Last revised: August 29, 2023

Eggdrop Core Settings

This file describes the syntax and all the settings of your Eggdrop configuration file. Please note that you don’t need to set all of these variables to make your bot work properly.

Executable Path

The first line in an Eggdrop configuration file should contain a fully qualified path to your Eggdrop executable. It has to be implemented in the way the example shows to make the config file work as a shell script.

Example:

#! /path/to/eggdrop

Basic Settings

You can change the basic Eggdrop appearance and behavior in this section.

set username “lamest”

This setting defines the username the bot uses on IRC. This setting has no effect if an ident daemon is running on your bot’s machine.

set admin “Lamer <email: lamer@lamest.lame.org>”

This setting defines which contact person should be shown in .status, /msg help, and other places. You really should include this information.

set network “SomeIrcNetwork”

This setting is used only for info to share with others on your botnet. Set this to the IRC network your bot is connected to.

set timezone “EST”

This setting defines which timezone is your bot in. It’s used for internal routines as well as for logfile timestamping and scripting purposes. The timezone string specifies the name of the timezone and must be three or more alphabetic characters. For example, Central European Time(UTC+1) should be “CET”.

set offset “5”

The offset setting specifies the time value to be added to the local time to get Coordinated Universal Time (UTC aka GMT). The offset is positive if the local timezone is west of the Prime Meridian and negative if it is east. The value (in hours) must be between -23 and 23. For example, if the timezone is UTC+1, the offset is -1.

set env(TZ) “$timezone $offset” (disabled by default)

If you don’t want to use the timezone setting for scripting purposes only, but instead everywhere possible, then use this setting.

set vhost4 “99.99.0.0”

set vhost4 “virtual.host.com”

If you’re using virtual hosting (your machine has more than 1 IP), you may want to specify the particular IP to bind to. You can specify either by hostname or by IP. Note that this is not used for listening. Use the ‘listen’ command to specify the listening address.

set vhost6 “2001:db8:618:5c0:263::”

set vhost6 “my.ipv6.host.com”

IPv6 vhost to bind to for outgoing IPv6 connections. You can set it to any valid IPv6 address or hostname, resolving to an IPv6 address. Note that this is not used for listening. Use the ‘listen’ command to specify the listening address.

set prefer-ipv6 “1”

Prefer IPv6 over IPv4 for connections and dns resolution. If the preferred protocol family is not supported, other possible families will be tried.

addlang “english”

If you want to have your Eggdrop messages displayed in another language, change this command to match your preferences. An alternative would be to set the environment variable EGG_LANG to that value.

Languages included with Eggdrop: Danish, English, French, Finnish, German.

Log Files

Eggdrop is capable of logging various things, from channel chatter to partyline commands and file transfers.

Logfiles are normally kept for 24 hours. Afterwards, they will be renamed to “(logfilename).yesterday”. After 48 hours, they will be overwritten by the logfile of the next day.

set max-logs 20

This is the maximum number of concurrent logfiles that can be opened for writing at one time. At most, this value should be the maximum number of channels you expect to create log files for. There is no value for ‘infinity’; very few cases should ever require more than 20. A decrease to this value while running will require a restart (not rehash) of the bot. However, don’t decrease it below 5.

set max-logsize 0

This is the maximum size of your logfiles. Set it to 0 to disable. This value is in kilobytes, so ‘550’ would mean cycle logs when it reaches the size of 550 kilobytes. Note that this only works if you have keep-all-logs set to 0 (OFF).

set raw-log 0

This setting allows you the logging of raw incoming server traffic via console/log flag ‘r’, raw outgoing server traffic via console/log mode ‘v’, raw incoming botnet traffic via console/log mode ‘t’, raw outgoing botnet traffic via console/log mode ‘u’, raw outgoing share traffic via console/log mode ‘g’, and raw incoming share traffic via console/log mode ‘h’. These flags can create a large security hole, allowing people to see user passwords. This is now restricted to +n users only. Please choose your owners with care.

logfile <logflags> <channel> “logs/logfile”

This setting tells the bot what should be logged, from where, and to which file.

