Undernet P10 Protocol and Interface Specification

(As of ircu 2.10.11)

Undernet Coder-com, coder-com@undernet.org

$Id: p10.html,v 1.5.4.1 2002/01/11 16:02:13 kev Exp $

This document aims to be a practical guide for implementing and maintaining the protocol, not just a reference manual.

This document is "work in progress" and being continually updated :)


1. Introduction

2. General concepts and background

2.1 Concepts.
2.2 Token Table.

3. Registration and syncronisation

4. Continous operation

4. Programmers reference: Function headers

5. Programmers reference: Client/Server Structures

6. FAQ

7. Acknowledgements and disclaimer

8. Update History

  • TODO List

    • 1. Introduction

    [Back]

    2. General concepts and background

    2.1 Concepts

    The undernet P10 protocol uses a scheme of "Numerics" to uniquenly identify a client or server within the network. Each server has its own unique numeric (0 -> 4095) and each client has its own numeric within that server (0->262,143).

    The numerics are encoded into a Base64 stream to maintain human readable data flow and reduce the size of the messages. The Base64 character set used in ircu is included below, this defines all valid characters allowed in a Base64 numeric with "A" representing 0 and "]" representing 63. 

    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789[]
    Server numerics consist of 2 characters, with the minimum, 0, being represented by "AA", and the maximum, 4095, being represented by "]]". Client numerics are 3 characters long, with the minimum, 0, being represented by "AAA", and the maximum, 262,143, being represented by "]]]". The unique identifier of a client on the network consists of a combination of both the server and client numeric in the format SSCCC.

    As an example, consider a server "irc.undernet.org" which has a numeric of 2, translating to "AC" in Base64. On this server exists a client, whom has been allocated the numeric 63 (which translates to "AA]" in Base64). Therefore, the unique identifier of this client on the network is "ACAA]". From this, we can determine which server the message came from, aswell as the client who sent it.

    These numerics are used to prefix every message issued on the stream except for the initial "PASS" or "SERVER" message, which are not prefixed. Therefore, every message that can be recieved from a server will consist of the format: 

    [NUMERIC PREFIX] [TOKEN] [DATA]
    For Example: 
    A[A5j P ABAAA :Foo.
    2.2 Token Table

    The following table lists all the acceptable messages, along with their relevant "Token", which is used in the server<>server protocol. The aim of tokenisation is to reduce the bandwidth used during network communication by reducing the length of common message identifiers.
     

    Message Token
    PRIVMSG P
    WHO H
    WHOIS W
    WHOWAS X
    USER USER
    NICK N
    SERVER S
    LIST LIST
    TOPIC T
    INVITE I
    VERSION V
    QUIT Q
    SQUIT SQ
    KILL D
    INFO F
    LINKS LI
    STATS R
    HELP HELP
    ERROR Y
    AWAY A
    CONNECT CO
    MAP MAP
    PING G
    PONG Z
    OPER OPER
    PASS PA
    WALLOPS WA
    DESYNCH DS
    TIME TI
    SETTIME SE
    RPING RI
    RPONG RO
    NAMES E
    ADMIN AD
    TRACE TR
    NOTICE O
    WALLCHOPS WC
    CPRIVMSG CP
    CNOTICE CN
    JOIN J
    PART L
    LUSERS LU
    MOTD MO
    MODE M
    KICK K
    USERHOST USERHOST
    USERIP USERIP
    ISON ISON
    SQUERY SQUERY
    SERVLIST SERVLIST
    SERVSET SERVSET
    REHASH REHASH
    RESTART RESTART
    CLOSE CLOSE
    DIE DIE
    HASH HASH
    DNS DNS
    SILENCE U
    GLINE GL
    BURST B
    CREATE C
    DESTRUCT DE
    END_OF_BURST EB
    END_OF_BURST_ACK EA
    PROTO PROTO
    JUPE JU
    OPMODE OM
    CLEARMODE CM
    ACCOUNT AC
    [Back]

    3. Registration and syncronisation

    3.1 Server registration and authentication

    After a TCP connection has been established, the server initally introduces itself via a "PASS" message as follows: 

    PASS :[PASSWORD]
    "PASSWORD" is simply compared with the password present in the destination servers config file, and is used to confirm credentials after the "SERVER" message has been recieved, as follows: 
    SERVER [SERVERNAME] [HOPCOUNT] [START TIME] [LINK TIME] [PROTOCOL] [NUMERIC/MAXCONN] :[DESCRIPTION]
    For Example: 
    1      2                3 4         5         6   7     8 
SERVER irc.undernet.org 1 933022556 947908144 J10 AA]]] :[127.0.0.1] A Undernet Server.
    Notes:
    1. The SERVER message, indicating this connection wishes to introduce a new server to the network.
    2.  The name of the server you are introducing, a valid server name consists of [..defn..].
    3.  The hop count of the server you are introducing, this is always 1 when you are introducing yourself.
    4.  The epoch timestamp specifying when the ircd was started.
    5.  The epoch timestamp specifying the time the server initiated the link to the network.
    6.  The Protocol identifier of this server.
      1. This token informs the network which protocol it is compliant with, eg: If it is a P10 compliant server, then the token will be "P10".
      2.  If the server being introduced has not yet successfully synced its database with the network (Completed its net.burst - see 3.2), then the Protocol token should be prefixed with a J, instead of a P (Eg: J10) to indicate it is currently still joining the network.
      3.  The protocol token should always be JXX when the server is introducing itself.
    7. The numeric, and maximum connections identifier for this server.
      1. This token is formatted exactly the same as a client numeric is formatted. The first 2 characters identify the server's numeric, whilst in this situation, the final 3 characters define the maximum number of clients that this server can hold (and more importantly, the maximum number of numerics it will generate). This is always one less than a power of two, because the server uses this as a bitmask. A server can give out a higher numeric than this, however it will be "anded" with this number to find it's entry slot. The reason for this is so a server which is near the maximum number of clients can give out more numerics than it's using to prevent a new client getting a numeric that was used only seconds ago and maybe get messages destined to the old user.
      2.  The example "AA]]]" shows that this is a server with numeric 0, which will generate client numerics up to 262,143.
    8. This final parameter simply consists of a textual description of the server prefixed by a colon. This is displayed in a clients WHOIS line, aswell as in the LINKS reply. By convention, if this is a leaf server it contains the servers IP in square brackets at the beginning of the string,
    3.2 Network Database resyncronisation

    After the connection has been established and verified, the next step is to syncronise the database of client/server/channel information between the two servers.

