in a change of state information
   (such as channel membership, channel mode, user status, etc) must be
   sent to all servers by default, and this distribution may not be
   changed by the client.

3.3.3 Server-to-Server.

   While most messages between servers are distributed to all 'other'
   servers, this is only required for any message that affects either a
   user, channel or server.  Since these are the basic items found in
Top   ToC   RFC1459 - Page 13
   IRC, nearly all messages originating from a server are broadcast to
   all other connected servers.



(page 13 continued on part 2)

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