gozerbot blog

GOZERBOT 0.9.1 released

gozerbot — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:12:48 +0000

here it is .. GOZERBOT 0.9.1 !!

Main change this time is the distribution method, we now provide a tar.gz with all the dependencies included. This means that you can run the bot locally without any root required. Python 2.5 or higher needed, see http://gozerbot.org

Enjoy !

GOZERBOT 0.9.1 BETA2 released

gozerbot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:44:04 +0000

GOZERBOT has a new website !! check it out at http://gozerbot.org. This is all in preparation for the 0.9.1 release and the latest GOZERBOT beta has been released as well. Please try this version and let me know how goes.

Install is as simple as .. easy_install gozerbot gozerplugs, see README.

This release will be used to move GOZERBOT 0.9 into the debian repositories and freebsd ports.

we can be contacted on #dunkbots EFNET/IRCNET or use http://dev.gozerbot.org for any bugs you might find.

NEW IN THIS RELEASE:

* GOZERBOT is now truely free as it no longer depends on GPL licensed xmpppy, a own xmpp package has been implemented for this.

* GOZERBOT now depends on setuptools to install the proper packages

* gozerbot-nest script can be used to install all dependacies and bot code in 1 directory that can be run by the user (no root required)

* morphs are added that allow for encryption of input and output streams (not used yet)

groet,

Bart

gozerbot goes nesting

gozerbot — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:15:28 +0000

so we use pypi now to distribute gozerbot and this made me realize that easy_install could also be used to make a local installation of gozerbot. this puts gozerbot and all its dependancies into 1 directory from which gozerbot can be run. thus i made this script which is downloadable from http://gozerbot.org/gozerbot-nest

quickrun:

wget http://gozerbot.org/gozerbot-nest
chmod +x gozerbot-nest
./gozerbot-nest
cd gozernest
./gozerbot –owner
edit gozerdata/mainconfig and gozerdata/fleet/default/config
DONE !! ;]

here is the script for the curious:
#!/usr/bin/env python # #


__copyright__ = 'this file is in the public domain'
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

import sys, site, os, subprocess
if not os.path.isdir('gozernest'):

    os.mkdir('gozernest')

nestdir = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'gozernest'))

os.environ['PYTHONPATH'] = nestdir

proc = Popen('easy_install --install-dir gozernest -U gozerbot gozerplugs'.split() + sys.argv[1:], stdout=sys.stdout, shell=False)

proc.wait()

print 'done'

os._exit(0)

GOZERBOT 0.9 RELEASED

gozerbot — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:43:59 +0000

Finally gozerbot 0.9 has been released. This is a huge step forward to version 1.0 and contains a number of changes:

use json as the format to save data in instead of pickles
let config files also use json, this makes them more readable and human editable
remove popen usage from the bot core
remove execfile() calls from the bot core
rewrite the gozerbot package into several subpackages
use sqlaclhemy to provide database backend (sqlite3 is default)
require python2.5
move most of the plugins into their own package
restructure the gozerdata layout so its more readable

All these changes makes upgrading from older versions of gozerbot necessary so a gozerbot-upgrade program is provided (upgrading from 0.7 is not supported yet, will follow soon).

See http://gozerbot.org on how to install gozerbot 0.9

shell injection bug found in the ping.py plugin

gozerbot — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:01:12 +0000

last week a shell injection bug was found in the ping.py plugin. this plugin is not part of the basic gozerbot distribution but can be installed from a remote plugin server with the !install-plug command. this plugin is also provided with the following gozerplug distributions:

gozerplugs-BETA1.tar.gz
gozerplugs-BETA2.tar.gz
gozerplugs-BETA3.tar.gz

all gozerbot maintainers are asked to remove the ping.py plugin from the myplugs (0.8) or gozerplugs (0.9) directory and restart the bot.

because this is a serious bug the gozerbot core is rewritten to remove usage of popen as much as possible and not to allow remote execution of popen calls to the user. therefor the install plugin and upgrade plugins have been removed from core and a seperate program gozerbot-install has been made to allow bot maintainers to install remote plugins while not exposing the installation of plugins to bot users.

this is all done in the new 0.9 release of gozerbot which i will anounce soon.

Bart

Request For (gozerbot) Testers

gozerbot — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:59:05 +0000

So 0.9 is getting in shape and there is one issue that keeps me from releasing 0.9 and that is the upgrade path. 0.9 is vastely different from 0.8 so a special upgrade script has been written to aid with this. Now i have tested this on some gozerbot users but i need a more broader audience that wants to test this for me. So if you run a 0.8 gozerbot you could help me out with testing the 0.9 upgrade script, testing can be done along side your own bot so you dont loose your old configuration.

To test do the following:

1) hg clone http://core.gozerbot.org/hg/dev/0.9 0.9bot 2) cd 0.9bot 3) hg clone http://core.gozerbot.org/hg/plugs/gozerplugs 4) ./bin/gozerbot-upgrade . 5) ./bin/gozerbot

Check if the bot has converted your data properly with the !size command. As a last step you can test the plugins with the !test-plugs command.
If you have any problems with testing gozerbot 0.9 let me know on #dunkbots IRCnet or at bthate@gmail.com .. THNX ;]

Bart

GOZERBOT and the battle of the beta’s

gozerbot — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:28:04 +0000

version 1.0 of gozerbot is drawing nearer and nearer and this makes me nervous. When 1.0 hits the streets it needs to be API stable so people that write plugins for gozerbot can rely on gozerbot to NOT change. This however turned out difficult for me todo as i have the desperate urge to change the core once every while. So while we are at 0.8.1.1 now i thought of making small changes in 0.8.2 0.8.3 etc until we reached 0.9 hoping at that time that things would have stabilized.

