Limnoria-doc/use/faq.rst

**************************
Frequently Asked Questions
**************************

How do I make my Supybot connect to multiple servers?
=====================================================

  Just use the `connect` command in the `Network` plugin.

Why does my bot not recognize me or tell me that I don't have the 'owner' capability?
=====================================================================================

  Because you've not given it anything to recognize you from!

  You'll need to identify to the bot (``help identify`` to see how
  that works) or add your hostmask to your user record (``help hostmask
  add`` to see how that works) for it to know that you're you.

  You may wish to note that `hostmask add` can accept a password; rather
  than identify, you can send the command::

    hostmask add myOwnerUser [hostmask] myOwnerUserPassword

  and the bot will add your current hostmask to your owner user (of
  course, you should change myOwnerUser and myOwnerUserPassword
  appropriately for your bot).

  For additional ways to identify to your bot, you may want to see
  :ref:`getting-started`.

What is a hostmask?
===================

  Each user on IRC is uniquely identified by a string which we call a
  `hostmask`. The IRC RFC refers to it as a prefix. Either way, it
  consists of a nick, a user, and a host, in the form
  ``nick!user@host``.  If your Supybot complains that something you've
  given to it isn't a hostmask, make sure that you have those three
  components and that they're joined in the appropriate manner.

My bot can't handle nicks with brackets in them!
================================================

  It always complains about something not being a valid command, or
  about spurious or missing right brackets, etc.

  You should quote arguments (using double quotes, like this:
  ``"foo[bar]"``) that have brackets in them that you don't wish to be
  evaluated as nested commands. Alternatively, you can turn off nested
  commands by setting `supybot.commands.nested` to False, or change the
  brackets that nest commands by setting
  `supybot.commands.nested.brackets` to some other value (like ``<>``,
  which can't occur in IRC nicks).

I loaded Alias before, how do I move to Aka?
============================================

First load both of the plugins, Aka and Alias. Then run
``aka importaliasdatabase`` and ``unload Alias``. Now all your aliases
should be imported to the Aka plugin.

I added an aka, but it doesn't work!
====================================

  Take a look at ``aka show <aka you added>``. If the aka the bot has
  listed doesn't match what you're giving it, chances are you need to
  quote your aka in order for the brackets not to be evaluated. For
  instance, if you're adding an aka to give you a link to your
  homepage, you need to say::

    aka add mylink "format concat http://my.host.com/ [urlquote $1]"

  and not::

    aka add mylink format concat http://my.host.com/ [urlquote $1]

  The first version works; the second version will always return the
  same url.

What does 'lobotomized' mean?
=============================

  I see this word in commands and in my `channels.conf`, but I don't
  know what it means. What does Supybot mean when it says lobotomized?

  A lobotomy is an operation that removes the frontal lobe of the brain,
  the part that does most of a person's thinking. To lobotomize a bot
  is to tell it to stop thinking--thus, a lobotomized bot will not
  respond to anything said by anyone other than its owner in whichever
  channels it is lobotomized.

  The term is certainly suboptimal, but remains in use because it was
  historically used by certain other IRC bots, and we wanted to ease the
  transition to Supybot from those bots by reusing as much terminology
  as possible.

Is there a way to load all the plugins Supybot has?
===================================================

  No, there isn't. Even if there were, some plugins conflict with other
  plugins, so it wouldn't make much sense to load them. For instance,
  what would a bot do with `Factoids`, `MoobotFactoids`, and `Infobot`
  all loaded? Probably just annoy people :)

  You can also install user-contributed plugins using the PluginDownloader
  plugin (``load PluginDownloader``). The `repolist` command can list
  repositories and their contents, and the `install` command installs
  plugins.

Is there a command that can tell me what capability another command requires?
=============================================================================

  No, there isn't, and there probably never will be.

  Commands have the flexibility to check any capabilities they wish to
  check; while this flexibility is useful, it also makes it hard to
  guess what capability a certain command requires. We could make a
  solution that would work in a large majority of cases, but it wouldn't
  (and couldn't!) be absolutely correct in all circumstances, and since
  we're anal and we hate doing things halfway, we probably won't ever
  add this partial solution.

