MANDERLBOT.CONF(5)

NAME
manderlbot.conf - Configuring the manderlbot IRC robot.

DESCRIPTION

manderlbot is an irc bot aimed at saying idioties or doing some little searches on the internet. It is not an eggdrop bot.

CONFIGURATION

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].

BEHAVIOUR MATCHING

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.

IMPLEMENTED ACTIONS

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.

INTERACTING WITH THE RUNNING BOT, FROM IRC

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.

EXAMPLE

Please see the given configuration file, in /etc/manderlbot/config.xml.

HISTORY

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.

AUTHORS

manderlbot was written by Dimitri Fontaine <dim@tuxfamily.org> and Nicolas Niclausse <nico@niclux.org>.