NAME

Bot::Cobalt - IRC darkbot-alike plus plugin authoring sugar

SYNOPSIS

  ## Set up example confs and a simple ~/.cobalt2rc :
  sh$ cobalt2-installer

  ## Get some assistance:
  sh$ cobalt2 --help
  
  ## Launch in foreground:
  sh$ cobalt2 --nodetach
  
  ## Launch in background:
  sh$ cobalt2

DESCRIPTION

Bot::Cobalt is the second generation of the (previously not released on CPAN) cobalt IRC bot.

Cobalt was originally a Perl reimplementation of Jason Hamilton's darkbot (darkbot's last release was in 2001). Bot::Cobalt is a much-improved (and CPAN-able!) revision, providing a pluggable IRC bot framework coupled with a core set of plugins replicating classic darkbot and Cobalt behavior.

The included plugin set provides a wide range of functionality; see "Included plugins" below.

IRC connectivity and protocol details are handled via POE::Component::IRC; the bot can comfortably manage multiple servers/networks (referred to as "contexts").

Bot::Cobalt tries to be friendly to developers. The bridge to POE::Component::IRC exists as a plugin and can be easily subclassed or replaced entirely; see Bot::Cobalt::IRC.

Plugin authoring is intended to be as easy as possible. Modules are included to provide simple frontends to IRC-related utilities, logging, plugin configuration, asynchronous HTTP sessions, data serialization and on-disk databases, and more. See Bot::Cobalt::Manual::Plugins for more about plugin authoring.

Initializing a new instance

A Cobalt instance needs its own etc/ and var/ directories. With the default frontend (cobalt2), these are specified in a simple 'rcfile' for each particular instance.

  sh$ cobalt2-installer

cobalt2-installer will ask some questions, initialize a new rcfile for an instance and try to create the relevant directory layout with some example configuration files.

You can, of course, run multiple instances with the default frontend; each just needs its own rcfile:

  sh$ cobalt2-installer --rcfile=${HOME}/cobalts/mycobalt.rc
  sh$ cobalt2 --rcfile=${HOME}/cobalts/mycobalt.rc

After reviewing/editing the example configuration files, you should be ready to try starting your Cobalt instance:

  ## Launch in foreground with verbose debug output:
  sh$ cobalt2 --nodetach --debug
  
  ## Launch in background with configured log options:
  sh$ cobalt2

Included plugins

The example etc/plugins.conf installed by cobalt2-installer has most of these:

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Alarmclock -- IRC highlight timers

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Auth -- User authentication

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Games -- Simple IRC games

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Info3 -- Flexible text-triggered responses

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Master -- Simple bot control from IRC

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::PluginMgr -- Load/unload plugins from IRC

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::RDB -- "Random stuff" databases for quotebots or randomized chatter on a timer

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::CPAN -- Query MetaCPAN and Module::CoreList

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::DNS -- DNS lookups

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::Karma -- Karma bot

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::Money -- Currency conversion via WebServiceX

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::Relay -- Cross-network relay

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::Shorten -- Shorten URLs via Metamark

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Extras::TempConv -- Temperature units conversion

Extensions on CPAN

There are a few externally-distributed plugin sets available via CPAN:

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Calc -- Simple calculator

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::RSS -- RSS feed aggregator

Bot::Cobalt::Plugin::Silly -- Very silly plugin set

For debugging or playing with Bot::Cobalt::DB databases, you may want to have a look at Bot::Cobalt::DB::Term.

SEE ALSO

Bot::Cobalt::Manual::Plugins

Bot::Cobalt::Core

Bot::Cobalt::IRC

The core pieces of Bot::Cobalt are essentially sugar over these two POE Components:

POE::Component::IRC

POE::Component::Syndicator (and Object::Pluggable)

Consult their documentation for all the gory details.

AUTHOR

Jon Portnoy <avenj@cobaltirc.org>

http://www.cobaltirc.org

Licensed under the same terms as Perl.