NAME

Bot::IRC - Yet Another IRC Bot

VERSION

version 1.19

SYNOPSIS

    use Bot::IRC;

    # minimal bot instance that does basically nothing except join a channel
    Bot::IRC->new(
        connect => {
            server => 'irc.perl.org',
            join   => '#test',
        },
    )->run;

    # illustrative example of most settings and various ways to get at them
    my $bot = Bot::IRC->new(
        spawn  => 2,
        daemon => {
            name        => 'bot',
            lsb_sdesc   => 'Yet Another IRC Bot',
            pid_file    => 'bot.pid',
            stderr_file => 'bot.err',
            stdout_file => 'bot.log',
        },
        connect => {
            server => 'irc.perl.org',
            port   => '6667',
            nick   => 'yabot',
            name   => 'Yet Another IRC Bot',
            join   => [ '#test', '#perl' ],
            ssl    => 0,
        },
        plugins => [
            'Store',
            'Bot::IRC::X::Random',
            'My::Own::Plugin',
        ],
        vars => {
            store => 'bot.yaml',
        },
    );

    $bot->load( 'Infobot', 'Karma' );
    $bot->load({
        hooks => [ [ {}, sub {}, {} ] ],
        helps => { name => 'String' },
        subs  => { name => sub {} },
        ticks => [ [ '0 * * * *', sub {} ] ],
    });

    $bot->run;

DESCRIPTION

Yet another IRC bot. Why? There are so many good bots and bot frameworks to select from, but I wanted a bot framework that worked like a Unix service out-of-the-box, operated in a pre-fork way to serve multiple concurrent requests, and has a dirt-simple and highly extendable plugin mechanism. I also wanted to keep the direct dependencies and core bot minimalistic, allowing as much functionality as possible to be defined as optional plugins.

Minimal Bot

You can have a running IRC bot with as little as:

    use Bot::IRC;

    Bot::IRC->new(
        connect => {
            server => 'irc.perl.org',
        },
    )->run;

This won't actually do much apart from connecting to the server and responding to pings, but it's useful to understand how this works. Let's say you place the above code into a "bot.pl" file. You start the bot with:

    ./bot.pl start

This will startup the bot. Command-line commands include: start, stop, restart, reload, status, help, and so on. (See Daemon::Control for more details.)

Pre-Forking Device

When the bot is started, the parent process will fork or spawn a given number of children workers. You can control their number along with setting locations for things like PID file, log files, and so on.

    Bot::IRC->new(
        spawn  => 2,
        daemon => {
            name        => 'bot',
            lsb_sdesc   => 'Yet Another IRC Bot',
            pid_file    => 'bot.pid',
            stderr_file => 'bot.err',
            stdout_file => 'bot.log',
        },
    )->run;

(See Daemon::Device for more details.)

MAIN METHODS

The following are the main or primary available methods from this class.

new

This method instantiates a bot object that's potentially ready to start running. All bot settings can be specified to the new() constructor, but some can be set or added to through other methods off the instantiated object.

    Bot::IRC->new(
        spawn  => 2,
        daemon => {},
        connect => {
            server => 'irc.perl.org',
            port   => '6667',
            nick   => 'yabot',
            name   => 'Yet Another IRC Bot',
            join   => [ '#test', '#perl' ],
            ssl    => 0,
        },
        plugins => [],
        vars    => {},
    )->run;

spawn will default to 2. Under connect, port will default to 6667. join can be either a string or an arrayref of strings representing channels to join after connnecting. ssl is a true/false setting for whether to connect to the server over SSL.

Read more about plugins below for more information about plugins and vars. Consult Daemon::Device and Daemon::Control for more details about spawn and daemon.

run

This should be the last call you make, which will cause your program to operate like a Unix service from the command-line. (See Daemon::Control for additional details.)

run can optionally be passed a list of strings that will be executed after connection to the IRC server. These should be string commands similar to what you'd type in an IRC client. For example:

    Bot::IRC->new( connect => { server => 'irc.perl.org' } )->run(
        '/msg nickserv identify bot_password',
        '/msg operserv identify bot_password',
        '/oper bot_username bot_password',
        '/msg chanserv identify #bot_talk bot_password',
        '/join #bot_talk',
        '/msg chanserv op #bot_talk',
    );

PLUGINS

To do anything useful with a bot, you have to load plugins. You can do this either by specifying a list of plugins with the plugins key passed to new() or by calling load().

