If you prefer to use Docker/Podman/etc to run PBot, follow the Docker guide instead. The set-up is much easier and will install packages/dependencies into a container.
PBot uses the Perl programming language. Perl is usually part of a base Linux install. If you do not have Perl installed, please see your system's documentation to install it.
Some systems may ship with a minimal Perl installation. You may need to complete
the installation by, e.g., yum install perl-core on RHEL/CentOS or
dnf install perl on RHEL/CentOS 8 or Fedora.
If you do not have system administrator access, you can install Perl locally into your home directory using, .e.g., perlbrew, plenv, plx, etc.
The recommended way to install PBot is with git. This will allow you to easily update to
the latest version of PBot via the git update process by issuing the git pull command.
Also, if you become interested in contributing improvements to PBot, you will be able to
submit them through git.
The command to install with git is:
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/pragma-/pbot.git
Alternatively, you may download a ZIP archive.
If you want to use the Plang scripting language within PBot, you'll
need to download the Plang ZIP archive as well.
Extract it into pbot/Plang after you extract the PBot ZIP archive into pbot.
After git-cloning (or unpacking the ZIP archives) you should have a directory named
pbot/ (or pbot-master/). It should contain at least these directories and files:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
Plang/ |
Plang scripting language |
applets/ |
External command-line executables invokable as PBot commands |
bin/ |
PBot executables (e.g., bin/pbot) |
data/ |
Default data-directory |
doc/ |
Helpful documentation |
lib/ |
PBot source tree |
updates/ |
Migration scripts run automatically by PBot after updates that modify data structures |
cpanfile |
CPAN dependencies file |
There are a few one-time configuration things we must do to get PBot's environment ready. Once the following steps are completed there is no need to do them again.
Some of PBot's features depend on the availability of Perl modules written by
third parties. To use such PBot features, the modules listed in the cpanfile
file need to be installed.
This can be a lengthy process as each module may itself have a certain amount of dependencies and sub-dependencies. Perl is an extremely collaborative community! Fortunately, you only need to install the CPAN modules once.
You must have make, perl, a C compiler, a C++ compiler, OpenSSL or LibreSSL
or equivalent, libssl-dev, and other such tools and libraries installed.
The cpanminus tool is a fast and lightweight way to install CPAN modules.
There are several ways to install cpanminus. If you have wget instead of curl,
then replace curl -L in the following commands with wget -O -.
Option 1) Use your system package manager, e.g.:
$ apt install cpanminus
Option 2) Install to ~/perl5 (if you used, e.g., perlbrew to install Perl):
$ curl -L https://cpanmin.us | perl - App::cpanminus
Option 3) Download the cpanm script directly to ~/bin:
$ cd ~/bin
$ curl -L https://cpanmin.us/ -o cpanm
$ chmod +x cpanm
If you prefer to install the CPAN modules into ~/perl5 you can use local::lib.
You may ignore this step if you installed Perl with, e.g., perlbrew or if you have system administrator privilege and prefer to install the CPAN modules to the system Perl location.
The following command will install and set-up local::lib in ~/perl5:
$ cpanm --local-lib=~/perl5 local::lib && eval $(perl -I ~/perl5/lib/perl5/ -Mlocal::lib)
The local::lib set-up will be lost when you close your shell. To make the set-up permanent, add the
eval $(perl -I ~/perl5/lib/perl5/ -Mlocal::lib) command to your .bashrc or shell equivalent.
Ensure you have set your current working directory to where you have git cloned
or unzipped PBot. There should be a cpanfile in the current
directory, along with lib/ and bin/ directories.
$ cd pbot (or pbot-master)
The CPAN modules may be installed with (assuming you do not need Windows support):
$ cpanm -n --installdeps . --with-all-features --without-feature=compiler_vm_win32
If you want to install the bare minimum CPAN modules required for PBot's core functionality, you can use the following command. But be aware that several plugins and applets may not function.
$ cpanm -n --installdeps .
You may then choose to install the missing CPAN modules on a feature-by-feature basis using:
$ cpanm -n --installdeps . --with-feature=... --with-feature=...
where ... is an optional PBot feature listed in PBot's cpanfile.
