Help:Toolforge/Running Pywikibot scripts (advanced)

If you only need to run a script that is included with Pywikibot itself, it is recommended that you follow the running Pywikibot scripts tutorial instead.

This tutorial contains instructions on how to run custom Pywikibot scripts on Toolforge using the Toolforge jobs framework.

Prerequisites

To effectively use custom Pywikibot scripts on Toolforge, you need:

Access to a tool account on Toolforge. See Help:Toolforge/Quickstart to learn how to set it up and use. Note that to use Toolforge you need a beginner-level understanding of Linux terminal, SSH (see Internet Technologies/SSH), and Bash (see Bash Shell Scripting).
Basic familiarity with Python and Pywikibot. You need to know how to program in Python, understand how to run Python scripts, and manage virtual environments and package dependencies. To learn Python, see Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python 3 or The Python Tutorial in Python documentation. For information about Pywikibot, see Manual:Pywikibot.

Installation and setup

SSH to a Toolforge bastion

Become your tool-account

MAINTAINER@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ become TOOLNAME

Create a setup script named pwb_venv.sh with the following content that will create a virtual environment and install Pywikibot's dependencies.
```
tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ nano $HOME/pwb_venv.sh
```
$HOME/pwb_venv.sh
```
#!/bin/bash
# Install Pywikibot in a virtual environment from git sources
# (Pywikibot's PyPi package does not include scripts)

# clean up directories if they already exist
rm -fdr pwbvenv $HOME/pywikibot-core

# create a new virtual environment
python3 -m venv pwbvenv

# activate it
source pwbvenv/bin/activate

# clone Pywikibot
git clone --depth 1 --single-branch --recurse-submodules --shallow-submodules --branch stable "https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/pywikibot/core" $HOME/pywikibot-core

# install dependencies
pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install $HOME/pywikibot-core[mwoauth,mysql]  # update as needed
# pip install ... # any other dependencies here
```

Make the pwb_venv.sh script executable.

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ chmod ug+x $HOME/pwb_venv.sh

Run the setup script using the jobs framework.

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ toolforge jobs run setup-venv --command $HOME/pwb_venv.sh --image python3.11 --wait
INFO: job 'setup-venv' completed

Configure Pywikibot

Interactively:

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ webservice python3.11 shell  # start an interactive Kubernetes shell
tools.TOOLNAME@shell-#########:~$ source pwbvenv/bin/activate  # activate the virtual environment
(pwbvenv) tools.TOOLNAME@shell-#########:~$ pwb generate_user_files  # run the generate_user_files.py Pywikibot script

user-config.py and (optionally) user-password.py are generated by following the prompts.

Manually: See the manual on MediaWiki wiki: user-config.py, BotPasswords, and OAuth.

You may test the installation from an interactive shell.

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ webservice python3.11 shell  # start an interactive Kubernetes shell
tools.TOOLNAME@shell-#########:~$ source pwbvenv/bin/activate  # activate the virtual environment
(pwbvenv) tools.TOOLNAME@shell-#########:~$ pwb version  # run the version.py Pywikibot script
Pywikibot: pywikibot/__init__.py (, -1 (unknown), 2024/03/13, 21:31:19, UNKNOWN)
Release version: 9.0.0
packaging version: 24.0
mwparserfromhell version: 0.6.6
wikitextparser version: n/a
requests version: 2.31.0
  cacerts: /data/project/TOOLNAME/pwbvenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/certifi/cacert.pem
    certificate test: ok
Python: 3.11.2 (main, Mar 13 2023, 12:18:29) [GCC 12.2.0]
PYWIKIBOT_DIR: Not set
PYWIKIBOT_DIR_PWB: /data/project/TOOLNAME/pwbvenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/pywikibot/scripts
PYWIKIBOT_NO_USER_CONFIG: Not set
Config base dir: /data/project/TOOLNAME
Usernames for family 'commons':
        commons: Example bot

Create jobs

Main article: Help:Toolforge/Jobs framework

Example of running the Pywikibot touch.py script once:

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ toolforge jobs run purge-example --command "$HOME/pwbvenv/bin/python3 $HOME/pywikibot-core/pwb.py touch -purge -forcelinkupdate -page:Example" --image python3.11

Example of running your own script on a schedule:

tools.TOOLNAME@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ toolforge jobs run my-cool-job --command "$HOME/pwbvenv/bin/python3 $HOME/my-cool-script.py" --image python3.11 --schedule "@daily"

Additional parameters for the job could include, for example, additional memory allocation (--mem MEM), job restart after being finished (--continuous), etc.

OAuth

Pywikibot can use OAuth v1.0a as the method of authenticating with wikis. To configure this behavior for Wikimedia wikis, follow the instructions in Manual:Pywikibot/OAuth/Wikimedia.

Caution:

When using OAuth as the authentication method, be sure to set the correct permissions on the user-config.py file as described in Manual:Pywikibot/OAuth. This will keep your OAuth credentials more secure.

To learn more about OAuth in general, see OAuth/For Developers.

Next steps

Now that you know how to run your bot on Toolforge, read the script development and maintenance tips described in Help:Toolforge/Developing successful tools. These tips will help you to license, publish, and support your bot over time.

If you are looking for ideas on what types of scripts you can run using Pywikibot, see Manual:Pywikibot/Scripts. If you want to write your own script, see Manual:Pywikibot/Cookbook.

If you want to teach others how to run bots on Toolforge, see the How to host a bot on Toolforge - workshop materials.

Troubleshooting

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '...', but that dependency is installed

This is sometimes caused by leftovers from a Toolforge Grid Engine setup. To fix it, remove or comment any lines starting with export PYTHONPATH= in the .bash_profile file in the tool home directory.

Communication and support

Support and administration of the WMCS resources is provided by the Wikimedia Foundation Cloud Services team and Wikimedia movement volunteers. Please reach out with questions and join the conversation:

Discuss and receive general support

Chat in real time in the IRC channel #wikimedia-cloud ^connect or the bridged Telegram group
Discuss via email after you have subscribed to the cloud@ mailing list

Stay aware of critical changes and plans

Subscribe to the cloud-announce@ mailing list (all messages are also mirrored to the cloud@ list)
Read the News wiki page

Track work tasks and report bugs

Use a subproject of the #Cloud-Services Phabricator project to track confirmed bug reports and feature requests about the Cloud Services infrastructure itself

Read stories and WMCS blog posts

Read the Cloud Services Blog (for the broader Wikimedia movement, see the Wikimedia Technical Blog)