Error: The command "ignore list" is available in the Admin and Channel plugins. Please specify the plugin whose command you wish to call by using its name as a command before "ignore list".
0.0.1
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Note
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At the time of this writing, Supybot version is 0.83.3. If you are using a newer (or even older) version, keep that in mind. |
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This document is very much a work in process. It covers nowhere near everything there is to Supybot. However, it hopefully allows a good start into learning Supybot. |
This document is a handbook for Supybot, the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) bot written in Python.
Some time ago I started needing an IRC bot for various purposes. The bot would have to be able to take care of auto-opping and similar "traditional" channel duties. This made me think of Oer, an old but very nice bot. However, I also wanted to have factoid functionality similar to blootbot/infobot, without having to run multiple bots. That was when I arrived at Supybot once again. This time I decided to give it a closer look.
My experience of the documentation was lacking though. I longed for something similar to Oer's User Manual that provides a quick references for basic administrator tasks and so forth. Alas, I could not find such document.
I figured I could as well wrap up such a handbook while learning to use the bot myself. Hopefully someone finds reading this document as useful as writing it was.
A command that takes name as a required parameter and value as an optional parameter.
A command that takes one or more parameters.
A command that takes two optional options as parameters, eg. --foo value and/or --bar value.
A plugin name
This document is Free ™ as defined by the Free Software Foundation, more specifically, this document is available under the terms of GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3). The source is a text file that can be converted to various formats by asciidoc.
If you spot an error, have suggestions or just want to tell me how much you love/hate the document, send e-mail to hoxu@users.sf.net. Prefix the Subject with [supybook].
Create a new directory (eg. mkdir ~/supybot) and run supybot-wizard in it. Follow the directions to get the bot initially configured and connected to a network.
After running supybot-wizard and starting the bot, connect to the same IRC network it is on, and /query it. You can identify with the identify <name> <password> command. You can check the bot's idea of who you are with the whoami command.
Most commands on the bot have a short online help available. You can use list to list loaded plugins, and list <plugin> to list commands in those plugins. help [plugin] <command> can be used to access the command help. Use more to read long messages from the bot.
Help for configuration items can be accessed with the config help <key> command.
Supybot has a couple of features that sets it apart from more traditional bots. More specifically, nested commands, plugin framework (even the basic functionality is implemented using plugins), and capabilities. This section covers some basic information about Supybot. Feel free to skip it, but come back later if you run into something you don't understand.
Supybot allows nested commands, in other words, you can pass the result of a command to another command as a parameter. What does this allow then, though, apart from the obvious bragging rights? For example, if you want to restore a configuration entry to the default value, you can type:
config reply.withNickPrefix [config default reply.withNickPrefix]
Obviously, that wasn't very neat. They could've included a config reset <key> command instead, for example. But I'm sure you can figure out something more useful to do with this, as a homework ;-)
Pretty much everything in Supybot is a plugin. Most commands you use belong to a plugin. If two plugins provide the same command, then you need to prefix the command with the plugin name. For example, the ignore list command yields the following output:
Error: The command "ignore list" is available in the Admin and Channel plugins. Please specify the plugin whose command you wish to call by using its name as a command before "ignore list".
Thus, you need to either use admin ignore list or channel ignore list command. That is, unless you define which plugin is the default one using the defaultplugin [--remove] <command> [plugin] command provided in the Owner plugin.
The list command (Plugin) can be used to list loaded plugins. You can prevent some plugins from showing in the list with the command:
config plugins.<plugin>.public False
List currently loaded plugins, excluding the ones set non-public.
List loaded plugins that are set to non-public.
List commands provided by the given plugin.
Load a plugin. Supybot looks for plugins in directories listed in config conf.supybot.directories.plugins.
Unloads a plugin. The Owner plugin cannot be unloaded.
Most of Supybot configuration is done online using the Config plugin. This excludes things such as granting the owner capability (must be done by modifying the files).
There are two types of configuration items: global and channel-specific. The latter are actually no different from the global ones, except that they can be set for channels as well. This means you can have a global default which is overridden for specific channels.
Configuration items are hierarchical. The "root" item is supybot, which can be omitted. Configs for plugins live under their own key, supybot.plugins, or shortly, plugins.
Get the current value of name, or set it to value if provided.
Ditto, but for channel configs.
Get the default value of name. This does not change the value. No, there is no command to reset an item to default value. You need to use config <name> [config default <name>] for that.
Export non-confidential parts of configuration to a file for debugging purposes.
Show help for a configuration item.
List configuration items in group. Subgroups are prefixed with @, channel-specific items with #.
Reloads configuration. Mostly useful if you've had to modify the files by hand.
Show configuration items matching word.
