Configuration and Running¶

Starting Pixie¶

Starting the bot is simple. Once installed, there will be a new executable available on the system. Presuming the bot was installed with pip install --user, the following will start the bot. If installed in a virtual environment, the path should be adjusted.

$ $HOME/.local/bin/pixie

Configuring Pixie¶

The sole means of configuring Pixie is through a Windows-style configuration file (‘INI File’), located at $HOME/.config/pixie/conf.ini. An example configuration file is given bellow.

[connection]
servers=
    ircs://irc.bondage.com:6697
    irc://irc.bondage.com:6667
bindip=0
nickname=Pixie{NP}
username=pixie
realname=|Nyx|'s Pixie
usermodes=+B

[ssl]
keyfile=./key.pem
certfile=./cert.pem
ca_certs=./ca.pem

`connection` Section¶

servers

A sequence of URIs for the IRC servers to connect to. Only specify the schema (irc or ircs), the host of the server, and optionally the port. For non-secure connections, the port 6667 is the default, with 6697 being assumed as the secure default. If the server requires a password, provide it in the URI using the username:password@ syntax (e.g. irc://:password@host:port). In this case, the user portion is ignored, and you can omit it. The : must not be omitted.

Multiple URIs may be provided, one per line, indented. The first server will be attempted, and if the connection fails, will attempt the next, in sequence.

bindip

The local IP address to bind the outgoing connection to (and any incoming connections in any future expansion)

nickname

The nickname to connect to the server with. If the nickname is already in use, _ will be appended to the end.

username

The username (the portion after the ! and before the @ in a hostmask) to connect to the server with.

realname

Also known as GECOS or ircname, it is the name that will be used in the real name section of a /whois.

usermode

The modes to set on the bot once it connects. Note: on UnrealIRCD based IRC networks, it is polite, and sometimes a rule, that bots set usermode +B

`ssl` Section¶

keyfile: If using SSL (defined a server with an ircs scheme), this may optionally be set to the private key to use for the ssl connection.
certfile: As keyfile, but sets the public key. keyfile must not also include a public key if this is set. This may also reference the path of a file with both a public and private key.
ca_certs: As keyfile, but sets the path to a file containing certificate authority certificates.

Starting off with a Shebang¶

It may be desirable in some cases to run the bot with alternate configuration files. To this end, the bot will accept, as its only command line argument, the path to a configuration file to load. Any other data the bot needs will still be loaded from $HOME/.config/pixie as needed. The most convenient method of using this feature is to put a shebang line at the beginning of the configuration file, and executing the file. For example:

#!/home/username/.local/bin/pixie
[connection]
servers=
    irc://irc.bondage.com
...

$ chmod +x config.ini
$ ./config.ini