📢 🆕 💥 Latest News! 🔥 📣 🎉
matrix-commandernow available on Docker Hub and hence easy to install as docker image (:clap: to @pataquets for his PR). Install viadocker pull matrixcommander/matrix-commander.matrix-commandernow available on PyPi and hence easy to install viapip install matrix-commander- Slight incompatibility: From now on instead of using
matrix-commander.pyplease callmatrix-commander.matrix-commanderis from now on the preferred way to execute the program. matrix-commanderis now callable from a Python program as well. See tests/test-send.py for an example on how to do that.- new option
--joined-roomsto list rooms you are a member of - new option
--joined-membersto list members of the specified rooms - new feature "DM" or "direct message" which allows you to send to (or listen from) a room whose members are only you (the sender) and the recipient by specifying the recipients name.
- Minor incompatibility: From now
-uis assigned to--userand no longer to--download-media - new option
--whoami - Minor incompatibility:
--rename-devicehas been renamed to--set-device-nameand-xis no longer supported as shortcut. - new option
--get_displaynamefor itself, or one or multiple users - new options
--set-presenceand--get-presenceto set/get presence of itself, or one or multiple users - new options
--uploadand--downloadto interact with the Matrix content repository - new option
--separatorto customize the column separator in outputs - new option
--mxc-to-http - new option
--devicesto list devices of current user - new option
--discovery-infoto print discovery info of homeserver - new option
--login-infoto get the available login methods from the server - new option
--delete-mxcto delete objects from content repository - new option
--delete-mxc-beforeto delete old objects from content repo - new option
--restto invoke the full Matrix REST API - new otions
--set-avatarand--get-avatar - new otions
--import-keysand--export_keys - new option
--get-openid-tokento provide to other websites for login - new option
--delete-device - new option
--room-redactto delete messages, images and other events - new option
--content-repository-configto print content repo info - new option
--get-profileto print user profile - incompatibility: new dependency
pyxdg. Please installpyxdgif necessary. Instead of~/.local/sharethe variableXDG_DATA_HOMEwill be used. Instead of~/.configthe variableXDG_CONFIG_HOMEwill be used. See https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/ar01s03.html. - new option
--has-permission(see also Issue #324 in matrix-nio) - new option
--room-get-visibilityto find out if room is private or public - new option
--room-set-aliasto add alias(es) to room(s) (see also Issue #328 in matrix-nio) - new option
--room-resolve-aliasto resolve room alias(es) - new option
--room-delete-aliasto delete room alias(es) - incompatibility: login (authentication) must now be done explicitly
with
--loginon the first run ofmatrix-commander - new option:
--login, supports login methodspasswordandsso
Summary, TLDR
This simple Matrix client written in Python allows you to send and receive messages and files, verify other devices, and interact with your Matrix account or other Matrix users in many ways. You use it from the terminal (CLI) or integrate it into other simple Python programs. Enjoy and please ⭐ star on Github.
matrix-commander
Simple but convenient CLI-based Matrix client app for sending, receiving, creating rooms, inviting, verifying, and so much more.
matrix-commanderis a simple command-line Matrix client.- It is a simple but convenient app to
- send Matrix text messages as well as text, image, audio, video or other arbitrary files
- listen to and receive Matrix messages, images, audio, video, etc.
- download media files like images or audio
- perform Matrix emoji verification
- performs actions of rooms (create rooms, invite to rooms, etc.)
- list rooms and room members
- and much more
- It exclusively offers a command-line interface (CLI).
- Hence the word-play: matrix-command(lin)er
- There is no GUI and there are no windows (except for pop-up windows in OS notification)
- It uses the matrix-nio SDK
- Both
matrix-nioandmatrix-commanderare written in Python 3 - Convenient to install via
pip.
What for? Why? For whom? Use cases?
Use cases for this program could be
- a bot or part of a bot,
- to automate sending via programs and scripts
matrix-nio show case: as educational material that showcases the use of thematrix-nioSDKalerter: to send all sorts of alerts,Gitlab CI automation tool: some user uses it as Gitlab CI automation tool to report build success/failure to their internal Matrix room.admin toolorautomation tool: you needs to create 175 room for the roll-out within a company? You want to query some 9000 rooms for visibility data? You want to collect profile data of 7000 enterprise or public users?matrix-commanderhas many admin capabilities and can automate many tasks completely. Many admin jobs can be reduced to running a simple bash script or a simple Python program usingmatrix-commander.reminder: send yourself or others daily/weekly reminders via a cron job.surf report: an addict surfer usesmatrix-commandercombined with acronjob to publish daily early morning surf reports for his 3 favorite surfing spots to his Element app.juke box: a user told me he has a large collection of mp3 files on his server. He usesmatrix-commanderto send himself a random song from his music collection to brighten his day.ticker: many people send themselves stock prices from one of the many public ticker APIs. This is usually a singlecurlcommand piped intomatrix-commander.poor-man's Matrix client: if you love the terminal and are too lazy to start up an Element desktop app or an Element webpage,matrix-commanderis a a trivial way to fire off some instant messages to your friends from the terminal.poor-man's importer or exporter: you want to get things in and out of Matrix? Send those 39 holiday picture you have laying around in a holiday folder? Or, your best friend just sent you 57 wedding pictures on Element and you want to store them?matrix-commandercan help with importing and exporting data.poor man's blogger: a "blogger" who frequently sends messages and images to the same public room(s) could usematrix-commanderto keep his audience informed.poor man's diary: a person could write a diary or run a gratitude journal by sending messages to her/his own diary room or gratitude room.ghost:matrix-commandercan be used in an ephemeral fashion, in a fire-and-forget style. A single batch command can log in, create a new device, send a message, and then log out and delete the device.
