Common

First things first: Supybot requires at least Python 2.3. There ain't no getting around it. We do not require any version greater than 2.3, but we will be compatible with any version of Python >= 2.3. If you're a Python developer, you probably know how superior 2.3 is to previous incarnations. If you're not, just think about the difference between a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream and a banana split. Or something like that. Either way, We're Python developers and we like banana splits. So, be sure to install Python 2.3 or greater before continuing. You can get it from http://www.python.org/.

Recommended Software

PySQLite

Version 1.0.x

Twisted

Version 1.2.0 or greater

For more information and help on how to use Supybot, checkout our other documentation (especially Getting Started and Configuration). Our forums may also be of use.

So what do you do? That depends on which operating system you're running. We've split this document up to address the different methods, so find the section for your operating system and continue from there.

UNIX/Linux/*BSD

If you're installing Python using your distributor's packages, you may need a python-dev package installed, too. If you don't have a /usr/lib/python2.3/distutils directory (assuming /usr/lib/python2.3 is where your Python libs are installed), then you will need a python-dev package.

After you extract Supybot and cd into the supybot directory just created, you'll want to run (as root) python setup.py install. This will install Supybot globally. If you need to install locally for whatever reason, see the notes at the end of this section. You'll then have several new programs installed where Python scripts are normally installed on your system (/usr/bin or /usr/local/bin are common on UNIX systems). The two that might be of particular interest to you, the new user, are supybot and supybot-wizard. The former, supybot, is the script to run an actual bot; the latter, supybot-wizard, is an in-depth wizard that provides a nice user interface for creating a registry file for your bot.

Local Install

You can install Supybot in a local directory by using the --prefix option when running setup.py. E.g., python setup.py install --prefix=$HOME to install into your home directory. You'll now have a $HOME/bin directory containing Supybot programs (supybot, supybot-wizard, etc.) and a $HOME/lib directory containing the Supybot libraries. It is also recommended that you setup a proper PYTHONPATH environment variable in your shell's init file.

bash

export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/lib/python2.3/site-packages

(t)csh

setenv PYTHONPATH $HOME/lib/python2.3/site-packages

Windows

Note: If you are using an IPV6 connection, you will not be able to run Supybot under Windows (unless Python has fixed things). Current versions of Python for Windows are not built with IPV6 support. This isn't expected to be fixed until Python 2.4, at the earliest.

Now that you have Python installed, open up a command prompt. The easiest way to do this is to open the run dialog (Programs -> run) and type "cmd" (for Windows 2000/XP/2003) or "command" (for Windows 9x). In order to reduce the amount of typing you need to do, I suggest adding Python's directory to your path. If you installed Python using the default settings, you would then do the following in the command prompt (otherwise change the path to match your settings):

set PATH=C:\Python23\;%PATH%

You should now be able to type python to start the Python interpreter. Exit by pressing CTRL-Z and then Return. Now that that's setup, you'll want to cd into the directory that was created when you unzipped Supybot; I'll assume you unzipped it to C:\Supybot for these instructions. From C:\Supybot, run python setup.py install. This will install Supybot under C:\Python23\. If you want to install Supybot to a non-default location, see the notes at the end of this section. You will now have several new programs installed in C:\Python23\Scripts\. The two that might be of particular interest to you, the new user, are supybot and supybot-wizard. The former, supybot, is the script to run an actual bot; the latter, supybot-wizard, is an in-depth wizard that provides a nice user interface for creating a registry file for your bot.