nick [<new nickname>]

The NICK command allows you to change your nickname. If you try to change to a nickname that someone else is using, you will get an error message to that effect and your nickname will be unchanged. Nicknames are CASE-INSENSITIVE.

If you do not specify a new nickname, your current one is displayed.

The maximum length of nicknames is determined by the server you are using. The traditional nickname length is 9 characters. On dalnet type servers the length is 30 characters. As with all server features, it varies from server to server.

The protocol defines as alphabetical characters the ascii characters from 65 ('A') through 125 ('}'). Characters 65 through 93 are equivalent to the corresponding characters 97 through 125, as such:

                  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]
                  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}

The [, \, ], (upper case) and {, |, } (lower case) letters are used as the 7-bit ascii substitutes of some european national characters, particularly scandanavian characters. It is important to note that the two nicknames “[testnick]” and “{testnick}” are, in fact, the SAME nickname in irc, just as “testnick” and “TESTNICK” are the same.

A nickname shall be composed of an alphabetical character (as defined) followed by some number of alphanumeric characters, the total number of characters not to exceed the server's maximum nickname size (as defined).

To change your nick to foobar:

    /nick foobar

To display your current nickname:

    /nick