static int getBotAddress_timeout = 5000;

static S getBotAddress(S searchPattern) {

  S subBot = "";

  int i = searchPattern.indexOf('/');

  if (i >= 0 && (isJavaIdentifier(searchPattern.substring(0, i)) || isInteger(searchPattern.substring(0, i)))) {

    subBot = searchPattern.substring(i);

    searchPattern = searchPattern.substring(0, i);

    if (!isInteger(searchPattern))

      searchPattern = "Multi-Port at " + searchPattern + ".";

  }

  // assume it's a port if it's an integer

  if (isInteger(searchPattern))

    ret searchPattern + subBot;

  Integer port = findBot_cache.get(searchPattern);

  if (port != null) try {

    DialogIO io = talkTo("localhost", port);

    try {

      io.waitForLine(/*getBotAddress_timeout*/); // TODO: implement

      S line = io.readLineNoBlock();

      if (startsWithIgnoreCase(line, searchPattern))

        ret port + subBot;

    } finally {

      io.close();

    }

  } catch (Exception e) {

    e.printStackTrace();

  }

  L<ProgramScan.Program> bots = quickBotScan();

  // find top-level bots

  for (ProgramScan.Program p : bots) {

    if (indexOfIgnoreCase(p.helloString, searchPattern) == 0) { // strict matching - start of hello string only, but case-insensitive

      return p.port + subBot;

    }

  }

  // find sub-bots

  for (ProgramScan.Program p : bots) {

    S botName = firstPartOfHelloString(p.helloString);

    boolean isVM = startsWithIgnoreCase(p.helloString, "This is a JavaX VM.");

    boolean shouldRecurse = startsWithIgnoreCase(botName, "Multi-Port") || isVM;

    if (shouldRecurse) try {

      Map<Number, S> subBots = unstructureMap_verboseError(sendToLocalBot(p.port, "list bots"));

      for (Number vport : subBots.keySet()) {

        S name = subBots.get(vport);

        if (startsWithIgnoreCase(name, searchPattern))

          ret p.port + "/" + vport;

      }

    } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); }

  }

  ret null;

}