MUDShell Eggdrop Stable Readme File

Eggdrop Stable Readme

README
Last revised: December 29, 2001
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Please at least SKIM this document before asking questions. In fact,
READ IT if you've never successfully set up an Eggdrop bot before.
PLEASE! READ IT! If you haven't read this file, and ask for help
expect to be told to READ the README file first!

Contents

0 Important notice

1 What is Eggdrop?
2 How do I get Eggdrop?
2a CVS usage
3 Quick startup
4 Upgrading
4a Upgrading from a pre-1.3 version to 1.6
4b Upgrading from an older 1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6 version to a newer one
5 Frequently Asked Questions
1. What do I do if I get the error "User file not found"?
2. My Eggdrop won't run; It just says "Can't find your
hostname!"
3. What the Heck is Tcl?
4. My bot dies and the last entry in the logfile is "Received
terminate signal". What does that mean and can I prevent it?
5. My compile dies at the last minute with "LD fatal signal
11"!
6. Someone else set up a bot I don't like. Are there any
backdoors I can use to take their bot down?
7. What are modules?
8. Can I compile Eggdrop without dynamic modules?
8.1 Do I still need to "loadmodule modules"???
9. Where can I get a pre-compiled Eggdrop for my computer?
10. I get "Makefile:3 : invalid operator" of some such thing
When I try to "make"
11. When I "tclsh scripts/weed <userfile> c" It barfs chunks at
me and dies.
12. I get "ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libtcl80.so.1" not found"
or "eggdrop: error in loading shared libraries /
libtcl8.1.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file
or directory" when I try to start my bot.
13. I get a whole pile of "unresolved symbol 'Tcl_AppendResult'"
(or some other symbol) when I try to load a module.
6 Setting up a crontab
6a Setting up a crontab using autobotchk
7 Boring legal stuff
8 Mailing list
9 Documentation
10 Obtaining help

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(0) NOTICE

Please read this file carefully before trying to set up this
bot. Also, make SURE that you select your +n (owner) users
wisely! They have 100% access to your bot and account! ONLY
GIVE THIS POWER TO SOMEONE YOU TRUST COMPLETELY!!

(1) WHAT IS EGGDROP?

Eggdrop is an IRC bot, written in C. If you don't know what
IRC is, this is probably not whatever you're looking for!
being a bot, sits on a channel and takes protective measures
to keep the channel from being taken over (in the few ways
that anything can), to recognize banished users or sites and
reject them, to recognize privileged users and let them gain
ops, etc.

One of the more unique features of Eggdrop is its "party line",
accessible via DCC chat and telnet, which allows you to talk
with other people lag-free. Consider it a multi-way DCC chat,
or a miniature IRC (complete with channels). You can link up
with other bots and expand the party line until it actually
becomes something very much like IRC, in fact.

Eggdrop is always being improved and adjusted because there
are bugs to be fixed and features to be added (if the users
demand them, and they make actually sense). In fact, it
existed for several years as v0.7 - v0.9 before finally
going 1.0. This version of Eggdrop is part of the 1.6 tree.
A valiant effort has been made to chase down and destroy
bugs.

This README file contains information about how to get
Eggdrop, how to quickly compile the bot, what you may need
to do when upgrading from older versions, a list of
frequently asked questions about compiling, how to set up a
crontab, some boring legal stuff, info about the mailing
list (a great place to ask questions, and a good place to
report bugs also), some basics about CVS usage and some
channels where you might get help with Eggdrop.

The preliminary documentation is in "eggdrop.doc" and is
intended to be read after you have Eggdrop compiled and set
up.

(2) HOW TO GET EGGDROP

Before you can compile Eggdrop, you need to have Tcl
installed on your system. Most systems should have Tcl on
them by now -- you can check by trying the command "tclsh".
If it works, you will be given a "%" prompt, and you can
type "exit" to exit the program. This means Tcl is on your
system. If tclsh doesn't load, then Tcl probably isn't on
your system, and you will need to ftp it.

The best ftp site for Tcl is ftp://ftp.scriptics.com/pub/tcl.

