Talk:List of IRC commands

Why do some of the commands start with a capital letter in the description? Is this technically accurate?

IRC is not case-sensitive. You could use /NiCk <nick>, and it would accept it. Of course, the capitalization scheme used in the article should be more consistent. --Aurochs

these commands are common but im not sure about them being universal as ive only used mirc before but

/server <server name> will connect you to a server

and /List >50 "search phrase" would list all channels with greater than 50 users and that comply with the search phrase

this list is supposed to be for "universal" irc commands, and the only way to expand this beyond like one or two more essentially universal /me and /mode-style commands is to start including ircd/services/client specific IRC commands so the list may be very incomplete in terms of being a definitive guide on commands, but considering its goal, i think that this article should be removed from the incomplete lists category.

And also, there are many modes that conflict with each other and aren't always available, so I'm not so sure about the universality of the mode list. ie RFC 2811 defined channel mode +a as an auditorium-style anonymous chat system, while unrealircd uses that to define a channel admin (+a in this case is NOT a user mode), and hybridircd uses that to make chanops anonymous. Also, there's the confusion between +l/L and +m/M, all four of which perform different tasks, but can be confused because the only difference between l and L or m and M is the capitalization. and finally, the +x currently listed as hiding hostmasks only hides hostmasks on unreal, while on hybrid it's a mode for receiving server notices. janey the crazy 19:44, 3 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

I agree. There's a certain point where this article shouldn't be expanded, it's about at that point, and it doesn't need to be in that category. Oh, and +x hides the hostmasks on ircu as well. My understanding is that it's fairly common. But it's certainly not universal if some modern servers see it as something different. madewokherd 23:12, 3 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

is this command universal? it works on X-chat aqua and mIrc Epl18 19:31, 5 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

Yes, it's universal. It's in rfc1459. madewokherd 17:47, 6 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

This IP kept changing things to "moco" or "modo": 212.81.13.193 see history. Perhaps it can be watched or locked? Epl18 21:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

Are we only listing common commands, or listing ones for specific IRC server environments? Some server modes, for example, don't work on the proprietary ChatSpace IRC server, and it also has variances on how its commands operates. I know other IRCd's have difference variances. Smeggysmeg 03:11, 14 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

What does <nick!ident@host> mean i can't find it any where? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.221.116.86 (talk • contribs)

nick = user's nickname ident = particular user from the host host = host (heheh) a sample hostmask would be: bob!~bobsmith@1234.isp.com, where bob is the user's nick, bobsmith is the ident and 1234.isp.com is the host (which can be just a regular IP, or a ridiculously long 12-34-56-78.abcde.some.isp.com, or something else in the case of a vhost). Hope that clears a couple things up. janey the crazy 12:32, 9 March 2006 (UTC)Reply

what about that command? 70.111.236.90 13:30, 12 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

It's not a standard of any sort. I think the only time you see that is in mIRC, and even there it's not really a command. madewokherd 00:55, 13 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Does anyone know what the point of ~n:(name)*!*@* is? This was recently done to a person in an IRC room and I couldn't understand what that was supposed to do to that certain user. He was still talking and all in the room as if it had no effect at all. It seems to me to be a junk command associated with /ban ViriiK 11:10, 2 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

It is non standard ban mode. In UnrealIRCd: forbid to change the nick, see [1]

Is it "universal" ? or server-dependent?

The /whowas command is included in RFC 1459, so I would say that makes it universal. Ralphonso 22:32, 6 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

I want to contribute to the cleanup and expansion, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm not quite sure what is meant by 'uncyclopedic lists.'

For example, some modes, such as user modes g and d, vary greatly among different IRCds. Channel mode M, and perhaps R, originated with the bahamut IRCd, but I do not have a reliable citation. I believe the remark for Nefarious for user mode W is unnecessary, as it is likely a mode that originated from Unreal, and not Nefarious. Based on the frequency of change and variation of use on different IRCds, I feel the inclusion of specific modes would cause clutter.

Some commands have different behaviors depending on IRCd as well. An example, GLINE, is used to ban users from some networks based on their ident and hostname, but on others, it is used by special servers, commonly called 'ulines' or 'services' to ban users based on their GECOS data, or 'real name.'

Next, I'd like to make note that IRC commands do not include prefixes, like / or $. These are used by client software to formulate and send the commands. The actual commands are sent as alphanumeric characters. Some IRCds do behave differently based on the character casing of the commands. Is this a list of commands understood by clients, or understood as sent from clients? If the latter, msg should be changed to PRIVMSG, ctcp should be removed, etc etc etc.