Plugins are just simple packages (or optionally a hashref, but more on that later). The only requirement for plugins is that they provide an init() method. This will get called by the bot prior to forking its worker children. It will be passed the bot object. Within init(), you can call any number of plugin methods (see the list of methods below) to setup desired functionality.

    package Your::Plugin;
    use strict;
    use warnings;

    sub init {
        my ($bot) = @_;

        $bot->hook(
            {
                to_me => 1,
                text  => qr/\b(?<word>w00t|[l1][e3]{2}[t7])\b/i,
            },
            sub {
                my ( $bot, $in, $m ) = @_;
                $bot->reply("$in->{nick}, don't use the word: $m->{word}.");
            },
        );
    }

    1;

When you load plugins, you can specify their packages a few different ways. When attempting to load a plugin, the bot will start by looking for the name you provided as a sub-class of itself. Then it will look for the plugin under the assumption you provided it's full name.

    plugins => [
        'Store',           # matches "Bot::IRC::Store"
        'Random',          # matches "Bot::IRC::X::Random"
        'Thing',           # matches "Bot::IRC::Y::Thing"
        'My::Own::Plugin', # matches "My::Own::Plugin"
    ],

An unenforced convention for public/shared plugins is to have non-core plugins (all plugins not provided directly by this CPAN library) subclasses of "Bot::IRC::X". For private/unshared plugins, you can specify whatever name you want, but maybe consider something like "Bot::IRC::Y". Plugins set in the X or Y subclass namespaces will get matched just like core plugins. "Y" plugins will have precedence over "X" which in turn will have precedence over core.

If you need to allow for variables to get passed to your plugins, an unenforced convention is to do so via the vars key to new().

Core Plugins

If you specify ":core" as a plugin name, it will be expanded to load all the core plugins. Core plugins are all the plugins that are bundled and distributed with Bot::IRC.

Some core plugins require a storage plugin. If you don't specify one in your plugins list, then the default Bot::IRC::Store will be used, which is probably not what you want (for performance reasons). Try Bot::IRC::Store::SQLite instead.

    plugins => [
        'Store::SQLite',
        ':core',
    ],

PLUGIN METHODS

The following are methods available from this class related to plugins.

load

This method loads plugins. It is the exact equivalent of passing strings to the plugins key in new(). If a plugin has already been loaded, it'll get skipped.

    my $bot = Bot::IRC->new(
        connect => { server => 'irc.perl.org' },
        plugins => [ 'Store', 'Infobot', 'Karma' ],
    );

    $bot->load( 'Infobot', 'Seen' );

From within your plugins, you can call load() to specify plugin dependencies in your plugins.

    sub init {
        my ($bot) = @_;
        $bot->load('Dependency');
    }

reload

If you need to actually reload a plugin, call reload. It operates in the same was as load, only it won't skip already-loaded plugins.

hook

This is the method you'll call to add a hook, which is basically a message response handler. A hook includes a conditions trigger, some code to run when the trigger fires, and an optional additional attributes hashref.

    $bot->hook(
        {
            to_me => 1,
            text  => qr/\b(?<word>w00t|[l1][e3]{2}[t7])\b/i,
        },
        sub {
            my ( $bot, $in, $m ) = @_;
            $bot->reply("$in->{nick}, don't use the word: $m->{word}.");
        },
        {
            subs  => [],
            helps => [],
        },
    );

The conditions trigger is a hashref of key-value pairs where the key is a component of the message and the value is either a value to exact match or a regular expression to match.

The code block will receive a copy of the bot, a hashref of key-value pairs representing the message the hook is responding to, and an optionally-available hashref of any named matches from the regexes in the trigger.

