Fix "Nickname is already in use" in my Python IRC client

Question

Error:

NOTICE Auth :*** Looking up your hostname...
433 * testbot:Nickname is already in use.
NOTICE Auth :*** Could not resolve your hostname: Request timed out; using your IP address () instead.
451 837AAAABB JOIN :You have not registered

The script works fine, the only issue I'm having is when another user has the same name and so the bot won't join, how can I fix this?

#IRC Info, Where the bot connects too
server="Server"
botnick="testbot"
channel="#test"

What I have tried:

Google, YouTube, Looking at other github IRC bot's and stackoverflow.

One idea I had was to use an random string generator, so if the name "testbot" was taken the script would generator something random and try again. I'm unsure how I would add this.

Answer 1

It is difficult to help you without seeing some code that you tried. Or any code at all.

The overall idea would be to detect when an incoming message is a 433 (aka ERR_NICKNAMEINUSE), and then send a new NICK command with a new nickname; and try again until you find a free nickname.

Pseudocode:

MAINNICK = 'testbot'
nick_suffix = 1
send_msg('NICK {}'.format(MAINNICK))
while True:
    msg = recv_msg()
    if msg.split(' ')[1] == '433':
        send_msg('NICK {}{}'.format(MAINNICK, nick_suffix))
        nick_suffix += 1

Answer 2

This answer assumes that the nick is registered by you.

When receiving ERR_NICKNAMEINUSE (433), send REGAIN to nickserv. Personally I also take care to not send REGAIN more than 3 times in 30 seconds, otherwise I disconnect and reconnect because something else is wrong.

REGAIN YourRegisteredNick YourPassword

Once in a while, NOTICE with a second argument containing can not regain your nickname is then received. This indicates a REGAIN failure. The only way I am aware of to handle this error is to disconnect, reconnect, and rejoin channels.

Answer 3

irc = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

def ircwrite(message): global irc irc.send(str(message).encode('utf-8'))

botnick = "ME_Number-1" # Nickname of the bot InUse_alt = "Me2" # if Nickname: "('botnick')" is already in use, A.K.A. 433, uses this alternative option instead

while 1: text = irc.recv(2048).decode('utf-8') print(text)

    if "433" in text:
        print("Bot's nick IN USE or has been regged by another; switching to: "+ (InUse_alt))
    if text.find("433") != -1:
        ircwrite("NICK "+ InUse_alt +" \r\n")

--- Something like that would work in most situations, but it can be set off by: someone saying: "433"; trying to work on that.

Answer 4

Send one nick but not both nick1 and nick2. To send new nick2

send_msg(f'NICK {}'.format(nick2_suffix))

In my case:

socket.socket.send(f'NICK {NICK2}')

Another way. In entry box.

/NICK NICK2