Why doesn't `Karma` seem to work for me?
========================================

  `Karma`, by default, doesn't acknowledge karma updates. If you check
  the karma of whatever you increased/decreased, you'll note that your
  increment or decrement still took place. If you'd rather `Karma`
  acknowledge karma updates, change the `supybot.plugins.Karma.response`
  configuration variable to "True".

Why won't Supybot respond to private messages?
==============================================

  The most likely cause is that your bot has a mode blocking messages
  from unregistered users. Around Sept. 2005, for example, Freenode added
  a user mode where registered users could set `+R`, which `blocks`_
  private messages from unregistered users. So, the reason you aren't
  seeing a response from your Supybot is likely:

  * Your Supybot is not registered with NickServ, you are registered,
    and you have set the +R user mode for yourself.

  * or: you have registered your Supybot with NickServ, you aren't
    registered, and your Supybot has the +R user mode set.

Can users with the admin capability change the configuration?
===========================================================

  Currently, no.  Feel free to make your case to us as to why a certain
  configuration variable should only require the `admin` capability
  instead of the `owner` capability, and if we agree with you, we'll
  change it for the next release.

How can I make my Supybot log my IRC channel?
=============================================

  To log all the channels your Supybot is in, simply load the
  `ChannelLogger` plugin, which is included in the main distribution.

How do I get channel modes when writing a plugin?
================================

  I want to know who's an op in a certain channel, or who's voiced, or
  what the modes on the channel are.  How do I do that?

  Everything you need is kept in a `ChannelState` object in an
  `IrcState` object in the `Irc` object your plugin is given.  To see
  the ops in a given channel, for instance, you would do this::

    irc.state.channels['#channel'].ops

  To see a dictionary mapping mode chars to values (if any), you would
  do this::

    irc.state.channels['#channel'].modes

  From there, things should be self-evident.

Can Supybot connect through a proxy server?
===========================================

  Limnoria can connect to specific network using socks proxy, simply set 
  the configuration variable `supybot.networks.<network>.socksproxy`. For
  specifying proxy which is used for HTTP requests, set the configuration
  variable `supybot.protocols.http.proxy`.
  
  Supybot also works with transparent proxy server helpers like tsocks_ 
  that are designed to proxy-enable all network applications, and Supybot
  does work with these.

Why can't Supybot find the plugin I want to load?
=================================================

  Why does my bot say that 'No plugin "foo" exists.' when I try to load
  the foo plugin?

  First, make sure you are typing the plugin name correctly.  ``@load
  foo`` may not be the same as ``@load Foo`` depending on your Supybot
  version  [#plugindir]_.  If that is not the problem, 

.. [#plugindir] Yes, it used to be the same, but then we moved to using
   directories for plugins instead of a single file.  Apparently, that
   makes a difference to Python.

I've found a bug, what do I do?
===============================

  Submit your bug at our `issue tracker`_.

Is Python installed?
====================

  I run Windows, and I'm not sure if Python is installed on my computer.
  How can I find out for sure?

  Python isn't commonly installed by default on Windows computers.  If
  you don't see it in your start menu somewhere, it's probably not
  installed.

  The easiest way to find out if Python is installed is simply to
  `download it`_ and try to install it.  If the installer complains, you
  probably already have it installed.  If it doesn't, well, now you have
  Python installed.

Can I make Supybot silent, but still working on channel (as titlesnarfer or something)?
=======================================================================================

With lobotomy, the bot stops doing everything on the channel. If you want
it to not reply to commands, but still work as titlesnarfer or similar, you
can configure it to not respond to anything.

Globally::

    config supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.chars ""
    config supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nicks ""
    config supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.strings ""
    config supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nick False
    config supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nick.atEnd False

Or just for one channel::

    config channel #channel supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.chars ""
    config channel #channel supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nicks ""
    config channel #channel supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.strings ""
    config channel #channel supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nick False
    config channel #channel supybot.reply.whenAddressedBy.nick.atEnd False

.. _blocks: http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#blockingmessages
.. _tsocks: http://tsocks.sourceforge.net
.. _issue tracker: https://github.com/ProgVal/Limnoria/issues
.. _download it: http://python.org/download/