Logfile flags:

b	information about bot linking and userfile sharing
c	commands
d	misc debug information
g	raw outgoing share traffic
h	raw incoming share traffic
j	joins, parts, quits, and netsplits on the channel
k	kicks, bans, and mode changes on the channel
l	linked bot messages
m	private msgs, notices and ctcps to the bot
o	misc info, errors, etc (IMPORTANT STUFF)
p	public text on the channel
r	raw incoming server traffic
s	server connects, disconnects, and notices
t	raw incoming botnet traffic
u	raw outgoing botnet traffic
v	raw outgoing server traffic
w	wallops (make sure the bot sets +w in init-server)
x	file transfers and file-area commands

Note that modes d, h, r, t, and v can fill disk quotas quickly. There are also eight user-defined levels (1-8) which can be used by Tcl scripts.

Each logfile belongs to a certain channel. Events of type ‘k’, ‘j’, and ‘p’ are logged to whatever channel they happened on. Most other events are currently logged to every channel. You can make a logfile belong to all channels by assigning it to channel “*”.

Examples:

logfile mco * "logs/eggdrop.log"
logfile jpk #lamest "logs/lamest.log"

In ‘eggdrop.log’, put private msgs/ctcps, commands, misc info, and errors from any channel.

In ‘lamest.log’, log all joins, parts, kicks, bans, public chatter, and mode changes from #lamest.

set log-time 1

Use this feature to timestamp entries in the log file.

set timestamp-format “[%H:%M:%S]”

Set the following to the timestamp for the logfile entries. Popular times might be “[%H:%M]” (hour, min), or “[%H:%M:%S]” (hour, min, sec). Read ‘man strftime’ for more formatting options. Keep it below 32 chars.

set keep-all-logs 0

If you want to keep your logfiles forever, turn this setting on. All logfiles will get the suffix “.[day, 2 digits][month, 3 letters][year, 4 digits]”. Note that your quota/hard-disk might be filled by this, so check your logfiles often and download them.

set switch-logfiles-at 300

You can specify when Eggdrop should switch logfiles and start fresh. use military time for this setting. 300 is the default, and describes 03:00 (AM).

set quiet-save 0

“Writing user file…” and “Writing channel file…” messages won’t be logged anymore if this option is enabled. If you set it to 2, the “Backing up user file…” and “Backing up channel file…” messages will also not be logged. In addition to this, you can disable the “Switching logfiles…” and the new date message at midnight, by setting this to 3.

set logfile-suffix “.%d%b%Y”

If keep-all-logs is 1, this setting will define the suffix of the logfiles. The default will result in a suffix like “04May2000”. “%Y%m%d” will produce the often used yyyymmdd format. Read the strftime manpages for more options.

Console Settings

set console “mkcoblxs”

This is the default console mode. It uses the same event flags as the log files do. The console channel is automatically set to your “primary” channel, which is set in the modules section of the config file. Masters can change their console channel and modes with the ‘.console’ command.

File and Directory Settings

set userfile “LamestBot.user”

Specify here the filename your userfile should be saved as.

set pidfile “pid.LamestBot”

Specify here the filename Eggdrop will save its pid to. If no pidfile is specified, pid.(botnet-nick) will be used.

set help-path “help/”

Specify here where Eggdrop should look for help files. Don’t modify this setting unless you know what you’re doing!

set text-path “text/”

Specify here where Eggdrop should look for text files. This is used for certain Tcl and DCC commands.

set motd “text/motd”

The MOTD (Message Of The day) is displayed when people dcc chat or telnet to the bot. Look at doc/TEXT-SUBSTITUTIONS for options.

set telnet-banner “text/banner”

This banner will be displayed on telnet connections. Look at doc/text-substitutions.doc for options.

set userfile-perm 0600

This specifies what permissions the user, channel, and notes files should be set to. The octal values are the same as for the chmod system command.