Give it a Star
If you like it, use it, fork it, make a Pull Request or contribute. Please give it a ⭐ on Github right now so others find it more easily. ❤️
Features
- CLI, Command Line Interface
- Python 3
- Simplicity
- Small footprint, small application (only around 250K)
- Uses
nio-template - End-to-end encryption
- Storage for End-to-end encryption
- Storage of credentials
- Supports access token instead of password
- Supports SSO (Single Sign-On)
- Sending messages
- Sending notices
- Sending formatted messages
- Sending MarkDown messages
- Message splitting before sending
- Sending Code-formatted messages
- Sending to one room
- Sending to multiple rooms
- Sending image files (photos, etc.)
- Sending of media files (music, videos, etc.)
- Sending of arbitrary files (PDF, xls, doc, txt, etc.)
- Sending events such as emoji reactions, or replies as threads
- Using events to edit sent messages
- Supports DM (direct messaging), sending DMs, listening for DMs
- Listing of joined rooms
- Listing of members of given room(s)
- Receiving messages forever
- Receiving messages once
- Receiving last messages
- Receiving or skipping its own messages
- Receiving and downloading media files
- including automatic decryption
- Creating new rooms
- Joining rooms
- Leaving rooms
- Forgetting rooms
- Inviting other users to rooms
- Banning from rooms
- Unbanning from rooms
- Kicking from rooms
- Supports renaming of device
- Supports getting and setting display name
- Supports getting and setting presence
- Uploading, downloading, and deleting to/from resource depository
- Listing your devices
- Listing discovery info
- Listing available login methods supported by server
- Supports skipping SSL verification to use HTTP instead of HTTPS
- Supports providing local SSL certificate files
- Supports notification via OS of received messages
- Supports periodic execution via crontab
- Supports room aliases
- Provides PID files
- Logging (at various levels)
- In-source documentation
- Can be run as a service
- Smart tab completion for shells like bash (thanks to PR from @mizlan 👏)
- More than 200 stars 🌠 on Github
- Easy installation, available through
pip, i.e. available in PyPi store - Easy installation, available as docker image on Docker Hub (thanks to PR from @pataquets 👏)
- Callable from the terminal, from shells like
bash, etc. - Callable from Python programs via the entry point (function)
main. - Open source
- Free, GPL3+ license
First Run, Set Up, Credentials File, End-to-end Encryption
On the first run matrix-commander must be executed with the
--login argument and the corresponding secondary arguments.
This creates a credentials.json file.
The credentials.json file stores: homeserver, user id,
access token, device id, and default room id. On the first run,
the --login run, it asks some questions if not everything is
provided by arguments, creates the token and device id
and stores everything in the credentials.json file. If desired,
all arguments can be provided via arguments to that log in can
be performed fully in batch.
Since the credentials file holds an access token it should be protected and secured. One can use different credential files for different users or different rooms.
On creation the credentials file will always be created in the local directory, so the users sees it right away. This is fine if you have only one or a few credential files, but for better maintainability it is suggested to place your credentials files into directory $HOME/.config/matrix-commander/. When the program looks for a credentials file it will first look in local directory and then as secondary choice it will look in directory $HOME/.config/matrix-commander/.
If you want to re-use an existing device id and an existing access token, you can do so as well, just manually edit the credentials file. However, for end-to-end encryption this will NOT work.
End-to-end encryption (e2ee) is enabled by default. It cannot be turned off.
Wherever possible end-to-end encryption will be used. For e2ee to work
efficiently a store directory is needed to store e2ee data persistently.
The default location for the store directory is a local directory named
store. Alternatively, as a secondary choice the program looks for a store
directory in $HOME/.local/shared/matrix-commander/store/. The user can always
specify a different location via the --store argument. If needed the store
directory will be created on the first run.
From the second time the program is run, and on all future runs it will use the homeserver, user id and access token found in the credentials file to log into the Matrix account. Now this program can be used to easily send simple text messages, images, and so forth to the just configured room.
Verification
As second step after the --login, it is recommended to perform an
emoji verification by running --verify. Verification is always
interactive, bacause the emojis need to be confirmed via the keyboard.
If desired --login and --verify can be done in the same first run.
The program can accept verification request and verify other devices
via emojis. See --verify in help for more details.
Room Operations, Actions on Rooms
The program can create rooms, join, leave and forget rooms. It can also send invitations to join rooms to others (given that user has the appropriate permissions) as well as ban, unban and kick other users from rooms.
Sending
Messages to send can be provided
- in the command line (-m or --message)
- as input from the keyboard (if there is no other input or command)
- through a pipe from stdin (|), i.e. piped in from another program.
For sending messages the program supports various text formats:
- text: default
- html: HTML formatted text
- markdown: MarkDown formatted text
- code: used a block of fixed-sized font, ideal for ASCII art or tables, bash outputs, etc.
- notification
- split: splits messages into multiple units at given pattern
Photos and images that can be sent. That includes files like .jpg, .gif, .png or .svg.
Arbitrary files like .txt, .pdf, .doc, audio files like .mp3 or video files like .mp4 can also be sent.
Matrix events like sending an emoji reaction, replying as a thread, message edits can be sent.
Listening, Receiving
One can listen to one or multiple rooms. Received messages will be displayed on the screen. If desired, optionally, you can be notified of incoming messages through the operating system standard notification system, usually a small pop-up window.
Messages can be received or listened to various ways:
- Forever: the program runs forever, listens forever, and prints all messages as they arrive in real-time.
- Once: the program prints all the messages that are waiting in the queue, i.e. all messages that have been sent in, and after printing them the program terminates.
- Tail: prints the last N read or unread messages of one or multiple specified rooms and after printing them the program terminates.
