1 WHO documentation, updated on 02 Jan 1999.
3 Since ircu2.10.02 the WHO command had been changed from what described in
4 RFC1459, while still keeping backward compatibility, actually it has been
5 changed again in u2.10.05 so that since this release the format of the who
8 [:source] WHO <mask1> [<options> [<mask2>]]
10 <mask2> is optional, if mask2 is present it's used for matching and mask1 is
11 ignored, otherwise mask1 is used for matching, since mask2 is the last
12 parameter it *can* contain a space and this can help when trying to match a
15 When matching IP numbers the <mask> can be in 3 forms:
17 - The old and well known IRC masks using * and ? as wanted
18 - The IPmask form a.b.c.d/e.f.g.h as used in most firewalls and
19 system configurations, where what is before the / are the bits we expect
20 in the IP number and what is after the / is the "filter mask" telling wich
21 bits whould be considered and wich should be ignored.
22 - The IPmask form a.b.c.d/bitcount where bitcount is an integer between 0
23 and 31 (inclusive), the matching will be for the IPs whose first
24 "bitcount" bits are equal to those in a.b.c.d
27 . The bitcount must be between 0 and 31, 32 is NOT good (and
28 makes no sense to use it... just match against the static IP a.b.c.d)
29 . The missing pieces of both the bitmask and the ipnumber in the forms
30 ipnumber/bitmask and ipnumber/bitcount default to zero from right to left,
31 this is NOT what inet_aton and most tools do but makes more sense here
32 IMO, in example /who 194.243/16 is taken as /who 194.243.0.0/255.255.0.0
33 (inet_aton whould take 194.243 as 194.0.0.243).
34 . For the above reason and specified validity limits 1.2.3.4/31 becomes
35 1.2.3.4/255.255.255.254 while 1.2.3.4/32 becomes 1.2.3.4/32.0.0.0 :)
37 For all the other fields th match happens as has always been, i.e. it's only
38 considered the IRC mask with * and ? (that is: don't expect to catch an user
39 with "realname" = "1.2.3.4" when doing "/who 1.2/16 h" :)
41 For both the masks and the options (and thus for all flags) case is NOT
42 significative (so "/who <any> o" is exactly the same as "/who <ANY> O".
44 The "options2" part can be as follows:
46 [<flags>][%[<fields>[,<querytype>]]]
50 <flags>: can be a sequence of field matching flags, use mode matching flags
51 and special purpose flags
53 Field matching flags, when one of these is specified the field in
54 question is matched against the mask, otherwise it's not matched.
56 n Nick (in nick!user@host)
57 u Username (in nick!user@host)
58 h Hostname (in nick!user@host)
59 i Numeric IP (the unresolved host)
60 s Servername (the canonic name of the server the guy is on)
61 r Info text (formerly "Realname")
63 If no field-matching flags are specified they default to what old servers
64 used to do: nuhsr (= everything except the numeric IP)
66 User mode matching flags (specifying one of these means that only clients
67 with that umode are considered, what is not specified is always matched):
70 [In the future more flags will be supported, basically all
71 usermodes plus the +/- specificators to revert the filtering]
73 Special purpose flags:
75 x If this is specified the extended visibility of information for opers
76 is applied, what this means depends on the fact that you are local or
77 global operator and on how the admin configured the server (global
78 and eventually local irc opers might be allowed with this flag to see
79 +i local users, to see all +i users, to see users into +p and/or +s
80 channels, and so on). Using the 'x' flag while not being an irc
81 operator is meaningless (it will be ignored), using it while oper'd
82 means that the query is almost certainly logged and the admin might
83 (rightfully) ask you an explanation on why you did.
85 The rest, what follows the %, that is [%[fields[,<querytype>]]], is as it
86 has always been since the first who.patch, the <fields> part specifies
87 wich fields to include in the output as:
89 c : Include (first) channel name
90 d : Include "distance" in hops (hopcount)
91 f : Include flags (all of them)
96 s : Include server name
97 t : Include the querytype in the reply
98 u : Include userID with eventual ~
100 And the ,<querytype> final option can be used to specify what you want the
101 server to say in the querytype field of the output, useful to filter the
102 output in scripts that do a kind of "on 354 ..."
