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Protocol changes for +TSora |
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--------------------------- |
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|
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Note: |
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|
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The protocols described here implement TimeStamps on IRC channels and |
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nicks. The idea of IRC TimeStamps was started on Undernet, and first |
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implemented by Run <carlo@runaway.xs4all.nl>. The protocols used here |
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are not exactly the same as the ones used on Undernet; the nick-kill |
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handling is very similar and must be credited to Run, while the |
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"TimeStamped channel description" protocol is quite different. |
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|
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TSora servers keep track of which version of the TS protocol (if any) |
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their neighboring servers are using, and take it into account when |
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sending messages to them. This allows for seamless integration of TS |
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servers into a non-TS net, and for upgrades of the protocol. |
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|
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Each server knows which is the lowest and the highest version of the |
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TS protocol it can interact with; currently both of these are set to 1: |
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|
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#define TS_CURRENT 1 /* the highest TS ver we can do */ |
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#define TS_MIN 1 /* the lowest TS ver we can do */ |
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|
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Timings and TS versions: |
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======================== |
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|
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. Keep a 'delta' value to be added to the result of all calls to time(), |
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initially 0. |
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|
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. Send a second argument to the PASS command, ending in the 'TS' string. |
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|
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. Send a |
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|
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SVINFO <TS_CURRENT> <TS_MIN> <STANDALONE> :<UTC-TIME> |
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|
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just after "SERVER", where <STANDALONE> is 1 if we're connected to |
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more TSora servers, and 0 if not, and <UTC-TIME> is our idea of the |
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current UTC time, fixed with the delta. |
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|
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. When we receive a "SVINFO <x> <y> <z> :<t>" line from a connecting |
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server, we ignore it if TS_CURRENT<y or x<TS_MIN, otherwise we |
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set a flag remembering that that server is TS-aware, remember the TS |
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version to use with it (min(TS_CURRENT, x)). Additionally, if this is |
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our first connected TS server, we set our delta to t-<OUR_UTC> if |
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z==0, and to (t-<OUR_UTC>)/2 if z!=0. The SVINFO data is kept around |
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until the server has effectively registered with SERVER, and used |
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*after* sending our own SVINFO to that server. |
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|
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Explanations: |
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|
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Servers will always know which of their directly-linked servers can do |
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TS, and will use the TS protocol only with servers that do understand |
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it. This makes it possible to switch to full TS in just one |
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code-replacement step, without incompatibilities. |
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|
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As long as not all servers are TS-aware, the net will be divided into |
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"zones" of linked TS-aware servers. Channel modes will be kept |
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synchronized at least within the zone in which the channel was |
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created, and nick collisions between servers in the same zone will |
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result in only one client being killed. |
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|
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Time synchronization ensures that servers have the same idea of the |
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current time, and achieves this purpose as long as TS servers are |
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introduced one by one within the same 'zone'. The merging of two zones |
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cannot synchronize them completely, but it is to be expected that |
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within each zone the effective time will be very close to the real |
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time. |
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|
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By sending TSINFO after SERVER rather than before, we avoid the extra |
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lag created by the identd check on the server. To be able to send |
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immediately a connect burst of either type (TS or not), we need to |
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know before that if the server does TS or not, so we send that |
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information with PASS as an extra argument. And to avoid being |
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incompatible with 2.9 servers, which check that this second argument |
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begins with "2.9", we check that it *ends* with "TS". |
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|
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The current time is only used when setting a TS on a new channel or |
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nick, and once such a TS is set, it is never modified because of |
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synchronization, as it is much more important that the TS for a |
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channel or nick stays the same across all servers than that it is |
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accurate to the second. |
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|
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Note that Undernet's 2.8.x servers have no time synchronization at |
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all, and have had no problems because of it - all of this is more to |
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catch the occasional server with a way-off clock than anything. |
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|
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NICK handling patches (anti-nick-collide + shorter connect burst): |
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================================================================== |
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|
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. For each nick, store a TS value = the TS value received if any, or our |
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UTC+delta at the time we first heard of the nick. TS's are propagated |
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to TS-aware servers whenever sending a NICK command. |
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|
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. Nick changes reset the TS to the current time. |
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|
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. When sending a connect burst to another TS server, replace the |
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NICK/USER pair with only one NICK command containing the nick, the |
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hopcount, the TS, the umode, and all the USER information. |
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|
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The format for a full NICK line is: |
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NICK <nick> <hops> <TS> <umode> <user> <host> <server> :<ircname> |
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|
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The umode is a + followed by any applying usermodes. |
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|
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The format for a nick-change NICK line is: |
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:<oldnick> NICK <newnick> :<TS> |
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|
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. When a NICK is received from a TS server, that conflicts with an |
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existing nick: |
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+ if the userhosts differ or one is not known: |
