Interacting with the bot is pretty straightforward. Most of the commands and variables available to users are listed below. The bot will interact via message or on-channel.

Two of the major difference's between Pbotty and the Orginal Infobot is that Pbotty is completely backended by a PostgreSQL database and has a PHP3 web front end for the PostgreSQL database. We have a basic PostgreSQL schema that Pbotty runs included in the tarball download as well as all the PHP3 code for the web front end. We will assume that you already know how or have PostgreSQL and PHP3 installed on your system as this FAQ does not go into installing, or configuring PostgreSQL or PHP3. You may look at our PostgreSQL/PHP3 Tutorial if you need some added help. There are many scripts included in the source tarball to make things automated via crontab files, for example a daily reporting that is emailed directly to your mailbox showing all the data that has been added to your database as well as who added it and when.

• Go to where you see
  # the internal name for this bot
  ident       Pbotty
  Just replace where it says Pbotty with the nick you want your bot to use

• Now go to this section
  # IRC-related params
  ircuser       $ident
  realname      $ident
  server       irc.cs.cmu.edu
  port       6667
  allowed_channels #Pbotty #$ident

  What we want to do here is set our servers and channels for the bot. For example to have the bot connect to dalnet and be allowed to join a channel called #foo the above would look like

  # IRC-related params
  ircuser       $ident
  realname      $ident
  server       irc.dal.net
  port       6667
  allowed_channels      #foo
  

• Next area we need to modify is
  # channels to join
  # use #channel,key (thanks to tile++) for keyed channels
  join_channels       #infobot #$ident

  Here is where the bot will actually join the allowed channel from above. Just change this line to reflect the channel you want the bot to join for example:

  join_channels       #foo

• Next Stop
  # server password, if needed
  # server_pass       myserverpassword

  Everyone will not need this section. If you use a irc network that requires a password (most networks that have Chanserv and Nickserv require this), then you can set your registered bots password here to make your life easier. Example if your bots password is blah then uncomment the line and place blah like so:

  server_pass       blah

• Now save that file and lets move on to pbotty.users. This file can be tricky depending on how you want your bot to act and react to users in the channel. If you want everyone to be able to teach your bot then you can keep the defaults and just replace the example entry with your information. On the other hand if you only want certain users such as your channel ops to be able to teach, delete, or modify facts then you will need to make a few changes. For example:

  UserEntry default   {
        flags +fs;
  }

  Now you'll have to have an entry for each person allowed to teach, delete, modify, die, rehash and all other admin type things with the bot by replacing their information with the examples given.

  In order to get the password field encrypted go to /Pbotty-v1.1C/scripts and use the makepasswd script, for example:

  makepasswd
  plaintext>blahblahblah

  It will output something like this

  QOb98lGC.qzXA

  At this point just cut and paste that into the pbotty.users file for the pass and hit control-c to get out of the makepasswd file.

• Lets take a look at the file /Pbotty-v1.1C/Pbotty

  If '.' is not in your $PATH, which by default most distro's of Linux does not use '.' in the $PATH, then you need to set the full path to your Pbotty executable file.

  Right at the top of the file you will see

  # set this to the absolute path if you need it; especially
  # if . is not in your path
  $pbotty_base_dir = '.'; # '/usr/local/lib/pbotty/';
  $pbotty_src_dir = $pbotty_base_dir.$filesep."src";

  Make the necessary changes to reflect your installation for correct paths.

  Now jump down to where you see

  use DBI;
  
  $Pg_db = "pbotty";
  $dbHost = "LOCALHOST";
  $dbUser = "postgres_user";
  $dbPass = "postgres_pass";
          
  $DBI_MODULE="Pg";
  
  Change $dbUser to reflect the postgres user you want Pbotty to connect as
  and change $dbPass to that users password. If you are using the schema that
  came with Pbotty then $Pg_db and $dbHost should be left alone.