Many traditional IRC bots manage permissions of users using flags. Some network services in fact, do, too. Each user can have various flags on each channel. The flags can mean auto-op, op, use of !ban command and so forth. On side of those, there are often global user flags that entitle the user to full access, global auto-op, etc. Some bots also support channel flags that determine what bot functionality is available on the channel.
Supybot does not have any flags. Instead, the permissions are managed using capabilities. There are two kinds of capabilities: user capabilities and channel capabilities.
User capabilities are checked first when a user tries to run a command. If the user has an anticapability for the command (eg. -command, -Plugin.command) or the Plugin (-Plugin), it won't be run.
Next, if the command was run on the channel, the channel capabilities are checked. The logic is same as above, but the checked capabilities are prefixed with #channel,, for example #channel,-Plugin.command.
There are some special capabilities recognized by Supybot:
For bot owners: the people who have "physical" access to the bot and its files. This cannot be granted online; the conf/users.conf file must be edited by hand followed by reload. Owners are exempt from #channel,op capability checks and channel anticapabilities.
For bot administrators. Users with this capability can manage global bot properties, make the bot join new channels and so forth. However, they can't do channel administration which is reserved for ops.
Channel ops can execute channel-related commands.
Allow user to run commands that can potentially crash the bot, or cause denial of service on the system it's running on.
Commands used to manipulate capabilities are covered in the Manipulating channel capabilities and Manipulating user capabilities sections.
Related plugins: Network, Services.
Connect to network. host must be provided if the network is new or has no servers defined.
Disconnects and connects network, or current if not specified. message, if given, is shown as the quit message, otherwise config plugins.Owner.quitMsg is used, or your nickname.
Disconnect network, or current if not specified. message as above.
List of networks & servers currently connected to.
freenode: wolfe.freenode.net and ircnet: irc.elisa.fi
List all networks.
Once you've added a network with the initial server, you can add more servers:
config networks.<network>.servers [config networks.<network>.servers] server:6667
config networks.<network>.servers
chat.freenode.net:6667
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My pratical experience with Services plugin on Freenode is… not-so-good. It definitely does not work all the time as expected. |
You can make Supybot identify itself to the network NickServ after it has connected.
Settings this is useful on Freenode and other networks who change the user mask after identifying to NickServ. In my experience this seems to be a tad buggy, so I don't recommend enabling it unless really needed.
Tell the bot what name NickServ can be found under.
Can be used to set or remove NickServ password.
NOTE: Password removal did not work for me on Supybot 0.83.3
Identifies the bot to NickServ with the current nick. You don't need to give this command after the bot has been set up; it will identify when connecting to the network automatically.
You can make Supybot request op after joining a channel on a network with ChanServ.
Tell the bot what name ChanServ can be found under.
Set the default for all channels. This will be used unless a channel-specific config overrides it.
Set to request op on the given channel.
Voice and half-op (on networks supporting it) can be used similarly.
Related plugins: Channel.
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Commands in this section (such as adding/removing channels) work in the current network, eg. the one you are messaging the bot in. The commands also accept a [channel] parameter which is needed only when the command is written in private. |
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If you want to /msg the bot in one network, while having the command apply in another network, you can use the network command <network> <command> [params] command. The reply comes in the other network if you are there as well. |
A new channel is added by messaging the bot in the same network with join <channel> [key] command.
channels
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This only works in private, to prevent knowledge of top secret channels from falling into wrong hands. |
You can list channels in another network with config networks.<network>.channels.
part [channel] [reason]
config channel [channel] <name> <value>
channel key [channel] [key] can be used to set or clear the channel key.
channel limit [channel] [limit] sets or clears the channel limit.
Channel ops can use the following commands to control the channel via the bot, assuming it is opped.
Ops the given nicks (or you if none) on the channel.
Ditto, but deops.
Voices the given nicks (or you if none) on the channel.
Ditto, but devoices.
Bans and kicks the given nick from the channel. If seconds is specified and is not 0, the ban will expire after that time.
Set channel mode. This can be used to change any channel modes, making the commands below redundant aliases.
Set +m. This is not enforced by the bot, so any channel op can remove it.
Set -m.
Set +t. Not enforced, so any channel op can remove it.
Set -t.
Sends text to all users on the channel with op capability.
Make the bot part and join the channel. Mostly useful to test whether auto-ops from other bots/users work for the bot.
Add ban for given nick or hostmask on the channel. If nick is given, the full hostmask is banned. expires when gives, expires the ban after so many seconds.
List bans with their expire times.
Removes the ban on given hostmask.
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Users matching the ban list are not automatically kicked off the channel. See the kban command in the previous section to kick and ban a user. |
channel ignore add [channel] <nick|hostmask> [expires]
channel ignore list [channel]
channel ignore remove [channel] <hostmask>
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There is also a global ignore list. |
channel nicks [channel]
Related plugins: Topic.
Supybot allows elaborate manipulation of the channel topic.
Logging of channels is provided by the ChannelLogger plugin. Various channel-specific configuration items are provided, see config list plugins.ChannelLogger.
By default logs will go into logs/ChannelLogger/<network>/<channel>/<channel>.log and will be rotated when the default "%d-%a-%Y" (eg. 06-Sat-2008) timestamp rotates. See the python documentation for strftime for the formatting characters.
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The logs of ChannelLogger cannot be searched online. However, other plugins provide some searching functionality. See Searching the history. |
Auto-opping is provided by the AutoMode plugin.
The Seen plugin keeps track of last channel/nick/user activity. Most typical use is asking the bot when a given user was last seen chatting on a channel.
Lists any activity given nick or user was doing on the channel. If no nick or user is given, returns the last activity on the channel, regardless of who it was from.
seen last [channel]: Last line said on the channel.
Last time a nick was seen on a channel and what it said.
seen user [channel] <user>: Ditto, except use a user name, disregarding what nick the said user had.
List capabilities on channel.
Adds the given capability to channel.
Removes the given capability from channel.
Whether to allow users on channel by default to access non-maintenance related commands. Default is True.
Note that this concerns unregistered users as well. So if you want to disallow use of commands by unregistered users, set default user capabilities to allow them, and set this to False.
See also Capabilities.
Related plugins: Users.
Supybot users are global: they are visible across networks. This means the same username/password and hostmasks will work in all networks the bot is on.
Users are recognized either by matching hostmasks, or after manually identifying to the bot. In secure mode, the user must both match a hostmask and identify to the bot (uset set secure [password] <True|False>).
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If users knowing each others' nicks is an issue, they could come up with different aliases when registering to the bot. The bot username does not have to match the nick of the user. |
user register <name> <password>
user hostmask add - add your current hostmask. Obviously this makes only sense after identify.
user hostmask add [name] [hostmask] [password] - add hostmask for another user. If not owner, password must be given.
user hostmask remove <name> <hostmask> [password]
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There is no way to add network-specific hostmasks. |
user list [glob] - list registered users. Note that the list of users is global across networks.
user unregister <name> [password]
user set password <user> <old password> <new password>.
user changename <name> <new name> [password]
Users can change their name themselves.
List capabilities of the user, or the calling user.
Add capability to user or a user that matches the hostmask.
Ditto, but remove the capability.
Add capability capability on channel to nick/user.
Remove capability capability on channel from nick/user.
Add or remove capability from list of capabilities given to new users.
List default capabilities given to new users.
-owner -admin -trusted
See also Capabilities.
Related plugins: Admin, Config.
Change nick to newnick.
Default nick.
Space-separated list of alternate nicks, %s refers to nick.
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It is not possible to have a different nick in different networks. |
Sets the bot's ident (nick!ident@host).
Sets the bot's ircname/realname to ircname. If left empty, defaults to Supybot 0.83.3 for example.
Like most other bots, the bot can be addressed by its nickname, or a command prefix character (any or many of ~!@#$%^&*()_-+=[{}]\|'";:,<.>/?). For special (braindead?) purposes the bot can also be made assume that all lines are addressed to it.
List of characters the bot will recognize as addressing, besides the nick of the bot.
Ditto, but for a specific channel.
Assume everyone wants to talk to the bot, eg. treat all messages as if addressed to the bot. This does not imply reply.WhenNotCommand False which you should set as well.
Whether to reply when addressed with an invalid command.
config search <word> - list config items containing word.
config <name> - show config value for name.
config <name> <value> - set config value for name.
owner announce <text> - send text to all channels the bot is on.
owner ircquote <raw> - send raw as-is to the server. You need to know your way around RFC1459 pretty well to use this.
Find last URL (or all with --nolimit) matching given criteria. From matches nick, with(out) part of the URL, near rest of the line where the URL was, and proto matches the protocol (https, ftp, etc). In case of multiple URLs, the newest is listed first. Multiple criterias can be given.
NOTE: This command lists only the URLs, not nick or what message the URLs were part of. No date is shown either.
Find messages matching given criteria. From matches nick, in matches channel, on matches network, with(out) matches part of the message, regexp matches messages that are included by the regular expression. Also see config protocols.irc.maxHistoryLength.
Dict provides dictionary functionality using dict.org. You can also use a local dictd server.
Show dictionary entry for word, from dictionary if provided. If plugins.Dict.default is set, use the specified dictionary instead of all.
List dictionaries available on the used server.
