Eggdrop was created around December 1993 to help stop the incessant wars on #gayteen. It spawned from another bot that was in the process of being written at the time called "Unrest". The purpose of Unrest was to answer help requests from other bots. The first public release was v0.6, and since then, it has grown into what you have before you.

To use eggdrop, you need:

some sort of Unix account -- it does not compile for Windows or Mac machines, nor will it probably ever compile there

pretty good knowledge of IRC and Unix, including how to compile programs and what DCC chat is, at absolute minimum

about 500k of disk space, or more, depending on your system (on Linux, the executable itself takes up about 200k currently -- it will be a lot larger on a RISC system)

the Tcl libraries -- if you don't have them (and most systems should), check the README file on info about how to install it yourself (you don't need to be root)

Before starting, ask yourself if you really need a bot. Most IRC servers allow only a handful of bots -- some forbid them outright. The reason? Too many people run bots as "toys" or as a means of destruction. If you want to use eggdrop for destructive purposes, go ahead and erase this directory now. It's almost impossible to do what you want with this bot.

You should try to find at least one server that will allow you to run a bot. If you use an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that runs its own IRC server, check to make sure that bots are okay. If you're going to use a server somewhere else, read the MOTD (message of the day) and find out what their bot policy is. Following the rules will go a long way toward making your bot accepted.

Generally speaking, you only need a bot on EFnet if your channel has a constant supply of users (24 hours a day) and no bot. If your channel already has a couple of bots on it, it probably doesn't need any more. More bots don't do any more good, and waste bandwidth. On the Undernet you will probably never need more than one bot per channel. Also note that it's generally not acceptable to use a bot to "keep a channel open" when it's not in use. However, policies differ from net to net and server to server so check around before starting.

Bots CANNOT provide absolute protection. Nothing can. Eggdrop will try its hardest but there are no guarantees.