Eggdrop was created around December 1993 to help stop the incessant wars on #gayteen. It spawned from another bot that was in the process of being written at the time called "Unrest". The purpose of Unrest was to answer help requests from other bots. The first public release was v0.6, and since then, it has grown into what you have before you.

To use Eggdrop, you need:

• Some sort of Unix account
• A pretty good knowledge of IRC and Unix, including how to compile programs, how to read, and what DCC chat is, at absolute minimum.
• About 4-6 MB of disk space. The eggdrop tarball is about 4.8 MB unpacked.
• Tcl -- Eggdrop cannot compile without Tcl installed on your shell.

Before starting, ask yourself if you really need a bot. Most IRC servers allow only a handful of bots, and some forbid them outright. The reason? Too many people run bots as "toys" or as a means of destruction. If you want to use Eggdrop for destructive purposes, go ahead and erase this directory now. It's almost impossible to do what you want with this bot.

You should try to find at least one server that will allow you to run a bot. If you use an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that runs its own IRC server, check to make sure that bots are okay. If you're going to use a server somewhere else, read the MOTD (Message Of The Day) and find out what their bot policy is. Following the rules will go a long way toward making your bot accepted.

Bots CANNOT provide absolute protection. Nothing can. Eggdrop will try its hardest, but there are no guarantees.

Copyright © 1997 Robey Pointer
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Eggheads Development Team