NAME¶
rivescript - A command line frontend to the Perl RiveScript interpreter.
SYNOPSIS¶
$ rivescript [options] [path to RiveScript documents]
DESCRIPTION¶
This is a command line front-end to the RiveScript interpreter. This script
obsoletes the old "rsdemo", and can also be used non-interactively
by third party programs. To that end, it supports a variety of input/output
and session handling methods.
If no RiveScript document path is given, it will default to the example brain
that ships with the RiveScript module, which is based on the Eliza bot.
OPTIONS¶
- --debug, -d
- Enables debug mode. This will print all debug data from RiveScript to your
terminal. If you'd like it to log to a file instead, use the
"--log" option instead of "--debug".
- --log FILE
- Enables debug mode and prints the debug output to "FILE" instead
of to your terminal.
- --json, -j
- Runs "rivescript" in JSON mode, for running the script in a
non-interactive way (for example, to use RiveScript in a programming
language that doesn't have a native RiveScript library). See "JSON
Mode" for details.
- --data JSON_DATA
- When using the "--json" option, you can provide the JSON input
message as a command line argument with the "--data" option. If
not provided, then the JSON data will be read from standard input instead.
This option is helpful, therefore, if you don't want to open a two-way
pipe, but rather pass the message as a command line argument and just read
the response from standard output. See "JSON Mode" for more
details.
- --listen, -l [ADDRESS:]PORT
- Runs "rivescript" in TCP mode, for running the script as a
server daemon. If an address isn't specified, it will bind to
"localhost". See "TCP Mode" for details.
- --strict, --nostrict
- Enables strict mode for the RiveScript parser. It's enabled by default,
use "--nostrict" to disable it. Strict mode prevents the parser
from continuing when it finds a syntax error in the RiveScript
documents.
- --depth=50
- Override the default recursion depth limit. This controls how many times
RiveScript will recursively follow redirects to other replies. The default
is 50.
- --utf8, -u
- Use the UTF-8 option in RiveScript. This allows triggers to contain
foreign characters and relaxes the filtering of user messages. This is not
enabled by default!
- --help
- Displays this documentation in your terminal.
USAGE¶
Interactive Mode¶
This is the default mode used when you run "rivescript" without
specifying another mode. This mode behaves similarly to the old
"rsdemo" script and lets you chat one-on-one with your RiveScript
bot.
This mode can be used to test your RiveScript bot. Example:
$ rivescript /path/to/rs/files
JSON Mode¶
This mode should be used when calling from a third party program. In this mode,
data that enters and leaves the script are encoded in JSON.
Example:
$ rivescript --json /path/to/rs/files
The format for incoming JSON data is as follows:
{
"username": "localuser",
"message": "Hello bot!",
"vars": {
"name": "Aiden"
}
}
Here, "username" is a unique name for the user, "message" is
their message to the bot, and "vars" is a hash of any user variables
your program might be keeping track of (such as the user's name and age).
The response from "rivescript" will look like the following:
{
"status": "ok",
"reply": "Hello, human!",
"vars": {
"name": "Aiden"
}
}
Here, "status" will be "ok" or "error",
"reply" is the bot's response to your message, and "vars"
is a hash of the current variables for the user (so that your program can save
them somewhere).
Standard Input or Data
By default, JSON mode will read from standard input to receive your JSON
message. As an alternative to this, you can provide the "--data"
option to "rivescript" to present the incoming JSON data as a
command line argument.
This may be helpful if you don't want to open a two-way pipe to
"rivescript", and would rather pass your input as a command line
argument and simply read the response from standard output.
Example:
$ rivescript --json --data '{"username": "localuser", "message": "hello" }' \
/path/to/rs/files
This will cause "rivescript" to print its JSON response to standard
output and exit. You can't have a stateful session using this method.
End of Message
There are two ways you can use the JSON mode: "fire and forget," or
keep a stateful session open.
In "fire and forget," you open the program, print your JSON input and
send the EOF signal, and then "rivescript" sends you the JSON
response and exits.
In a stateful session mode, you must send the text "__END__" on a line
by itself after you finish sending your JSON data. Then "rivescript"
will process it, return its JSON response and then also say
"__END__" at the end.
Example:
{
"username": "localuser",
"message": "Hello bot!",
"vars": {}
}
__END__
And the response:
{
"status": "ok",
"reply": "Hello, human!",
"vars": {}
}
__END__
This way you can reuse the same pipe to send and receive multiple messages.
TCP Mode¶
TCP Mode will make "rivescript" listen on a TCP socket for incoming
connections. This way you can connect to it from a different program (for
example, a CGI script or a program written in a different language).
Example:
$ rivescript --listen localhost:2001
TCP Mode behaves similarly to "JSON Mode"; the biggest difference is
that it will read and write using a TCP socket instead of standard input and
output. Unlike JSON Mode, however, TCP Mode
always runs in a stateful
way (the JSON messages must end with the text ""__END__""
on a line by itself). See "End of Message".
If the "__END__" line isn't found after 20 lines of text are read from
the client, it will give up and send the client an error message (encoded in
JSON) and disconnect it.
SEE ALSO¶
RiveScript, the Perl RiveScript interpreter.
AUTHOR¶
Noah Petherbridge,
http://www.kirsle.net
LICENSE¶
RiveScript - Rendering Intelligence Very Easily
Copyright (C) 2012 Noah Petherbridge
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA