Channel Renaming

Notes for implementing work-in-progress version 🔗

This is a work-in-progress specification.

Software implementing this work-in-progress specification MUST NOT use the unprefixed channel-rename capability name. Instead, implementations SHOULD use the draft/channel-rename capability name to be interoperable with other software implementing a compatible work-in-progress version.

The final version of the specification will use an unprefixed capability name.

Introduction 🔗

This specification introduces a method of natively renaming a channel without closing it down and redirecting to a new one. This allows properties such as access and ban lists to be maintained, and avoids issues with client-side logging where history is split across multiple channel names.

Architecture 🔗

Capabilities 🔗

This specification adds the draft/channel-rename capability.

Clients that negotiate this capability indicate that they are capable of handling the RENAME command.

Messages 🔗

This specification adds the RENAME command. This command allows a client to instruct the server to change the name of a channel, and in turn allows a server to inform a client that a channel name has been changed.

A channel rename preserves all channel state, such as membership, mode and topic.

The RENAME client to server command has two required parameters: the existing channel name, and the new channel name. An optional third parameter can provide a reason for renaming the channel. The server to client command MUST always include the third parameter, an empty string MAY be used if no reason is provided.

Server implementations MAY prevent channel renames that change the prefix type, to avoid changing channel properties other than the name.

Implementations MUST allow channels to be renamed while only changing the casing of a channel name.

Errors 🔗

This specification defines FAIL messages using the standard replies framework for notifying clients of errors with channel renaming. The following codes are defined, with sample plain text descriptions.

• FAIL RENAME CHANNEL_NAME_IN_USE <old-channel> <new-channel> :The channel name is already taken
• FAIL RENAME CANNOT_RENAME <old-channel> <new-channel> :The channel cannot be renamed
• FAIL JOIN CHANNEL_RENAMED <old-channel> <new-channel> :The channel has been renamed

If existing error numerics (such as ERR_CHANOPRIVSNEEDED, ERR_NOTONCHANNEL, ERR_NEEDMOREPARAMS) are more appropriate, they SHOULD be used instead.

Channel redirection 🔗

To help clients that weren’t present in the channel during the name change, server implementations MAY keep track of renames and send a FAIL JOIN CHANNEL_RENAMED message to clients attempting to join the old channel name, for as long as is deemed necessary by the implementation.

Fallback 🔗

Server implementations MUST implement a fallback mechanism to inform clients that have not negotiated the draft/channel-rename capability of a channel name change. The mechanism is as follows:

• Send the client a PART message for the old channel name, with part message matching the rename reason if given
• Send the client a JOIN message followed by the usual messages that would be sent if the client had joined the new channel normally (RPL_TOPIC, RPL_TOPICWHOTIME, RPL_NAMREPLY, RPL_ENDOFNAMES etc).

This fallback SHOULD NOT be used if the rename only changes the case of the channel name, as defined by the casemapping in use on the server.

If a server is using channel redirection, the 470 numeric (ERR_LINKCHANNEL) MAY be used with descriptive free-form text to redirect clients from the old channel to the new channel. This is a more ambiguous response and SHOULD NOT be used when the capability has been negotiated.

If a client sends a valid RENAME command without having negotiated the capability, the server SHOULD rename the channel, but use the fallback mechanism to report the name change to that client. The server MAY send FAIL messages to such clients when the RENAME command fails.

Security Considerations 🔗

This section is non-normative

In server implementations that link with other servers, take measures to prevent channel name collisions. One aspect of such a measure might involve using channel identifiers, just as user identifiers are used to prevent nickname collisions in server linking protocols.

Server implementations might choose to implement a per-channel cooldown system using appropriate error responses, to prevent abuse. For example flooding large channels with the fallback burst.

Server implementations might choose to limit the renaming of channels to privileged individuals in order to prevent abuse, using appropriate error responses.

Server implementations that allow channel registration might choose to prevent registering an old channel name while a channel redirection is in place.

Examples 🔗

This section is non-normative

Renaming a channel with a reason:

C: RENAME #boaring #boring :Typo fix
S: :nick!user@host RENAME #boaring #boring :Typo fix

Renaming a channel without a reason:

C: RENAME #coding #programming
S: :nick!user@host RENAME #coding #programming :

Renaming a channel when the draft/channel-rename capability has not been negotiated:

C: RENAME #foo #bar :Changing the channel name
S: :nick!user@host PART #foo :Changing the channel name
S: :nick!user@host JOIN #bar
S: :irc.example.com 332 nick #bar :Topic of the renamed channel
S: :irc.example.com 333 nick #bar topic-setter 1487418032
S: :irc.example.com 353 nick #bar :@nick other-nick and-another
S: :irc.example.com 366 nick #bar :End of /NAMES list

Joining an old channel name that has been renamed with server redirection:

C: JOIN #foo
S: FAIL JOIN CHANNEL_RENAMED #foo #bar :The channel has been renamed
C: JOIN #bar
S: :nick!user@host JOIN #bar
S: :irc.example.com 332 nick #bar :Topic of the renamed channel
S: :irc.example.com 333 nick #bar topic-setter 1487418032
S: :irc.example.com 353 nick #bar :@nick other-nick and-another
S: :irc.example.com 366 nick #bar :End of /NAMES list

Joining an old channel name that has been renamed with server redirection when the draft/channel-rename capability has not been negotiated:

C: JOIN #foo
S :irc.example.com 470 nick #foo #bar :The channel has been renamed
S: :nick!user@host JOIN #bar
S: :irc.example.com 332 nick #bar :Topic of the renamed channel
S: :irc.example.com 333 nick #bar topic-setter 1487418032
S: :irc.example.com 353 nick #bar :@nick other-nick and-another
S: :irc.example.com 366 nick #bar :End of /NAMES list

Failing to rename a channel because the user does not have the appropriate privileges:

C: RENAME #aniki #aneki
S: :irc.example.com 482 nick #aniki :You must be a channel operator

Failing to rename a channel because the new channel name already exists:

C: RENAME #evil #good :Don't be evil
S: :irc.example.com FAIL RENAME CHANNEL_NAME_IN_USE #evil #good :Channel already exists

Failing to rename a channel because you the server disallows changing prefix types:

C: RENAME #global %local
S: :irc.example.com FAIL RENAME CANNOT_RENAME #global %local :You cannot change a channel prefix type

Failing to rename a channel because it has been renamed recently:

C: RENAME #magical-girls #witches
S: :irc.example.com FAIL RENAME CANNOT_RENAME #magical-girls #witches :This channel has been renamed recently

Software supporting draft/channel-rename: Ergo, IRCCloud, Matrix2051