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https://github.com/pragma-/pbot

A pragmatic Perl IRCv3 bot
https://github.com/pragma-/pbot

applets dockerfile extensible irc irc-bot ircv3 perl5 plugins sandboxed sasl scriptable vagrantfile virtual-machine

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A pragmatic Perl IRCv3 bot

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README 

        
# PBot

PBot is a pragmatic IRCv3 Bot written in Perl



  * [Installation / Quick Start](#installation--quick-start)

  * [Features](#features)

    * [IRCv3 capable](#ircv3-capable)

    * [Powerful command interpreter](#powerful-command-interpreter)

      * [Piping](#piping)

      * [Substitution](#substitution)

      * [Variables](#variables)

      * [Selectors](#selectors)

      * [Inline invocation](#inline-invocation)

      * [Chaining](#chaining)

      * [Background processing](#background-processing)

    * [Output customization](#output-customization)

      * [Newlines in messages](#newlines-in-messages)

      * [Truncating long messages](#truncating-long-messages)

    * [Extensible](#extensible)

      * [Factoids](#factoids)

      * [Code factoids](#code-factoids)

      * [Plugins](#plugins)

      * [Applets](#applets)

      * [Functions](#functions)

      * [Scripting interface](#scripting-interface)

    * [Virtual machine to safely execute user-submitted code](#virtual-machine-to-safely-execute-user-submitted-code)

    * [Powerful user management](#powerful-user-management)

    * [Useful IRC quality-of-life improvements](#useful-irc-quality-of-life-improvements)

    * [Channel management and protection](#channel-management-and-protection)

    * [Easy configuration](#easy-configuration)

    * [Live reloading of core modules or data files](#live-reloading-of-core-modules-or-data-files)

  * [Documentation](#documentation)

  * [Frequently Asked Questions](#frequently-asked-questions)

  * [Support](#support)

  * [License](#license)



## Installation / Quick Start

To get up-and-running quickly, check out the [Quick Start guide](doc/QuickStart.md).



## Features



### IRCv3 capable

PBot supports several features of the IRCv3 specification.



* client capability negotiation

* SASL authentication

* account-tag, account-notify, extended-join, message-tags, and more.



### Powerful command interpreter

PBot has a powerful command interpreter with useful functionality, and tons of

built-in commands.



For more information, see the [Commands documentation.](doc/Commands.md)



#### Piping

You can pipe output from one command as input into another command, indefinitely.



     !echo hello world | {sed s/world/everybody/} | {uc}

        HELLO EVERYBODY



[Learn more.](doc/Commands.md#piping)



#### Substitution

You can insert the output from another command at any point within a command. This

substitutes the command with its output at the point where the command was used.



     !echo This is &{echo a demonstration} of command substitution

        This is a demonstration of command substitution



For example, suppose you want to make a Google Image Search command. The naive

way would be to simply do:



     !factadd img /call echo https://google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=$args



Unfortuately this would not support queries containing spaces or certain symbols. But

never fear! We can use command substitution and the `uri_escape` function from the

`func` command.



Note that you must escape the command substitution to insert it literally into the

factoid otherwise it will be expanded first.



     !factadd img /call echo https://google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=\&{func uri_escape $args}



     !img spaces & stuff

        https://google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=spaces%20%26%20stuff



[Learn more.](doc/Commands.md#substitution)



#### Variables

You can use factoids as variables and interpolate them within commands.



     !factadd greeting "Hello, world"



     !echo greeting is $greeting

        greeting is Hello, world



PBot variable interpolation supports [expansion modifiers](doc/Factoids.md#expansion-modifiers), which can be chained to

combine their effects.



     !echo $greeting:uc

        HELLO, WORLD



[Learn more.](doc/Factoids.md#list-variables)



#### Selectors

You can select a random item from a selection list and interpolate the value within commands.



     !echo This is a %(neat|cool|awesome) bot.

        This is a cool bot.



[Learn more.](doc/Commands.md#selectors)



#### Inline invocation

You can invoke up to three commands inlined within a message.  If the message

is addressed to a nick, the output will also be addressed to them.



     newuser13: Check the !{version} and the !{help} documentation.

        newuser13: PBot version 2696 2020-01-04

        newuser13: To learn all about me, see https://github.com/pragma-/pbot/tree/master/doc



[Learn more.](doc/Commands.md#command-invocation)



#### Chaining

You can execute multiple commands sequentially as one command.



     !echo Test! ;;; me smiles. ;;; version

        Test! * PBot smiles. PBot version 2696 2020-01-04



[Learn more.](doc/Commands.md#chaining)



#### Background processing

Suppose you make a Plugin that provides a command that may potentially take a long time to complete?

Not a problem! You can use the [`cmdset`](doc/Admin.md#cmdset) command to set the `background-process` [command metadata](doc/Admin.md#command-metadata-list)

and the command will now run as a background process, allowing PBot to carry on with its duties.



The familiar [`ps`](doc/Admin.md#ps) and [`kill`](doc/Admin.md#kill) commands can be used to list and kill the background processes.



You can also [`cmdset`](doc/Admin.md#cmdset) the `process-timeout` [command metadata](doc/Admin.md#command-metadata-list) to set the timeout, in seconds, before the command is automatically killed. Otherwise the `processmanager.default_timeout` [registry value](doc/Registry.md) will be used.



### Output customization

#### Newlines in messages

By default, PBot replaces newlines in command output with spaces. This can be customized on a per-channel or global basis

to instead preserve the newlines and output each line as a distinct message.



[Learn more.](doc/FAQ.md#how-do-i-change-how-the-bot-outputs-multi-line-messages)



#### Truncating long messages

Output that is longer than the maximum length of an IRC message will be pasted,

with all formatting preserved, to a web paste service. The IRC message itself

will be truncated, with enough room to append the paste URL.



When `preserve_newlines` is enabled, if there are more lines available than `max_newlines` then

all of the lines will be pasted, with formatting preserved, to a web paste service. PBot will then

output up to `max_newlines` lines as distinct messages and then output the URL to the paste.



### Extensible

Additional commands and functionality can  be added to PBot in the following ways.



#### Factoids

Factoids are a very special type of command. Anybody interacting with PBot

can create, edit, delete and invoke factoids.



A simple factoid merely displays the text the creator sets.



     !factadd hello /say Hello, $nick!

        hello added to global channel.



     PBot, hello

        Hello, pragma-!



Significantly more complex factoids can be built by using `$variables`, command-substitution,

command-piping, `/code` invocation, command prefixes such as `/say`, `/me`, `/msg`, and more!



PBot factoids include these advanced features:



* [undo/redo history](doc/Factoids.md#factundo)

* [changelog history](doc/Factoids.md#factlog)

* [channel namespaces](doc/Factoids.md#channel-namespaces)

* [`factadd`](doc/Factoids.md#factadd) and [`factchange`](doc/Factoids.md#factchange) commands accept a `-url` option that sets the factoid contents from a paste website. In other words, you can edit a factoid's contents using your local editor, preserving line-breaks and indentation.

* [advanced `$variable` interpolation](doc/Factoids.md#expansion-modifiers) (`$var:lc` to lowercase contents, `$var:ucfirst` to uppercase first letter, etc)

* [factoid-based variable lists](doc/Factoids.md#list-variables) (e.g., add a factoid `colors` containing "red green blue" and then `!echo $colors` will randomly pick one)

* [advanced argument processing](doc/Factoids.md#special-variables-1) (indexing, splicing, etc)

* [metadata](doc/Factoids.md#factoid-metadata) (e.g. owner, times used, last used date, locked, etc)

* [special commands](doc/Factoids.md#special-commands) (`/say`, `/me`, `/msg`, `/code`, etc)

* and much, much more!



For more information, see the [Factoids documentation](doc/Factoids.md).



#### Code factoids

Code factoids are a special type of factoid that executes its contents within a sandboxed virtual machine.



The contents of code factoids must begin with the `/code` command:



    /code  



For example, the venerable `rot13` function:



     !factadd rot13 /code sh echo "$@" | tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M

        rot13 added to global channel.



     !rot13 Pretty neat, huh?

        Cerggl arng, uhu?



Making a `choose` command:



     !factadd choose /code zsh _arr=($args); print $_arr[$((RANDOM % $#_arr + 1))]

        choose added to global channel.



Using the `choose` command via an [inlined command](doc/Commands.md#inline-invocation):



     hmm, what should I have for dinner? !{choose chicken "roast beef" pizza meatloaf}

        pizza



You can even pipe output from other commands to Code Factoids.



     !echo test | {rot13}

        grfg



For more information, see the [Code Factoid documentation](doc/Factoids.md#code).



#### Plugins

PBot can dynamically load and unload Perl modules to alter its behavior.



These are some of the plugins that PBot has; [there are many more](lib/PBot/Plugin):



Plugin | Description

--- | ---

[ActionTrigger](lib/PBot/Plugin/ActionTrigger.pm) | Lets admins set regular expression triggers to execute PBot commands or factoids.

[GoogleSearch](lib/PBot/Plugin/GoogleSearch.pm) | Performs Internet searches using the Google search engine.

[Quotegrabs](lib/PBot/Plugin/Quotegrabs.pm) | Grabs channel messages as quotes for posterity. Can grab messages from anywhere in the channel history. Can grab multiple messages at once!

[RemindMe](lib/PBot/Plugin/RemindMe.pm) | Lets people set up reminders. Lots of options.

[Weather](lib/PBot/Plugin/Weather.pm) | Fetches and shows weather data for a location.

[Wolfram](lib/PBot/Plugin/Wolfram.pm) | Queries Wolfram\|Alpha for answers.

[Wttr](lib/PBot/Plugin/Wttr.pm) | Advanced weather Plugin with tons of options. Uses wttr.in.

[UrlTitles](lib/PBot/Plugin/UrlTitles.pm) | When a URL is seen in a channel, intelligently display its title. It will not display titles that are textually similiar to the URL, in order to maintain the channel signal-noise ratio.



There are even a few games!



Plugin | Description

--- | ---

[Battleship](lib/PBot/Plugin/Battleship.pm) | The classic Battleship board game, simplified for IRC. Multiple players can compete at once on the same battlefield!

[Connect4](lib/PBot/Plugin/Connect4.pm) | The classic two-player Connect-4 game.

[Spinach](lib/PBot/Plugin/Spinach.pm) | An advanced multiplayer Trivia game engine with a twist! A question is shown. Everybody privately submits a false answer. All false answers and the true answer is shown. Everybody tries to guess the true answer. Points are gained when people pick your false answer!

[Wordle](lib/PBot/Plugin/Wordle.pm) | Guess a word by submitting words for clues about which letters belong to the word.

[WordMorph](lib/PBot/Plugin/WordMorph.pm) | Solve a path between two words by changing one letter at a time.



#### Applets

Applets are external command-line executable programs and scripts that can be

loaded as PBot commands.



Suppose you have the [Qalculate!](https://qalculate.github.io/) 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 load it with the [`load`](doc/Admin.md#load) command.



    !load qalc qalc.sh



Now you have a [Qalculate!](https://qalculate.github.io/) calculator in PBot!



     !qalc 2 * 2

        2 * 2 = 4



These are just some of the applets PBot comes with; there are several more:



Applet | Description

--- | ---

[C-to-English translator](applets/c2english) | Translates C code to natural English sentences.

[C precedence analyzer](applets/paren) | Adds parentheses to C code to demonstrate precedence.

[C Jeopardy! game](applets/cjeopardy) | C programming trivia game based on the Jeopardy! TV game show.

[C Standard citations](applets/cstd.pl) | Cite specified sections/paragraphs from the C standard.

[Virtual machine](applets/pbot-vm) | Executes arbitrary code and commands within a virtual machine.

[dict.org Dictionary](applets/dict.org.pl) | Interface to dict.org for definitions, translations, acronyms, etc.

[Urban Dictionary](applets/urban) | Search Urban Dictionary for definitions.

[Manpages](applets/man.pl) | Display a concise formatting of manual pages (designed for C functions)



For more information, see the [Applets documentation](doc/Applets.md).



#### Functions

Functions are commands that accept input, manipulate it and then output the result. They are extremely

useful with [piping](#piping) or [command substituting](#substitution).



For example, the `uri_escape` function demonstrated in the [Substitution](#substitution) section earlier

makes text safe for use in a URL.



     uri_escape thing's & words

        thing%27s%20%26%20words



We also saw the `sed` and `uc` functions demonstrated in [Piping](#piping). The `sed` function

replaces text using a substitution regex. The `uc` function uppercases the text.



     echo Hello world! | {sed s/world/universe/} | {uc}

        HELLO UNIVERSE!



Here's a short list of the Functions that come with PBot.



Name | Description

--- | ---

`uri_escape` | Percent-encodes unsafe URI characters.

`sed` | Performs sed-like regex substitution.

`grep` | Searches a string, using a regex, and prints the matching whole-word (e.g. `echo pizza hamburger hotdog \| {grep burger}` outputs `hamburger`).

`pluralize` | Intelligently makes a word or phrase plural.

`unquote` | Removes surrounding quotation marks.

`title` | Title-cases text. That is, lowercases the text then uppercases the first letter of each word.

`ucfirst` | Uppercases the first character of the text.

`uc` | Uppercases all characters.

`lc` | Lowercases all characters.



Additional Functions can easily be added by making a very simple PBot Plugin.



For more information, see the [Functions documentation](doc/Functions.md).



#### Scripting interface

PBot uses [Plang](https://github.com/pragma-/Plang) as a scripting language. You can use the

scripting language to construct advanced commands that are capable of interacting with PBot

internal API functions.



[Learn more.](doc/Plugins/Plang.md)



### Virtual machine to safely execute user-submitted code

PBot can integrate with a virtual machine to safely execute arbitrary user-submitted

operating system commands or code.



PBot supports [several shells and languages](doc/Factoids.md#supported-languages) out of the box!



One of PBot's most powerful features, [Code Factoids](#code-factoids), would not be possible without this.



     !sh echo Remember rot13? | tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M

        Erzrzore ebg13?



         !go package main\nimport "fmt"\nfunc main() { fmt.Print("foo" == "foo"); }

        true



     !python print('Hello there!')

        Hello there!



PBot has extensive support for the C programming language. For instance, the C programming language

plugin is integrated with the GNU Debugger. It will print useful debugging information.



     !cc char *p = 0; *p = 1;

        runtime error: store to null pointer of type 'char'

              Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault at

              statement: *p = 1; 



It can display the value of the most recent statement if there is no program output.



     !cc sizeof (int)

        no output: sizeof(int) = 4



For more information about the C programming language plugin, see [the `cc` command in the Applets documentation.](doc/Applets.md#cc)



For more information about the virtual machine, see the [Virtual Machine documentation.](doc/VirtualMachine.md)



### Powerful user management

PBot has powerful yet simple user management functionality and commands.



* instead of generic access-levels, PBot uses [fine-grained user capabilities](doc/Admin.md#user-capabilities), which can be grouped into roles such as Admin, ChanOp, Moderator, etc

* user accounts can be global or channel-specific

* users can be recognized by hostmask or required to login with password

* users can adjust their [user-metadata](doc/Admin.md#user-metadata-list) with the [`my`](doc/Commands.md#my) command

* and much, much more!



For more information, see the [Admin documentation.](doc/Admin.md#user-management-commands)



### Useful IRC quality-of-life improvements

* [`mode`](doc/Admin.md#mode) command can take wildcards, e.g. `mode +ov foo* bar*` to op nicks beginning with `foo` and voice nicks beginning with `bar`

* `unban ` and `unmute ` will remove all bans/mutes matching their current or previously seen hostmasks or accounts

* [`ban`](doc/Admin.md#banmute) and [`mute`](doc/Admin.md#banmute) will intelligently set banmasks; supports timeouts

* [`ban`](doc/Admin.md#banmute) and [`mute`](doc/Admin.md#banmute) can take a comma-separate list of nicks. Will intelligently group them into multiple `MODE +bbbb` commands

* [`kick`](doc/Admin.md#kick) can take a comma-separated list of nicks; also accepts wildcards

* and much, much more!



For more information, see the [Admin documentation.](doc/Admin.md)



### Channel management and protection

PBot can perform the typical channel management tasks.



* opping/deopping known users, etc

* channel-mode tracking/protection

* [user hostmask/alias tracking](doc/Admin.md#message-historyuser-tracking)

* [ban-evasion detection](doc/Admin.md#akalink)

* [flood detection](doc/AntiAbuse.md)

* [silent join-flood enforcement](doc/AntiAbuse.md#setting-up-automatic-join-flood-enforcement)

* whitelisting, blacklisting, etc

* spam/advertisement detection

* and much, much more!



For more information, see the [Channels documentation](doc/Admin.md#channel-management-commands) and the [Anti-abuse documentation](doc/AntiAbuse.md)



### Easy configuration

PBot's settings are contained in a central registry of key/value pairs grouped by sections.



These settings can easily be configured via several methods:



* [PBot's command-line arguments](doc/Registry.md#overriding-registry-values-via-command-line)

* [simple built-in commands (`regset`, `regunset`, etc)](doc/Registry.md#registry-commands)

* [editing](doc/Registry.md#editing-registry-file) the [`$data_dir/registry`](data/registry) plain-text JSON file



For more information, see the [Registry documentation.](doc/Registry.md)



### Live reloading of core modules or data files

Suppose you edit some PBot source file, be it a core file such as [PBot/Core/Interpreter.pm](lib/PBot/Core/Interpreter.pm) or

a Plugin such as [PBot/Plugin/Wttr.pm](lib/PBot/Plugin/Wttr.pm). Or suppose there's a PBot update available. Most simple

bots would require you to shut down the bot and restart it in order to see the modifications.



Not PBot! you can simply use the [`refresh`](doc/Admin.md#refresh) command to reload all modified

PBot core files and Plugins without bot restart.



You can also use the [`reload`](doc/Admin.md#reload) command to reload any modified

configuration or data files.



## Documentation

See the [PBot documentation](doc) for more information.



## Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question, try the [PBot FAQ](doc/FAQ.md)!



## Support

For additional questions and support, feel free to join the `#pbot` channel on the [Libera.Chat](https://libera.chat/guides) IRC network ([Web Chat](https://web.libera.chat/#pbot)).



## License

PBot is licensed under the [MIT license](LICENSE).