When listening to messages you can also choose to download and decrypt media. Say, someone is sending a song. The mp3 file can be downloaded and automatically decrypted for you.
Dependencies and Installation
-
If you install via
pip, thenpipwill take care of most of the dependencies.- See https://pypi.org/project/matrix-commander
- Usually
pip install matrix-commanderwill do the trick. - Note that even if you install via
pipyou must have a) Python 3.8+ and b)libolminstalled. SeePyPi-Instructions.md.
-
If you install a docker image:
matrix-commanderis available on Docker Hub and hence easy to install as docker image (:clap: to @pataquets for his PR). Install viadocker pull matrixcommander/matrix-commander. -
If you install it via
gitor via file download then these are the dependencies that you must take care of:- Python 3.8 or higher installed (3.7 will NOT work)
- libolm-dev must be installed as it is required by matrix-nio
- libolm-dev on Debian/Ubuntu, libolm-devel on Fedora, libolm on MacOS
- matrix-nio must be installed, see https://github.com/poljar/matrix-nio
- pip3 install --user --upgrade matrix-nio[e2e]
- python3 package markdown must be installed to support MarkDown format
- pip3 install --user --upgrade markdown
- python3 package python_magic must be installed to support image sending
- pip3 install --user --upgrade python_magic
- if (and only if) you want OS notification support, then the python3
package notify2 and dbus-python should be installed
- pip3 install --user --upgrade dbus-python # optional
- pip3 install --user --upgrade notify2 # optional
- python3 package urllib must be installed to support media download
- pip3 install --user --upgrade urllib
- python3 package pyxdg must be installed to support
XDG_*env vars. Be careful. Multiple packages install in the same directoryxdgand overwrite each other. These packages can be conflicting. Specifically, packagespyxdgandxdgcollide. If you already havexdginstalled you cannot just simply installpyxdg; in this case you should opt for a separate Python environment.- pip3 install --user --upgrade pyxdg
matrix_commander/matrix_commander.pyfile must be installed, and should have execution permissions- chmod 755 matrix_commander.py
matrix_commander/matrix-commanderfile is recommended for the install, and should have execution permissions- chmod 755 matrix-commander
- for a full list or requirements look at the
requirements.txtfile- run
pip install -r requirements.txtto automatically install all required Python packages - if you e.g. run on a headless server and don't want dbus-python and
notify2, please remove the corresponding 2 lines from
the
requirements.txtfile
- run
Examples of calling matrix-commander
- Alternative 1: Usually
matrix-commanderis called from a terminal inside a shell likebash,sh,zsh, your Windows CMD terminal or similar. You will find plenty of examples how to use it within a terminal just a few lines down. - Alternative 2: Sometimes, however, it might be more convenient to call
matrix-commanderfrom within a Python program. This is also possible. Import the Python modulematrix_commanderand use the provided entry pointmain. An example of how this can be done can be found in tests/test-send.py.
$ matrix-commander --login password # first run; will configure everything
$ matrix-commander --login sso # alternative first run with Single Sign-On;
$ # this will configure everything on a headless server w/o a browser
$ # this created a credentials.json file, and a store directory.
$ # optionally, if you want you can move credentials to app config directory
$ mkdir $HOME/.config/matrix-commander # optional
$ mv -i credentials.json $HOME/.config/matrix-commander/
$ # optionally, if you want you can move store to the app share directory
$ mkdir $HOME/.local/share/matrix-commander # optional
$ mv -i store $HOME/.local/share/matrix-commander/
$ # Now you are ready to run program for a second time
$ # Let us verify the device/room to where we want to send messages
$ # The other device will issue a "verify by emoji" request
$ matrix-commander --verify
$ # Now program is both configured and verified, let us send the first message
$ matrix-commander -m "First message!"
$ matrix-commander --debug # turn debugging on
$ matrix-commander --help # print help
$ matrix-commander # this will ask user for message to send
$ matrix-commander --message "Hello World!" # sends provided message
$ echo "Hello World" | matrix-commander # pipe input msg into program
$ matrix-commander -m msg1 -m msg2 # sends 2 messages
$ matrix-commander -m msg1 msg2 msg3 # sends 3 messages
$ df -h | matrix-commander --code # formatting for code/tables
$ matrix-commander -m "<b>BOLD</b> and <i>ITALIC</i>" --html
$ matrix-commander -m "- bullet1" --markdown
$ # take input from an RSS feed and split large RSS entries into multiple
$ # Matrix messages wherever the pattern "\n\n\n" is found
$ rssfeed | matrix-commander --split "\n\n\n"
$ matrix-commander --credentials usr1room2.json # select credentials file
$ matrix-commander --store /var/storage/ # select store directory
$ # Send to a specific room
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" --room '!YourRoomId:example.org'
$ # some shells require the ! of the room id to be escaped with \
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" --room "\!YourRoomId:example.org"
$ # Send to multiple rooms
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" -r '!r1:example.org' '!r2:example.org'
$ # Send to multiple rooms, another way
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" -r '!r1:example.org' -r '!r2:example.org'
$ # Send to a specific user, DM, direct messaging, using full user id
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" --user '@MyFriend:example.org'
$ # Send to a specific user, DM, direct messaging, using partial user id
$ # It will be assumed that user @MyFriend is on same homeserver
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" --user '@MyFriend'
$ # Send to a specific user, DM, direct messaging, using display name
$ # Careful! Display names might not be unique. Don't DM the wrong person!
$ # To double-check the display names do a --joined-members "*"
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" -u 'Joe'
$ # Send to multiple users
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" -u '@Joe:example.org' '@Jane:example.org'
$ # Send to multiple users, another way
$ matrix-commander -m "hi" -u '@Joe:example.org' -u '@Jane:example.org'
$ # send 2 images and 1 text, text will be sent last
$ matrix-commander -i photo1.jpg photo2.img -m "Do you like my 2 photos?"
