04-big-picture-behaviour
Big-Picture Behaviour
This document describes the general behaviour of the IRC::Client clients.
Table of Contents
Connection Maintenance
The client is designed with the goal of being run indefinitely. As such, it will restart server connections if they close.
If a connection fails or a disconnect happens, the client will wait
10 seconds (non-blockingly) and attempt to reconnect, repeating the process
if the reconnect fails too. This loop will continue indefinitely until either
the connection is established or the client explicitly quits the server
using the .quit method on the Client Object.
The described process applies to individual servers, regardless of how many
servers the client is asked to connect to. Thus, it's possible that one
server will be in the reconnect loop, while others will be connected and
functioning like normal. It's also possible for the user to .quit some
servers, while maintaining connection to others. The client object's
.run method will return only when all servers have been .quit
Nickname Maintenance
If the first nickname assigned to the bot at the start (or one set
using .nick method) is in use, the bot will automatically use the next one
in the list. If all of the nicks are in use, it will wait a short period
of time, before retrying all nicks again.
Note: the same system will be applied if the proposed nick is an erroneous one that cannot be used on the server—for example, it can contain invalid characters or be too long. This means the bot will never succeed in connecting to the server or changing a nick if the entire list of nicks it possesses are invalid ones. Be sure to turn the debug output on and inspect output for any suspect messages if you're having issues connecting.