MONITOR - Protocol for notification of when clients become online/offline Lee Hardy $Id$ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Currently, ISON requests by clients use a large amount of bandwidth. It is expected that it is more efficient for this to be done by the server at the expense of cpu cycles. The WATCH implementation that was designed to counter this is (in my opinion) severely flawed. This protocol was designed to provide a cleaner implementation. The command used throughout this specification is "MONITOR". Each use of the MONITOR command takes a special modifier, indicating the operation being performed. The client MUST NOT attempt to specify more than one modifier. Only one special modifier may be used per MONITOR command. Thus it is impossible to combine additions to the list with removals from the list -- these MUST be done with two seperate commands. A client MUST NOT issue the MONITOR command more than once per second. Any attempts to do so will generate an error. In commands and numerics where multiple nicknames may occur, the length of the nickname list is limited only by the buffer size of 512 chars, as defined in RFC1459. Support of this specification is indicated by the MONITOR token in RPL_ISUPPORT (005). This token takes an optional parameter, of the maximum amount of nicknames a client may have in their monitor list. If no parameter is specified, there is no limit. A typical token would be: MONITOR=100 MONITOR + nick[,nick2]* ----------------------- Adds the given list of nicknames to the list of nicknames being monitored. If any of the nicknames being added are online, the server will generate RPL_MONONLINE numerics listing those nicknames that are online. If any of the nicknames being added are offline, the server will generate RPL_MONOFFLINE numerics listing those nicknames that are offline. MONITOR - nick[,nick2]* ----------------------- Removes the given list of nicknames from the list of nicknames being monitored. No output will be returned for use of this command. MONITOR C --------- Clears the list of nicknames being monitored. No output will be returned for use of this command. MONITOR L --------- Outputs the current list of nicknames being monitored. All output will use RPL_MONLIST, and the output will be terminated with RPL_ENDOFMONLIST MONITOR S --------- Outputs for each nickname in the list being monitored, whether the client is online or offline. All nicks that are online will be sent using RPL_MONONLINE, all nicks that are offline will be sent using RPL_MONOFFLINE. The list will be terminated with RPL_ENDOFMONLIST. Numeric replies --------------- 730 - RPL_MONONLINE ------------------- : 730 :nick!user@host[,nick!user@host]* This numeric is used to indicate to a client that either a nickname has just become online, or that a nickname they have added to their monitor list is online. The server may send "*" instead of the target nick (). (This makes it possible to send the exact same message to all clients monitoring a certain nick.) 731 - RPL_MONOFFLINE -------------------- : 731 :nick[,nick1]* This numeric is used to indicate to a client that either a nickname has just left the irc network, or that a nickname they have added to their monitor list is offline. The argument is a chained list of nicknames that are offline. As with 730 the server may send "*" instead of the target nick. 732 - RPL_MONLIST ----------------- : 732 :nick[,nick1]* This numeric is used to indicate to a client the list of nicknames they have in their monitor list. 733 - RPL_ENDOFMONLIST ------------------------ : 733 :End of MONITOR list This numeric is used to indicate to a client the end of a monitor list. 734 - ERR_MONLISTFULL --------------------- : 734 :Monitor list is full. This numeric is used to indicate to a client that their monitor list is full, so the command failed. The parameter is the maximum number of nicknames a client may have in their list, the parameter is the list of nicknames, as the client sent them, that cannot be added.