To sum up my questions:

• Is this a list of commands understood by client software, or understood by servers?
• How detailed should this list be?
• What about commands which function differently based on variables, such as user privilege, sender type (user vs server), or IRCd type (hybrid vs bahamut)?

-- wshs 03:59, 19 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

I would say - we should have commands from RFC1459 - and then, perhaps, extensions and differences used by most common IRCd's, each under its own heading. As for how detailed... I am unsure, inclusionist in me says as detailed as possible. DLX 05:15, 19 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

I would honestly recommend a move to the Wikipedia namespace, since this really isn't good for the encyclopedia itself... but I dunno. ----HAL2008_TK ^CT 05:00, 15 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

The article is in Wikipedia namespace already. What do you mean? Sander Säde 06:48, 15 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

I agree with DLX, RFC1459 commands (+ any included in RFC2810-RFC2813 + IRCX). Any common client commands should be listed in a different section or article. This is an article on "IRC commands" not "IRC Client commands". -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 19:18, 21 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

Addendum: Here's a list from RFC2812:

PASS NICK USER OPER MODE SERVICE QUIT SQUIT JOIN PART MODE TOPIC NAMES LIST INVITE KICK PRIVMSG NOTICE MOTD LUSERS VERSION STATS LINKS TIME CONNECT TRACE ADMIN INFO SERVLIST SQUERY WHO WHOIS WHOWAS KILL PING PONG ERROR AWAY REHASH DIE RESTART SUMMON USERS WALLOPS USERHOST ISON

Two further commands are documented in 2813: SERVER NJOIN -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 19:39, 21 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

The problem then is that the published standards are far from the standards in practice. For example, almost nothing added by 2810-2812 are used by any significant network other than the network that created those RFCs. A few of the things are used by UnrealIRCd, but I'd go as far as saying that Unreal had the features before the RFCs did. Should the list include standards in practice globally, standards in practice by large networks, standards in practice by IRCd, or standards as published?
--wshs 20:05, 6 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

I think we should start off with the published standards (de jure) then add the commands in use at the large networks' implementation (de facto) as an addition to the standardised commands. -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 21:50, 6 August 2007 (UTC)Reply

The name and the intro are absolutely incorrect and need to be changed (can the title even be changed?). What you are listing only has in parts to do with IRC commands - but in fact you are not talking about the protocol standard IRC but about the far-spread windows-based IRC-client mIRC. Many people do not seem to understand the difference.
The next thing is that mIRC comes with a help file (use /help <topic or command>) which provides a very detailed help.
Also the use of and the difference between aliases and variables need to be explained.

210.203.52.253 14:43, 3 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Further to the discussion above in Cleanup and Wrong title!, I've decided to re-write the article using IRC commands as opposed to client-specific commands.

A copy of the old article is now at User:M2Ys4U/IRC -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 19:53, 3 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Looks good so far. How about changing the title to Internet Relay Chat protocol, and moving most of the content from the prior version to Internet Relay Chat client software? Gracenotes^T § 22:17, 5 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

Kind of funny that this article started with the "me" command two years ago, and now after this rewrite it doesn't contain the "me" command at all. Is there any article in Wikipedia that describes what that command does? /me itself is a redirect to CTCP, which still contains a link to the deleted section in this article. Anyways, I know that "me" is not an IRC command, but shouldn't this article contain at least a hint what it does, where to look, and that it's really just some form of PRIVMSG? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.12.4.132 (talk) 11:35, 17 December 2007 (UTC)Reply

No, only if it's in an article about mIRC (or other clients which use "/me" for CTCP ACTIONs). /me has basically nothing to do with IRC. Tomalak Geret'kal (talk) 11:59, 24 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

What about an article with all the extra little things that can be sent to cause something to happen. Ie especcially if you are stricly addhearing to server commands. I know of a one case where one would have to strictly stick to server commands. That case if with supybot, if one is to tell it to send a string to the server it must be done with server commands and not client program commands. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.30.60.34 (talk) 05:06, 9 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Is it just my IRC client, or do you always have to use all lowercase in the commands to make them work? If you always have to use lower case, do you think it would be a good idea to mention that in the article, or to make all the examples have lowercase. Also, mentioning that you have to put a "/" first, would help the newb's out. (like me!) Bdb4269 (talk) 16:07, 12 April 2008 (UTC)Reply

