Writing plugins for PyLink

PyLink plugins are modules that extend its functionality by giving it something to do. Without any plugins loaded, PyLink can only sit on a server and do absolutely nothing.

This guide, along with the sample plugin plugin_example.py, aim to show the basics of writing plugins for PyLink.

Receiving data from IRC

Plugins have three main ways of communicating with IRC: hooks, WHOIS handlers, and commands sent in PM to the main PyLink client. A simple plugin can use one, or any mixture of these.

Hooks

Hooks are probably the most versatile form of communication. Each hook payload is formatted as a Python dict, with different data keys depending on the command. For example, a PRIVMSG payload would give you the fields target and text, while a PART payload would only give you channels and reason fields.

There are many hook types available (one for each supported IRC command), and you can read more about them in the PyLink hooks reference.

Plugins can bind to hooks using the utils.add_hook() function like so: utils.add_hook(function_name, 'PRIVMSG'), where function_name is your function definition, and PRIVMSG is whatever hook name you want to bind to. Once set up, function_name will be called whenever the protocol module receives a PRIVMSG command.

Each hook-bound function takes 4 arguments: irc, source, command, args. - irc: The IRC object where the hook was called. Plugins are globally loaded, so there will be one of these per network. - source: The numeric of the sender. This will usually be a UID (for users) or a SID (for server). - command: The true command name where the hook originates. This may or may not be the same as the name of the hook, depending on context. - args: The hook data (a dict) associated with the command. Again, the available data keys differ by hook name (see the hooks reference for a list of which can be used).

Hook functions do not return anything, and can raise exceptions to be caught by the core.

PyLink commands

For plugins that interact with IRC users, there is also the option of binding to PM commands.

Commands are bound to using the utils.add_cmd() function: utils.add_cmd(testcommand, "hello"). Here, testcommand is the name of your function, and hello is the (optional) name of the command to bind to; if it is not specified, it’ll use the same name as the function. Now, your command function will be called whenever someone PMs the PyLink client with the command (e.g. /msg PyLink hello, case-insensitive).

Each command function takes 3 arguments: irc, source, args. - irc: The IRC object where the command was called. - source: The numeric of the sender. This will usually be a UID (for users) or a SID (for server). - args: A list of space-separated command args (excluding the command name) that the command was called with. For example, /msg PyLink hello world 1234 would give an args list of ['world', '1234']

Command handlers do not return anything and can raise exceptions, which are caught by the core and automatically return an error message.

WHOIS handlers

The third option, WHOIS handlers, are a lot more limited compared to the other options. They are solely used for WHOIS replies, and only work on IRCds where WHOIS commands are sent to remote servers! This includes Charybdis and UnrealIRCd, but not InspIRCd, which handles all WHOIS requests locally (the only thing sent between servers is an IDLE time query).

WHOIS replies are special in that any plugins wishing to add lines to a WHOIS reply must do so after the regular WHOIS lines (handled by the core), but before a special “End of WHOIS” line. This means that the regular hooks mechanism, which are only called after core handling, doesn’t work here.

An example of a plugin WHOIS handler is in the relay plugin. WHOIS handler functions are added to the world.whois_handlers list using a simple append(). They should return either nothing or a two-length list: the first item being the WHOIS numeric, and the second the raw whois text.

def relayWhoisHandler(irc, target):
    user = irc.users[target]
    orig = getLocalUser(irc, target)
    if orig:
        network, remoteuid = orig
        remotenick = world.networkobjects[network].users[remoteuid].nick
        return [320, "%s :is a remote user connected via PyLink Relay. Home "
                     "network: %s; Home nick: %s" % (user.nick, network,
                                                     remotenick)]
world.whois_handlers.append(relayWhoisHandler)

Sending data to IRC

Plugins receive data from the underlying protocol module, and communicate back using outgoing command functions implemented by the protocol module. They should never send raw data directly back to IRC, because that wouldn’t be portable across different IRCds.

These functions are usually called in this fashion: irc.proto.abcdClient(arg1, arg2). For example, the command irc.proto.joinClient('10XAAAAAB', '#bots') would join a PyLink client with UID 10XAAAAAB to channel #bots.

For sending messages (e.g. replies to commands), a simpler form of irc.msg(targetUID, text, notice=False, source=None) is also used. The sender UID can be set here with the source argument, and defaults to the main PyLink client.

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