This however turned more difficult because the changes i needed to make in gozerbot were so drastic that the code base got FORKED because keeping backwards compatible code in gozerbot made it grow into obscurity. The fork was made by maze one of gozerbot biggest contributors see http://boozer.codehub.org/.

Like a wakeup call this made my alarm fase turn red and rushed me into moving towards a 0.9 release now in which i try to do all the changes i think are necessary for gozerbot 1.0.

changes as i have them at this moment are:

rewriting of the gozerbot package into several subpackages
moving base plugins into the gozerbot package so basic bot functionality is provided into the core
use sqlite3 as the base backend storage
depend on sqlalchemy to also provide backends to other databases
moving locally installed plugins into a “gozerplugs” package, this is because the “myplugs” install target didn’t provide enough namespace purity
use a new config file format based on json .. no execfile used anymore, plugin config files are now human editable
use a new layout of the gozerdata dir adding users, fleet and plugins directories to store related data
let Persist class now use json to serialize data to disk as well, getting rid of pickles all to gether since they were the root of a lot of upgrade problems (peristed classed are stored by name making it difficult to move modules around)
move third party software into the botdir level. This makes the code as if it the code were globally installed. Basically done so that gozerbot is easier installed on systems like debian and freebsd
rename some of the provided programs .. gozerbot-init gozerbot-upgrade

These changes make a huge difference in format in which data is stored, so a seperate upgrade program will be provided in 0.9 to convert older formats into the new one. This however needs a lot of testing and is not yet completed

Anyone who want to help cranking the bugs out of 0.9 is very welcome in out channel #dunkbots on IRCNET. Tarballs are available from http://gozerbot.org but if you want to get into gozerbot development or testing running it from the developement mercurial repository is best. By running it from mercurial it makes it easy to sync changes i make to the bot base by simply running the !upgrade command. repo is at http://core.gozerbot.org/hg/dev/0.9

I really hope that i can finish this need to change urge and stabilize the bot API wise.

Bart

GOZERBOT 0.8.2-BETA released

gozerbot — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:50:08 +0000

It is time for a new gozerbot release so we are pushing a new BETA for the world to test. This time the change is rather big as most plugins are removed from the core and put into there own tarball. So if you want to try out 0.8.2-BETA for us and report any problems with it on http://dev.gozerbot.org/ or in our channel #dunkbots on IRCnet we would very much appreciate it. You can also contact me at bthate@gmail.com. Download can be done from our website http://gozerbot.org.

new features:

most plugins removed from core .. this keeps the base of the bot as small as possible
missing plugins can be installed via internet or via tarball
rewritten core .. callbacks and commands when not threaded are not executed in the main loop anymore but instead in what are called “runners”, threads that do the jobs. this limits the threads that are launched
new debug mode that enables more verbose logging (stacktrace)
a REST server and client have been added to the core .. the cloud plugin uses these to communicate between bots. data is transfered in json format
new plugins are added to the plugin collection
- powernick (core) .. a plugin to relay the log file to an OPER via DCC CHAT
- throttle (core) .. throttle users to max number of commands per minute
- cloud (myplugs) .. connect gozerbots together
- traclog (myplugs) .. log channel in a format suitable for integration with trac
- register (myplugs) .. enables users to register themselves with the bot
- anon (myplugs) .. register users on channel join
config changes are now written to the config file instead of a pickle

download the gozerbot-0.8.2-BETA tarball here
download the myplugs-0.8.2-BETA tarball here
core bot mercurial repository here
myplugs mercurial repository here

TAKE NOTE: most of the plugins are removed from the core bot .. you can use the !install-defaultplugs command to get most of these plugins .. otherwise see !install-list of plugins that can be installed

big change ahead

gozerbot — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:05:21 +0000

well i’ve decided to bite the bullet and remove all not necessary plugins from the gozerbot core. removed all the included batteries so to speak except for the ones needed for basic operation. this makes the core bot much cleaner and easier to maitain so i can focus on the core instead of plugins, i hope ;]

the removed plugins are stored on the plugin servers so they can be installed with a !install-plug , see !install-list for a list of plugins that can be installed

this does mean thats plugins stop working because they are no longer in core, in this case an OPER should install-plug the missing plugin.

i started wrapping up 0.8.2-BETA and release this in the next week or so

changes have immediate effect in the gozerdev repository based on http://core.gozerbot.org/hg/gozerdev

GOZERBOT 0.8.1.0 released

gozerbot — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:01:20 +0000

0.8.1.0 is here and can be downloaded from http://gozerbot.org

new features:

ssl connections are now supported
third party software included into gozerbot:
- feedparser (used by RSS) .. makes atom feeds possible
- simplejson (used by COLLECTIVE)
- BeautifulSoup (used to parse webpages)
renewed RSS plugin
renewed collective plugin
renewed webserver plugin .. new webserver API
tcp.py notification plugin as well as a totcp.py client program

the following plugins were removed from the main distribition:

autovoice
away
convert
country
event
grab
jcoll
probe

if you are using one of these plugins use install-plug to install them from the plugin server.

any problems with the bot can be reported on #dunkbots on IRCnet or email bthate@gmail.com

debian package and freebsd port will follow

have fun ;]