To remind you:

|      u  g  o           u  g  o           u  g  o
|0600  rw-------   0400  r--------   0200  -w-------    u - user
|0660  rw-rw----   0440  r--r-----   0220  -w--w----    g - group
|0666  rw-rw-rw-   0444  r--r--r--   0222  -w--w--w-    o - others

Note that the default 0600 is the most secure one and should only be changed if you need your files for shell scripting or other external applications.

set mod-path “modules/”

This path specifies the path were Eggdrop should look for its modules. If you run the bot from the compilation directory, you will want to set this to “”. If you use ‘make install’ (like all good kiddies do ;), this is a fine default. Otherwise, use your head :).

Botnet/Dcc/Telnet Settings

Settings in this section should be unimportant for you until you deal with botnets (multiple Eggdrops connected together to maximize efficiency). You should read doc/BOTNET before modifying these settings.

set botnet-nick “LlamaBot” (disabled by default)

If you want to use a different nickname on the botnet than you use on IRC (i.e. if you’re on an un-trusted botnet), un-comment this line and set it to the nick you would like to use.

listen <port> <mode>

This opens a telnet port by which you and other bots can interact with the Eggdrop by telneting in.

There are more options for the listen command in doc/tcl-commands.doc. Note that if you are running more than one bot on the same machine, you will want to space the telnet ports at LEAST 5 apart, although 10 is even better.

Valid ports are typically anything between 1025 and 65535 assuming the port is not already in use.

If you would like the bot to listen for users and bots in separate ports, use the following format:

listen 3333 bots
listen 4444 users

If you wish to use only one port, use this format:

listen 3333 all

You can setup a SSL port by prepending a plus sign to it:

listen +5555 all

You need to un-comment this line and change the port number in order to open the listen port. You should not keep this set to 3333.

set remote-boots 2

This setting defines whether or not people can boot users on the Eggdrop from other bots in your botnet. Valid settings are:

0	allow no outside boots
1	allow boots from sharebots
2	allow any boots

set share-unlinks 1

This setting prohibits Eggdrop to unlink from share bots if an remote bots tells so.

set protect-telnet 0

This setting will drop telnet connections not matching a known host.

set dcc-sanitycheck 0

This setting will make the bot ignore DCC chat requests which appear to have bogus information on the grounds that the user may have been trying to make the bot connect to somewhere that will get it into trouble, or that the user has a broken client, in which case the connect wouldn’t work anyway.

set ident-timeout 5

This setting defines the time in seconds the bot should wait for ident reply before the lookup fails. The default ident on timeout is ‘telnet’.

set require-p 0

Define here whether or not a +o user still needs the +p flag to dcc the bot.

set open-telnets 0

If you want people allow to telnet in and type ‘NEW’ to become a new user, set this to 1. This is similar to the ‘hello’ msg command. The protect-telnet setting must be set to 0 to use this.

set stealth-telnets 0

If you don’t want Eggdrop to identify itself as an Eggdrop on a telnet connection, set this setting to 1. Eggdrop will display ‘Nickname’ instead.

set use-telnet-banner 0

If you want Eggdrop to display a banner when telneting in, set this setting to 1. The telnet banner is set by ‘set telnet-banner’.

set connect-timeout 15

This setting defines a time in seconds that the bot should wait before a dcc chat, telnet, or relay connection times out.

set dcc-flood-thr 3

Specify here the number of lines to accept from a user on the partyline within 1 second before they are considered to be flooding and therefore get booted.

set telnet-flood 5:60

Define here how many telnet connection attempts in how many seconds from the same host constitute a flood. The correct format is Attempts:Seconds.

set paranoid-telnet-flood 1

If you want telnet-flood to apply even to +f users, set this setting to 1.

set resolve-timeout 15

Set here the amount of seconds before giving up on hostname/address lookup (you might want to increase this if you are on a slow network).