Tcl comes with the Slackware distribution of Linux. HOWEVER,
the one that comes on Slackware 3.0 is goofed up and you'll
have to re-install it for yourself to get it working.

Currently, the 1.6 tree of Eggdrop is developed at
eggheads.org. You can get the latest version of Eggdrop from
ftp://ftp.eggheads.org/pub/eggdrop/source/stable/

You might try www.eggheads.org for help and information.

(2a) CVS USAGE

You can obtain the VERY LATEST version of Eggdrop, that is still
under development, by using CVS. CVS means 'Concurrent Versions
System' and is a tool for developers to always keep source code
up to date. Try 'man cvs' on your shell for more information about
CVS ;-)

This is intended only for users that know a good bit about Eggdrop.
Be aware that the versions of Eggdrop that you get via CVS are still
being developed, and may be buggy. The Eggheads devteam will in
NO WAY take any responsibility for whatever might happen to you or
your shell if you use a CVS version of Eggdrop.

To obtain Eggdrop over CVS, do as follows:

(1) Log into your shell.

(2) Type 'export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@cvs.eggheads.org:/usr/local/cvsroot'.

(3) Type 'cvs login'.

(4) Press <enter> when prompted for a password.

(5) In your home dir, type 'cvs checkout eggdrop1.6'

(6) in ~/eggdrop1.6, you should have a copy of the latest
CVS version of Eggdrop.

Notes:

(1) You can 'cvs logout', but you don't need to.

(2) You don't need to go through this whole process every
time. If you want to get a CVS version of Eggdrop at
a later time, you can just 'cd ~/eggdrop1.6' and type
'cvs update -dAP'.

(3) If you experience errors when using 'export', you might
be using tclsh as a shell. If so, try using the command
'setenv' instead of 'export':

'setenv CVSROOT :pserver:anonymous@cvs.eggheads.org:/usr/local/cvsroot'

(3) QUICK STARTUP

Please see the 'INSTALL' file AFTER you finish reading this file.

(4) UPGRADING

(4a) UPGRADING FROM A PRE-1.3 VERSION TO 1.6

#### BACK UP YOUR USERFILE ####

We can't stress this enough. If you are upgrading and
you have even a slight possibility of downgrading again
later, you will HAVE to back up your userfile, or you will
lose it. v1.3 of Eggdrop radically changed a lot of things.

There are many major changes between v0.9, v1.0, v1.1 and
v1.6, so PAY ATTENTION to this part if you have a v0.9, 1.0
or 1.1 bot currently. If you're just starting out, you can
skip this section.

If you run share bots, you will need to upgrade them all at
the same time because of the new userfile format. Older bots
will be able to link in, but will not get or send a userfile.
MAKE A NEW CONFIG FILE from the example, there are some radical
changes.

If you are upgrading from 0.9/1.0 to 1.6, just redo the whole
thing. Absolutely everything has changed, including the
userfile and config file formats.

If you are upgrading from 1.1/1.2 to 1.6, you will likely want
to redo the config file, as much as changed. BACK UP!! You will
need to run 'tclsh scripts/weed/<userfile> c' to convert your
userfile from v3 (1.1/1.2) to v4 (1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6).

(4b) UPGRADING FROM AN OLDER 1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6 VERSION TO A NEWER 1.6
VERSION

If you followed the 'INSTALL' file and did a 'make install'
(or "make install DEST='path'") after 'make', this will be
pretty easy. Just upload the new eggdrop1.6.x.tar.gz file to
your home dir on your shell, gunzip and untar it, and type
'cd ~/eggdrop1.6.x'. Next, type './configure', 'make config'
or 'make iconfig', then 'make'. Then, kill the bot ('.die' on
the party line), and 'make install' to the same directory your
bot is currently in. After that, you can just restart your
bot. You may wish to delete the old Eggdrop executable and
modules as well, especially if you have limited disk space.