The hashref representing the message the hook will have the following keys:

text: text component of the message
command: IRC "command" like PRIVMSG, MODE, etc.
forum: origin location like #channel or the nick who privately messaged
private: 1 or 0 representing if the message is private or in a channel
to_me: 1 or 0 representing if the message is addressing the bot or not
nick: nick of the sender of the message
source: the source server's label/name
user: username of the sender of the message
server: server of the sender of the message
line: full message line/text
full_text: text component of the message with nick included

The return value from the code block is important. If you return a positive value, all additional hooks are skipped because it will be assumed that this hook properly responded to the message and no additional work needs to be done. If the code block returns a false value, additional hooks will be checked as if this hook's trigger caused the code block to be skipped.

The optional additional attributes hashref supports a handful of keys. You can specify subs and helps, which are exactly equivalent to calling subs() and helps(). (See below.)

hooks

This method accepts a list of arrayrefs, each containing a trigger, code, and attribute value and calls hook for each set.

    $bot->hooks(
        [ {}, sub {}, {} ],
        [ {}, sub {}, {} ],
    );

helps

This method is how you'd setup any help text you'd like the bot to provide to users. It expects some number of key-value pairs where the key is the topic title of the set of functionality and the value is the string of instructions.

    $bot->helps(
        seen => 'Tracks when and where people were seen. Usage: seen <nick>, hide, unhide.',
        join => 'Join and leave channels. Usage: join <channel>, leave <channel>, channels.',
    );

In the example above, let's say your bot had the nick of "bot" and you were in the same channel as your bot and you typed "bot, help" in your IRC channel. The bot would respond with a list of available topics. Then if you typed "bot, help seen" in the channel, the bot would reply with the "seen" string of instructions. If typing directly to the bot (in a private message directly to the bot), you don't need to specify the bot's name.

tick

Sometimes you'll want the bot to do something at a specific time or at some sort of interval. You can cause this to happen by filing ticks. A tick is similar to a hook in that it's a bit of code that gets called, but not based on a message but based on time. tick() expects two values. The first is either an integer representing the number of seconds of interval between calls to the code or a crontab-like time expression. The second value is the code to call, which will receive a copy of the bot object.

    $bot->tick(
        10,
        sub {
            my ($bot) = @_;
            $bot->msg( '#test', '10-second interval.' );
        },
    );

    $bot->tick(
        '0 0 * * *',
        sub {
            my ($bot) = @_;
            $bot->msg( '#test', "It's midnight!" );
        },
    );

ticks

This method accepts a list of arrayrefs, each containing a time value and code block and calls tick for each set.

    $bot->ticks(
        [ 10,          sub {} ],
        [ '0 0 * * *', sub {} ],
    );

subs

A plugin can also provide functionality to the bot for use in other plugins. It can also override core methods of the bot. You do this with the subs() method.

    $bot->subs(
        incr => sub {
            my ( $bot, $int ) = @_;
            return ++$int;
        },
    );

    my $value = $bot->incr(42); # value is 43

register

There are rare cases when you're writing your plugin where you want to claim that your plugin satisfies the requirements for a different plugin. In other words, you want to prevent the future loading of a specific plugin or plugins. You can do this by calling register() with the list of plugins (by full namespace) that you want to skip.

    $bot->register('Bot::IRC::Storage');

Note that this will not block the reloading of plugins with reload().

vars

When you are within a plugin, you can call vars() to get the variables for the plugin by it's lower-case "simplified" name, which is the plugin's class name all lower-case, without the preceding "Bot::IRC::" bit, and with "::"s replaced with dashes. For example, let's say you were writing a "Bot::IRC::X::Something" plugin. You would have users set variables in their instantiation like so:

    Bot::IRC->new
        plugins => ['Something'],
        vars    => { x-something => { answer => 42 } },
    )->run;

Then from within the "Bot::IRC::X::Something" plugin, you would access these variables like so:

    my $my_vars = $bot->vars;
    say 'The answer to life, the universe, and everything is ' . $my_vars->{answer};

If you want to access the variables for a different namespace, pass into vars() the "simplified" name you want to access.

    my $my_other_vars = $bot->vars('x-something-else');

settings

If you need access to the bot's settings, you can do so with settings(). Supply the setting name/key to get that setting, or provide no name/key to get all settings as a hashref.

    my $connection_settings_hashref = $bot->settings('connect');

INLINE PLUGINS

You can optionally inject inline plugins by providing them as hashref. This works both with load() and the plugins key.