Advanced Settings

set firewall “!sun-barr.ebay:3666”

Set this to your socks host if your Eggdrop sits behind a firewall. If you use a Sun “telnet passthru” firewall, prefix the host with a “!”.

set nat-ip “127.0.0.1”

If you have a NAT firewall (you box has an IP in one of the following ranges: 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255, 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255, 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 and your firewall transparently changes your address to a unique address for your box) or you have IP masquerading between you and the rest of the world, and /dcc chat, /ctcp chat or userfile sharing aren’t working, enter your outside IP here. This IP is used for transfers only, and has nothing to do with the vhost4/6 or listen settings. You may still need to set them.

set reserved-portrange 2010:2020

If you want all dcc file transfers to use a particular portrange either because you’re behind a firewall, or for other security reasons, set it here.

set ignore-time 15

Set the time in minutes that temporary ignores should last.

set hourly-updates 00

Define here what Eggdrop considers ‘hourly’. All calls to it, including such things as note notifying or userfile saving, are affected by this.

Example:

set hourly-updates 15

The bot will save its userfile 15 minutes past every hour.

set owner “MrLame, MrsLame”

Un-comment this line and set the list of owners of the bot. You NEED to change this setting.

set notify-newusers “$owner”

Who should a note be sent to when new users are learned?

set default-flags “hp”

Enter the flags that all new users should get by default. See ‘.help whois’ on the partyline for a list of flags and their descriptions.

set whois-fields “url birthday”

Enter all user-defined fields that should be displayed in a ‘.whois’. This will only be shown if the user has one of these extra fields. You might prefer to comment this out and use the userinfo1.0.tcl script which provides commands for changing all of these.

#unbind dcc n tcl *dcc:tcl

#unbind dcc n set *dcc:set

Uncomment these two lines if you wish to disable the .tcl and .set commands. If you select your owners wisely, you should be okay leaving these enabled.

set must-be-owner 1

If you enable this setting, only permanent owners (owner setting) will be able to use .tcl and .set. Moreover, if you want to only let permanent owners use .dump, then set this to 2.

unbind dcc n simul *dcc:simul

Comment out this line to add the ‘simul’ partyline command (owners can manipulate other people on the party line). Please select owners wisely and use this command ethically!

set max-dcc 50

Set here the maximum number of dcc connections you will allow. You can increase this later, but never decrease it.

set allow-dk-cmds 1

Enable this setting if you want +d & +k users to use commands bound as -|-.

set dupwait-timeout 5

If your Eggdrop rejects bots that actually have already disconnected from another hub, but the disconnect information has not yet spread over the botnet due to lag, use this setting. The bot will wait dupwait-timeout seconds before it checks again and then finally reject the bot.

set cidr-support 0

Enables cidr support for b/e/I modes if set to 1. This means the bot will understand and match modes in cidr notation, and will be able to put and enforce such bans or unban itself, if banned with a cidr mask. Do NOT set this, if your network/server does not support cidr!

SSL Settings

Settings in this section take effect when eggdrop is compiled with TLS support.

set ssl-privatekey “eggdrop.key”

File containing your private key, needed for the SSL certificate (see below). You can create one issuing the following command:

openssl genrsa -out eggdrop.key 4096

It will create a 4096 bit RSA key, strong enough for eggdrop. This is required for SSL hubs/listen ports, secure file transfer and /ctcp botnick schat For your convenience, you can type ‘make sslcert’ after ‘make install’ and you’ll get a key and a certificate in your DEST directory.

set ssl-certificate “eggdrop.crt”