You should read through the new eggdrop.complete.conf file
for all the new options in Eggdrop 1.6.x if you are upgrading
from 1.3.x or 1.4.x. You can copy and paste any of these
settings into you current conf file if you do not want to use
the default settings.

(5) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (or "Why doesn't this thing work?")

1. WHAT DO I DO IF I GET THE ERROR "USER FILE NOT FOUND"?

(1) Run Eggdrop with the "-m" option (i.e., "eggdrop
-m eggdrop.conf").

(2) Go to IRC and send "hello" to your bot (i.e., "/msg mybot
hello").

(3) You will become an owner on your bot. You can leave the
bot running (nobody else will become an owner if they say
"hello"), but in the future, don't use the "-m" option
when running the bot.

2. MY EGGDROP WON'T RUN; IT JUST SAYS "CAN'T FIND YOUR
HOSTNAME!"

Your machine is set up strangely, and Eggdrop can't
figure out its network hostname. You can get around this by
setting the my-ip setting in the config file correctly.

3. WHAT THE HECK IS Tcl?

Tcl is a scripting language written by John Ousterhout. It's
much better than most "built-in" script languages (like the
one in ircII) and is meant to be linked with anything needing
a scripting language, so I linked it with Eggdrop. The file
"tcl-commands.doc" in the doc directory contains a list of
additional Tcl commands provided by Eggdrop. There are also
several example scripts in the scripts/ directory, and one
in the doc directory called first_script.txt. There are also
hundreds of scripts floating around on the ftp/web sites if
you like working by example (which is typically the best way).

4. MY BOT DIES, AND THE LAST ENTRY IN THE LOGFILE IS "RECEIVED
TERMINATE SIGNAL". WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, AND CAN I PREVENT IT?

There's nothing you can do to prevent it. It means the
system administrator is killing the Eggdrop process. Most
of the time, it's an automatic thing that happens when the
system is being rebooted, so it's harmless. If you have a
crontab running, the bot will get restarted when the system
is back online. Occasionally, the system administrator will
kill the bot manually. For example, if he/she doesn't want
bots running on the system.

5. MY COMPILE DIES AT THE LAST MINUTE WITH "LD FATAL SIGNAL
11"!

See doc/compiling.FAQ

6. SOMEONE ELSE SET UP A BOT I DON'T LIKE. ARE THERE ANY
BACKDOORS I CAN USE TO TAKE THEIR BOT DOWN?

No, there have never been any backdoors and there never will
be, so please stop asking. Every once in a while, someone
finds a way to exploit a bug in Eggdrop, but we fix these
bugs as soon as we find out about them. If you want to bring
down someone else's bot, you will not have my/our help.

7. WHAT ARE MODULES?

Modules are a way of adding extra C code from the bot, much
like Tcl scripts, without requiring the bot to be recompiled.
See doc/MODULES for more information.

8. CAN I COMPILE EGGDROP WITHOUT DYNAMIC MODULES?

Yes, you can. If ./configure detects that your system CAN'T
run modules, it will setup 'make' to link the modules in
statically for you. You can also choose this option yourself
by typing 'make static'. You can also try to compile dynamic
modules on a static-only system by using 'make eggdrop'.

8.1 DO I STILL NEED TO 'loadmodule' modules ???

YES, when you compile statically, all the modules are linked
into the main executable. HOWEVER, they are not enabled until
you use loadmodule to enable them, hence you get nearly the
same functionality with static modules as with dynamic modules.

9. WHERE CAN I GET A PRE-COMPILED EGGDROP FOR MY COMPUTER?

It is HIGHLY recommended AGAINST using pre-compiled Eggdrops
from un-trusted sources. Eggdrop has been a regular target
for hacking and crashing. Distribution of pre-compiled
(binary) versions of Eggdrop are the easiest way for hackers
to provide you with the easiest (and most dangerous) way of
gaining access to, not only your bot, but to your computer
account directly. Don't advertise your pre-compiled Eggdrop
binary sites on the Eggdrop list either. =P

10. I GET 'Makefile:3 :invalid operator' OR SOME-SUCH-THING
WHEN I TRY TO 'make'

Try 'gmake'.