Perl's native regular expression engine is susceptible to ReDoS
attacks. To prevent this, PBot uses the re::engine::RE2 module for user-submitted regular expressions.
If you could not install it through CPAN, you must install it manually.
PBot uses a data-directory to store all its configuration settings and data. You must clone this data-directory for each instance of PBot you want to run, otherwise they will become quite confused with each other and things will break horribly.
Even when you're running just one bot, cloning the data-directory will allow PBot to
be updated via git or unzip without overwriting your data. PBot will automatically use update
migrations (see updates/) to safely update your existing data with the new data.
Here we clone the data-directory for two PBot instances, naming them after the IRC network they will connect to:
$ cp -r data libera
$ cp -r data ircnet
Alternatively, you could name your new data directory after your bot's nickname:
$ cp -r data coolbot
PBot configuration is stored in a registry of key/value pairs grouped by sections. For more information, see the Registry documentation.
For initial first-time setup, you may configure registry settings via the PBot command-line options. We'll show you how to do that soon! First, read on to see what settings you should configure.
Alternatively, you can edit the registry file in your cloned data-directory.
See editing registry file for more
information.
Here is a table of basic initial settings you should configure:
| Registry key | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|
| irc.botnick | IRC nickname. This is the name people see when you talk. Required. | undefined |
| irc.username | IRC username. This is the USER field of your hostmask. |
pbot3 |
| irc.realname | IRC gecos/realname. This is the general information or real-name field, as seen in WHOIS. |
https://github.com/pragma-/pbot |
| irc.server | IRC server address to connect. | irc.libera.chat |
| irc.port | IRC server port. | 6667 (secure port: 6697) |
| irc.identify_password | Password to authenticate with services or bots. | undefined |
| irc.sasl | Whether to use the IRCv3 SASL authentication mechanism. | 0 (1 to enable) |
| irc.tls | Whether to use TLS encryption. | 0 (1 to enable) |
| general.trigger | Bot trigger. Can be a character class containing multiple trigger characters. Can be overridden per-channel. | [!] |
For a list of other available settings see this table in the Registry documentation.
The default settings are tailored for an insecure connection to the Libera.Chat IRC network.
To make the connection secure, set irc.tls to 1. This will enable TLS encryption.
You may optionally set irc.tls_ca_path or irc.tls_ca_file if necessary. Be sure to
set irc.port to 6697 for the secure port.
It is strongly recommended that you register an account with NickServ and to enable SASL authentication. Register your channels with ChanServ. You may request a host cloak from Libera staff. This will protect your nickname, channels and IP address.
Once you register with NickServ, it is strongly recommended to enable irc.sasl. If you
choose not to use IRCv3 SASL authentication, then it is recommended to set these options:
Click to show recommended Libera.Chat settings with SASL disabled
| Registry key | Description | Recommended value |
|---|---|---|
| irc.identify_password | Password to use to identify to NickServ | <password> |
| irc.randomize_nick | Randomize IRC nickname when connecting to server. PBot will change to irc.botnick when logged-in. This prevents users from monitoring the botnick to catch its IP address before it is identified. |
1 |
| general.autojoin_wait_for_nickserv | Wait for NickServ login before auto-joining channels. This prevents PBot from joining channels before it is identified and cloaked. | 1 |
| general.identify_command | Command to send to NickServ to identify. $nick will be replaced with irc.botnick; $password will be replaced with irc.identify_password. If you wish to login to a NickServ account different than the irc.botnick you may replace the $nick text with a literal value. |
identify $nick $password |
IRCnet is one of the oldest IRC networks still running. It has no Services like NickServ and ChanServ. Instead, its nicknames and channels are protected by custom bots.
These settings may be useful:
Click to show recommended IRCnet settings
| Registry key | Description | Default value | Recommended value |
|---|---|---|---|
| general.identify_nick | Who to /msg for login/identify/authentication. Defaults to NickServ, can be overridden to a custom bot. | NickServ | <service botnick> |
| general.identify_command | Command to send to general.identify_nick to login. |
identify $nick $password |
<service bot command> |
| general.op_nick | Who to /msg to request channel OP status. Defaults to ChanServ, can be overridden to a custom bot. | ChanServ | <service botnick> |
| general.op_command | Command to send to general.op_nick to request channel OP status. |
op $channel |
<service bot command> |
Other networks are untested. They should be very similiar to either Libera.Chat or IRCnet, and so one or both of the
recommended settings should suffice. If you have any issues, please report them here
or by sending pragma- a message on the Libera.Chat network.
