RockBot Homepage

Go to the SourceForge Rockbot project page

RockBot is now being hosted by SourceForge. They provide a version tracking system, bug tracking system, mailing lists, forums, web space, and a bunch more, to opensource projects, for free.

For the absolute latest version of developmental RockBot6, you can access the CVS repository directly or (NEW!) nightly CVS snapshot tarballs.

What is it?

Rockbot is a C based robot for IRC. It compiles well under linux, bsd, cygwin, and many other unix-like platforms. RockBot provides password protected userlists, auto-ops, infolines, protection, seen database, basic file sharing, and much more. Version 6 allows for multiple channels with different userlists. Its generally easy to configure and use, and reliable too. (version 6 still has some bugs though)

Version 6

RockBot version 6 is well under way. Eggdrop bots have become the norm these days, but that may change. RockBot version 6 will offer the following improvements, aimed at giving those who, like me, dislike eggs, a great alternative!

Multiple channels/userlists (done)
New data format (done)
Improved configuration setup -- manual config file editing optional
Improved settings layout, with a common interface (done)
Handles give the users in your list a name for better manageability (done)
Multiple hosts per user account (done)
Userlevels can be used as words, or numbers (partal)
More organized command level structure (partal)
Password security options -- configurable (partal)
Improved, accurate help files (partal)
Imbedded Python scripting capabilities! (delayed)
infobot features! (delayed)
Faster socket routines! (done)
Hundreds of bug fixes! (partal)

done Mostly done, still may be some bugs and improvements comming
partal This is definately not done as much as i want yet
delayed Due to lack of time for the project, some of the more advanced goals were shelved for now

Get the development releases HERE

The RockBot story

I was new to C, when I first started working on RockBot. Its first version was a desperate act to save our channel (#311 on efnet) from an ongoing attack. I was running two stelbots to protect the channel at the time, but some fellows discovered brian8's back door, and were using it to make my StelBots sign off. My friends wern't around at the time to provide backup and my own login was all that was keeping the channel in good hands. I had toyed a little with C, changing replies.. modifying things.. but I was still new to it. In a desperate move I spawned 4 or 5 copies of my 'Stells to keep the attackers busy for a few more seconds, and delved into the source with my trusty vi to see if i could solve the problem. I had taken out one back door from the StelBot code, but apparently there were more.. and i had to find them. I suspected there were several, and since I had no time, I came up with a plan. They were using the 'die' command to quit the bot.. and knew what the code was to get in because they knew it was a Stelbot. So as fast as I could i changed the version reply to something else.. something that might mask its true identity from my attackers.. something strong sounding.. something they wouldn't be able to break.. RockBot! Then i quickly disabled the die command temporarily so their attacks would not work.. and started my creation up.. It worked! They couldn't make it die.. and when they /versioned it to find out why.. it wasn't a StelBot.. it was a RockBot! One of them msg'd me.. "So you got a new bot huh?" "Yep" i replied, "This one has no back doors."

In the months to follow I began to delve into the code more.. learned a lot about c, found the remaining back doors and removed them. The die command was now 'SLEEP' a legacy of RockBots birth in a desperate moment. Slowly I added new features.. fixed bugs, customized the replies.. RockBot was mine now. truly a different breed than its ancestors.

RockBot 5.0

RockBot 5.0 resources are pretty limited right now, as most of my energy is going into version 6 and all the things i should have here about 5.0 are changing very soon. There are a couple of bugs in the 5.0 release version you should be aware of:

Nick parameter parsing error: sending the bot !nick without any params causes a segfault. The bug is caused by a silly typo in the code.. i have a fixed version but since only level 99's can use the nick command an easer answer till 6.0 comes out is "don't do that"
Op/Deop bug: If the bot doesn't have level 100 access to itself, you risk a loop of ops and deops when it sees itself (a level 0 say) opping someone, if you have the min op level set higher than 0 (the default). Just be sure the bot is in its own userlist as level 100 (edit the userlist file to get 100).
Its important to note that all the data files are VERY sensitive in 5.0 Anything weird and the bot will behave unpredictably.. be sure you don't introduce new carage returns, leave any trailing spaces, etc. This will be a lot better in version 6 code.

Flames? Blessings? Comments? Rubin@agora.rdrop.com