ircbot

Simple IRC bot written in golang. Mostly a toy.

It can be built as any common go application.

Running ircbot

It accepts a single command-line parameter, -config, allowing to pass the name of the config file to read (which is config.json by default).

A typical configuration file will look as follows:

{
    "server": "irc.mynetwork.com",
    "port": 6697,
    "use_tls": true,
    "nick": "IrcbotBot",
    "password": "mysecretpassword",
    "use_sasl": true,
    "channels": ["#channel1", "#channel2"],
    "db_dsn": "sqlite:///srv/ircbot/ircbot.db
}

To generate the schema of the database, run:

sqlite3 ircbot.db < schema.sql

Available Commands.

You can list the implemented commands using !help

ACLs

Only people listed as admins in the configuration will have free access to all commands.

You can grant one user, or a channel the right to use a command as follows:

# Allow a user to use a command
you > !acl_add contact_add SomeFriend
IrcbotBot>	The ACL was saved.
# See the acl
you > !acl_get contact_add
IrcbotBot>	ACL for contact_add
IrcbotBot>	Users:
IrcbotBot>		you
IrcbotBot>		SomeFriend
IrcbotBot>	Channels:
# Allow all users in a channel to use a command
you > !acl_add contact_add #thischan
IrcbotBot>	The ACL was saved.
# Remove the authorization to a user
you > !acl_remove contact_add SomeFriend
IrcbotBot>	The ACL was succesfully removed.

How to use the bot

You just need to initialize it in your main program

    irc, err := ircbot.Init("config.json")
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    // Add your commands here
    //
    // Now run it
    irc.Run()

How to add commands

As a reference, commands to manage a contact list are provided under example/

Basically, you have to pick a name for the command, and a callback to be called from it. So say you wanted to make a basic greeter function, that replies to !greet <name>:

func sayHello(args map[string]string, m *hbot.Message, i *ircbot.IrcBot) bool {
    i.Reply(m, fmt.Sprintf("Hello, %s!", args["name"]))
    // We don't want other handlers to process this message
    return true
}

irc.AddCommand("greet", sayHello).AddParameter("name", `\w+`).AllowPublic()

as you can see, the signature of this callback needs to be ircbot.CommandAction, and the first argument contains the values of the parameters in a map. We added AllowPublic() to allow the command to be called in public channels, and the corresponding AllowPrivate() to allow the command in private.

Please note: if you don't add either, your command will not be invoked in any situation!

The command parser is very strict, and if a parameter is not found, it will refuse to execute the command.

It is however possible to add a default value for a parameter using AddParameterWithDefault, or a context-dependent default using AddParameterWithDefaultCb.

For instance, let's say we want our "greet" function to default to the sender name if none was provided. So for example:

    func defaultGreeter(m *hbot.Message) string {
        return m.From
    }
    c := irc.AddCommand("greet", sayHello)
    c.AddParameterWithDefaultCb("name", `\w+`, defaultGreeter)

We also want to set a help message. That is done by using the Help method. Ircbot will take care of properly formatting the output for you, including an example of the syntax with parameters.

A more complex example: a contact list

Very simple interface, you add a new contact with !contact_add, and retrieve it with !contact_get, but it shows how to store and retrieve information in the database.

FAQ

Is ircbot useful for X?

No. In fact, you should not use it.

Can you add feature X?

Didn't you see the patches welcome sign out front?

Is ircbot ready for production?

It depends. Do you employ the author? If yes, "maybe". Otherwise, "LOL".

Is ircbot cloud-native?

Get lost.

Isn't IRC like an internet protocol from the 90s?

Yes, so is HTTP. So what?

Ok by why not a slack bot?

Because I'm an anti-business commie boomer, obviously. Also see "Is ircbot cloud-native?"