The executable to start PBot is bin/pbot. You may create a symbolic
link to the bin/pbot executable in $HOME/bin/ or in /usr/local/bin/.
If you choose not to install the bin/pbot file to your PATH, remember
to use ./bin/pbot instead of pbot in the following examples.
$ pbot [directory overrides...] [registry overrides...]
It is recommended to use the rlwrap program for command-line history if you use
the PBot STDIN interface.
$ rlwrap pbot [...]
You may override PBot's default directory locations via the command-line.
$ pbot data_dir=/path/to/data applets_dir=/path/to/applets
You may override any of your Registry values via the command-line. Any overrides made will be
saved to the registry file. You do not need to use the override every time you launch PBot.
$ pbot irc.botnick=coolbot irc.server=irc.example.com irc.port=6667 [...]
The default settings will connect to the Libera.Chat IRC network.
At minimum, the registry key irc.botnick must be set before PBot will connect to any IRC servers.
The following command will use the coolbot data-directory that we cloned in the initial setup,
and set the irc.botnick registry key to the same name. It will automatically connect to the Libera.Chat IRC network.
$ pbot data_dir=coolbot irc.botnick=coolbot
To connect to a specific IRC server or to configure additional settings, you may override the directory paths and override the registry values. Read on to the next section for examples.
The following command is based on the Recommended settings for IRC Networks section earlier in this document.
The irc.server and irc.port settings are omitted because the default values will connect to the Libera.Chat IRC network.
Replace the placeholders, marked X, with values you want to use. Note that this is just for the first-time start-up. Regular subsequent start-up needs only data_dir to be overridden.
-
If you have registered your botnick with the NickServ service, update the
irc.identify_passwordentry in theregistryfile in your bot's data directory and then use this command:pbot data_dir=X irc.botnick=X irc.sasl=1 -
Otherwise, use this one:
pbot data_dir=X irc.botnick=X
The following command is based on the Recommended settings for IRC Networks section earlier in this document.
Replace the placeholders, marked X, with values you want to use. Note that this is just for the first-time start-up. Regular subsequent start-up needs only data_dir to be overridden.
-
If you want PBot to identify with a custom bot or service on IRCnet/other networks, use this command:
pbot data_dir=X irc.botnick=X irc.server=X irc.port=X general.identify_nick=X general.op_nick=X -
Otherwise, use this one:
pbot data_dir=X irc.botnick=X irc.server=X irc.port=X
After your initial start-up command, you only need to use the data_dir
directory override when starting PBot. Any previously used registry overrides
have been saved to your data-directory's registry file.
$ pbot data_dir=X
Once you've launched PBot, you can type directly into its terminal to execute commands as the built-in PBot console admin user account. This will allow you to use admin commands to create new users or join channels.
To create your own fully privileged admin user account, use the useradd
command in the PBot terminal console. Its usage is:
useradd <username> <hostmasks> [channels [capabilities [password]]]
Suppose your nick is Bob and your hostmask is Bob!~user@some.domain.com. Use the following command:
useradd Bob Bob!~user@*.domain.com global botowner <password>
This will create a user account named Bob with the botowner user-capability that can administrate
all channels. Note the wildcard replacing some in some.domain.com. Now as long as
your connected hostmask matches your user account hostmask, you will be recognized.
It is very important that user account hostmasks are defined as strictly or as narrowly as possible to match only the person it is intended for. Ideally, the user would have a NickServ account, a user-cloak given by the staff of the IRC server or a unique DNS name.
To login, in your own IRC client, connected using the hostmask we just added, type the
following command, in a private /query or /msg:
login <password>
Now you can use /msg in your own IRC client to administrate PBot, instead of
the terminal console.
