409px, An IRC bot performing a simple task.An IRC bot is a set of
scripts or an independent
program that connects to
Internet Relay Chat as a
client, and so appears to other IRC users as another user. An IRC bot differs from a regular client in that instead of providing interactive access to IRC for a human user, it performs automated functions.
Function
Often, an IRC bot is deployed as a detached program running from a stable host. It sits on an
IRC channel to keep it open and prevents malicious users from
taking over the channel. It can be configured to give
channel operator status to privileged users when they join the channel, and can provide a unified channel operator list. Many of these features require that the bot be a channel operator. Thus, most IRC bots are run from computers which have long
uptimes (generally running a
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
derivative or
Linux) and a fast, stable
Internet connection. As IRC has become popular with many
dial-up
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
users as well,
shell accounts at
shell provider
A shell account is a user account on a remote server, traditionally running under the Unix operating system, which gives access to a shell via a command-line interface protocol such as telnet, SSH, or over a modem using a terminal emulator.
Sh ...
s have become popular as a stable Linux server with a decent connection to run a bot from.
Aside from managing channel permissions, a bot can also perform functions such as logging what is posted to an IRC channel, giving out information on demand (very popular in IRC channels dealing with user support), creating
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
tracking the channel's top posters and longest-lived
lurker
In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not participate. The exact definition depends on context. Lurkers make up a large proportion of all users in online communities. Lurking allows u ...
s, or hosting
trivia,
Uno and other games. These functions are usually provided by scripts, often written in a
scripting programming language such as
Tcl or
Perl by the bot's users. Channels dedicated to
file sharing often use
XDCC bots to distribute their files.
IRC bots are particularly useful on
IRC networks such as
EFnet and
IRCnet without
channel registration services, and on networks like
Undernet or
QuakeNet that require conditions to be met (minimum user count, etc.) before a channel may be registered. Where bots are used for administrative functions such as this, they may need more access than a normal client connection allows. Some versions of IRC have a "Service" protocol that allows clients with these extra powers. Such server-sanctioned bots are called
IRC services.
Bots are not always welcome. Some IRC networks forbid the usage of bots. One of the reasons for doing so is that each
nickname connected to the network increases the size of the network
database which is being kept in
sync across all servers. Allowing for bots in large networks can cause a relevant amount of
network traffic overhead which needs to be financed and may even lead to
netsplits.
Comparison
In popular culture
*
Basshunter's 2006 song,
Boten Anna, is about a female IRC user mistaken for an IRC bot
See also
*
Chatterbot
*
Comparison of Internet Relay Chat bots
References
External links
*
{{IRC topics
Bot, Internet Relay Chat