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* if the timestamps are equal, kill ours and the old one if it |
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was a nick change |
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* if the incoming timestamp is older than ours, kill ours and |
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propagate the new one |
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* if the incoming timestamp is younger, ignore the line, but kill |
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the old nick if it was a nick change |
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+ if the userhosts are the same: |
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* if the timestamps are equal, kill ours and the old one if it |
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was a nick change |
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* if the incoming timestamp is younger, kill ours and propagate |
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the new one |
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* if the incoming timestamp is older, ignore the line but kill |
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the old nick if it was a nick change |
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|
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. When a NICK is received from a non-TS server that conflicts with |
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an existing nick, kill both. |
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|
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. Do not send "Fake Prefix" kills in response to lines coming from TS |
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servers; the sanitization works anyway, and this allows the "newer |
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nick overruled" case to work. |
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|
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Explanations: |
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|
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The modified nick-introduction syntax allows for a slightly shorter |
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connect-burst, and most importantly lets the server compare |
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user@host's when determining which nick to kill: if the user@host |
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is the same, then the older nick must be killed rather than the |
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newer. |
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|
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When talking to a non-TS server, we need to behave exactly like one |
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because it expects us to. When talkign to a TS server, we don't kill |
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the nicks it's introducing, as we know it'll be smart enough to do it |
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itself when seeing our own introduced nick. |
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|
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When we see a nick arriving from a non-TS server, it won't have a TS, |
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but it's safe enough to give it the current time rather than keeping |
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it 0; such TS's won't be the same all across the network (as long as |
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there is more than one TS zone), and when there's a collision, the TS |
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used will be the one in the zone the collision occurs in. |
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|
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Also, it is important to note that by the time a server sees (and |
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chooses to ignore) a nick introduction, the introducing server has |
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also had the time to put umode changes for that nick on its queue, so |
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we must ignore them too... so we need to ignore fake-prefix lines |
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rather than sending kills for them. This is safe enough, as the rest |
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of the protocol ensures that they'll get killed anyway (and the |
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Undernet does it too, so it's been more than enough tested). Just for |
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an extra bit of compatibility, we still kill fake prefixes coming from |
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non-TS servers. |
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|
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This part of the TS protocol is almost exactly the same as the |
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Undernet's .anc (anti-nick-collide) patches, except that Undernet |
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servers don't add usermodes to the NICK line. |
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|
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TimeStamped channel descriptions (avoiding hacked ops and desynchs): |
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==================================================================== |
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|
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. For each channel, keep a timestamp, set to the current time when the |
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channel is created by a client on the local server, or to the received |
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value if the channel has been propagated from a TS server, or to 0 |
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otherwise. This value will have the semantics of "the time of creation |
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of the current ops on the channel", and 0 will mean that the channel |
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is in non-TS mode. |
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|
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A new server protocol command is introduced, SJOIN, which introduces |
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a full channel description: a timestamp, all the modes (except bans), |
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and the list of channel members with their ops and voices. This |
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command will be used instead of JOIN and of (most) MODEs both in |
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connect bursts and when propagating channel creations among TS |
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servers. SJOIN will never be accepted from or sent to users. |
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|
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The syntax for the command is: |
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|
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SJOIN <TS> #<channel> <modes> :[@][+]<nick_1> ... [@][+]<nick_n> |
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|
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The fields have the following meanings: |
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|
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* <TS> is the timestamp for the channel |
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|
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* <modes> is the list of global channel modes, starting with a + |
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and a letter for each of the active modes (spmntkil), followed |
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by an argument for +l if there is a limit, and an argument for |
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+k if there's a key (in the same order they were mentioned in |
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the string of letters). |
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|
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A channel with no modes will have a "+" in that field. |
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|
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A special value of "0" means that the server does not specify the |
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modes, and will be used when more than one SJOIN line is needed |
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to completely describe a channel, or when propagating a SJOIN |
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the modes of which were rejected. |
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|
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* Each nick is preceded by a "@" if the user has ops, and a "+" if |
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the user has a voice. For mode +ov, both flags are used. |
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|
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SJOINs will be propagated (when appropriate) to neighboring TS |
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servers, and converted to JOINs and MODEs for neighboring non-TS |
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servers. |
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|
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To propagate channels for which not all users fit in one |
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SJOIN line, several SJOINs will be sent consecutively, only the first |
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one including actual information in the <mode> field. |
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|
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An extra ad-hoc restriction is imposed on SJOIN messages, to simplify |
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processing: if a channel has ops, then the first <nick> of the first |
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SJOIN sent to propagate that channel must be one of the ops. |
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|
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Servers will never attempt to reconstruct a SJOIN from JOIN/MODE |
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information being received at the moment from other servers. |
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|
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. For each user on a channel, keep an extra flag (like ops and voice) |
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that is set when the user has received channel ops from another |
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server (in a SJOIN channel description), which we rejected (ignored). |
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Mode changes (but NOT kicks) coming from a TS server and from someone |
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with this flag set will be ignored. The flag will be reset when the |
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user gets ops from another user or server. |
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|
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. On deops done by non-local users, coming from TS servers, on channels |
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with a non-zero TS, do not check that the user has ops but check that |
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their 'deopped' flag is not set. For kicks coming from a TS server, do |
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not check either. This will avoid desynchs, and 'bad' modechanges are |
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avoided anyway. Other mode changes will still only be taken into |
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account and propagated when done by users that are seen as having ops. |
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|
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. When a MODE change that ops someone is received from a server for a |
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channel, that channel's TS is set to 0, and the mode change is |
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propagated. |
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|
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. When a SJOIN is received for a channel, deal with it in this way: |
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* received-TS = 0: |
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+ if we have ops or the SJOIN doesn't op anyone, SJOIN propagated |
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with our own TS. |
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+ otherwise, TS set to 0 and SJOIN propagated with 0. |
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* received-TS > 0, own-TS = 0: |
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+ if the SJOIN ops someone or we don't have ops, set our TS to the |
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received TS and propagate. |
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+ otherwise, propagate with TS = 0. |
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* received-TS = own-TS: propagate. |
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* received-TS < own-TS: |
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+ if the SJOIN ops someone, remove *all* modes (except bans) from |
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the channel and propagate these mode changes to all neighboring |
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non-TS servers, and copy the received TS and propagate the SJOIN. |
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+ if the SJOIN does not op anyone and we have ops, propagate |
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with our own TS. |
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+ otherwise, copy the received TS and propagate the SJOIN. |
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* received-TS > own-TS: |
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+ if the SJOIN does not introduce any ops, process and propagate |
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with our own TS. |
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+ if we have ops: for each person the mode change would op, set the |
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'deopped' flag; process all the JOINs ignoring the '@' and '+' |
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flags; propagate without the flags and with our TS. |
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+ if we don't have ops: set our TS to the received one, propagate |
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with the flags. |
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|
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Explanations: |
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|
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This part of the protocol is the one that is most different (and |
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incompatible) with the Undernet's: we never timestamp MODE changes, |
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but instead we introduce the concept of time-stamped channel |
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descriptions. This way each server can determine, based on its state |
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and the received description, what the correct modes for a channel |
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are, and deop its own users if necessary. With this protocol, there is |
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*never* the need to reverse and bounce back a mode change. This is |
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both faster and more bandwith-effective. |
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|
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The end goal is to have a protocol will eventually protect channels |
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against hacked ops, while minimizing the impact on a mixed-server net. |
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In order to do this, whenever there is a conflict between a TS server |
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and a non-TS one, the non-TS one's idea of the whole situation |
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prevails. This means that channels will only have a TS when they have |
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been created on a TS-aware server, and will lose it whenever a server |
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op comes from a non-TS server. Also, at most one 'zone' will have a TS |
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for any given channel at any given time, ensuring that there won't be |
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any deops when zones are merged. However, when TS zones are merged, if |
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the side that has a TS also has ops, then the TS is kept across the |
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whole new zone. Effective protection will only be ensured once all |
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servers run TS patches and channels have been re-created, as there is |
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no way servers can assign a TS to a channel they are not creating |
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(like they do with nicks) without having unwanted deops later. |
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|
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The visible effects of this timestamped channel-description protocol |
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are that when a split rejoins, and one side has hacked ops, the other |
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side doesn't see any server mode changes (just like with Undernet's |
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TS), but the side that has hacked ops sees: |
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|
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* first the first server on the other side deopping and devoicing |
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everyone, and fixing the +spmntkli modes |
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* then other users joining, and getting server ops and voices |
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|
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The less obvious part of this protocol is its behavior in the case |
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that the younger side of a rejoin has servers that are lagged with |
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each other. In such a situation, a SJOIN that clears all modes and |
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sets the legitimate ones is being propagated from one server, and |
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lagged illegitimate mode changes and kicks are being propagated in the |
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opposite direction. In this case, a kick done by someone who is being |
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deopped by the SJOIN must be taken into account to keep the name list |
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in sync (and since it can only be kicking someone who also was on the |
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younger side), while a deop does not matter (and will be ignored by |
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the first server on the other side), and an opping *needs* to be |
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discareded to avoid hacked ops. |
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|
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The main property of timestamped channel descriptions that makes them |
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a very stable protocol even with lag and splits, is that they leave a |
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server in the same final state, independently of the order in which |
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channel descriptions coming from different servers are received. Even |
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when SJOINs and MODEs for the same channel are being propagated in |
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different direction because of several splits rejoining, the final |
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state will be the same, independently of the exact order in which each |
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server received the SJOINs, and will be the same across all the |
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servers in the same zone. |
