Pass command arguments in environment variables

README.md

@@ -60,10 +60,22 @@ You can use irccat to execute commands from IRC:
 
     ?commandname string of arguments
 
-This will call your `commands.handler` script with the command-line
-arguments:
-
-    nickname [channel] respond_to commandname [string of arguments]
+This will call your `commands.handler` script, with the following
+environment variables:
+
+* `IRCCAT_COMMAND`: The name of the command, without the preceding `?`
+* `IRCCAT_ARGS`: The arguments provided ("string of arguments" in this
+  example)
+* `IRCCAT_NICK`: Nickname of the calling user
+* `IRCCAT_USER`: Username of the calling user
+* `IRCCAT_HOST`: Hostname of the calling user
+* `IRCCAT_CHANNEL`: Channel the command was issued in (may be blank if
+  issued in PM)
+* `IRCCAT_RESPOND_TO`: The nick or channel that the STDOUT of the
+  command will be sent to
+
+The command handler's STDOUT will be sent back to the nick or channel
+where the command was issued.
 
 irccat will only recognise commands from users in private message if
 the user is joined to `commands.auth_channel` defined in the config.
@@ -73,5 +85,5 @@ the user is joined to `commands.auth_channel` defined in the config.
 * HTTP endpoint handlers.
 * Doesn't support !join, !part commands, but does automatically reload
   the config and join new channels.
-* Arguments are passed individually to the command handler script,
-  rather than in one string as a single argument.
+* Arguments are passed as environment variables to the command handler
+  script, rather than as a single argument.

command.go

@@ -2,10 +2,13 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"github.com/spf13/viper"
 	"github.com/thoj/go-ircevent"
+	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"strings"
+	"time"
 )
 
 func (i *IRCCat) handleCommand(event *irc.Event) {
@@ -27,12 +30,20 @@ func (i *IRCCat) handleCommand(event *irc.Event) {
 
 	parts := strings.SplitN(msg, " ", 1)
 
-	var cmd *exec.Cmd
-	if len(parts) == 1 {
-		cmd = exec.Command(viper.GetString("commands.handler"), event.Nick, channel, respond_to, parts[0][1:])
-	} else {
-		cmd = exec.Command(viper.GetString("commands.handler"), event.Nick, channel, respond_to, parts[0][1:], parts[1])
+	args := ""
+	if len(parts) > 1 {
+		args = parts[1]
 	}
+
+	cmd := exec.Command(viper.GetString("commands.handler"))
+	cmd.Env = append(os.Environ(), fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_NICK=%s", event.Nick),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_USER=%s", event.User),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_HOST=%s", event.Host),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_CHANNEL=%s", channel),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_RESPOND_TO=%s", respond_to),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_COMMAND=%s", parts[0][1:]),
+		fmt.Sprintf("IRCCAT_ARGS=%s", args))
+
 	i.runCommand(cmd, respond_to)
 }
 
@@ -55,7 +66,13 @@ func (i *IRCCat) runCommand(cmd *exec.Cmd, respond_to string) {
 
 	for _, line := range lines[0:line_count] {
 		if line != "" {
+			// 360 bytes is the worst-case maximum size for PRIVMSG lines. Truncate the lines at that length.
+			if len(line) > 360 {
+				line = line[:360]
+			}
 			i.irc.Privmsg(respond_to, line)
 		}
+		// Pause between lines to avoid being flooded out
+		time.Sleep(250)
 	}
 }

examples/command_runner.py

@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/python
-import os, sys, re, subprocess
+import os
+import sys
+import re
+import subprocess
 
 # If this script is set as your command handler, when any ?command is run in IRC it will
 # look in the path defined below for a script matching that command name and run it.
@@ -10,28 +13,33 @@ import os, sys, re, subprocess
 
 path = '/usr/share/irccat/'
 
-bits = sys.argv[1:]
-command = bits[3].lower()
+# Example of retrieving all the environment variables.
+# We only need command here as all the others will be available in the script's environment.
+nick = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_NICK')
+user = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_USER')
+host = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_HOST')
+channel = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_CHANNEL')
+respond_to = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_RESPOND_TO')
+command = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_COMMAND')
+args = os.environ.get('IRCCAT_ARGS')
 
 found = False
 if re.match('^[a-z0-9]+$', command):
-    for file in os.listdir(path):
+    for filename in os.listdir(path):
 
-        if re.match('^%s\.[a-z]+$' % command, file):
+        if re.match('^%s\.[a-z]+$' % command, filename):
             found = True
-            
-            procArgs = [path + file]
-            procArgs.extend(bits)
-            proc = subprocess.Popen(procArgs, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+
+            proc = subprocess.Popen(os.path.join(path, filename), stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
             stdout = proc.stdout
 
             while True:
                 # We do this to avoid buffering from the subprocess stdout
-                print os.read(stdout.fileno(), 65536),
+                print(os.read(stdout.fileno(), 65536))
                 sys.stdout.flush()
 
-                if proc.poll() != None:
+                if proc.poll() is not None:
                     break
 
-if found == False:
-    print "Unknown command '%s'" % command
+if not found:
+    print("Unknown command '%s'" % command)

main.go

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ type IRCCat struct {
 }
 
 func main() {
-	loggo.ConfigureLoggers("<root>=DEBUG")
+	loggo.ConfigureLoggers("<root>=INFO")
 	log.Infof("IRCCat %s (%s) starting...", branch, revision)
 	viper.SetConfigName("irccat")
 	viper.AddConfigPath("/etc")

tcplistener/tcplistener.go

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ func New() (*TCPListener, error) {
 }
 
 func (l *TCPListener) Run(irccon *irc.Connection) {
-	log.Infof("Listening for TCP requests on %s", viper.GetString("tcp_listen"))
+	log.Infof("Listening for TCP requests on %s", viper.GetString("tcp.listen"))
 	l.irc = irccon
 	go l.acceptConnections()
 }