pbot/doc/QuickStart.md

QuickStart

PBot is an IRC bot written in Perl. This is a work-in-progress rough draft Quick Start guide. This notification will be removed when this guide is mature.

• QuickStart
  • Installing
    • Prerequisites
      • Installing CPAN modules
  • First-time Configuration
    • Clone data-directory
    • Edit Registry
      • Notable settings
      • Recommended settings for IRC Networks
        • Freenode
        • IRCnet
        • Other networks
  • Starting PBot
    • Usage
      • Overriding directories
      • Overriding registry
  • Additional Configuration
    • Adding Channels
    • Adding Admins
    • Loading Plugins

Installing

Prerequisites

Installing CPAN modules

PBot has many features; some of these depend on Perl modules written by others. This list can be found in the MODULES file in the root directory of this source.

The modules may be installed with a simple command:

cpan -f -i $(cat MODULES)

Some CPAN modules may fail to pass certain tests due to outdated variables. Despite these test failures, their core functionality should still work as expected.

First-time Configuration

Clone data-directory

PBot uses a data-directory to store all its configuration settings and data. It is strongly recommended to clone the default data-directory for each PBot connection.

Here we clone the data-directory for two PBot instances, naming them after the IRC network they will connect to:

cp -r data freenode
cp -r data ircnet

Alternatively, you could name it after your bot’s nickname:

cp -r data coolbot

Edit Registry

PBot configuration is stored in a registry of key/value pairs grouped by sections. See https://github.com/pragma-/pbot/blob/master/doc/Registry.md for more details.

Now you may edit the registry file in your data-directory to configure PBot settings. Alternatively, you may override the registry entries via the command-line.

Notable settings

Some settings you may be interested in configuring:

Registry key	Description	Default value
irc.botnick	IRC nickname. This is the name people see when you talk. Required.	undefined
irc.username	IRC username. This is the USER field of your hostmask.	pbot3
irc.ircname	IRC gecos/realname. This is the general information or real-name field, as seen in WHOIS.	https://github.com/pragma-/pbot
irc.ircserver	IRC server to connect	irc.freenode.net
irc.port	IRC server port	6667
general.trigger	Bot trigger	[!]

For a more comprehensive list see https://github.com/pragma-/pbot/blob/master/doc/Registry.md#list-of-recognized-registry-items.

Recommended settings for IRC Networks

Freenode

The default settings are tailored for the Freenode IRC network. It is strongly recommended that you register an account with NickServ and to request a hostmask cloak. Register your channels with ChanServ. These services will protect your nickname, IP address and channels.

Once you register your botnick with NickServ, it is recommended to set these additional settings:

Registry key	Description	Recommended value
irc.identify_password	Password to use to identify to NickServ	<password>
irc.identify_command	Command to send to NickServ to identify. $nick will be replaced with irc.botnick; $password will be replaced with irc.identify_password. If you wish to login to a NickServ account different than the irc.botnick you may replace the $nick text with a literal value.	identify $nick $password
irc.randomize_nick	Randomize IRC nickname when connecting to server. PBot will change to irc.botnick when logged-in. This prevents users from monitoring the botnick to catch its IP address before it is identified.	1
general.autojoin_wait_for_nickserv	Wait for NickServ login before auto-joining channels. This prevents PBot from joining channels before it is identified and cloaked.	1

IRCnet

IRCnet is one of the oldest IRC networks still running. It has no Services like NickServ and ChanServ. Instead, its nicknames and channels are protected by custom bots.

These settings may be useful:

Registry key	Description	Default value
general.identify_nick	Who to /msg for login/identify/authentication. Defaults to NickServ, can be overridden to a custom bot.	NickServ
general.identify_command	Command to send to general.identify_nick to login.	identify $nick $password
general.op_nick	Who to /msg to request channel OP status. Defaults to ChanServ, can be overridden to a custom bot.	ChanServ
general.op_command	Command to send to general.op_nick to request channel OP status.	op $channel

Other networks

Other networks are untested. They should be very similiar to either Freenode or IRCnet, and so one or both of those recommended settings should suffice. If you have any issues, please report them at https://github.com/pragma-/pbot/issues or in the #pbot2 channel on the Freenode network.

Starting PBot

Now you’re ready to start PBot.

Usage

pbot [directory overrides...; e.g. data_dir=...] [registry overrides...; e.g. irc.botnick=...]

Overriding directories

Overriding registry

Additional Configuration

Adding Channels

Adding Admins

Loading Plugins