Rewrite in Python 3 about labs-countervandalism-cvnbot HOT 3 CLOSED

# Monday, July 5th, 2021

06:06 ⇐ •cvn-clerkbot quit (~cvn-clerk@cvn/bot/cvn-clerkbot) *.net *.split
06:06 → cvn-clerkbot joined ([email protected])

06:11 cvn-clerkbot → Guest7260

19:35 ⇐ Guest7260 quit ([email protected]) *.net *.split
19:39 → Guest7260 joined ([email protected])

# Saturday, July 10th, 2021

16:08 Krinkle: !quit
16:08 ⇐ Guest7260 quit ([email protected]) Quit: Ordered by Krinkle
16:10 → cvn-clerkbot joined (~cvn-clerk@cvn/bot/cvn-clerkbot)

cvn-clerkbot, which uses python-twisted for IRC, lost its nick name again and did not self-correct in any way. Alternatives to consider:

• Asyncio and irc3, used by wikibugs.
• ib3, via https://github.com/bd808/python-ib3, used by stashbot and jouncebot. (Thanks @legoktm)
• https://limnoria.net/, used by official Libera Chat bots. (Thanks @legoktm)

Things to consider:

• Message buffering to avoid flood kick.
• Message splitting against maxlength.
• Connect and authenticate with NickServ, then join channels.
• Automatic re-authenticate and nick regaining/ghosting as-needed to deal with net splits, plus re-joining of channels to deal with restricted channels that can only be joined when authenticated.

See also EventSource as used by Pywikibot, which has an example of good error handling as part of the loop.

Ref https://github.com/wikimedia/pywikibot/blob/2b8402a66e28ae4be30f74deb9e4e72ac529ef69/pywikibot/comms/eventstreams.py#L288-L303

from labs-countervandalism-cvnbot.

Message buffering to avoid flood kick.

irc3 doesn't have this, we implemented it manually in wikibugs. I briefly searched the limnoria docs and didn't see anything obvious either (their flood stuff is about users flooding with !commands).

I do wonder if this is something that can be handled on the network side, getting some sort of higher flood limit or exemption.

Message splitting against maxlength.

Isn't this a think that should be done by the client, so that colors and whatnot are properly split or truncated? wikibugs has manual truncation logic that selects which projects should be listed when announcing a task, cutting off less important ones.

Connect and authenticate with NickServ, then join channels.

All 3 libraries support SASL, so this shouldn't ever be an issue.

Automatic re-authenticate and nick regaining/ghosting as-needed to deal with net splits, plus re-joining of channels to deal with restricted channels that can only be joined when authenticated.

We never did this for wikibugs, ib3 has mixins for this, appears limnoria does too. SASL should ensure that you're always authenticated when trying to join channels.

from labs-countervandalism-cvnbot.

Moved to https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T327136.

from labs-countervandalism-cvnbot.