• Now lets install all the perl mods we need or you will be extremely disappointed when you fire up the bot and some things won't work, or worse yet it won't start because its missing some stuff.

  cd Pbotty-v1.1C/Pbotty-bundle
  perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::pbotty_modules'

  Install other needed Perl module

  DBD-Pg-0.92.tar.gz
  

• Now lets get the schema into your PostgreSQL database. Go into /Pbotty-v1.1C /PostgreQSL and put the pbotty.schema into ~/ of your PostgreSQL user. As your PostgreSQL user run the next commands:

• createdb pbotty

• psql -e pbotty < pbotty.schema

• Use the /PostgreSQL/adduser script to create the user your bot will run as. Edit the script change your_username to the bot's user and change your_password to the bots password move the adduser script to your postgres home dir then run

  psql -e pbotty < adduser

• There are several datapacks in the /Posgresql dir that you may input into your database to give your bot a head start in the learning process. The script postgres_update.pl will help you input them directly into your database. Edit the postgres_update.pl script to reflect your postgres user and password as well as the file.txt you want to input and just run the script

  perl postgres_update.pl

  Do that for each datapack you wish to install.

• To convert Infobot custom datapacks run this commandline

  perl -pi -e 's/\s*=>\s*/|/g' filename

  Where filename is the name of the file to be converted

  Note: If you have any problems converting custom factpacks from the Infobot contact Kimmie.

  PHP3 Code Implementation

• Go into /Pbotty-v1.1C/php-public
• Run the Install.sh script in the /php-private and /php-public to set the user/pass for database connectivity
• cp -R /php-public to your webtree
• chown -R nobody /php-public
• Repeat the same steps for /php-private
• Add a .htaccess in the /php-private directory

• Start Up Now you are ready to fire up your new bot

  This should be as simple as entering the Pbotty parent directory and executing

  Pbotty or ./Pbotty or perl Pbotty

  This starts up the script and generates a whole lot of text. It's useful and interesting to see what's going on "in the Pbotty's head". You can control the amount of verbage that comes out with the VERBOSITY parameter, of you can dump all the output to the bitbucket and background the process at the same time with

  nohup Pbotty > /dev/null &

• UH OH I got an error: If you get

  Pbotty: Command not found.

  or something like it, you need to edit the infobot script at the top level directory (the script named 'infobot') and set the path to you perl interpreter in the very first line of the script to

  #!/path/to/perl

  with, of course, the full path to your perl binary.

• explicitly setting normally relative paths

  If you don't have . in your path, you will probably need to set some variables explicitly that are normally determined relative to the Pbotty script. This is done in the 'Pbotty' script.

• the console

  Should you choose to look at the stream if consciousness in the bot, and you haven't reduced the output to nothing or consigned it to the void, you will be presented with the console.

  The first thing you should see, assuming all goes well with making a connection, is the motd (message-of-the-day) of the server the bot has been configured to connect to.

  Next, you should see the result of the channel joins specified in the parameter files, and you may see the bot recognizing hostmasks of people in the userfile, if any have been put in there.

  If you have the ansi_control paramter set, and your terminal supports it , the output will be in color.

  NOTE that the 'console' is NOT interactive. You can't type anything into it, it's just for viewing what's going on.

• cronning the Pbotty

  You can set the Pbotty to automatically start up using cron. See the included example crontab file.

• shutting it down

  If you have set yourself as the bot's master in the user file (pbotty.users, unless you changed the default), you can just say or message 'die' to the bot.

  Otherwise, kill the process or hit control-c in the console.

• For these examples we will assume the bot's nick is Pbotty

• Accessing factoids: What is X?

  You can ask an Infobot about something in a number of different ways, including "what is X?", "where is X?", or just plain "X?".
  For example what is ppp? where is ppp? or just ppp?
  You can also prefix it with the bots nick like botnick what is ppp? botnick where is ppp? or botnick ppp?
  You can also use these commands via /msg to botnick
  Example: /msg botnick what is ppp? /msg botnick where is ppp? or /msg botnick ppp?

• Have the bot tell someone else something: using tell

  The syntax is: Pbotty tell nick about term
  Example: Pbotty tell asdw about linux
  This will send asdw the definition/URL of the term linux and also send a notice letting the sender know that it was sent.
  You can also use this command via msg
  Example: /msg Pbotty tell asdw about ppp

• teaching data: X is Y

  Saying something like "X is Y" somewhere that the infobot can see it will cause the bot to store the data, unless X is already defined. It sets the value of X to Y.

• altering data: s/A/B/

  if you just want to change a part of a term/definition, use the s///operator. you have to address the bot or use a private medium to do this.

  Pbotty, X =~ s/A/B/

  will change the first occurence of A to B in the database called X.

• appending to existing entries: also

  One can extend an existing term/definition using the keyword also

  poink is also a silly word

• replicating a term:

  You can tell Pbotty that X = Y for replication

  Example if you have a term called test with the definition this is a test, then you can do

  Pbotty test2 = test

  That will add the term test2 to the database with the same definition that test has.

• erasing a term: forget

  A term can easily be deleted by using

  Pbotty, forget poink

• changing a term: no, ...

  you can change the entry for a term completely using

  no, Pbotty, x is wugga wugga.

  which deletes the prior entry (if possible) and replaces it with the new one.

• random responses with |

  You can set a list from which to pick a random response by using | when adding a term

  x is a|b|c|d

  When x is asked about, Pbotty will randomly choose from the |-spearated list.

• message unit - Thanks to Simon Cozens

  Pbotty can now store messages for you to a user, when the user logs on and says something he/she will get the message from the bot.

  syntax /msg pbotty message for foo: Call me ASAP

  Pbotty will /msg foo Hi, Foobar; you have 1 new botmail messages (/msg me with `botmail next' to read)

  You can also do /msg pbotty botmail check

  Note: When the bot dies or is restarted it loses its messages it was holding

• ignoring users: ignore nickname, ignore *.a.com

  Users with the P (oP) flag can tell the bot to ignore people or hostmasks. And 'unignore'. use 'ignorelist' to get the current list of ignored masks, if you have the P flag.

• die

  If the bot owner (+O, Owner) says this or messages it to the bot, it will kill itself.

• Rehash

  If the bot owner (+O, Owner) says this in a message to the bot, it will rehash itself. It is better to .die the bot if any changes have been made to the source.

• shutup or shut up This puts the bot in REQUIRE addressing mode which means the bots nick must be used before it will respond.

• wakeup or wake up This puts the bot back in optional mode which means his nick does not need to be typed before it will respond

• say

  Users with the +o flag can make the bot say things in channel

  syntax is /msg botnick say #channel text you want bot to say

• Joining an allowed channel: join #Pbotty

  On IRC, you can tell the Pbotty to join a channel that it's allowed to join with

  Pbotty, join #Pbotty

  If it is allowed to (in its paramter settings), it will try to join the channel.

• Leaving a channel: part #Pbotty

  This causes the bot to leave the given channel

  Pbotty, part #Pbotty

  leave is a synonym for part.

• The < reply >term tag.

  Normally, when the Pbotty replies to "What is X", it says "X is Y". This form makes it just reply "Y".

  X is < reply > Y

• The < action > term tag (as of 0.43.5)

  This causes the bot to respond as with except as an ACTION.

  X is < action > Y

• backwacking

  Use \ to protect items from evaluation.

  x is y is y

  will normally set x =is=> y is y, but

  x \is y is y

  will set

  x is y =is=> y

  The forget and no (update) operators apply before checking for this. This is also useful for getting around the dereferencing of "i" and "me" and so on.

• The $who variable

  Contains the nickname person currently addressing the bot. It can be used effectively in replies.

  nice day is < reply > you betcha, $who.

• The $date variable

  Contains the current date and time, at the bot's host.

• literal foo

  returns the value without the usual post-processing.

• change 100 USD to DEM

  converts currency. Retrieves the current exchange rates from the net. Requires LWP.

  < rss="http://www.foo.com/summary.rss" >

  looks up the RSS file (RDF Site Summary) and returns it in-place where the tag is. Requires XML::RSS and LWP.

• Ignoring users: ignore nickname, ignore *.a.com

  Users with the P (oP) flag can tell the bot to ignore people or hostmasks. And 'unignore'. use 'ignorelist' to get the current list of ignored masks, if you have the P flag.

• op on channel

  The 'p' (oP) flag in the userfile allows this to work. You'll need to set a hostmask. See files/infobot.users Also uses a crypted password.

  /msg < bot > < password > op

• Statistics

  Syntax: Pbotty status

  This will give you a reply like

  < Pbotty > Since Mon Dec 27 12:38:56 1999, there have been 2 modifications and 7 questions. I have been awake for 1 hour, 31 minutes, 38 seconds this session, and currently reference 43200 factoids. Addressing is in optional mode.

• seen

  Syntax: seen asdw

  This will give a reply like:

  < Pbotty > asdw was last seen on IRC 1 hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds ago, saying: `TQ: linux fdisk [Mon Dec 27 12:34:40 1999]

• search

  You can search the internal database terms for factoids by issuing a command like

  Pbotty search for ppp

  It will then message you up to the first 15 matches found.

