Table of Contents

#$EPIC: stats.txt,v 1.2 2006/08/20 16:57:01 sthalik Exp $

Synopsis:

stats <type> [<server>]

Description:

IMPORTANT: Review the restrictions and privacy sections below before trying to use this command.

This asks the server for general purpose information. Some of the data you can request is statistical in nature, but not most of it. The most common data to request is information about the server's configuration.

A “O” operator (big O) is a “global” operator; he appears as an operator on every server on the network. A “o” operator (little o) is a “local” operator; he appears as an operator only on his own server.

On ircnet servers, an “I” line permits unrestricted access to incoming client connections. An “i” line permits access to incoming clients but automatically bestows upon them user mode +r, which restricts what they can do. See the MODE help page for more information.

Options:

STATS options are not preceded by a hyphen!

c C/N lines: A list of peer servers who may Connect here.
h H/L lines: For each peer, whether they are a Hub or Leaf server.
k K lines: A list of client userhosts who are auto-killed (banned).
i I lines: A list of permitted Incoming client connections.
l Statistic: Number of bytes transfered between this server's peers.
m Statistic: Usage counts for each protocol command.
o O lines: A list of clients permitted to become Operators.
u Statistic: Server “uptime” (continual service time)
y Y lines: Special parameters governing each client and server connection.
p Display active IRC operators with idle times.
(EFNet/Dalnet only) Users without server operator status
should use this to find server operators, as
neither STATS O or TRACE will
normally work on EFNet or Dalnet.

STATS usage is reported to opers on many servers. On servers which report STATS queries, you may be questioned about the purposed of these queries, or, in some cases, immediately banned (K-lined) from the server. Reporting of STATS queries originated at a time where STATS was regularly used to flood servers. Most servers now ratelimit or otherwise restrict such queries, however many still report them to opers.

Restrictions:

For many reasons, the use of this command is now restricted in some way on most servers. Information about how a server is configured can (and often is) used to abuse the server. STATS queries often generate a lot of output, so they were used in many cases to make a server flood itself.

Restrictions you may encounter include:

  1. Some or all queries restricted to server operators.
  2. Some output restricted to server operators.
  3. Rate limiting.
  4. Restrictions on “remote” queries - queries against servers other than the one you are on.
  5. Notification to server operators. (see Privacy section above).

Other Notes:

Many networks and server now support STATS queries beyond those listed here, however they are typically limited to server operators.