timemachine

timemachine is an IRC bot, which processes inline sed-like search-and-replace strings (s///) and an inline history recall command (p//).

Building

timemachine is written in Java 8, and uses the PircBotX IRC library. Maven is used for building; issue

mvn package

to create a combined JAR file, timemachine-unified.jar, including all dependency libraries in the target/ directory.

Running

Startup

Run the generated JAR file with the -h flag to obtain a definitive list of flags. The IRC server hostname and port, the bot's nick, ircname, and realname, and the message history size limit must all be provided. Passworded servers and NickServ authentication are supported by passing the required password in an environment variable, the name of which is passed on the command line; timemachine will read the respective password from the environment. Bot owners are specified by providing a series of regular expressions which will match their hostmasks.

User interface

The search and replace function is triggered when messages of the following format are sent to a channel, or if another user is addressed using a message of the following format:

s/regex/replacement/[target][~offset]

target and offset may be omitted, in which case they are set to either the user who sent the message (if the command is not addressed) or to the user to whom the command is addressed (if addressed to another user), and zero, respectively. If target is specified explicitly, then timemachine will attempt to match against messages sent by any user in the channel whose nick starts with target.

timemachine will search backwards through the channel's recorded message history for messages from target matching regex. offset number of matches will be skipped, after which the message with the text matched by regex will have the matching substring replaced by replacement. Note that the modified message is stored, and any future search-and-replace operations will be performed on the most recent edit of a message.

The recall function is similarly triggered when a message of the following format is sent to a channel:

p/regex/[target][~offset]

target and offset have the same meaning as for search-and-replace. This will search backwards through the channel's recorded message history for the target user for messages which match regex, skip target matches and then recall the next matching line in the recorded history.

Owner interface

timemachine may be controlled via private message by any user whose hostmask matches one of the specified owner regular expressions. The following commands are understood:

• join <chan> [key]: join the chan channel, optionally using key as the channel passphrase.

• part <chan>: leave the chan channel.

• ignore <nick>: add nick to the ignore list.

• unignore <nick>: remove nick from the ignore list.

• say <chan> <msg...>: say msg on the chan channel.

• quit: quit and disconnect from the server.

Additionally, timemachine will attempt to join channels when it receives an invite from a recognised owner.

License

Licensed under the ISC license; see LICENSE file for details.