Need IRC help - List of Nicknames
reddit / irc

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CornyJordy · 2015-01-14 18:28

Is there a way to get a list of current nicknames from an IRC server?
I'm not an IRC expert by any means, but I was asked by a client to
display a list of people in their channel on their website. I'm not
sure if it's feasible, but I figured I'd ask. They have an IRC server
set up, FYI.

Thanks!

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RamenJunkie · 2015-01-14 18:52

Not sure how you would get it on a website and its beena. While but
doesn't "/who #channel" list the nicks in a channel?

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CornyJordy · 2015-01-14 18:55

I honestly have no idea. I did some searching and found out there's a
command called [/NAMES](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_
Relay_Chat_commands#NAMES). But since I haven't done any IRC-related
dev work, I do not know where to start.

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Geohump · 2015-01-14 21:42

Just set the server to echo the nicks to a log file as they connect.

This is a typical server function.

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iadicicco · 2015-01-15 04:21

`WHO #channel` and `NAMES #channel` lists the users in #channel in two
different formats. if the user sending the command is not on the
channel, only non-invisible users are shown (users are invisible by
default, unfortunately).

you might be able to write a simple bot in Python to sit in the
channel and respond to API calls to perform a `NAMES` command on
behalf of the requester.

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phate408 · 2015-01-15 18:24

My first couple ideas on how to implement this:

Either build a simple IRC bot and have it listen for requests. Upon a
request to it, get the current list of users and send it back.

Another idea would be to write a simple program to connect to the
server, retrieve the list of users, and then save it. Have this run as
often as needed to maintain the desired data freshness, whether by
cron or a "caching" system built into the code retrieving it.

Many languages have IRC frameworks available, however IRC is also a
very easy protocol to work with if you have any experience with socket
programming.

A much less practical method, that I wouldn't suggest but will include
for completeness, would be a module for the IRCd or services package
to provide the requested data to an external consumer.

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flotwig · 2015-01-21 15:28

If the network runs magIRC, that has a public JSON API which you can
use to query for a list of users on a channel.