telegram-bot-bash/doc/0_install.md

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Check bash installation

There may systems where bash seems to be installed but it is not, e.g. embedded systems, or where bash is to old. Bashbot has some builtin checks but it may better to check before installing bashbot.

Run the following commands to see if your bash looks ok ...

# system say bash is there?
if which bash; then echo "bash seems available..."; else echo "NO bash"; fi

# real bash supports ARRAY
bash -c 'if eval "a[1]=1"; then echo "Shell support arrays..."; else echo "Shell has NO arrays"; fi'

# check for bash version by feature
bash -c 'if [ "$(echo -e "\u1111")" != "\u1111" ]; then echo "Bash version ok ..."; else echo "Bash version may to old ..."; fi'

# display bash version, must be greater than 4.3
bash --version | grep "bash"

Install bashbot

1. Go to the directory you want to install bashbot, e.g.
   • your $HOME directory (install and run with your user-ID)
   • /usr/local if you want to run as service
2. Download latest release zip / tar archive from github and extract all files.
3. Change into the directory telegram-bot-bash
4. Copy mycommands.sh.dist or mycommands.sh.clean to mycommands.sh
5. Run ./bashbot.sh init to setup the environment and enter your Bots token given by botfather.

Edit mycommands.sh to fit your needs. Now your Bot is ready to start ...

If you are new to Bot development read Bots: An introduction for developers

Update bashbot

Important: all files including mycommands.sh may overwritten, make a backup!

1. Go to the directory where you have installed bashbot, e.g.
   • your $HOME directory
   • /usr/local
2. Download latest release zip / tar archive from github
3. Stop all running instances of bashbot ./bashbot.sh stop
4. Extract all files to your existing bashbot dir
5. Run sudo ./bashbot.sh init to setup your environment after the update

If you modified commands.sh move your changes to mycommands.sh, this avoids overwriting your commands on every update.

Now you can restart your bashbot instances.

Note: If you are updating from a pre-1.0 version, update to Version 1.20 first!

Use JSON.awk (beta)

JSON.awk is an awk port of JSON.sh, it provides the same functionality but is 5 times faster. Most systems with awk can use JSON.awk as drop in replacement ( gnu awk, posix awk, mawk, busybox akw ).

BSD and MacOS users must install gnu awk and adjust the shebang, see below

After you have checked that 'JSON.awk.dist' is working correct on your system copy it to JSON.awk and (re)start bashbot.

Note: If you are not using the zip / tar archive, you must install JSON.awk manually into the same directory as 'JSON.sh`:

wget https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/step-/JSON.awk/JSON.awk 
wget https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/step-/JSON.awk/tool/patch-for-busybox-awk.sh
bash patch-for-busybox-awk.sh

Install bashbot from git repo

Installation and Updates should be done using the zip / tar archives provided on github to avoid problems and not overwriting your bot config and mycommands.sh.

Nevertheless you can install or update bashbot from a git repo, see next chapter ...

Create Installation / Update archives

To install or update bashbot from git repo execute dev/make-distribution.sh, this creates the archives and set up bashbot to run in DIST/telegram.bot-bash.

Note: You should be familiar with git.

1. Run git clone https://github.com/topkecleon/telegram-bot-bash.git
2. Change into the directory telegram-bot-bash
3. Optional: Run git checkout develop for latest develop version
4. Run dev/make-distribution.sh (add --notest to skip tests)
5. Change to dir DIST/

Use the archives created in DIST/ to install or update bashbot as described above.

To run a test bot, e.g. while development or testing latest changes, you can use the bashbot installation provided in DIST/telegram-bot-bash. To update the test installation, e.g. after git pull, local changes or switch master/develop, run dev/make-distrubition.sh again.

Note for BSD and MacOS

On MacOS you must install a more recent version of bash, as the default bash is way to old, see e.g. Install Bash on Mac

On BSD and MacOS I recommend to install gnu coreutils and include them in your PATH environment variable before running bashbot, e.g. the gnu versions of sed, grep, find ...

On BSD and MacOS you must adjust the shebang line of the scripts bashbot.sh and json.sh to point to to the correct bash or use the script: examples/bash2env *.sh */*.sh to convert them for you.

Bashbot will stay with /bin/bash shebang, as using a fixed path is more secure than the portable /usr/bin/env variant, see Security Considerations

I considered to make bashbot BSD sed compatible, but much of the bashbot "magic" relies on (gnu) sed features, e.g. alternation |, non printables \n\t\< or repeat ?+ pattern, not supported by BSD sed.

BSD/MacOS sed compatibility will result in a rewrite of all grep/sed commands with an uncertain outcome, see BSD/MacOS vs. GNU sed to get an impression how different they are.

Notes on Changes

Support for update from pre-1.0 removed

From Version 1.21 on updating from a pre-1.0 version is no more supported! You must update to Version 1.20 first!

Next Create Bot

$$VERSION$$ v1.21-dev-41-g41378f8