    $bot->load(
        {
            hooks => [ [ {}, sub {}, {} ], [ {}, sub {}, {} ] ],
            ticks => [ [ 10, sub {} ], [ '0 0 * * *', sub {} ] ],
            helps => { title => 'Description.' },
            subs  => { name => sub {} },
        },
        {
            hooks => [ [ {}, sub {}, {} ], [ {}, sub {}, {} ] ],
            ticks => [ [ 10, sub {} ], [ '0 0 * * *', sub {} ] ],
            helps => { title => 'Description.' },
            subs  => { name => sub {} },
        },
    );

OPERATIONAL METHODS

The following are operational methods available from this class, expected to be used inside various code blocks passed to plugin methds.

reply

If you're inside a hook, you can usually respond to most messages with the reply() method, which accepts the text the bot should reply with. The method returns the bot object.

    $bot->reply('This is a reply. Impressive, huh?');

If you want to emote something back or use any other IRC command, type it just as you would in your IRC client.

    $bot->reply('/me feels something, which for a bot is rather impressive.');

reply_to

reply_to is exactly like reply except that if the forum for the reply is a channel instead of to a specific person, the bot will prepend the message by addressing the nick who was the source of the response the bot is responding to.

msg

Use msg() when you don't have a forum to reply to or want to reply in a different forum (i.e. to a different user or channel). The method accepts the forum for the message and the message text.

    $bot->msg( '#test', 'This is a message for everybody in #test.');

say

Use say() to write low-level lines to the IRC server. The method expects a string that's a properly IRC message.

    $bot->say('JOIN #help');
    $bot->say('PRIVMSG #help :I need some help.');

nick

Use nick to change the bot's nick. If the nick is already in use, the bot will try appending "_" to it until it finds an open nick.

join

Use join() to join channels.

    $bot->join('#help');

If some sort of persistent storage plugin is loaded, the bot will remember the channels it has joined or parted and use that as it's initial join on restart.

part

Use part() to part channels.

    $bot->part('#help');

If some sort of persistent storage plugin is loaded, the bot will remember the channels it has joined or parted and use that as it's initial join on restart.

RANDOM HELPFUL METHODS

The following are random additional methods that might be helpful in your plugins.

list

This method is a simple string method that takes a list and crafts it for readability. It expects a separator string, a final item conjunction string, and a list of items.

    $bot->list( ', ', 'and', 'Alpha', 'Beta', 'Delta', 'Gamma' );
    # returns "Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma"

    $bot->list( ', ', 'and', 'Alpha', 'Beta' );
    # returns "Alpha and Beta"

health

This method returns a hashref of simple key value pairs for different "health" aspects (or current state) of the bot. It includes things like server and port connection, number of children, and so on.

note

While in theory you shouldn't ever need to use it, there is a method called "note" which is a handler for writing to the log and error files. If you warn or die, this handler steps in automatically. If you'd like to print to STDOUT, which you really shouldn't need to do, then it's best to call this method instead. The reason being is that the log file is designed to be parsed in a specific way. If you write whatever you want to it, it will corrupt the log file. That said, if you really, really want to, here's how you use note:

    $bot->note('Message');           # writes a message to the log file
    $bot->note( 'Message', 'warn' ); # writes a message to the error file
    $bot->note( 'Message', 'die' );  # writes a message to the error file the dies

AUTHOR

Gryphon Shafer <gryphon@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

To install Bot::IRC, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Bot::IRC

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Bot::IRC

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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