61 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
61 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: How to Automate Discord Message Posting With Webhooks and Cron
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date: 2018-03-29
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series: howto
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---
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Most Linux systems have [`cron`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron) installed to run programs at given intervals. An example usecase would be to install package updates every Monday at 9 am (keep the sysadmins awake!).
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Discord lets us post things using [webhooks](https://discordapp.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook). Combining this with cron lets us create automated message posting bots at arbitrary intervals.
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## The message posting script
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Somewhere on disk, copy down the following script:
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```sh
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#!/bin/sh
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# msgpost.sh
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# change MESSAGE, WEBHOOK and USERNAME as makes sense
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# This code is trivial, and not covered by any license or warranty.
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# explode on errors
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set -e
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MESSAGE='haha memes are funny xD'
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WEBHOOK=https://discordapp.com/api/webhooks/0892379892092/AFkljAoiuj098oKA_98kjlA85jds
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USERNAME=KRONK
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curl -X POST \
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-F "content=${MESSAGE}" \
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-F "username=${USERNAME}" \
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"${WEBHOOK}"
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```
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Test run it and get a message like this:
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## How to automate it
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To automate it, first open your [`crontab(5)`](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/crontab.5.html) file:
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```console
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$ crontab -e
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```
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Then add a crontab entry as such:
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```crontab
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# Post this funny message every hour, on the hour
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0 * * * * sh /path/to/msgpost.sh
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# Also valid with some implementations of cron (non-standard)
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@hourly sh /path/to/msgpost.sh
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```
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Then save this with your editor and it will be loaded into the cron daemon. For more information on crontab formats, see [here](https://crontab.guru/).
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To run multiple copies of this, create multiple copies of `msgpost.sh` on your drive with multiple crontab entries.
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Have fun :)
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