list [<switch> [<arg>] [<switch> [<arg>] …]] [<channel>]

This query asks the server about all of the public channels that exist on the current network. A summary of each channel, including the channel name, the number of users on the channel, and the channel's topic (if any) will be displayed, one per line.

If you provide an exact channel name, then only information about that channel will be returned. If you provide “*” as the channel name, then the current window's current channel will be used. Otherwise the server will return the entire channel list.

On large public networks with many thousands of channels, using this command may be counterproductive. Even the use of the filtering rules before are not helpful since the client has to ask for the entire list and filter out what you don't want to see. It still all has to be sent to you. In some severe situations you can be disconnected from the server if you are using a slow link.

Only public channels will be shown. Private or secret channels will not be shown in the result, unless you are actually a member of that channel at the time you use the LIST command.

You can refine the output by asking for only channels with certain characteristics. Except when you use the -i option on undernet servers, all of this filtering is done by the client and not the server. This means EPIC still has to process the entire list even if you only want to see a couple of channels.

1. min <n> shows channels with no less than n users
2. max <n> shows channels with no more than n users
3. i Use undernet specific server-side filtering for above two

These options are always done on the client side even with the -i option:

1. public shows public channels only
2. private shows private channels only
3. topic shows channels with a topic set
4. all overrides any previous -public or -private switch

These options turn on “wide listing” which uses less vertical space:

1. wide shows name and size using as little space as possible:
2. name sort -wide list by channel name
3. users sort -wide list by number of users per channel

To show channels with 3 to 15 users:

    /list -min 3 -max 15

To show public channels with “help” in the name:

    /list -public #*help*

To get a concise listing of channels with over 30 users, sorted by name:

    /list -min 30 -wide -name

To see how Undernet's LIST works (and see below):

    /quote list help