$ # send 1 image and no text
$ matrix-commander -i photo1.jpg
$ # pipe 1 image and no text
$ cat image1.jpg | matrix-commander -i -
$ # send 1 audio and 1 text to 2 rooms
$ matrix-commander -a song.mp3 -m "Do you like this song?" \
-r '!someroom1:example.com' '!someroom2:example.com'
$ # send 2 audios, 1 via stdin pipe
$ audio-generator | matrix-commander -a intro.mp3 -
$ # send a .pdf file and a video with a text
$ matrix-commander -f example.pdf video.mp4 -m "Here are the promised files"
$ # send a .pdf file via stdin pipe
$ pdf-generator | matrix-commander -f -
$ # listen forever, get msgs in real-time and notify me via OS
$ matrix-commander --listen forever --os-notify
$ # listen forever, and show me also my own messages
$ matrix-commander --listen forever --listen-self
$ # listen once, get any new messages and quit
$ matrix-commander --listen once --listen-self
$ matrix-commander --listen once --listen-self | process-in-other-app
$ # listen to tail, get the last N messages and quit
$ matrix-commander --listen tail --tail 10 --listen-self
$ # listen to tail, another way of specifying it
$ matrix-commander --tail 10 --listen-self | process-in-other-app
$ # get the very last message
$ matrix-commander --tail 1 --listen-self
$ # listen to (get) all messages, old and new, and process them in another app
$ matrix-commander --listen all | process-in-other-app
$ # listen to (get) all messages, including own
$ matrix-commander --listen all --listen-self
$ # set, rename device-name, sometimes also called device display-name
$ matrix-commander --set-device-name "my new device name"
$ # set, rename display name for authenticated user
$ matrix-commander --set-display-name "Alex"
$ # get display name for authenticated user, for itself
$ matrix-commander --get-display-name
$ # get display name for other users
$ matrix-commander --get-display-name \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # list all the rooms that I am a member of, all joined rooms
$ matrix-commander --joined-rooms
$ # list all the members of 2 specific rooms
$ matrix-commander --joined-members '!someroomId1:example.com' \
'!someroomId2:example.com'
$ # list all the members of all rooms that I am member of
$ matrix-commander --joined-members '*'
$ # set presence
$ matrix-commander --set-presence "unavailable"
$ # get presence of matrix-commander itself
$ matrix-commander --get-presence
$ # get presence of other users
$ matrix-commander --get-presence \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # upload file to resource repository
$ matrix-commander --upload "avatar.png"
$ # download file from resource repository via URI (MXC)
$ matrix-commander --download "mxc://example.com/SomeStrangeUriKey"
$ matrix-commander --delete-mxc mxc://... # delete image from database
$ matrix-commander --delete-mxc-before '20.01.2022 19:38:42' 1024000
$ # for more examples of --upload, --download, --delete-mxc,
$ # --delete-mxc-before, --mxc-to-http, see file tests/test-upload.sh
$ matrix-commander --rest GET "" '__homeserver__/_matrix/client/versions'
$ # for more examples of --rest see file tests/test-rest.sh
$ matrix-commander --get-avatar # get its own avatar MXC URI
$ # get avatar MXC URIs of other users
$ matrix-commander --get-avatar '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --set-avatar mxc://... # set its own avatar MXC URI
$ # for more examples of --set_avatar see tests/test-setget.sh
$ matrix-commander --get-profile # get its own user profile
$ matrix-commander --get-profile '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --has-permission '!someroomId1:example.com' 'ban'
$ matrix-commander --export-keys mykeys "my passphrase" # export keys
$ matrix-commander --import-keys mykeys "my passphrase" # import keys
$ matrix-commander --get-openid-token # get its own OpenId token
$ # get OpenID tokens for other users
$ matrix-commander --get-openid-token '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --room-get-visibility # get default room visibility
$ matrix-commander --room-get-visibility \
'\!someroomId1:example.com' '\!someroomId2:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --room-set-alias '#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'
$ matrix-commander --room-set-alias 'someRoomAlias' \
'\!someroomId1:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --room-resolve-alias '#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'
$ matrix-commander --room-resolve-alias '#someRoomAlias1:matrix.example.org' \
'someRoomAlias2'
$ matrix-commander --room-delete-alias '#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'
$ matrix-commander --room-delete-alias '#someRoomAlias1:matrix.example.org' \
'someRoomAlias2'
$ matrix-commander --room-get-state # get state of default room
$ matrix-commander --room-get-state \
'\!someroomId1:example.com' '\!someroomId2:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --delete-device "QBUAZIFURK" --password 'mc-password'
$ matrix-commander --delete-device "QBUAZIFURK" "AUIECTSRND" \
--user '@user1:example.com' --password 'user1-password'
$ # delete a message with event id 'someEventId'
# matrix-commander --room-redact '!someroomId1:example.com' 'someEventId'
$ # delete 2 images from 2 rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-redact \
'\!someroomId1:example.com' '\$someEventId1' 'Image deleted, obsolete info'
'\!someroomId2:example.com' '\$someEventId2' 'Image deleted, outdated'
$ # print its own user id
$ matrix-commander --whoami
$ # skip SSL certificate verification for a homeserver without SSL
$ matrix-commander --no-ssl -m "also working without Let's Encrypt SSL"
$ # use your own SSL certificate for a homeserver with SSL and local certs
$ matrix-commander --ssl-certificate mycert.crt -m "using my own cert"
$ # download and decrypt media files like images, audio, PDF, etc.
