FAQ.md

Frequently Asked Questions

This is a work in progress. More questions coming soon!

• When I type !version it say "new version available"?
• How do I change the bot trigger?
• How do I whitelist a user?
• How do I change how the bot outputs multi-line messages?
• I made a command. It's supposed to output formatting with spaces and tabs?
• How do I change my password?
• How do I make PBot remember my date timezone?
• How do I make PBot remember my weather location?
• How do I set up automatic join-flood enforcement?

When I type !version it say "new version available"?

The PBot version command checks PBot's version information on GitHub. The command caches and reuses this version result for 5 minutes before issuing another GitHub version check.

You can live-update PBot without shutting it down. None of your files in your custom data-directories will be touched unless the update includes a migration script in the updates/ directory.

If you used git to install PBot, type git pull in the pbot directory. This will update the PBot files to the latest version from GitHub. If you used ZIP archives, download the latest files and extract them again.

Then, in your PBot instance on IRC, use the refresh command to refresh the PBot core and plugins. No restart required!

If there is a migration script for this update then refresh will say "Migration available; restart required." and you will need to restart PBot at some point for the update to take effect.

How do I change the bot trigger?

To change the default ! trigger to a different character use the regset command to change the general.trigger value. Use #channel.trigger to change the trigger only for that channel.

For example, to change it to the ~ character:

regset general.trigger ~

To change it to both ! and ~ (and others):

regset general.trigger [!~]

To use only the bot's nick:

regset general.trigger ""

How do I whitelist a user?

Whitelisting a user exempts them from anti-flood enforcement, ban-evasion checking, being automatically muted or kicked for various offenses, and more.

To whitelist a user, use the useradd command with the is-whitelisted capability argument. To whitelist them in all channels, add the user to the global channel.

Usage: useradd <username> <hostmasks> <channels> is-whitelisted

If the user already exists, use the userset command to grant them the is-whitelisted capability.

Usage: userset <username> is-whitelisted 1

How do I change how the bot outputs multi-line messages?

When output from a command contains newlines, PBot will convert the newlines to spaces and output it as one message.

If you prefer to output each line instead, you can control this behavior with the general.preserve_newlines and general.max_newlines registry entries. To set this behavior for specific channels, replace general with the #channel.

For example:

<pragma-> !sh printf "a\nb\nc\nd\ne\n"
   <PBot> a b c d e

<pragma-> !regset general.preserve_newlines 1
   <PBot> general.preserve_newlines set to 1

<pragma-> !regset general.max_newlines 4
   <PBot> general.max_newlines set to 4

<pragma-> !sh printf "a\nb\nc\nd\ne\n"
   <PBot> a
   <PBot> b
   <PBot> c
   <PBot> <truncated; https://0x0.st/Okb.txt>

How can I remove excessive spaces and tabs from command output?

If a command or factoid is producing too much whitespace and making it difficult to read, you enable a metadata option to collapse adjacent whitespace to a single space.

If your command is registered by a plugin, use the cmdset command to set the condense-whitespace command metadata.

If your command is a command-line applet, use the factset command to set the condense-whitespace factoid metadata instead.

How do I change my password?

If you have a NickServ account or a unique hostmask, you don't need a PBot password. The autologin and stayloggedin metadata on your user account can be set instead.

But if you prefer to be safe instead of sorry, use the my command to set the password and unset the autologin and stayloggedin metadata for your user account. Your hostmask must match the user account and you must be logged in.

my password <your password>
my autologin 0
my stayloggedin 0

If you are unable to log in, ask an admin to set a temporary password for you with the userset command. Log in with the temporary password and then use the above commands to update your password.

How do I make PBot remember my date timezone?

Use the my command to set the timezone user metadata for your user account. Your hostmask must match the user account. The my command will automatically create a user account for you if one does not exist.

my timezone <your timezone>

How do I make PBot remember my weather location?

Use the my command to set the location user metadata for your user account. Your hostmask must match the user account. The my command will automatically create a user account for you if one does not exist.

my location <your location>

How do I set up automatic join-flood enforcement?

See how to set up automatic join-flood enforcement here.