• find

  You can search the internal database definitions for factoids by issuing a command like

  Pbotty find me linux

  It will then message you up to the first 15 matches found.

• Google Searches

  You can do web based searches using Dejanews, Google, Gopher, Excite, Infoseek, HotBot, Lycos, AltaVista, Magellan, PLweb, SFgate, and Verity.

  Syntax: google for term

  Example: google for linux

  google can be replaced by any of the above listed search engines. This command can also be used via /msg to the bot using the same syntax in a /msg.

• nickometer, by Adam Spiers. Guages how 'lame' a nickname is, as a percentage!

  Syntax: nickometer nick

  Example: nickometer l33t

  You will get a reply like 'l33t' is 91.69% lame, asdw

• slashdot headlines, originally from Chris Tessone, current version from Rahga.

  Syntax: slashdot headlines

  This will give you all the latest headlines on slashdot like:

  Slashdot - Updated 1999-12-27 19:42:00 | IceWM 1.0.0 released | PCWeek on the Influence of the PC and the Internet | Why is BSD Not As Popular As Linux? | Second "Bonus" Interview: Jon "maddog" Hall

• weather

  Syntax: weather 4-digit metar code

  Example: weather ktys

  ktys is the metar code for Knoxville, TN you can find your metar code HERE

  The bot will message you output that looks like:

  Knoxville, McGhee Tyson Airport, TN, United States; (KTYS) 35-49-05N 083-59-09W 302M; last updated: Dec 27, 1999 02:53 PM EST; Dew Point: 6.1 F (-14.4 C); Precipitation last hour: A trace; Pressure (altimeter): 29.89 in. Hg (1012 hPa); Relative Humidity: 21%; Sky conditions: clear; Temperature: 43.0 F (6.1 C); Visibility: 10 mile(s); Weather: Light snow; Wind: from the WSW (250 degrees) at 11 MPH (10 KT); Windchill: -7 F (-22 C)

• nslookup

  performs DNS lookup or reverse-lookup on the hostname or IP.

  Syntax: nslookup ipaddress

  Example: nslookup vic.com

  Example Output: vic.com is 206.31.139.10

• traceroute gets the traceroute results from the bot's machine to the target machine. Summary only

  Syntax: traceroute ipaddress

  Example: traceroute vic.com

  Example Output: 7 gatekeeper.vic.com (206.31.139.10) 53.037 ms 76.323 ms 43.573 ms

• imdb, websters, foldoc outputs a well-formed url for a search of IMDB (the Internet Movie DataBase), the Webster's 1913 dictionary.

  Websters Syntax: websters term

  Example: websters sex

  Example Output: sex may be sought at http://work.ucsd.edu:5141/cgi-bin/http_webster?sex

  IMDB Syntax: imdb movie title

  Example: imdb happy hooker

  Example Output: happy hooker can be found at http://www.imdb.com/M/title-substring?title=happy+hooker&type=fuzzy

• excuse gives you an excuse from the excuse server

  Syntax: give me an excuse

  Example Output: < Pbotty > asdw: Please excuse me, I have to circuit an AC line through my head to get this database working.

• insult You can have it insult you or someone else in the channel.

  Syntax: insult me

  Someone Else Syntax: insult nickname

  Example Output: < Pbotty > You are nothing but a penguin-molesting thimbleful of squishy Sun IPC manuals.

• karma karma for a concept may be incremented or decremeted using ++ and --. You can get the current karma 'score' for something by asking for it.

  Syntax: nick++ or nick-- (to add or decrease karma)

  Example: asdw++ (adds to asdw's karma)

  karma for asdw

• Personality Naturally the bot has some personality or it just wouldn't be much fun right? Addressing the bot in certain ways will make it respond in kind, here are just a few examples of AI triggers for personality.

  Greetings: hi, hello, howdy, hey, hola, salut, bonjour

  Praise:
  Pbotty you rock
  Pbotty you rule
  Pbotty you are so cool

  Manners: Pbotty thank you

• spelling is a spell checker that uses ispell

  Syntax: spelling of term

  Example: spelling of linux

  Example Output: Possible spellings for linux: Linus

• zippy Gives zippy quotes

  Syntax: be zippy

  Example Output: Here we are in America ... when do we collect unemployment?