$ # and store downloaded files in directory "mymedia"
$ matrix-commander --listen forever --listen-self --download-media mymedia
$ # create rooms without name and topic, just with alias, use a simple alias
$ matrix-commander --room-create roomAlias1
$ # don't use a well formed alias like '#roomAlias1:example.com' as it will
$ # confuse the server!
$ # BAD: matrix-commander --room-create roomAlias1 '#roomAlias1:example.com'
$ matrix-commander --room-create roomAlias2
$ # create rooms with name and topic
$ matrix-commander --room-create roomAlias3 --name 'Fancy Room' \
--topic 'All about Matrix'
$ matrix-commander --room-create roomAlias4 roomAlias5 \
--name 'Fancy Room 4' -name 'Cute Room 5' \
--topic 'All about Matrix 4' 'All about Nio 5'
$ # join rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-join '!someroomId1:example.com' \
'!someroomId2:example.com' '#roomAlias1:example.com'
$ # leave rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-leave '#roomAlias1:example.com' \
'!someroomId2:example.com'
$ # forget rooms, you have to first leave a room before you forget it
$ matrix-commander --room-forget '#roomAlias1:example.com'
$ # invite users to rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-invite '#roomAlias1:example.com' \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # ban users from rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-ban '!someroom1:example.com' \
'!someroom2:example.com' \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # unban users from rooms, remember after unbanning you have to invite again
$ matrix-commander --room-unban '!someroom1:example.com' \
'!someroom2:example.com' \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # kick users from rooms
$ matrix-commander --room-kick '!someroom1:example.com' \
'#roomAlias2:example.com' \
--user '@user1:example.com' '@user2:example.com'
$ # set log levels, INFO for matrix-commander and ERROR for modules below
$ matrix-commander -m "test" --log-level INFO ERROR
$ # example of how to quote text correctly, e.g. JSON text
$ matrix-commander -m '{title: "hello", message: "here it is"}'
$ matrix-commander -m "{title: \"hello\", message: \"here it is\"}"
$ matrix-commander -m "{title: \"${TITLE}\", message: \"${MSG}\"}"
$ matrix-commander -m "Don't do this"
$ matrix-commander -m 'He said "No" to me.'
$ matrix-commander --separator " || " # customize column separator in outputs
$ matrix-commander --mxc-to-http mxc://example.com/abc... # get HTTP
$ matrix-commander --devices # to list devices of matrix-commander
$ matrix-commander --discovery-info # print discovery info of homeserver
$ matrix-commander --login-info # list login methods
$ matrix-commander --content-repository-config # list config of content repo
$ # example of how to use stdin, how to pipe data into the program
$ echo "Some text" | matrix-commander # send a text msg via pipe
$ echo "Some text" | matrix-commander -m - # long form to send text via pipe
$ matrix-commander -m "\-" # send the literal minus sign as a text msg
$ cat image1.png | matrix-commander -i - # send an image via pipe
$ matrix-commander -i - < image1.png # send an image via pipe
$ cat image1.png | matrix-commander -i - -m "text" # send image and text
$ # send 3 images out of which the second will be read from stdin via pipe
$ cat im2.png | matrix-commander -i im1.jpg - im3.jpg # send 3 images
$ echo "text" | matrix-commander -i im1.png # first image, then piped text
$ echo "text" | matrix-commander -i im1.png -m - # same, long version
$ pdf-generator | matrix-commander -f - -m "Here is my PDF file."
$ audio-generator | matrix-commander -a - -m "Like this song?"
$ echo "junk" | matrix-commander -i - -m - # this will fail, not allowed
$ # remember, pipe or stdin, i.e. the "-" can be used at most once
$ cat im.png | matrix-commander -i im1.png - im3.png - im5.png # will fail
$ # sending an event: e.g. reacting with an emoji
$ JSON_REACT_MSC2677='{ "type": "m.reaction",
"content": { "m.relates_to": { "rel_type": "m.annotation",
"event_id": "%s", "key": "%s" } } }'
$ TARGET_EVENT="\$...a.valid.event.id" # event to which to react
$ REACT_EMOJI="😀" # how to react
$ printf "$JSON_REACT_MSC2677" "$TARGET_EVENT" "$REACT_EMOJI" |
matrix-commander --event -
$ # for more examples of "matrix-commander --event" see tests/test-event.sh
Usage
usage: matrix_commander.py [-h] [-d] [--log-level LOG_LEVEL [LOG_LEVEL ...]]
[--login LOGIN] [-v [VERIFY]] [--logout LOGOUT]
[-c CREDENTIALS] [-s STORE] [-r ROOM [ROOM ...]]
[--room-default ROOM_DEFAULT]
[--room-create ROOM_CREATE [ROOM_CREATE ...]]
[--room-join ROOM_JOIN [ROOM_JOIN ...]]
[--room-leave ROOM_LEAVE [ROOM_LEAVE ...]]
[--room-forget ROOM_FORGET [ROOM_FORGET ...]]
[--room-invite ROOM_INVITE [ROOM_INVITE ...]]
[--room-ban ROOM_BAN [ROOM_BAN ...]]
[--room-unban ROOM_UNBAN [ROOM_UNBAN ...]]
[--room-kick ROOM_KICK [ROOM_KICK ...]]
[-u USER [USER ...]] [--user-login USER_LOGIN]
[--name NAME [NAME ...]]
[--topic TOPIC [TOPIC ...]]
[-m MESSAGE [MESSAGE ...]] [-i IMAGE [IMAGE ...]]
[-a AUDIO [AUDIO ...]] [-f FILE [FILE ...]]