    3.2.1 - SERVER Messages
    Server details are transmitted via "SERVER" messages similar to the initial introduction message, with the following format:
    [OWNING SERVER PREFIX] S [SERVERNAME] [HOPCOUNT] [START TIME] [LINK TIME] [PROTOCOL] [NUMERIC/MAXCONN] 0 :[DESCRIPTION]
    The syntax of this message is almost identical to the originally recieved server message, with the only exception being that the message is numeric prefixed, to indicate which server sent this message (and also therefore, which hub this new server is linked too). There is also a fixed "0" present before the Description field, this is a placeholder for future use and currently unused. [Isomer: Question, what IS this reserved for?]

    3.2.2 - NICK Messages

    Client information is transmitted via "NICK" messages, of the following format:
    [NUMERIC PREFIX] N [NICK] [HOPCOUNT] [TIMESTAMP] [USERNAME] [HOST] <+modes> [BASE64 IP] [NUMERIC] :[USERINFO]
    For Example:
    1  2 3       4 5         6     7            8     9      10    11
    AF N Client1 1 947957573 User userhost.net +oiwg DAqAoB AFAAA :Generic Client.
    Notes:
    1. The numeric of the server sending this message. (And hence, owning this client).
    2. The "NICK" token.
    3. The nickname of this client, currently max 9 chars.
    4. The "Hopcount" of this client, Ie: how many servers away it is on.
    5. The epoch timestamp indicating when the user was created.
    6. The "User" part of the user@host mask.
    7. the "Host" part of the user@host mask.
    8. [Optional]: User modes. If present, this is always +<user modes for this client>. Note that the special +r usermode is followed by the client's account name; see the documentation for ACCOUNT.
    9. The real IP address of this client, a Base64 encoded 32bit int.
    10. This client's numeric, in SSCCC format.
    11. Free format user info line.

      12.  
    3.2.3 - BURST Messages
    Channel details and membership information is synchronised in one (or more) BURST messages for each channel that exists, formatted as follows:
    [NUMERIC PREFIX] B [CHANNEL] [CREATION TIMESTAMP] <+MODES> <ARG1> <ARG2> [MEMBER LIST] <:%BANS>
    For Example:
    1  2 3          4         5      6   7  8                                         9
AZ B #coder-com 949217470 +tinkl key 56 AAAAA,AAAAB,AAAAC,ABAAA,ABAAB,ABAAC,ACAAA :%*!*@*.net
    Notes:
    1. The numeric of the server sending this message.
    2. The "BURST" token.
    3. The name of the channel to which this data belongs. Currently #Channel and +Channel names can be sent in a BURST message, &Channels are not because by definition they are local to the server.
    4. The epoch timestamp indicating when the channel was created.
    5. [Optional]: Channel Modes.
      1. The channel may have a number of modes set, aswell as relevant mode arguments in the following 2 parameters.
    6. [Optional]: Channel Key, this parameter is present if the channel modes contain a "k" mode.
    7. [Optional]: Channel Limit, this parameter is present if the channel modes contain a "l" mode.
    8.  A comma seperated list of client numerics, with the following specific formatting rules to indicate +o, +v and +ov channel members.
      1. Numerics can have the following symbols appended on them; ":ov", ":v" or ":o". These indicate that this numeric is either Opped (:o), Voiced (:v) or both (:ov). This state applies to the numeric it is attached too, and all subsequent numerics until another state is encountered. For Example:
      2. AAABA:ov, AAABB:o,AAABC,AAABD,AAABE:v,AAABZ

        3. Here, AAABA is both opped, and voiced, AAABB, AAABC and AAABD are opped leaving AAABE and AAABZ voiced.
      3.  The first numeric of the member list will always contain a state symbol.
    9. A space seperated list of bans present in the channel. The start of the ban stream is indicated by a ":%", everything following the ":%" is the ban list.

      10. For Example:
      :%*!*@*.foobar.net another!ban@*.com *!*fred@a.host.co.uk
      Would add the following bans to the channel:

      *!*@*.foobar.net
      another!ban@*.com
      *!*fred@a.host.co.uk

    If the length of a BURST message exceeds the maximum lenght of a line (512 characters) then the remaining channel members/bans are sent in subsequent BURST lines. The subsequent burst lines are only used to add additional members to the channel, and if neccessary, channel bans. There will be no "Mode" parameters present. A sample additional burst line would be:
    AZ BURST #coder-com 949217470 ACAAB:o,ACAAD :%*!*another@*.ban.com
    Which adds two more opped members and a ban to the channel.
    3.2.4 - JUPE Messages
    Any currently unexpired JUPEs are transmitted via "JUPE" messages with the following format:
    [NUMERIC PREFIX] JU * (+|-)[SERVER NAME] [LIFETIME] [LAST MOD] :[REASON]
    For example:
    1  2  3 4                5         6         7
    AZ JU * +juped.undernet.org 000003593 955419707 :Juped Server
    Notes:
    1. The numeric of the server sending this message.
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