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https://github.com/saadjsct/matrixcli

Command line matrix client
https://github.com/saadjsct/matrixcli

bot chat client command-line matrix matrix-python-sdk python

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Command line matrix client

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README 

        
#+TITLE: matrixcli: a minimal command line matrix client

#+AUTHOR: saadnpq

#+date: 2019-03-30 

#+HUGO_BASE_DIR: ~/blog/ 

#+hugo_auto_set_lastmod: t

#+EXPORT_FILE_NAME: matrixcli

#+hugo_tags: projects



matrixcli is a simple [[https://matrix.org/blog/home/][matrix]] client based on the [[https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-python-sdk][matrix-python-sdk]].

if you wonder how this is useful please see [[https://github.com/saadnpq/matrixcli#applications][applications]]



* installation

you can install matrixcli using setup.py in root project directory. 

This will also install all needed dependencies.

#+BEGIN_SRC shell

git clone https://github.com/saadnpq/matrixcli.git

cd ./matrixcli 

sudo ./install.sh

#+END_SRC

this will put the matrixcli script in your path, install a 

template config.py file in /etc/matrixcli and systemd unit file in /lib/systemd/user



for ubuntu users you have to install python3-setuptools first before running the above commands

#+begin_src shell

sudo apt install python3-setuptools

#+end_src



to enable the systemd service you can run the following.

#+begin_src shell

systemctl --user enable --now matrixcli

#+end_src



* configuration file

the account configuration is done through the config.py

file in either one of the following locations sorted by precedence



1) custom file specified using the -c option

1) $HOME/.config/matrixcli  

1) /etc/matrixcli  



this is a one account sample configuration.

#+begin_src python 

def password_eval():

    return "Y0UrPredIctabLePA$$w0ord"



accounts=[{ "server":"https://matrix.org/",

              "username":"putYourUserNameHere",

              "passeval":password_eval }] 



# the password_eval function can be named any thing as long as 

# it matches the function definition 



ignore_rooms = ["room_id", "another_room_id"] 

# note: room_id not room_alias (run matrixcli rooms to get the room_id)



#+end_src 



the configuration file should have an =accounts= variable which holds 

a list of dictionaries where every dictionary consists of the account 

information server, username and password eval 



the rationale behind defining a function that returns the password value

is that if you don't want to write your password in plain text you can 

write any python code you wish that generates or reads the password from 

an encrypted file or a key ring



the ignore_rooms list contains rooms that you want to be ignored when 

calculating unread messages and in listen mode 



if you don't want to make a configuration file at all, you can pass the server, username

and password through command line arguments. see [[*usage][usage]]



** multi account configuration 



suppose you have the following configuration file

#+begin_src python 

def account1_password_eval():

    return "account1secretpassword"



def account2_matrixorg_password_eval():

    return "account2secretpassword"



def account3_password_eval_any_name():

    return "yXkdsjhslkjhdlksjhffffffkkssskjsdhkljhssdc"



accounts=[



        { "server":"https://example.com",

          "username":"account1",

          "passeval":account1_password_eval },



        { "server":"https://matrix.org",

          "username":"account2",

          "passeval":account2_matrixorg_password_eval},



        { "server":"https://example.com",

          "username":"account3",

          "passeval":account3_password_eval_any_name },]



ignore_rooms = ["room_id", "another_room_id"] 

#+end_src 



if you didn't specify any command line option, the program will use the first

account in the accounts list. to use any other account its enough to 

pass the -u or --username option to the command with the username of that account.



for example 

#+begin_src shell

matrixcli -u account3 getrooms

#+end_src

that command will login with the parameters of the third account.



if you have two or more accounts with the same username but with different servers.

you can specify the --server option to norrow down the possible accounts to the

account you want.



* applications 

below are the ways i personally use matrixcli, 



** desktop notifications

the first motive to make this program was that i didn't want to keep 

riot webpage open or to run an electron app just for notifications.



you can enable the systemd service, to get notifications for events as they come.

#+begin_src shell 

systemctl --user enable --now matrixcli

#+end_src



[[file:screenshots/notifications.png]]



** status bars

using =matrixcli unread= you write a module for any status bar

to display unread messages. here is a simple example for polybar



#+begin_src yaml

[module/matrix]

type = custom/script

exec = matrixcli unread -f 2> /dev/null

tail = true

interval = 30

format = 

label = M[%output%]

format-underline = #268bd2

#+end_src 



** sendmail for matrix 

for example i have this cron job that sends every day a random song

from my music directory to a specific room.



#+begin_src shell

0 0 * * * /usr/local/bin/matrixcli send -r '!OSPeUVrwMKbIrLQuBX:matrix.org' $(tree /home/pi/musiqa -fi | grep ".*.mp3" | shuf | sed 1q)

#+end_src



and i use it in many scripts on remote servers to notify me about a script output or just when something goes wrong.



