Eggdrop

Eggdrop is the world's most popular open source Internet Relay Chat (IRC) bot. Originally created by Robey Pointer in December 1993 for use on a channel called #gayteen, it has spawned an almost cult like following of users. It is a feature rich program designed to be easily used and expanded upon (using Tcl scripting) by both novice and advanced IRC users on a variety of hardware and software platforms.

Eggdrop is freely available and can be freely distributed under the terms of GNU General Public License.

An IRC bot is a program that sits on an IRC channel and preforms automated tasks while looking just like a normal user on the channel. Some of these functions include protecting the channel from abuse, allowing privileged users to gain op or voice status, logging channel events, providing information, hosting games, etc.

One of the features that makes Eggdrop stand out from other bots is module and Tcl scripting support. With scripts and modules, you can make the bot preform almost any task you want. They can do anything from preventing floods to greeting users and banning advertisers from channels.

You can also link multiple Eggdrop bots together to form a botnet. This can allow bots to op each other securely, control floods efficiently, and even link channels across multiple IRC networks. It also allows the Eggdrops share user lists, ban lists, exempt/invite lists, and ignore lists with other bots if userfile sharing is enabled. This allows users to have the same access on every bot on your botnet. It also allows the bots to distribute tasks such as opping and banning users. See doc/BOTNET for information on setting up a botnet.

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, command line options for Eggdrop, what you may need to do when upgrading from older versions, a list of frequently asked questions, 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, too), some basics about CVS usage, and some channels where you might get help with Eggdrop.

What is new in this release:

• This version fixes a very old bug where unsetting the "nick-len" variable in Tcl and then attempting to restart the bot will crash it.
• Cygwin 1.7 can have issues getting the DNS server list; you can now set the dns-servers config variable to fix this.
• QNX6/Mac OS X/Solaris dns.mod fixes. 64-bit fixes.
• A crash bugfix with Tcl8.5.10 and workaround for a bug in Tcl8.5.10.
• This release reverts the ability of vwait and update to process.
• The env(TZ) default config setting is now correct.
• Compilation against Tcl 8.3/8.4 works again.