No, you are making the same mistake as whoever wrote the old version of the article. Commands beginning "/" are client-specific, such as the internal commands in mIRC which is a popular Windows-based IRC client. This page is about IRC commands. You can see the IRC commands that your mIRC client is using by typing "/debug @moo" and watching it all stream by. Turn off with "/debug -c off". IRC commands are in all caps (although this isn't required by most ircd software and I'm not sure if it's even in the standard). Tomalak Geret'kal (talk) 12:01, 24 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

Given the over-arching newb confusion about the difference between IRC and mIRC (a lot of which has been seen in the development of this very article) I think we need a page somewhere for mIRC commands (if there isn't one already, and which is basically what M2Ys4U has archived for us) and a notice on this page that there is a crucial difference between the two. Tomalak Geret'kal (talk) 12:03, 24 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

All I know is you say "User commands" and then below there are some "This command is used to ... It may only be sent by IRC operators."

Also you should group the commands with the most useful first... Jidanni (talk) 19:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

The "User commands" section was to list user <-> server commands, and a separate section for server <-> server commands was to be created... I can't remember why I didn't create that section now but there was a reason for it at the time.

2) "most useful" is highly subjective, Nearly all of the commands are needed for the operation of an IRC network. -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 17:28, 31 May 2009 (UTC)Reply

Where is the /clear command on the list? I've used mIRC, as well as irssi on my linux box, and it exists in both. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.165.122.216 (talk) 20:53, 17 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

It is still a client-specific command. This article covers the IRC commands defined in RFC 1459 and RFC 2812. I've been thinking about a Glossary of IRC commands article though, which would be the place to include client-specific commands such as /clear. Tothwolf (talk) 04:06, 18 June 2009 (UTC)Reply

The recent {{Prod}} has been reverted.

• The reason given WP:NOTGUIDE, is incorrectly applied. This list is a reference list, not a guide, nor a tutorial, and no examples are given.
• It is linked to by over 150 articles, not least of which are IRC, and WP:IRC, which discusses the use of IRC for Wikipedia communications between editors for collaboration and assistance.

--Lexein (talk) 19:57, 2 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Lexein pretty much nailed it. To go further with the reasons for which this article exits, this article is also a summary style spin out article for Internet Relay Chat which includes references to the various RFC documents. List articles such as this exist specifically because including all of this information in the parent article would make it far too long. Instead of defining each command each time it is discussed in different articles, in keeping with the purpose of a wiki, it makes much more sense to define these commands in one properly referenced place (yes, proper references took a lot of work to compile and shows one of the many motivations behind creating {{Cite IETF}}...) and link to sections/anchors (in some cases with redirects) as necessary when discussing a specific command.

We've also been down this road before with AfDs for List of FTP commands and List of FTP server return codes (although I see someone has since redirected List of FTP commands). This list serves the same purposes as these and others such as List of MS-DOS commands and even List of HTTP status codes (I once did proper references for this one, [2] which then looked like this but got blindly reverted [3] by the guy who "wrote" the article for WP:OWN reasons).

I suppose I need to follow up with what I posted at WT:NOT because it looks like it rolled off into the archives with no response and as seen not only here but even at Talk:C standard library and this AfD, we are still having problems with misapplication of some of the "newer" additions to WP:NOT. While some of it might have been well-meaning when it was added, misapplication and/or misunderstanding of some of these WP:NOT entries is resulting in a lot of collateral damage within the WP:COMP scope. --Tothwolf (talk) 08:00, 5 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Universal command? Should it be added to the list? 204.185.46.1 (talk) 18:33, 21 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

/me is not an IRC command, it's a client feature. Underneath, it uses the PRIVMSG command like the rest of the CTCP spec, which is an overlay protocol. -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 17:21, 23 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

I think there is another command that does that, like there is a command called /say and another called /msg, only /say doesn't gets the channel as an argument. By a google search I find the command /describe, but I'm not sure it's the command. Galzigler (talk) 22:10, 16 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Again, these are not IRC commands, they are client features. This article is about the commands that are sent between the IRC server and the user's IRC client. -- M2Ys4U ^(talk) 18:01, 17 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

I think those two commands are the same, or at least under UnrealIRCd. Anyway, it gets an argument (the help file's name), unlike the way it's described here. Galzigler (talk) 22:00, 16 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Is there a way to get examples for each command? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.31.155.24 (talk) 00:51, 12 May 2013 (UTC)Reply