11. WHEN I 'tclsh scripts/weed <userfile> c' IT BARFS CHUNKS
AT ME AND DIES :(

UPGRADE YOUR TCL, you are probably using Tcl 7.5 or earlier.
Some of the commands in weed require Tcl7.6 to run, so either
upgrade it or remove the offending lines from you userfile
manually (those starting with '.' generally) and accept the
loss of that data.

12. I get "ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libtcl80.so.1" not found"
or "eggdrop: error in loading shared libraries libtcl8.1.so: \
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" when I
try to start my bot.

'./configure' is looking in the wrong place for Tcl; it looks
like it compiled with one version of Tcl and tries to load
another. Maybe your sysadmin upgraded Tcl and didn't tell
you. In that case, you should just need to recompile your
bot.

Maybe, when upgrading, he didn't clean the old version of
Tcl and './configure' is looking for the files in the wrong
places, or trying to use different versions of tcl.h and
libtcl*. Smack your admin and have him install Tcl properly ;)

You can also try:

./configure --with-tcllib=<path-to-tcl-lib>
--with-tclinc=<path-to-tcl-inc>

Tell configure where to look for the Tcl files.

Try looking for libtcl by:

ls /usr/lib/libtcl*
ls /usr/local/lib/libtcl*

Try looking for tcl.h by:

ls /usr/include/tcl.h
ls /usr/local/include/tcl.h

If everything else fails, try to install Tcl to your home dir
;) (Suggested by dw@Undernet, dw@lixom.nu)

13. I get a whole pile of "Unresolved symbol 'Tcl_AppendResult'"
(or some other symbol) when I try to load a modules.

POSSIBILITY A: See section 12.

POSSIBILITY B:

Some of the standard libraries have been compiled for static
linking only on your machine, you have 3 options:

(1) If it's your own machine, recompile Tcl using dynamic
linking by using './configure --enable-shared' when you
configure Tcl (not the bot) and then remake, and reinstall.

(2) If it's not your machine, you make have to resort to 'make
static' and 'make install DEST="path"' to make and install
your bot.

(3) If you are of a more aggressive sense of mind, go beat
the stuffing out of your admin for having lame static
libraries :)

(6) SETTING UP A CRONTAB

Eggdrop has become more stable with time, thanks mostly to people
reporting bug details and helping find places where it crashes.
However, there are still a -few- places where things aren't
perfect. Few, if any, things in life are.</p>

Also, most systems go down from time to time. These things cause
your bot to disappear from IRC, and you have to restart it.

Eggdrop comes with a shell script called 'botchk' that
will help keep the bot online. It will make the machine check every
ten minutes to make sure your bot is still running. To use it, you
have to add a line to your crontab. First, edit 'botchk' and change
the directory and command line parameters so that it will be able
to start up your bot. Then, add this line to your crontab:

0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /home/mydir/botchk

If you don't want to get emails from cron, use this:

0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /home/mydir/botchk >/dev/null 2>&1

Naturally, you need to change the path to the correct path for
botchk. If you've never used crontab before, here is a simple way
to add that line:

(1) Create a new file called 'mycron' and put the above
line into it.

(2) From your shell prompt, type '% crontab mycron'.

That will create a new crontab entry for you with a line that
runs botchk every ten minutes. Botchk will then restart the bot when
necessary (and send you email informing you).

(6a) SETTING UP A CRONTAB USING AUTOBOTCHK

Included with your Eggdrop is an Eggdrop utility called
'autobotchk'. Using autobotchk is probably the fastest way of
creating your botchk and crontabbing it with just a few required
steps.

To crontab your bot, follow these steps:

(1) Type 'cp scripts/autobotchk ..'.

(2) Type './autobotchk <Eggdrop config file>'.

This will hopefully crontab your bot using the default
setup. If you want a list of autobotchk options, type
'./autobotchk'. An example with options would be:

./autobotchk <Eggdrop config file> -noemail -5

This would setup crontab to run the botchk every 5 minutes
and also to not send you e-mail saying that it restarted
your bot.