104 If no %fields are specified the reply is _exactly_ the same as has always
105 been, numeric 352, same fields, same order.
107 If one or more %fields are specified the reply uses a new numeric, since an
108 out-of-standard 352 crashes EPIC and confuses several other clients. I used
111 :"source" 354 "target" ["querytype"] ["channel"] ["user"]
112 ["IP"] ["host"] ["server"] ["nick"]
113 ["flags"] ["hops"] [:"realname"]
115 Where only the fields specified in the %fields options are present.
117 "querytype" is the same value passed in the /who command, it is provided to
118 simplify scripting, in example one could pass a certain value in the query
119 and have that value "signal" back what is to be done with those replies.
121 The number of lines in the reply is still limited to avoid self-flooding and
122 sooner or later another limitation will be added: you will be forced to do
123 no more than one /who query every 'n' seconds where 'n' depends on the
124 number of fields you actually match (the field-match flags specified before
125 % in the option, defaulting to 6 if you don't specify an option at all),
126 infact matching against many fields as the default query does severely
127 affects the CPU usage of the server and is *much* better to specify with the
128 field-matching flags what you are looking for, in example when you are
129 looking for all french users a "/who *.fr h" is A LOT better than just "/who
130 *.fr" (and actually you want users that have the
131 _hostname_ matching *.fr, you wouldn't want to match a japanese user
132 that has the realname "ku fung-kay aj.fr" in example...)
136 - An user doing a "/who whatever" or a "/who whatever o"
137 will not see any change (except for the anti-flood limit and sooner or
138 later the CPU usage limit)
140 - An user doing a "/who #wasteland %n" will get just a list of nicks (lame,
141 very lame way of doing it :-)
143 - An user doing a "/who 0 o%nuhs" will get a list of the opers with Nick,
144 userID, server and hostname like:
146 :Amst* 354 Nemesi #wasteland nbakker pc73.a.sn.no Oslo*.org Niels
148 - An user doing a "/who 0 o%tnuhs,166" will get a list of the opers
149 with Nick, userID, server and hostname like the above but with a
150 request type field of 166 like:
152 :Amst* 354 Nemesi 166 #wasteland nbakker pc73.a.sn.no
153 Oslo-R.NO.EU.Undernet.org Niels
155 So that he can have in example a script that does
156 "on 354 * 166" display "There is an oper ..."
158 - The client will have to sort/format the fields by itself,
159 the _order_ in which flags are passed is not significant, the fields in the
160 reply will always have the same order.
162 - The maximum number of _lines_ reported as reply for a query
163 is 2048/(n+4) where 'n' is the number of flags "enabled" that is the
164 number of fields included in each reply.