[-e EVENT [EVENT ...]] [-w] [-z] [-k] [-p SPLIT]
[--config CONFIG] [--proxy PROXY] [-n]
[--encrypted] [-l [LISTEN]] [-t [TAIL]] [-y]
[--print-event-id]
[--download-media [DOWNLOAD_MEDIA]] [-o]
[--set-device-name SET_DEVICE_NAME]
[--set-display-name SET_DISPLAY_NAME]
[--get-display-name] [--set-presence SET_PRESENCE]
[--get-presence] [--upload UPLOAD [UPLOAD ...]]
[--download DOWNLOAD [DOWNLOAD ...]]
[--delete-mxc DELETE_MXC [DELETE_MXC ...]]
[--delete-mxc-before DELETE_MXC_BEFORE [DELETE_MXC_BEFORE ...]]
[--joined-rooms]
[--joined-members JOINED_MEMBERS [JOINED_MEMBERS ...]]
[--mxc-to-http MXC_TO_HTTP [MXC_TO_HTTP ...]]
[--devices] [--discovery-info] [--login-info]
[--content-repository-config]
[--rest REST [REST ...]] [--set-avatar SET_AVATAR]
[--get-avatar [GET_AVATAR ...]]
[--get-profile [GET_PROFILE ...]]
[--has-permission HAS_PERMISSION [HAS_PERMISSION ...]]
[--import-keys IMPORT_KEYS IMPORT_KEYS]
[--export-keys EXPORT_KEYS EXPORT_KEYS]
[--room-set-alias ROOM_SET_ALIAS [ROOM_SET_ALIAS ...]]
[--room-resolve-alias ROOM_RESOLVE_ALIAS [ROOM_RESOLVE_ALIAS ...]]
[--room-delete-alias ROOM_DELETE_ALIAS [ROOM_DELETE_ALIAS ...]]
[--get-openid-token [GET_OPENID_TOKEN ...]]
[--room-get-visibility [ROOM_GET_VISIBILITY ...]]
[--room-get-state [ROOM_GET_STATE ...]]
[--delete-device DELETE_DEVICE [DELETE_DEVICE ...]]
[--room-redact ROOM_REDACT [ROOM_REDACT ...]]
[--whoami] [--no-ssl]
[--ssl-certificate SSL_CERTIFICATE]
[--file-name FILE_NAME [FILE_NAME ...]]
[--key-dict KEY_DICT [KEY_DICT ...]] [--plain]
[--separator SEPARATOR]
[--access-token ACCESS_TOKEN] [--password PASSWORD]
[--homeserver HOMESERVER] [--device DEVICE]
[--version]
Welcome to matrix-commander, a Matrix CLI client. ─── On first run use --login
to log in, to authenticate. On second run we suggest to use --verify to get
verified. Emoji verification is built-in which can be used to verify devices.
On further runs this program implements a simple Matrix CLI client that can
send messages, listen to messages, verify devices, etc. It can send one or
multiple message to one or multiple Matrix rooms and/or users. The text
messages can be of various formats such as "text", "html", "markdown" or
"code". Images, audio, arbitrary files, or events can be sent as well. For
receiving there are three main options: listen forever, listen once and quit,
and get the last N messages and quit. End-to-end encryption is enabled by
default and cannot be turned off. ─── Bundling several actions together into a
single call to matrix-commander is faster than calling matrix-commander
multiple times with only one action. If there are both 'set' and 'get' actions
present in the arguments, then the 'set' actions will be performed before the
'get' actions. Then send actions and at the very end listen actions will be
performed. ─── For even more explications and examples also read the
documentation provided in the on-line Github README.md file or the README.md
in your local installation.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d, --debug Print debug information. If used once, only the log
level of matrix-commander is set to DEBUG. If used
twice ("-d -d" or "-dd") then log levels of both
matrix-commander and underlying modules are set to
DEBUG. "-d" is a shortcut for "--log-level DEBUG". See
also --log-level. "-d" takes precedence over "--log-
level".
--log-level LOG_LEVEL [LOG_LEVEL ...]
Set the log level(s). Possible values are "DEBUG",
"INFO", "WARNING", "ERROR", and "CRITICAL". If
--log_level is used with one level argument, only the
log level of matrix-commander is set to the specified
value. If --log_level is used with two level argument
(e.g. "--log-level WARNING ERROR") then log levels of
both matrix-commander and underlying modules are set
to the specified values. See also --debug.
--login LOGIN Login to and authenticate with the Matrix homeserver.
This requires exactly one argument, the login method.
Currently two choices are offered: 'password' and
'sso'. Provide one of these methods. If you have
chosen 'password', you will authenticate through your
account password. You can optionally provide these
additional arguments: --homeserver to specify the
Matrix homeserver, --user-login to specify the log in
user id, --password to specify the password, --device
to specify a device name, --room-default to specify a
default room for sending/listening. If you have chosen
'sso', you will authenticate through Single Sign-On. A
web-browser will be started and you authenticate on
the webpage. You can optionally provide these
additional arguments: --homeserver to specify the
Matrix homeserver, --user-login to specify the log in
user id, --device to specify a device name, --room-
default to specify a default room for
sending/listening. See all the extra arguments for
further explanations. ----- SSO (Single Sign-On)
starts a web browser and connects the user to a web
page on the server for login. SSO will only work if
the server supports it and if there is access to a
browser. So, don't use SSO on headless homeservers
where there is no browser installed or accessible.
-v [VERIFY], --verify [VERIFY]
Perform verification. By default, no verification is
performed. Possible values are: "emoji". If
verification is desired, run this program in the
foreground (not as a service) and without a pipe.
While verification is optional it is highly
recommended, and it is recommended to be done right
after (or together with) the --login action.
Verification is always interactive, i.e. it required
keyboard input. Verification questions will be printed
on stdout and the user has to respond via the keyboard
to accept or reject verification. Once verification is
complete, the program may be run as a service.