* how to use

for a list of the subcommands and options run 

#+begin_src shell

matrixcli --help 

#+end_src

output:

#+begin_example

#usage: matrixcli [-h] [-s SERVER] [-u USERNAME] [-p PASSWORD] [-c CONFIG]

                 {send,listen,rooms,unread,tail} ...



command line matrix client



optional arguments:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  -s SERVER, --server SERVER

                        server to login to

  -u USERNAME, --username USERNAME

                        username to login with

  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD

                        the password

  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG

                        custom configuration file



subcommands:

  {send,listen,rooms,unread,tail}

    send                send something to a room

    listen              listen forever for events

    rooms               get all joined rooms

    unread              get unread notifications

    tail                print last messages

#+end_example



to list the options of a specific sub command, (e.g. send)



#+begin_src shell

matrixcli send --help 

#+end_src



** rooms 

every sub-command that supposed to act on a specific room accepts the 

-r/--room-id optional argument which takes the room-id to act upon, 

or -a/--room_alias which takes a room alias.



to get a room-id of a room run: 

#+begin_src 

matrixcli rooms

#+end_src

outputs the following (for my account).

#+begin_example 

logging in ....

logged in ....

0 : momenamr : !ocOmULdomkoJWYzXts:matrix.org

1 : mahmoudhafez : !fCXcmULzIohNQomvXD:saadnpq.com

2 : Emacs Matrix Client : !ZrZoyXEyFrzcBZKNis:matrix.org

3 : elm3alem zaki : !OaBjEnLTTVqGpqrPES:matrix.org

4 : matrix-python-sdk : !YHhmBTmGBHGQOlGpaZ:matrix.org

5 : Emacs : !PWxnIIDhCBAbNItsSN:matrix.org

6 : moatazomar : !LsBUkYVYJignwCpACn:saadnpq.com

#+end_example



if you didn't specify the room-id or room-alias through the command line, the program will prompt you 

with your joined rooms when it needs to. 



** listen

#+begin_src shell

matrixcli listen

#+end_src

listens forever for events and outputs incoming messages to both stdout

and os notifications, if you are running this command on a headless system

or the program failed to send notifications for some reason,

it will output events only to stdout without complaining.



you can press C-c to quit the listen mode.



there is also a systemd service installed with the program that uses =matrixcli listen=,

to enable it you can run the following.



#+begin_src shell

systemctl --user enable --now matrixcli

#+end_src 



** tail 

returns the last n messages of a room.



#+begin_src shell

matrixcli tail -h

#+end_src



#+begin_example 

usage: matrixcli tail [-h] [-r ROOM_ID | -a ROOM_ALIAS] [-f] [-n [1-100]]



optional arguments:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  -r ROOM_ID, --room-id ROOM_ID

                        specify the room id

  -a ROOM_ALIAS, --room-alias ROOM_ALIAS

                        specify the room by room alias

  -f, --follow          wait for messages and print them as they come

  -n [1-100], --messages [1-100]

                        print the last specified messages

#+end_example



the option -f prints the last messages but wait for new messages

and print them as they come.



you can also send messages while in follow mode by typing the message you want to send

and hit enter to send it. 



** send

#+begin_src shell

matrixcli send --help 

#+end_src

#+begin_example

usage: matrixcli send [-h] [-r ROOM_ID | -a ROOM_ALIAS] [-t | -f] content



positional arguments:

  content



optional arguments:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  -r ROOM_ID, --room-id ROOM_ID

                        specify the room id

  -a ROOM_ALIAS, --room-alias ROOM_ALIAS

                        specify the room by room alias

  -t, --text            force the program to treat the content as text message

  -f, --file            force the program to treat the content as a file

#+end_example



the send command takes the content you want to send as a positional arguments, the program first

sees if the passed text represent a file that exists in the filesystem, if so it will try to 

guess its MIME type based on the extension to correctly preview the content on the receiver's end. 

if the passed text does not represent any file on the filesystem the program will treat it as a text message.



to force the program to treat the content as a file or a text you can specify the optional arguments --file or --text.  



** unread



#+begin_src shell

matrixcli unread --help 

#+end_src



#+begin_example

usage: matrixcli unread [-h] [-f] [-r ROOM_ID | -a ROOM_ALIAS]



optional arguments:

  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  -f, --follow          don't close connection and print the number of unread

                        messages whenever updated

  -r ROOM_ID, --room-id ROOM_ID

                        specify the room id

  -a ROOM_ALIAS, --room-alias ROOM_ALIAS

                        specify the room by room alias

#+end_example



outputs unread messages for room_id or all rooms (except those in ignore_rooms)

if no room_id or room_alias specified