manderlbot.conf - Configuring the manderlbot IRC robot.
manderlbot is an irc bot aimed at saying idioties or doing
some little searches on the internet. It is not an eggdrop bot.
The configuration file is an XML file containing the following
elements:
- manderlbot
- the opening XML element of the configuration, it contains the properties
name and controler. The name will be shown as the bot fullname, the
controller property may contain one or more nicknames separated by spaces,
only those people will then be allowed to operate on the running bot from
irc channel.
All the following sections, otherwise stated, are to be found
under this one.
- dict
- is the section where to define the dictionnary server you may want to use.
See dict.org for details about the protocol and servers. Be aware that you
can run a dict server locally, and download some useful dictionnaries.
The properties to define here are the dict server host, the
port, and the default dictionnary to use.
- server
- allows you to define which servers manderlbot should connect to. The
properties are host and port. You have to define a server section for each
and every irc server you want manderlbot to connect to.
- channel
- section is where to configure the manderlbot behaviour and name. This
section has to be embedded in the server one. You have to define a channel
section per channel you want manderlbot to join on a server.
The properties of channel section are name, the channel name,
botname, the manderlbot nickname on that channel, and behaviours, a list
of behaviours name you want to activate for that channel.
- behaviours
- will just contain your behaviour list
- behaviour
- have to be found under the behaviours section. You define here your
behaviour, which properties are name, the name to use in the channel
definition, the action, defining what will be done, and one or more of the
followings pattern elements: pattern, op, to, option and from. You can
even prefix those properties with exl_ to get an exclude pattern match
(see [XRef to MATCH]>).
This element contains data wich will be used as the action
parameter, as explain in section [sub:Implemented-actions].
So when you define a behaviour, you want manderlbot to react on
some event on irc channel it is connected to, and take some action. Here we
see how to define the event you want it to react to. As on irc all you do is
sending lines of text, an event as to be text line oriented.
So manderlbot configuration allows you to define some Regular
Expressions <URL:http://www.regular-expressions.info> to match the
lines received. If the line is matched, the associated action is done.
Please note the regexp are all considered case insensitive ones.
You can define some regexp on the following parts of the received
line (containing some server informations relative to IRC protocol
<URL:http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1459.html>):
- pattern
- will try to match the user input, that is what your ordinary irc client
will show you
- op
- will try to match the irc operation, see the RFC for complete list (op can
be kick or join for example)
- to
- irc protocol field, will probably contain the channel name, so you won't
need that...
- option
- irc protocol option field
- from
- the nickname of the one who typed the current line, on the form
nick!~user@host.domain.tld
And in order to make it even more powerful and readable, you can
define the same patterns with an 'exl_' prefix, this will prevent the action
to being taken if it matches. So you can define the parameters exl_pattern,
exl_op, exl_to, exl_option and exl_from.
Of course, you can use any combination of the listed parameters,
thus being quite precise on what you want to react to.
The action parameter of the behaviour configuration element
defines the manderlbot behaviour on matching a line. Here is a list of
provided actions you can use. If you want manderlbot to take an action not
described here, you will have to write some erlang code to teach him what
you want!
The argument of the action is the xml data given enclosed in the
behaviour element.
- action
- send the given argument as if manderlbot had typed it after the /me
irc command.
- answer
- send the line prefixed with the sender name and a colon.
- bloto
- this will count the matched lines per user, and first obtaining 5 points
has won the business loto game. Just define your buzzwords set and make it
a regexp!
- debian_file
- will search the irc given file using the debian web site cgi. The argument
is not used.
- debian_pkg
- will search the irc given package using the debian web site cgi. The
argument is not used.
- dict
- will ask your defined dict server for the given word. The argument may be
the dictionnary name to use in the query, but defaults to the 'default'
entry of the dict config element.
- google
- will ask google for the rest of the irc line. The argument is not
used.
- mute
- mute will mute the bot, you have to be a controler to use that. The
argument is not used.
- pyramid
- pyramid is a game named after a french TV game. You have to make guess a
world to an irc fellow on that channel, in a given number or tries. The
argument is not used.
- random
- will say one of the sentences listed in the arguments randomly. The
sentences have to be separated by '%' signs.
- fortune
- same behaviour as random, but this time the argument is the name of a
traditionnal separate fortune file.
- reconf
- will ask the bot to re-read its configuration. It allows you to handle
dynamically your configuration, no need to restart the bot, and irc
control! You have to be in the controler list to use this action.
- rejoin
- allows you te rejoin a channel (useful on kick, just add a
op="kick" parameter to the behaviour element definition).
- say
- say will say the arguments.
- timer
- will say the first argument, then wait for a random time, and say the
other arguments. The args have to be separated bu a '%' char.
You can use the reconf and mute actions to control the bot from
irc, and you define who can do that in the first configuration element, with
the controler property.
Please see the given configuration file, in
/etc/manderlbot/config.xml.
But why did we wrote this software ?
Well, I wanted an irc bot to play with, in order to have it say
some silly things automatically on answer to our own idioties. I did not
want an eggdrop or whatever controlling channel bot. I saw that manderlbot
project existing, was already familiar with erlang developpment, so I began
using it.
The existing project was on early stage of development, and I
wanted the bot to do more and more things. So I wrote some code to make it
fit my needs. As the original authors would not consider my patches, I
forked the project, keeping the name (they seemed not to work on their
version at all), and hosting it on the TuxFamily services.
manderlbot was written by Dimitri Fontaine
<dim@tuxfamily.org> and Nicolas Niclausse <nico@niclux.org>.