Show a random dictionary from available dictionaries.
The dictd server to be used, default is dict.org.
Channel-specific default dictionary for dict command. * means to use all dictionaries. wn is a good default if english words are mostly looked up.
This is a nick-based replacement for NoteServ and the likes. Simply put, you give the bot a note to deliver to a nick (or wildcard) the next time it sees a matching nick. In other words, this can be used to deliver messages to people who are not registered to the bot. Naturally that is not a very safe method of communicating.
List nicks that have notes queued, or the notes queued for nick if given.
Queues text to be sent to first matching nick when seen. Nick can contain wildcards, eg. foo*.
How many messages can be queued per nick at maximum, default is 0 = no limit.
Whether to send notes in private or on the channel where the recipient is seen.
Plugins: Games, Nickometer, Quote, QuoteGrabs.
This is a list of issues I have not yet figured out how to do, or there simply isn't a way.
How to enforce channel modes (eg. force +ns-t for example)
How to delete config items
How to delete channels / networks
Ban add does not seem to work on Freenode
No global ban list
No way to delete a network
Incomplete multi-network support
Capabilities are not network/channel -specific, but channel-specific. If channel by same name exists in two networks, the users have same capabilities on both
No way to add network-specific hostmasks
Not possible for the bot to have different nick in different networks
There is no command to reboot the bot; it must be done from the shell
Thanks to Tobias Rosenqvist for the tip!
We try to make a command factoid, like we are used to with blootbot:
<user> cmdtest is <action> gives $1 "(an apple|a pear)" <bot> Ok.
Then we test it:
<user> cmdtest someone
But it doesn't work. However, the factoid works:
<user> cmdtest * bot gives $1 an apple
The Moobotfactoids plugin in supybot doesn't handle arguments, (yet) unfortunately, so you need to do it another way. Use the Moobotfactoids to do the random part(s):
<user> fruits is <reply> "(an apple|an orange|a banana|a pear)" <bot> Ok.
Then use an alias to do the command, with arguments (the "action" command is found in the Reply plugin), here you also see a use of a nested command:
<user> alias add givefruit action gives [fruits] to $1 <bot> Ok. <user> givefruit someone * bot gives a pear to someone
I don't personally like the default Supybot replies: I hate the nick prefix and the way too verbose The operation succeeded..
Fortunately there are plenty of settings to configure how Supybot replies. These can be listed with config reply and config replies.
The reply items determine how Supybot acts, and replies contains some messages it uses. I prefer:
config reply.withNickPrefix False
config replies.success OK
config reply.error.inPrivate True.
| #inPrivate | Whether to reply in private to commands given on channel. |
| #requireChannelCommandsToBeSentInChannel | - |
| #showSimpleSyntax | Whether to be extra helpful when a user fails syntax of a command. |
| #whenNotAddressed | Assume everyone wants to talk to the bot, eg. treat all messages as if addressed to the bot. This does not imply reply.WhenNotCommand False which you should set as well. |
| #whenNotCommand | Whether to reply when addressed with an invalid command. |
| #withNickPrefix | Whether to prefix the reply with the nick of the user who gave the command. |
| #withNotice | Whether to use notices instead of regular messages. |
| #mores.instant | How many messages to send initially before prompting for more. Default is 1. |
| #mores.length | How long messages can be. Default is 0, which uses rocket science to determine the maximum number of characters that can be fit into a message without it collapsing into a black hole. |
| #mores.maximum | Maximum number of messages to queue, default is 50. |
| #error.inPrivate | Whether to send errors in private instead of replying on channel. |
| #error.noCapability | If True, don't tell users why they can not run a command because of missing capabilities. |
| #error.withNotice | Whether to send errors as notices instead of regular messages. |
| error.detailed | Whether to show an exception or a generic error when something breaks. Mostly useful for developers. |
| #format.time | Format string for timestamps (%I:%M %p, %B %d, %Y, eg. 08:41 PM, September 11, 2008). |
| #whenAddressedBy.chars | List of characters the bot will recognize as addressing (when a command is prefixed with one of them), besides the nick of the bot. |
| #whenAddressedBy.nicks | List of extra nicks to consider as addressing the bot, despite the current nick. |
| #whenAddressedBy.strings | Like the chars key, except a space-separated list of strings to accept as command prefix. This allows multicharacter command prefixes. |
| #whenAddressedBy.nick.atEnd | Whether to consider messages that end in the bot's nick to be addressed to the bot. |
| maximumLength | Maximum length of a reply message from the bot. This does not mean the length of a single message (prompting for more), but the whole message. |
| oneToOne | Whether to send replies consisting of multiple messages in a single message. |
| withNoticeWhenPrivate | Whether to use notices instead of private messages. |