Botmaster cheat sheet#

For botmasters (+n/+m). Your job is managing the bot’s user records — adding, finding, changing, and removing the people the bot knows about. That includes adding new members so their feature prefs (like a saved weather default) stick (see Adding a non-privileged member).

You have partyline access, so partyline (.command) forms lead here. If you’re not on yet, see Joining the partyline.

The bot does not auto-add users (learn-users 0). Every record is botmaster-created — there is no self-registration path for members. If someone needs a record, you create it.

Adding a user#

.+user <handle> <hostmask>

• <handle> is the bot record name (a short, stable identifier; often the member’s usual nick).
• <hostmask> is how the bot will recognize them — see Hostmask formats.

Example:

.+user alice *!*@alice-dsl.example.com

After creating, set them a password (or tell them to set one via MSG pass — see the user cheat sheet):

.chpass alice <temp-password>

Finding a member’s hostmask#

If they’re in channel, the quickest way to get their current hostmask:

.whois <nick>

The output shows their nick!user@host — use that (wildcarded) as the hostmask when you .+user or .+host.

Hostmask formats#

Eggdrop matches on nick!user@host with wildcards. Typical safe choices:

Prefer host/ident-based masks over nick-based ones — a nick can be taken by anyone.

Finding a user#

.whois <nick>          look up by current nick (shows handle, flags, hosts, last seen)
.match <handle>        find a record by handle
.match *               list everyone
.userinfo <handle>     extra stored info for a handle

Changing flags and hostmasks#

Flags — .chattr#

.chattr <handle> <flags>          global flags
.chattr <handle> <flags> #chan    channel-specific flags

Common flags:

Examples:

.chattr alice +o #motorcycles     give alice op on #motorcycles only
.chattr alice +o                  give alice global op
.chattr alice -o                  remove alice's global op

Hostmasks — .+host / .-host#

.+host <handle> <hostmask>     add a hostmask to an existing record
.-host <handle> <hostmask>     remove a hostmask

.+host is the path members can’t self-serve. The addhost MSG command is disabled on this fleet (the fleet unbinds it), so a member whose hostmask changed can not add the new one themselves. They ident to get recognized for the session, then come to you to make it permanent with .+host. This cheat sheet is where that handoff lands. Point them at the user cheat sheet to ident first.

Adding a non-privileged member#

Most members just need a record so their feature prefs (like a weather default) work — no flags, no special privileges. On this fleet default-flags is empty, so a freshly .+user’d member is non-privileged by default: no +o, no +m, no +n, no partyline. You don’t have to do anything special; just don’t add flags.

Verify with .whois — confirm the flags line is empty (no +m/+o/+n):

.+user alice *!*@*.example.com
.whois alice
# → check: no +o/+m/+n in the flags output

Only add flags deliberately, when someone actually needs them.

Removing a user#

.-user <handle>

Removes the record and all its hostmasks/flags. Use with care.

Save your work#

Changes to the user records are saved on a timer, but you can force it:

.save

Symptom: “the bot isn’t recognizing me”#

If a member says the bot isn’t recognizing them — .wzset claims they have no default, or the bot ignores them — it’s almost always a hostmask mismatch. First .whois <nick> and check their hostmasks against their current host (shown in the .whois output). If the new host isn’t on the record, you have two ways to fix it — pick one, you don’t need both:

• .+host <handle> <new-hostmask> (permanent) — the bot recognizes them by the new hostmask from now on. This is the fix for a hostmask that’s changed for good.
• Have the member ident (this session only) — point them at the user cheat sheet. Identing re-matches them for the current session but doesn’t save the hostmask, so they’d need to ident again next time. Use this when the change is temporary (VPN, travel) or while you’re about to .+host it anyway.

If whois finds no record at all, it’s not a hostmask issue — create one with .+user (see Adding a user).

Out of scope here#

This cheat sheet covers user records only. It does not cover:

• Botnet linking / partyline plumbing — that’s a separate concern.
• Fleet management (Ansible/Compose, bot deployment) — a separate concern.
• Ban maintenance — see ban maintenance.