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-__END__
-
-=head1 NAME
-
-Guide To Irssi Scripting.
-
-=head1 DESCRIPTION
-
-This page presents a bunch of additional information about scripting for Irssi
-that doesn't fit well anywhere else. It contains useful tips, common pitfalls,
-and a bunch of other handy things. At least, I hope so.
-
-=head1 LOADING AND UNLOADING SCRIPTS
-
-=head2 File Locations
-
-Packaged Irssi script files are usually placed in F</usr/share/irssi/scripts/>,
-but custom scripts or those required by a single user can be placed in
-F<~/.irssi/scripts/>.
-
-=head3 Autorunning Scripts
-
-If you require a script be run when Irssi starts, you can place the file (or
-better, create a symlink to it) into F<~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/>.
-
-Alternatively, if you want more control over the order in which scripts are
-autoloaded, you can place
-
- SCRIPT LOAD script1
- SCRIPT LOAD script2
- SCRIPT LOAD script3
-
-into your F<~/.irssi/startup> file.
-
-I<This tip was provided by C<Rhonda> on Freenode/#irssi>.
-
-=head2 Testing
-
-=for comment B<TODO: Forgotten what was going to go here>
-
-=head3 C</SCRIPT EXEC>
-
-The C<SCRIPT EZEC> command allows you to test various simple ideas straight from
-the Irssi interface. It can also be used to register signal handlers and
-commands if run with the C<-permanent> option.
-
-B<NB: C<-permanent> only means that the script should not terminate
-immediately. It is still not persistent between restarts of the Irssi client.
-Truly permanent scripts should be placed in autorun scripts or added to
-F<~/.irssi/startup>>
-
-
-B<TODO: Using it for testing stuff out>
-
-B<TODO: Also for very short scripts (with -permanent?)>
-
-B<TODO: Quoting rules for vars and things?>
-
-=head2 Loading
-
-Scripts are loaded via C</SCRIPT LOAD I<filename>>. A default Irssi
-configuration also provides the C</RUN> alias as an alternative to C</SCRIPT
-LOAD>.
-
-Loaded scripts will exist in the Irssi namespace as:
-C<Irssi::Script::I<E<lt>nameE<gt>>>, where I<name> is the filename stripped of its
-F<.pl> extension.
-
-=head2 Unloading
-
-A script can be unloaded via the C</SCRIPT UNLOAD I<name>> command. The name is
-typically the script filename without the F<.pl> extension, so F<nickcolor.pl>
-becomes C</SCRIPT UNLOAD nickcolor>.
-
-As part of the unloading process, if the script contains a
-
- sub UNLOAD {
- ...
- }
-
-function, it will be run just before the script is unloaded and all variables
-destroyed. This can be used to clean up any temporary files, shut down any
-network connections or processes, and restore any Irssi modifications made.
-
-=head1 ANATOMY OF A SCRIPT
-
-In this section, we develop a very simplistic script and look at the
-necessary code.
-
-B<Note:> This section has considerable overlap with L<Juerd's Scripting
-Tutorial|http://juerd.nl/site.plp/irssiscripttut>, which you may also
-wish to read.
-
-B<TODO: Figure out a basic script to use as an example>
-
-=head2 Preamble
-
-All scripts should contain a header as follows:
-
- use strict;
- use warnings;
-
- use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI);
- use Irssi;
-
- $VERSION = '1.00';
- %IRSSI = (
- authors => 'Author Name(s)',
- contact => 'author_email@example.com',
- name => 'Script Title',
- description => 'Longer script description ',
- license => 'Public Domain',
- );
-
-The first two lines are optional, but strongly advised. They provide far greater
-error checking and diagnostics should you make a mistake in your code.
-
-The C<use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI)> defines two global variables, which are then
-set below to the appropriate values.
-
-C<use Irssi> tells the script to make the various L<Irssi> support functions available.
-Additional parameters passed here with C<qw/.../> can be used to import functions into
-the current script namespace.
