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javairc

Prevent irc bot from getting auto kicked (excess flooding)

I have a bot which analyses chat command and provides a small database. When I tell the bot it should write the content of the database to the irc, it gets kicked because of excess flooding. How can I prevent this? (I'm using freenode.net)

PS: Here is my code:

for (User u : users.values()) {
    ps.println("PRIVMSG " + CHANNEL + " :" + u.toString());
}

ps is a PrintStream which writes to Socket.getOutputStream(). CHANNEL is the name of my channel. users.size() is ~ 60.

Solution

  • Obviously a client can't change a servers thresholds for detecting flooding and disconnecting clients which do so. The whole idea of flood protection would be pointless, otherwise.

    So, you must limit your output to such a level, that it will not trigger flooding kick. Add a (configurable) sleep between ps.println calls, and set the sleep duration so that you don't get kicked.

    Work-around would be to use a pastebin-like service, and just send URL and summary/title text to IRC in one line. Using these services is a standard procedure for any IRC paste longer than 3 lines these days anyway. Various "pastebin" services have REST APIs (example), so this should be rather easy way to go.