A Perl script logs chat sessions
Minutes Taker
© Kheng Ho Toh, 123RF
The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol lets you program bots as automatic helpers. In this month's column, we let a bot log a session and store the results in a database.
At conferences, when supporting open source products, or whenever you need to coordinate a large number of project contributors, IRC is still the number one choice among instant messaging tools. None of its competitors – Yahoo, Microsoft, or the open Google Talk protocol – have been able to send the dinosaur among group communication tools into retirement.
The Bot::BasicBot module, which I introduced in a previous article [2] with a thermal sensor, handles communication between a Perl script and the IRC server so intelligently that programming the bot takes fewer than 10 lines of code. Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable takes this concept a stage further by adding plugin support to your bots so participants in a chat session can send messages to enable them. If a plugin is triggered, it performs the task assigned to it and sends the response back to the chat session.
Desperately Seeking …
The CPAN module has a handful of fully functional sample plugins that you can easily enable with load(). Listing 1 shows an implementation of a script that joins an IRC channel and enables two different plugins.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.