166 Actually: 1 field returned = maximum 409 replies
167 2 fields returned = maximum 341 replies
168 3 fields returned = maximum 292 replies
169 4 fields returned = maximum 256 replies
170 5 fields returned = maximum 227 replies
171 6 fields returned = maximum 204 replies
172 7 fields returned = maximum 186 replies (default query)
173 8 fields returned = maximum 170 replies
174 9 fields returned = maximum 157 replies
175 10 fields returned = maximum 146 replies
177 If the limit is reached before completing the query the reply is truncated
178 and a new numeric error is issued after the "End of WHO", anyway the "end
179 of" numeric is _always_ sent (otherwise some scripts and clients go
182 The actual "mask" to match can have one of the two following forms:
184 - A comma-separated list of elements: in this case each element
185 is treated as a flat channel or nick name and is not matched to the other
186 elements. Nicks do count in the limit of output lines (they should not be
187 that many anyway), channels count if who asks the query is not on the
188 channel. (That is: a /who #channel gives unlimited output if you are in
191 - A _single_ mask: in this case (no commas, only one element) the mask is
192 first checked to be a full channel or nickname, then it is matched against
193 all relevant fiels as already known. These happens in different steps
194 with replicates-removal so that if one has (?) something like "#wasteland"
195 as "real name" or is on a channel named "#***MyChan***" it all works
198 Miscellaneous bug fixes / "undocumented feature" changes:
200 - /who NickName did not show the user with nick = NickName when it was
201 invisible, even if the nick was given completely (without wildchars) now
202 it does, since one could always see him as /whois NickName. It does not
203 report him twice if he also has in example the userID == NickName and is
206 - ":source WHO :The Black Hacker" did not report an user having "The Black
207 Hacker" as real name, now it does. Since this can only be done without the
208 flags/format specificator because that would become the "last parameter"
209 an escape has been provided: if you pass to m_who _3_ parameters the first
210 one will be ignored and the last one used for matching, like in example
211 ":source WHO foo %nuh :*Black Hacker*" where "foo" will not be used and
212 the match will happen on "*Black Hacker*". (It was passed through
213 clean_channelname() that prevented the mask from containing spaces and
216 - When one user was umode -i he was shown or not depending on the
217 fact he was on a +p or +s channel... since we are doing a lookup on the
218 _user_ this makes no sense to me, example:
219 Neme1 : umode -i, on no channels, was SEEN with a /who 0
220 Neme2 : umode -i, on channel #p with chmode +p, was NOT SEEN by /who 0
221 Neme3 : umode -i, on channel #s with chmode +s, was NOT SEEN by /who 0
223 Now all users "-i" are matched with a "/who mask", the +i users instead
224 must be on a _common_ channel to be seen.
226 Basically being on "one" +s|p channel "forced" a +i status while one might
227 want to be on #secret (mode +s) and have nobody know that he is in there
228 but on the other side stay -i so others can find him. Of course a +s|p
229 channel is never shown in the reply unless who asks the query is in there,
230 if no "visible" channels are available for a -i user he is shown on
233 - When one user is +i is shown _only_ if there is a common channel,
234 the first common channel found is shown in the reply.
236 - As requested by many persons an escape has been provided for opers,
237 when #defined SHOW_ALL_CHANNELS opers can /who #channel from outside
238 and see users in there even if the channel is +s|+p
239 Each admin decides locally if this feature is enabled to his opers.
241 - As requested by many admins an escape from the query-size limit
242 has been provided for opers, by #defining UNLIMIT_OPER_QUERY opers
243 can do unlimited sized /who-s (until they get disconnected by max
245 Again admins will decide if enable or not this feature.
247 - A /who a,c,b,d,e,f used to return as many ** END OF WHO as there
248 were elements in the list, since now the command is supposed to be
249 _efficient_ for /who nick1,nick2,nick3 .. I return a _single_ end
252 - /who did not work for a channel named in example #**StarWars**
253 now it does handle it properly (the mask was passed through
254 collapse() and then.. did not find that channel, fixed).
256 - "/who #John" did not report an user having '#John' as "Real name",
257 now it does (and does NOT report him twice if he is ALSO on a
258 channel named #John, strange but true: this can happen).
260 - "/who a,b,c,d" where a b c and d are channelnames/nicks now uses an hash
261 lookup and therefore is extremely efficient, if _only_ one field is
262 specified it is looked in all the fields; who really wants _only_ users on
263 a specific channel or a single nick (without looking for a match in the
264 other fields) can force the server to consider the parameter as a list
265 adding a comma somewhere, like:
267 "/who #Italia," or "/who ,Nemesi"
269 Or even better to avoid misbehaviour with other servers:
270 "/who #Italia %... #Italia," or "/who Nemesi %... Nemesi,"
272 This will make old servers act properly and new ones and should be the
273 recomended way for GUI based clients to get a channel's userlist and all
274 the infos they want about users on the channel.
276 Regards, Andrea aka Nemesi