-
-
-=head1 COMMONLY SCRIPTED TASKS
-
-=head2 Modifying an input line before sending
-
-B<TODO: catch "send text", modify it if necessary, signal_emit it>
-
-=head2 Responding to a public message
-
-B<TODO: catch "messsage public", check params, generate response>
-
-=head2 Responding to a private message
-
-B<TODO: catch "messsage private", check params, generate response>
-
-=head1 USEFUL THINGS
-
-
-=head2 Dealing with Blocking IO
-
-B<TODO: see F<hddtemp.pl> on SIO> - fork and use pipes to communicate. Also
-remember to pidwait the child>
-
-
-=head2 Getting the Response Value of a Remote Command
-
-B<TODO: Add bazerka's snippet here>
-
-=head2 Getting the Response Value of a Local Command
-
-B<TODO: How?!??>
-
-There is no simple way to achieve this. The data backing most common activities
-can be extracted through other API calls, but there are some exceptions.
-
-Maybe, look up the format, intercept gui print text, try to match it against
-what you're expecting?
-
-Can this be generalised at all?
-
-=head2 Sharing Code Between Scripts
-
-There are 2 main ways for scripts to communicate, either via emitting and
-handling Irssi signals, or by calling functions from one another directly.
-
-=head3 Using Signals
-
-In order to use custom signals, they must first be registered with Irssi.
-During registration, a list of the parameters must also be specified. Once specified,
-it cannot be changed without restarting Irssi, so be warned.
-
-After registration, your script can simply listen for signals with
-L<Irssi::signal_add|Irssi/signal_add $sig_name, $func>, or generate them for
-others to handle with L<Irssi::signal_emit|Irssi/signal_emit $sig_name, @params>
-
-For example:
-
-B<TODO: Example here>
-
-=head3 Using Functions
-
-Because scripts exist in a well-defined namespace of C<Irssi::Script::SOMEPACKAGE>,
-it is possible to manipulate the perl symbol table to call functions directly on them,
-assuming they are loaded.
-
-Because the following code depends on I<symbolic references>, it is necessary to
-tell Perl to allow them, despite normally being prohibited by C<use strict>.
-The C<no strict 'refs';> line takes care of this, and reenables them at the end
-of the snippet.
-
- no strict 'refs';
- if (defined %{ 'Irssi::Script::SOMEPACKAGE::' }) {
- if (defined &{'Irssi::Script::SOMEPACKAGE::SOME_FUNC'} ) {
- (&{'Irssi::Script::SOMEPAKAGE::SOME_FUNC'}(@args));
- } else {
- print("Err: can't find Irssi::Script::SOMEPACKAGE::SOME_FUNC");
- }
- }
- use strict 'refs';
-
-Here, C<SOMEPACKAGE> is the name of the script package which contains the
-function you want to call, and C<SOME_FUNC> is the name of the function within
-it you wish to call. The first 2 C<defined(..)> lines take care of ensuring
-that the package and function exist, and generate an error otherwise. Other
-error handling is possible, including executing a C</SCRIPT LOAD> to load the
-necessary script and retry, but is not shown here.
-
-I<This snippet was provided by C<Bazerka> on Freenode/#irssi>.
-
-=head2 If In Doubt, Dump!
-
-C<Data::Dumper> is an extremely good way to inspect Irssi internals if you're
-looking for an undocumented feature.
-
-The C<DUMP> alias by L<Wouter
-Coekaerts|http://wouter.coekaerts.be/site/irssi/aliases> provides an easy way to
-check object fields.
-
-Dump perl object (e.g. C</dump Irssi::active_win>):
-
- /alias DUMP script exec use Data::Dumper\; print Data::Dumper->new([\\$0-])->Dump
-
-=head2 Making Scripts Act Native
-
-An important part of creating a good script is to make it behave as though it
-were a part of Irssi. Adhering to some of the standard conventions can make this
-easier.
-
-=head3 Provide Help
-
-Scripts commonly store information about how to use them in comments at the top
-of their file. Whilst better than no documentation at all, a preferable approach
-is to allow that help to be accessed from within Irssi itself, using the C</HELP>
-command.
-
- my $help = "this is help for b";
-
- Irssi::command_bind('help', sub {
- if ($_[0] eq 'test_b') {
- Irssi::print($help, MSGLEVEL_CLIENTCRAP);
- Irssi::signal_stop;
- }
- }
- );
-
-This example demonstrates overriding the C</HELP> command, and if the argument
-matches our command, print some custom help and prevent the internal Irssi help
-function from being called. Otherwise, it falls back to the default help.
