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How to install Eggdrop from source on Debian / Ubuntu

A clear step-by-step guide to compile and run Eggdrop on Debian and Ubuntu. Based on the official documentation:
Installing Eggdrop (https://docs.eggheads.org/install/install.html)
Setting Up Eggdrop (https://docs.eggheads.org/tutorials/setup.html)

Eggdrop is the world's oldest actively maintained IRC bot. This guide covers a normal install from source.

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1. Prerequisites

Eggdrop requires Tcl (and the Tcl development headers). TLS support needs OpenSSL headers too.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential tcl tcl-dev openssl libssl-dev wget

Optional (Python module support — Eggdrop 1.9+):
sudo apt-get install python3 python3-dev python-is-python3

Check Tcl is available:
tclsh
# type: exit


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2. Download the source

Stable release (recommended):
wget https://geteggdrop.com -O eggdrop-latest.tar.gz

Or a specific version from the official FTP, for example:
wget https://ftp.eggheads.org/pub/eggdrop/source/1.10/eggdrop-1.10.2.tar.gz

Alternative via git (development tree):
git clone https://github.com/eggheads/eggdrop.git
cd eggdrop
git checkout stable/1.10
(If you use git, skip the extract step below and continue from [tt]./configure[/tt].)

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3. Extract

tar zxvf eggdrop-*.tar.gz
cd eggdrop-*


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4. Configure, modules, compile, install

Detect your system and find Tcl:
./configure

Choose default modules (recommended):
make config

Or pick modules interactively:
make iconfig

Compile:
make

Install into [tt]~/eggdrop[/tt] (default):
make install

Or install somewhere else (use a full path):
make install DEST=/home/YOURUSER/mybot

Optional — generate SSL certificates for botnet TLS:
make sslcert
# or: make sslcert DEST=/home/YOURUSER/mybot


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5. Configure the bot

Go to the install directory:
cd ~/eggdrop

You get example configs. For a quick start:
cp eggdrop-basic.conf MyBot.conf
nano MyBot.conf

For full features, start from the complete example instead:
cp eggdrop.conf MyBot.conf
nano MyBot.conf

Things you must set:

• Bot nick / altnick
• IRC server(s)
• Owner handle
• Channels
• Listen port (partyline)

Work through the file carefully — a bad config is the most common reason the bot will not start.

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6. First start (create the userfile)

The -m flag creates the userfile the first time only:
./eggdrop -m MyBot.conf

After that, start without [tt]-m[/tt]:
./eggdrop MyBot.conf

Optional: make the config executable so you can start with [tt]./MyBot.conf[/tt]:
chmod u+x MyBot.conf
(The first line of the config must point to the correct eggdrop binary path.)

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7. Auto-restart (crontab or systemd)

Eggdrop ships a helper script.

Crontab:
./scripts/autobotchk MyBot.conf

Systemd:
./scripts/autobotchk MyBot.conf -systemd

This keeps the bot running after a crash or server reboot.

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8. Useful next steps

• Common first steps (https://docs.eggheads.org/tutorials/firststeps.html)
  
• Enable TLS security (https://docs.eggheads.org/tutorials/tlssetup.html)
  
• The party line (https://docs.eggheads.org/using/partyline.html)
  
• Users and flags (https://docs.eggheads.org/using/users.html)
  
• Writing a Tcl script (https://docs.eggheads.org/tutorials/firstscript.html)
  
• Support: #eggdrop on Libera ([tt]irc.libera.chat[/tt])
  

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Quick reference

# packages
sudo apt-get install build-essential tcl tcl-dev openssl libssl-dev wget

# download & build
wget https://geteggdrop.com -O eggdrop-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf eggdrop-latest.tar.gz
cd eggdrop-*
./configure
make config
make
make install

# configure & first run
cd ~/eggdrop
cp eggdrop-basic.conf MyBot.conf
nano MyBot.conf
./eggdrop -m MyBot.conf

# later starts
./eggdrop MyBot.conf

# auto-restart
./scripts/autobotchk MyBot.conf


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Sources:

• docs.eggheads.org — Installing Eggdrop (https://docs.eggheads.org/install/install.html)
  
• docs.eggheads.org — Setting Up Eggdrop (https://docs.eggheads.org/tutorials/setup.html)
  
• geteggdrop.com (https://geteggdrop.com) · eggheads.org (https://www.eggheads.org)
  

Questions or an error during compile/start? Post your distro version and the full error output.