You can change your password with:
my password <new password>
or
userset Bob password <new password>
If you want to autologin without typing a password, first ensure your hostmask is unique -- preferably by using a NickServ vhost/cloak or a reverse-DNS name. Then set the following metadata on your account:
userset Bob autologin 1
If you want to remain permanently logged in, ensure your hostmask is unique and set the following metadata on your account:
userset Bob stayloggedin 1
Users may create their own unprivileged accounts by using the my command. It will automatically
set their username, hostmask, channel and log them into it. Unprivileged users may use the my command
to edit their personal user metadata, including password.
Users added this way will have autologin and stayloggedin enabled. If they feel their hostmask is insecure, they
can disable autologin and stayloggedin with:
my autologin 0
my stayloggedin 0
And then update their login password with:
my password <new password>
Alternatively, you can manually add users to PBot with the useradd command. Its usage is:
useradd <username> <hostmasks> [channels [capabilities [password]]]
The hostmasks and channels arguments can be a comma-separated list of values.
If you omit the capabilities argument, the user will be a normal unprivileged user. See user-capabilities
for more information about user-capabilities.
Users may view and change their own metadata by using the my command,
provided their hostmask matches the user account.
my [key [value]]
Admins may change a user's password with:
userset <username> password <new password>
If the user has a unique hostmask, preferable via a NickServ vhost/cloak or a reverse-DNS name, they may prefer to use passwordless autologin via:
userset <username> autologin 1
If the user has a unique hostmask, preferable via a NickServ vhost/cloak or a reverse-DNS name, they may prefer to remain permanently logged in via:
userset <username> stayloggedin 1
For more information, see the Admin documentation.
To temporarily join channels, use the join command.
join <channel>
To permanently add a channel to PBot, use the chanadd command. PBot will
automatically join permanently added channels.
chanadd <channel>
To configure a permanent channel's settings, use the chanset command:
chanset <channel> [key [value]]
You can chanset the following keys:
| Name | Description | Default value |
|---|---|---|
| enabled | If set to false, PBot will not autojoin or respond to this channel. | 1 |
| chanop | If set to true, PBot will perform OP duties in this channel. | 0 |
| permop | If set to true, PBot will not de-OP itself in this channel. | 0 |
For more information, see the Channels documentation.
That should get you started. For further information about PBot, check out these topics.
PBot has several core built-in commands. You've seen some of them in this document, for setting up channels and admins. Additional commands can be added to PBot through Plugins and Factoids.
For more information, see the Commands documentation.
Factoids are a very special type of command. Anybody interacting with PBot can create, edit, delete and invoke factoids.
In their most basic form, a factoid merely displays the text the creator sets.
<pragma-> !factadd hello /say Hello, $nick!
<PBot> hello added to global channel.
<pragma-> PBot, hello
<PBot> Hello, pragma-!
Significantly more complex factoids can be built by using $variables, command-substitution,
command-piping, /code invocation, and more!
For more information, see the Factoids documentation.
Plugins provide optional PBot features. The default plugins loaded by PBot is set by
the plugin_autoload file in your data-directory. To autoload additional plugins,
add their name to this file.
The plugins that come with PBot live in lib/PBot/Plugin/. Additional third-party
plugins may be installed to ~/.pbot/PBot/Plugin/.
You may manually load plugins using the plug command.
plug <plugin>
You may unload plugins using the unplug command.
unplug <plugin>
Plugins can be quickly reloaded by using the replug command.
replug <plugin>
Currently loaded plugins may be listed with the pluglist command.
<pragma-> !pluglist
<PBot> Loaded plugins: ActionTrigger, AntiAway, AntiKickAutoRejoin, AntiNickSpam, AntiRepeat,
AntiTwitter, AutoRejoin, Counter, Date, GoogleSearch, Quotegrabs, RemindMe, UrlTitles,
Weather
For more information, see the Plugins documentation.
Applets are external command-line executable programs and scripts that can be loaded as PBot commands.
Suppose you have the Qalculate! command-line program and you want to provide a PBot command for it. You can create a very simple shell script containing:
#!/bin/sh
qalc "$*"
And let's call it qalc.sh and put it in PBot's applets/ directory.
Then you can use the PBot load command to load the applets/qalc.sh script as the qalc command:
!load qalc qalc.sh
Now you have a Qalculate! calculator in PBot!
<pragma-> !qalc 2 * 2
<PBot> 2 * 2 = 4
For more information, see the Applets documentation.