-
-
-I<This snippet was provided by C<culb> on Freenode/#irssi>.
-
-=head3 Use Tab Completion
-
-One of the great features of Irssi is the ability to complete commands,
-subcommands and even certain arguments. Using the subcommands processing feature
-described below automatically allows those subcommands to be tab-completed, but
-for more complex tasks, you can hook into the autocompletion system itself.
-
-In order to create your own completions, you must intercept the C<"complete
-word"> signal and return a list of completion candidates.
-
- sub do_complete {
- my ($strings, $window, $word, $linestart, $want_space) = @_;
-
- # only provide these completions if the input line is otherwise empty.
- return unless ($linestart eq '' && $word eq '');
-
- # add the completion candidates
- push @$strings, qw/foo bar baz bacon/;
-
- # indicate that we want to include a space after the completion
- $$want_space = 1;
-
- # prevent internal Irssi completion from responding
- Irssi::signal_stop;
- }
-
- Irssi::signal_add_first('complete word', \&do_complete);
-
-I<This snippet taken from
-L<F<complete_lastspoke.pl>|http://scripts.irssi.org/scripts/complete_lastspoke.pl>
-by Daenyth>
-
-=head3 Use Settings for Customisation
-
-Many scripts require the setting of various parameters to affect how they behave.
-One approach is to require the user to directly edit the script file, but this
-is less than ideal for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is easy to introduce
-errors into a script by accidentally deleting closing quotes or semicolons.
-Secondly, it has no effect until the script is reloaded, leading to confusion.
-
-A much better alternative is to use Irssi's inbuilt settings mechanism to allow
-users to set these parameters from within Irssi, as well as to C</SAVE> their
-settings for subsequent invocations.
-
-B<TODO: different types of settings>
-
-B<TODO: register/set/get>
-
-B<TODO: Listening for changes and acting accordingly>
-
-=head3 Use Subcommands to Group Script Functionality
-
-A common theme in Irssi scripts is to define commands with a prefix, such as
-C</myscript_foo>, C<myscript_bar>, etc. This helps to avoid accidentally clobbering
-native commands and those defined by other scripts, but is a problem better solved
-with I<subcommands>.
-
-Subcommands allow you to bind commands such as C</myscript foo> and C</myscript bar>.
-Completions are automatically handled for both the primary command, and any
-subcommands contained within it.
-
-The following example demonstrates how to use subcommands from within a script:
-
- Irssi::command_bind("foo bar", \&subcmd_bar);
- Irssi::command_bind("foo", \&subcmd_handler);
-
- sub subcmd_handler {
- my ($data, $server, $item) = @_;
- $data =~ s/\s+$//g; # strip trailing whitespace.
- Irssi::command_runsub('foo', $data, $server, $item);
- }
-
- sub subcmd_bar {
- my ($args) = @_;
- print "subcommand called with: $args";
- }
-
-=head1 AUTHOR & THANKS
-
-This page was written by Tom Feist C<shabble+irssi@metavore.org>, but draws
-on the help of many many people.
-
-The denizens of Freenode/#irssi have been particularly helpful, especially
-C<Bazerka> and C<culb>.
-
-To report bugs or suggestions, email me at the address before, or come talk to
-me in C<#irssi> on C<irc.freenode.net>.
-
-=head1 OTHER RESOURCES
-
-The documentation assembled here and elsewhere on this site has been drawn from
-many different places, and a lot of valuable information is available from the
-following sites.
-
-
-=over
-
-=item L<http://irssi.org/documentation/perl>
-
-=item L<http://irssi.org/documentation/signals>
-
-=item L<http://irssi.org/documentation/special_vars>
-
-=item L<http://irssi.org/documentation/formats>
-
-=item L<http://irssi.org/documentation/settings>
-
-=item L<http://juerd.nl/site.plp/irssiscripttut>
-
-=item L<http://irchelp.org/irchelp/rfc/rfc.html>
-
-=item L<http://wouter.coekaerts.be/site/irssi/irssi>
-
-=back