(7) BORING LEGAL STUFF

The Eggdrop bot is copyright (C) by Robey Pointer. As of January,
1997, Eggdrop is distributed according to the GNU General Public
License. There should be a copy of this license in the file
'COPYING'. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

As of eggdrop1.3.28, all changes made by the Eggheads development
team to the Eggdrop source code and any related files are copyright
(C) by Eggheads. The source code will still be distributed according
to the GNU General Public License as Robey Pointer did in the past.

Releases previous to 1.0m were made using a different licensing
scheme. You may, at your option, use the GNU General Public License
on those versions (instead of the license packaged with them) with
my blessing. For any versions bearing a copyright date of 1997 or
later, you have no choice -- you must use the GNU General Public
License.

The files "match.c", "net.c", and "blowfish.c" are exempt from
the above restrictions. "match.c" is original code by Chris Fuller
(email: crf@cfox.bchs.uh.edu) and has been placed by him into the
public domain. "net.c" is by me and I [who?] also choose to place
it in the public domain. "blowfish.c" is by various sources and is
in the public domain as well. All 3 files contain useful functions
that could easily be ported to other applications.

Tcl is by John Ousterhout and is in no way affiliated with Eggdrop.
It likely has its own set of copyrights and whatnots.

There is no warranty, implied or whatever. You use this software
at your own risk, no matter what purpose you put it to.

(8) MAILING LIST

There are currently a couple of mailing lists about Eggdrop.
eggheads@eggheads.org is the one relevant for posts about
Eggdrop 1.4 and up (suggestions, help, etc).

To subscribe to the eggheads mailing list, send email to
eggheads-request@eggheads.org. In the body of the message, put
"subscribe eggheads". You can also go to the following url:

http://scrambled.eggheads.org/mailman/listinfo/eggheads

### DO NOT SEND ROBEY EMAIL ABOUT EGGDROP ###

Robey is no longer developing the Eggdrop code, so don't bother
e-mailing him. If you have a serious problem, email the eggheads
mailing list and it will get to the coders.

Please, before posting to this list, see what things are like.
When you do post, read over your post for readability, spelling, and
grammar mistakes. Obviously, we're all human (or are we?) and we
all make mistakes (heck, look at this document! ;).

Open discussion and debate is integral to change and progress.
Don't flame others over mere form (grammar and spelling), or
even substantive issues for that matter. Please read and follow
the mailing list rules.

The eggheads@eggheads.org mailing list is not dedicated to those
all too common questions we have all seen on other lists... For
example:

"Why does my bot say this: Please edit your config file."
"How do I telnet my bot?"
"Where do I get Eggdrop for windows??????"
etc..

Technical questions, your thoughts or suggestions on new features
being added to Eggdrop, things that should be removed or fixed,
amazing problems that even stump the guru's, etc. are what we want
to see here.

Bug reports should be sent to bugs@eggheads.org. Please read
and fill out the BUG-REPORT file in the doc directory.

DO NOT SEND HTML E-MAILS TO ANY OF THE EGGHEADS.ORG MAILING LISTS.
ANYONE CAUGHT SENDING HTML E-MAILS TO ONE OF THESE LISTS WILL BE
REMOVED IMMEDIATELY!

(9) DOCUMENTATION

We're trying to keep the documentation up to date. If you feel
that anything is missing here or that anything should be added,
etc, please email eggheads@eggheads.org about it. Thank you.

(10) OBTAINING HELP

You can obtain help with Eggdrop in the following IRC channels:

Undernet - #eggdrop, #eggheads
EFnet - #egghelp, #eggfaq
IRCnet - #eggdrop
DALnet - #eggdrop

If you plan to ask questions in any of the above channels,
you should be familiar with and follow IRC etiquette.

- Don't type using CAPITAL letters, colors, or bold, and don't use
"!" and "?" excessively.

- Don't /msg people without their permission.

- Don't repeat or paste large amounts of text to the channel.

If there are any other serious Eggdrop related channels that should
be added to the above list, please let us know.

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