KICK IRC Command - IRC DevDocs

The KICK command lets a channel operator remove a user from their channel.

KICK <channel> <nick> [<reason>]

<channel>: Channel to kick the user from.
<nick>: Nickname of the user to kick.
<reason>: An optional reason to give the user (and everyone else in the channel).

Some server software allows you to specify multiple channels or nicknames by separating them with commas (e.g. KICK #v3 tom,jerry). However, this is not universally supported so stick to one channel and nick per kick command.

A KICK message sent from the server indicates that someone has been kicked. In this case, the <prefix> is the user who performed the kick. If a user’s KICK command is successful, they receive one of these messages. In addition, the user who was kicked, and all other clients in the channel, also receive a KICK message. For example, if dan, alice, and matthew are on channel #v4, and dan kicks matthew, all three clients will receive a KICK message indicating that dan has removed matthew from the channel.

Multiple channels or nicknames may be specified, and clients perform the requests one at a time (returning only one channel/nick in each KICK message they send out). This is displayed in the examples below.

The KICK command is restricted to channel operators, and sometimes alternate permission levels added to the server (such as halfop).

If the user performing the kick does not have appropriate permissions, the server returns ERR_CHANOPRIVSNEEDED and continues. If the channel name is entirely invalid (does not start with #, etc), the server may return ERR_BADCHANMASK (or more likely will just return ERR_NOSUCHCHANNEL). If the user to be kicked isn’t on the network, the chanop is sent ERR_NOSUCHNICK. If the user to be kicked exists but is not on the channel, the chanop is sent ERR_USERNOTINCHANNEL. And if the channel does not exist, ERR_NOSUCHCHANNEL is returned.

Examples

S <-   :alice!a@localhost JOIN :#Melbourne
C  ->  KICK #Melbourne alice
S <-   :dan!d@localhost KICK #Melbourne alice :dan

dan kicking a user with no reason given

C  ->  JOIN #test
S <-   :alice!a@localhost JOIN :#test
S <-   :irc.example.com 353 alice = #test :alice @dan
S <-   :irc.example.com 366 alice #test :End of /NAMES list.
S <-   :dan!d@localhost KICK #test alice :dan

alice getting kicked with no reason given

S <-   :alice!a@localhost JOIN :#test
C  ->  kick #test alice :nah mate
S <-   :dan!d@localhost KICK #test alice :nah mate

dan kicking a user with a reason

C  ->  join #test
S <-   :alice!a@localhost JOIN :#test
S <-   :irc.example.com 353 alice = #test :alice @dan
S <-   :irc.example.com 366 alice #test :End of /NAMES list.
S <-   :dan!d@localhost KICK #test alice :nah mate

alice getting kicked with a reason given

C  ->  JOIN #test
S <-   :alice!a@localhost JOIN :#test
S <-   :irc.example.com 353 alice = #test :alice @dan
S <-   :irc.example.com 366 alice #test :End of /NAMES list.
C  ->  KICK #test dan
S <-   :irc.example.com 482 alice #test :You're not channel operator

alice kicking with no permissions

C  ->  JOIN #v3
S <-   :dan!d@Clk-830D7DDC JOIN :#v3
S <-   :irc.example.com 353 dan = #v3 :@dan
S <-   :irc.example.com 366 dan #v3 :End of /NAMES list.
C  ->  KICK #v3 tom
S <-   :irc.example.com 401 dan tom :No such nick/channel
C  ->  KICK #v3 jerry
S <-   :irc.example.com 441 dan jerry #v3 :They aren't on that channel

dan kicking a user that does not exist, and a user that isn’t on the channel