1. Introduction

All commands are case-insensitive, although they are written in upper-case in this document. Throughout this documentation the ircII command line interface is used for the examples -- this may be different for your client. In the examples it is assumed that the nickname of the bot is robot. If a command is written directly without a prepending "/msg robot" you must add this yourself.

<argument>

is used to mark arguments which must be substituted with the actual argument, ie. "SEEN <nick>" could become "SEEN foobar".

[argument]

is used to mark optinal arguments

arg1 | arg2

is used to seperate possible arguments

We will use the imaginary user foobar (foo@static.unsigned.int) throughout our examples.

1.1 Quickstart

On-line help

The syntax and a short description of each command is available directly from the bot. To get the syntax of a command write

/msg robot SYNTAX <command>

To get the short description of a command write

/msg robot HELP <command>

The on-line help is always more up-to-date than this document.

Password authentication

As it is easy to fake the username on many sites, Dancer requires authentication by password for most higher-level commands. You only need to register once, as long as the bot is able to keep track of you. This is possible as long as you are on the same channel (provided you don't split) and/or if you have an active dcc chat connection to the bot. To authenticate use the PASS command

/msg robot PASS <your-password>

To change the password use the NEWPASS command

/msg robot NEWPASS <your-new-password>

You must have authenticated with PASS before using NEWPASS.

Dancer uses MD5 for encryption, which is an even stronger encryption than the one used at login on Unix systems.

Direct Client to Client Chat

You can establish a dcc chat connection with the bot. A dcc chat connection bypasses the servers and is hence not subject to lag, netsplit or the other meanies that curse IRC. All usual messages from the bot are delayed, but not on a dcc chat.

/dcc chat robot

/msg =robot <command>

Notez-bien: The "=" letter is important, as it means that the client will send the message through the dcc chat connection rather than as a normal message.

To disconnect type

/dcc close chat robot

or simply quit your IRC client.

If you are behind a firewall (or similar) that prevents you from invoking the dcc chat yourself, you can ask the bot to do it by using the CLIENT command.

Multiple arguments

Most commands take several arguments per command. These should be seperated by a comma (,)

SYNTAX help,syntax

performs a "SYNTAX help" followed by a "SYNTAX syntax" (SYNTAX is executed twice with different arguments.)