Specify the filename where your SSL certificate is located. If you don’t set this, eggdrop will not be able to act as a server in SSL connections, as with most ciphers a certificate and a private key are required on the server side. Must be in PEM format. If you don’t have one, you can create it using the following command:

openssl req -new -key eggdrop.key -x509 -out eggdrop.crt -days 365

This is required for SSL hubs/listen ports, secure file transfer and /ctcp botnick schat For your convenience, you can type ‘make sslcert’ after ‘make install’ and you’ll get a key and a certificate in your DEST directory.

set ssl-verify-depth 9

Sets the maximum depth for the certificate chain verification that shall be allowed for ssl. When certificate verification is enabled, any chain exceeding this depth will fail verification.

set ssl-capath “/etc/ssl/”

set ssl-cafile “”

Specify the location at which CA certificates for verification purposes are located. These certificates are trusted. If you don’t set this, certificate verification will not work.

set ssl-ciphers “”

Specify the list of ciphers (in order of preference) allowed for use with ssl. The cipher list is one or more cipher strings separated by colons, commas or spaces. Unavailable ciphers are silently ignored unless no usable cipher could be found. For the list of possible cipher strings and their meanings, please refer to the ciphers(1) manual. Note: if you set this, the value replaces any ciphers OpenSSL might use by default. To include the default ciphers, you can put DEFAULT as a cipher string in the list. For example:

set ssl-ciphers "DEFAULT ADH"

… will make eggdrop allow the default OpenSSL selection plus anonymous DH ciphers.

set ssl-ciphers "ALL"

… will make eggdrop allow all ciphers supported by OpenSSL, in a reasonable order.

set ssl-cert-auth 0

Enable certificate authorization. Set to 1 to allow users and bots to identify automatically by their certificate fingerprints. Setting it to 2 to will force fingerprint logins. With a value of 2, users without a fingerprint set or with a certificate UID not matching their handle won’t be allowed to login on SSL enabled telnet ports. Fingerprints must be set in advance with the .fprint and .chfinger commands. NOTE: this setting has no effect on plain-text ports.

You can control SSL certificate verification using the following variables. All of them are flag-based. You can set them by adding together the numbers for all exceptions you want to enable. By default certificate verification is disabled and all certificates are assumed to be valid.

The options are the following:

0	disable verification
1	enable certificate verification
2	allow self-signed certificates
4	don’t check peer common or alt names
8	allow expired certificates
16	allow certificates which are not valid yet
32	allow revoked certificates

set ssl-verify-dcc 0

Control certificate verification for DCC chats (only /dcc chat botnick)

set ssl-verify-bots 0

Control certificate verification for linking to hubs

set ssl-verify-clients 0

Control certificate verification for SSL listening ports. This includes leaf bots connecting, users telneting in and /ctcp bot chat.

Modules

After the core settings, you should start loading modules. Modules are loaded by the command “loadmodule <module>”. Eggdrop looks for modules in the directory you specified by the module-path setting in the files and directories section.

Please note that for different configurations, different modules are needed. Four examples:

Channel Security Bot:

This bot needs the channels, blowfish, console, dns, irc, and (if you like) ctcp modules loaded. More is not needed and makes the bot slower.

Public IRC Bot:

A public bot should have all modules available loaded since they provide all functions for everyday use.

Secure Filesys Bot:

This bot needs all normal IRC operating modules, but not the notes, seen, ctcp or share modules.

Limbo Bot:

A limbo bot (serves as a botnet hub outside IRC) just needs the channels, console, dns, and maybe notes or share modules loaded. Of course, an encryption module needs to be loaded here, too.

Scripts

The scripts section should be placed at the end of the config file. All modules should be loaded and their variables should be set at this point.

source scripts/script.tcl

This line loads script.tcl from the scripts directory inside your Eggdrop’s directory. All scripts should be put there, although you can place them where you like as long as you can supply a fully qualified path to them.

Some commonly loaded scripts are alltools.tcl and action.fix.tcl.

The appropriate source lines are:

source scripts/alltools.tcl
source scripts/action.fix.tcl

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