hpc-bot

A repository to host code to build a discord bot

Instructions

1. Clone repository

   git clone https://github.com/CoBiG2/hpc-bot.git

2. Install python 3.8

   • Downloads here, installation instructions here
   • Alternatively, install to user space (on Linux) with conda:

     make install-conda
     make install-python

3. Install dependencies

   make upgrade-pip
   make install-dependencies

4. Run, through the command line

   Pass command line arguments as needed, TOKEN being the only one required (all others have defaults). Alternatively, define a config file and use the --config argument to load it (TOKEN can be defined in the config file as well)

   usage: hpc_bot.py [-h] [-t TOKEN] [-n NICKNAME] [-a AVATAR] [-tc BOT_TEXT_CHANNEL] [-p COMMAND_PREFIX] [-l LOG] [-c CONFIG]
   
   Run hpc-bot discord Bot
   
   optional arguments:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -t TOKEN              Bot token. REQUIRED. Get one here: https://discordapp.com/developers/applications/me
     -n NICKNAME           Bot nickname. Default is computer host name (in this case: "My Computer")
     -a AVATAR             Bot avatar image path (only .jpeg or .png). Sets bot avatar. Ignoring this argument will leave your bot's avatar unchanged
     -tc BOT_TEXT_CHANNEL  Text channel where bot will send its messages. Default is "hpc-bots"
     -p COMMAND_PREFIX     Prefix string that indicates if a message sent by a user is a command. If omitted, only bot mentions will trigger command calls
     -l LOG                Log file path. If path is a folder, "bot.log" file will be created inside it. If path is an existing file, logs will be appended to it. Default is "./bot.log"
     -c CONFIG             Config file path. Bot parameters will be loaded from config file. Command line arguments take precedence over config parameters.
   

   config file structure (every parameter is optional):

   {
     "token": "<BOT-TOKEN> (see https://discordapp.com/developers/applications/me')",
     "nickname": "<SERVER-NICKNAME>",
     "avatar": "<BOT-AVATAR-IMAGE-PATH>",
     "bot_text_channel": "<BOT-TEXT-CHANNEL>",
     "command_prefix": "<COMMAND_PREFIX>",
     "log": "<LOG-FILE-PATH>"
   }

5. Run, using systemd

   hpc-bot has a systemd service file. You can use it to manage starting and stopping the bot. In order to use it you must first install hpc-bot as a module:

   pip install --user .

   then create a config file like the one mentioned in 4. under ~/.local/etc/hpc_bot/config. You can then use systemctl to control how your bot starts:

   systemctl --user start hpc-bot.service    # Starts the bot
   systemctl --user stop hpc-bot.service     # Stops the bot
   systemctl --user status hpc-bot.service   # Gets a short status summary of the bot
   systemctl --user enable hpc-bot.service   # Makes the bot startup whenever your user logs in

   In order to make the bot start whenever the system boots, you must enable user-linger:

   loginctl enable-linger <username>

   This command must be run as root, and you have to replace username with the name of the user for whom the bot is installed.