Verification is best done as follows: Perform a cross-
device verification, that means, perform a
verification between two devices of the *same* user.
For that, open (e.g.) Element in a browser, make sure
Element is using the same user account as the matrix-
commander user (specified with --user-login at
--login). Now in the Element webpage go to the room
that is the matrix-commander default room (specified
with --room-default at --login). OK, in the web-
browser you are now the same user and in the same room
as matrix-commander. Now click the round 'i' 'Room
Info' icon, then click 'People', click the appropriate
user (the matrix-commander user), click red 'Not
Trusted' text which indicated an untrusted device,
then click the square 'Interactively verify by Emoji'
button (one of 3 button choices). At this point both
web-page and matrix-commander in terminal show a set
of emoji icons and names. Compare them visually.
Confirm on both sides (Yes, They Match, Got it),
finally click OK. You should see a green shield and
also see that the matrix-commander device is now green
and verified in the webpage. In the terminal you
should see a text message indicating success. You
should now be verified across all devices and across
all users.
--logout LOGOUT Logout this or all devices from the Matrix homeserver.
This requires exactly one argument. Two choices are
offered: 'me' and 'all'. Provide one of these choices.
If you choose 'me', only the one device matrix-
commander is currently using will be logged out. If
you choose 'all', all devices of the user used by
matrix-commander will be logged out. While --logout
neither removes the credentials nor the store, the
logout action removes the device and makes the access-
token stored in the credentials invalid. Hence, after
a --logout, one must manually remove creditials and
store, and then perform a new --login to use matrix-
commander again. You can perfectly use matrix-
commander without ever logging out. --logout is a
cleanup if you have decided not to use this (or all)
device(s) ever again.
-c CREDENTIALS, --credentials CREDENTIALS
On first run, information about homeserver, user, room
id, etc. will be written to a credentials file. By
default, this file is "credentials.json". On further
runs the credentials file is read to permit logging
into the correct Matrix account and sending messages
to the preconfigured room. If this option is provided,
the provided file name will be used as credentials
file instead of the default one.
-s STORE, --store STORE
Path to directory to be used as "store" for encrypted
messaging. By default, this directory is "./store/".
Since encryption is always enabled, a store is always
needed. If this option is provided, the provided
directory name will be used as persistent storage
directory instead of the default one. Preferably, for
multiple executions of this program use the same store
for the same device. The store directory can be shared
between multiple different devices and users.
-r ROOM [ROOM ...], --room ROOM [ROOM ...]
Optionally specify one or multiple rooms via room ids
or room aliases. --room is used by various send
actions and various listen actions. The default room
is provided in the credentials file (specified at
--login with --room-default). If a room (or multiple
ones) is (or are) provided in the --room arguments,
then it (or they) will be used instead of the one from
the credentials file. The user must have access to the
specified room in order to send messages there or
listen on the room. Messages cannot be sent to
arbitrary rooms. When specifying the room id some
shells require the exclamation mark to be escaped with
a backslash. As an alternative to specifying a room as
destination, one can specify a user as a destination
with the '--user' argument. See '--user' and the term
'DM (direct messaging)' for details. Specifying a room
is always faster and more efficient than specifying a
user. Not all listen operations allow setting a room.
Read more under the --listen options and similar. Most
actions also support room aliases instead of room ids.
Some even short room aliases.
--room-default ROOM_DEFAULT
Optionally specify a room as the default room for
future actions. If not specified for --login, it will
be queried via the keyboard. --login stores the
specified room as default room in your credentials
file. This option is only used in combination with
--login. A default room is needed. Specify a valid
room either with --room-default or provide it via
keyboard.
--room-create ROOM_CREATE [ROOM_CREATE ...]
Create one or multiple rooms. One or multiple room
aliases can be specified. For each alias specified a
room will be created. For each created room one line
with room id and alias will be printed to stdout. If
you are not interested in an alias, provide an empty
string like "".The alias provided must be in canocial
local form, i.e. if you want a final full alias like
'#SomeRoomAlias:matrix.example.comyou must provide the
string 'SomeRoomAlias'. The user must be permitted to
create rooms. Combine --room-create with --name and
--topic to add names and topics to the room(s) to be
created.
--room-join ROOM_JOIN [ROOM_JOIN ...]
Join this room or these rooms. One or multiple room
aliases can be specified. The room (or multiple ones)
provided in the arguments will be joined. The user
must have permissions to join these rooms.
--room-leave ROOM_LEAVE [ROOM_LEAVE ...]
Leave this room or these rooms. One or multiple room
aliases can be specified. The room (or multiple ones)
provided in the arguments will be left.
--room-forget ROOM_FORGET [ROOM_FORGET ...]
After leaving a room you should (most likely) forget
the room. Forgetting a room removes the users' room
history. One or multiple room aliases can be
specified. The room (or multiple ones) provided in the
arguments will be forgotten. If all users forget a
room, the room can eventually be deleted on the
server.
--room-invite ROOM_INVITE [ROOM_INVITE ...]
Invite one ore more users to join one or more rooms.
Specify the user(s) as arguments to --user. Specify
the rooms as arguments to this option, i.e. as
arguments to --room-invite. The user must have
permissions to invite users.
--room-ban ROOM_BAN [ROOM_BAN ...]
Ban one ore more users from one or more rooms. Specify
the user(s) as arguments to --user. Specify the rooms
as arguments to this option, i.e. as arguments to
--room-ban. The user must have permissions to ban
users.
--room-unban ROOM_UNBAN [ROOM_UNBAN ...]
Unban one ore more users from one or more rooms.
Specify the user(s) as arguments to --user. Specify
the rooms as arguments to this option, i.e. as
arguments to --room-unban. The user must have
permissions to unban users.
--room-kick ROOM_KICK [ROOM_KICK ...]