• 8Ball the magic 8ball (divine)

  Syntax: 8ball question

  Example: 8ball does people like me? Example Output: Pbotty/#linuxhelper shakes the psychic purple sphere... < Pbotty > It says 'That's ridiculous,' asdw

• purldoc perl documentation lookup DMasque++, HJ++

  Syntax: purldoc term

  Example: purldoc cgi

  Example Output: < Pbotty > perlfaq3, question 14: How can I generate simple menus without using CGI or Tk?
  < Pbotty > perlfaq3, question 20: How can I make my CGI script more efficient?
  < Pbotty > perlfaq3, question 27: Where can I learn about CGI or Web programming in Perl?

  Note: Pbotty loads a help file each time it is started that can be accessed by doing

  /msg pbotty help

  That will message the user all the features and examples of how to use them

Download The Source Of Your Choice

Pbotty-v1.1D.tgz Quiet Channel Bot (Only Op's can make it talk publically, everyone else gets answer via /msg)

Pbotty-v1.1F.tgz Chatty Channel Bot (Anyone can make it talk publically)

Download The PHP/PostgreSQL Upgrade For Pbotty-v1.1C.tar.gz

php-private
php-public

To see what the new interface looks like try this demo

Data Packs

• areacodes.txt Area Codes
• dos.txt DOS terminologies
• howto.txt Linux HOWTO URL's
• peri_abb_and_num.txt Periodic Table of Elements
• ports.txt Explaination of computer ports
• rx_codes.txt Prescription/Medical terminology
• security.txt Computer security terminology
• techdict.txt Technical terminologies
• country_net_codes.txt Country codes on IP Addresses
• weather.txt NOAA Weather codes by location
• weather2.fact NOAA Weather code by 4-digit code
• jargon.txt Mixture of sayings and definitions
• fresh.txt Freshmeat applications with URL's

1. Download and untar the source for Pbotty

   tar zxfv Pbotty-v1.1D.tar.gz

2. Install pbotty_modules bundle

   cd Pbotty-v1.1C/Pbotty-bundle
   perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::pbotty_modules'

3. Install other needed Perl modules

   DBD-Pg-0.92.tar.gz

4. Edit /Pbotty-v1.1C/files/ to suit your needs (normally pbotty.config and pbotty.users are the only 2 files that need modified)

5. Edit the top level Pbotty executable to suit your needs

6. As your Postgres user do:

   createdb pbotty

7. Install the schema from /Pbotty-v1.1C/postgres to your postgres database

   psql -e pbotty < pbotty.schema

8. Use the /PostgreSQL/adduser script to create the user your bot will run as. Edit the script change your_username to the bot's user and change your_password to the bots password move the adduser script to your postgres home dir then run

   psql -e pbotty < adduser

9. Install any data packs you want from /Pbotty-v1.1C/PostgreSQL using the script also found in that directory called postgres_update.pl Just edit the postgres_update.pl for the file(s).txt you want to input into your database

10. Go into /Pbotty-v1.1C/php-public run the Install.sh to set your posgres user /pass, cp -R /php-public to your web tree, chown -R nobody /php-public, repeat the same for the /Pbotty-v1.1C/php-private directory.

11. Start the bot

    ./Pbotty or perl ./Pbotty

Perl Coders Wanted

If you are interested in helping the continued development of Pbotty please contact Kimmie.

Graphic Contest

Well my talents fall short in many areas but graphics is a definate low point for me. So this is a calling for all graphic artist to submit there best ideas of what they think Pbotty would look like. The graphic will be placed as a trademark on all PHP3 web pages and packaged in the next release of Pbotty. All credits would be given to the winner of the contest within each PHP3 page but the graphic would fall under the ownership/trademark of Pbotty. Anyone that would like to submit please do so at kimmie@kritek.com All submitted graphics will be placed on the website to be voted on publically.

the CREATORS

CREDITS
========
Kevin Lenzo is creator of all base code.

Matt Cashner built the DBI perl mod into the base code

Kimmie Dicaire is responsible for Pbotty FAQ's/Documentation, Database schema's, data packs and all PHP3 code.

Warranty

Software
Downloads
EZ Notepad
EZ Phonebook
EZ Tracker
Pbotty
Skins
 
 

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