IRC command : WHOWAS

[gemeau50]

How many seconds does Undernet keep the information on a nickname for a user who quits the network or changes nickname?

TIA

[Eenie]

Depends on the server I think, but no more than a few, under 10 in my experience. Makes the command relatively useless.

Eenie

[puterfixer]

When users quit, their nicknames are added in a list (a queue) for whowas command. Each nickname quitting will be added to the queue, pushing the other nicknames down and making the nicknames at the end of the queue be removed from this list. whowas is not limited in time, but in the length of the list (how many nicknames are kept). So, if the network activity is low and there are not that many people quitting, a nickname will stay in the whowas list longer until it is removed from the list by the other nicknames who keep getting added. If the traffic is high, the list is changing very fast and nicknames are not going to be found in the list for too long.