Kick one ore more users from one or more rooms.
Specify the user(s) as arguments to --user. Specify
the rooms as arguments to this option, i.e. as
arguments to --room-kick. The user must have
permissions to kick users.
-u USER [USER ...], --user USER [USER ...]
Specify one or multiple users. This option is
meaningful in combination with a) room actions like
--room-invite, --room-ban, --room-unban, etc. and b)
send actions like -m, -i, -f, etc. c) some listen
actions --listen, as well as d) actions like --delete-
device. In case of a) this option --user specifies the
users to be used with room commands (like invite, ban,
etc.). In case of b) the option --user can be used as
an alternative to specifying a room as destination for
text (-m), images (-i), etc. For send actions '--user'
is providing the functionality of 'DM (direct
messaging)'. For c) this option allows an alternative
to specifying a room as destination for some --listen
actions. For d) this gives the otion to delete the
device of a different user. ----- What is a DM?
matrix-commander tries to find a room that contains
only the sender and the receiver, hence DM. These
rooms have nothing special other the fact that they
only have 2 members and them being the sender and
recipient respectively. If such a room is found, the
first one found will be used as destination. If no
such room is found, the send fails and the user should
do a --room-create and --room-invite first. If
multiple such rooms exist, one of them will be used
(arbitrarily). For sending and listening, specifying a
room directly is always faster and more efficient than
specifying a user. So, if you know the room, it is
preferred to use --room instead of --user. For b) and
c) --user can be specified in 3 ways: 1) full user id
as in '@john:example.org', 2) partial user id as in
'@john' when the user is on the same homeserver
(example.org will be automatically appended), or 3) a
display name as in 'john'. Be careful, when using
display names as they might not be unique, and you
could be sending to the wrong person. To see possible
display names use the --joined-members '*' option
which will show you the display names in the middle
column.
--user-login USER_LOGIN
Optional argument to specify the user for --login.
This gives the otion to specify the user id for login.
For '--login sso' the --user-login is not needed as
user id can be obtained from server via SSO. For '--
login password', if not provided it will be queried
via keyboard. A full user id like '@john:example.com',
a partial user name like '@john', and a short user
name like 'john' can be given. --user-login is only
used by --login and ignored by all other actions.
--name NAME [NAME ...]
Specify one or multiple names. This option is only
meaningful in combination with option --room-create.
This option --name specifies the names to be used with
the command --room-create.
--topic TOPIC [TOPIC ...]
Specify one or multiple topics. This option is only
meaningful in combination with option --room-create.
This option --topic specifies the topics to be used
with the command --room-create.
-m MESSAGE [MESSAGE ...], --message MESSAGE [MESSAGE ...]
Send this message. Message data must not be binary
data, it must be text. If no '-m' is used and no other
conflicting arguments are provided, and information is
piped into the program, then the piped data will be
used as message. Finally, if there are no operations
at all in the arguments, then a message will be read
from stdin, i.e. from the keyboard. This option can be
used multiple times to send multiple messages. If
there is data piped into this program, then first data
from the pipe is published, then messages from this
option are published. Messages will be sent last, i.e.
after objects like images, audio, files, events, etc.
Input piped via stdin can additionally be specified
with the special character '-'. If you want to feed a
text message into matrix-commander via a pipe, via
stdin, then specify the special character '-'. If '-'
is specified as message, then the program will read
the message from stdin. If your message is literally
'-' then use '\-' as message in the argument. '-' may
appear in any position, i.e. '-m "start" - "end"' will
send 3 messages out of which the second one is read
from stdin. '-' may appear only once overall in all
arguments.
-i IMAGE [IMAGE ...], --image IMAGE [IMAGE ...]
Send this image. This option can be used multiple
times to send multiple images. First images are sent,
then text messages are sent. If you want to feed an
image into matrix-commander via a pipe, via stdin,
then specify the special character '-'. If '-' is
specified as image file name, then the program will
read the image data from stdin. If your image file is
literally named '-' then use '\-' as file name in the
argument. '-' may appear in any position, i.e. '-i
image1.jpg - image3.png' will send 3 images out of
which the second one is read from stdin. '-' may
appear only once overall in all arguments. If the file
exists already, it is more efficient to specify the
file name than to pipe the file through stdin.
-a AUDIO [AUDIO ...], --audio AUDIO [AUDIO ...]
Send this audio file. This option can be used multiple
times to send multiple audio files. First audios are
sent, then text messages are sent. If you want to feed
an audio into matrix-commander via a pipe, via stdin,
then specify the special character '-'. See
description of '-i' to see how '-' is handled.
-f FILE [FILE ...], --file FILE [FILE ...]
Send this file (e.g. PDF, DOC, MP4). This option can
be used multiple times to send multiple files. First
files are sent, then text messages are sent. If you
want to feed a file into matrix-commander via a pipe,
via stdin, then specify the special character '-'. See
description of '-i' to see how '-' is handled.
-e EVENT [EVENT ...], --event EVENT [EVENT ...]
Send an event that is formatted as a JSON object as
specified by the Matrix protocol. This allows the
advanced user to send additional types of events such
as reactions, send replies to previous events, or edit
previous messages. Specifications for events can be
found at https://spec.matrix.org/unstable/proposals/.
This option can be used multiple times to send
multiple events. First events are sent, then text
messages are sent. If you want to feed an event into
matrix-commander via a pipe, via stdin, then specify
the special character '-'. See description of '-i' to
see how '-' is handled. See tests/test-event.sh for
examples.
-w, --html Send message as format "HTML". If not specified,
message will be sent as format "TEXT". E.g. that
allows some text to be bold, etc. Only a subset of
HTML tags are accepted by Matrix.
-z, --markdown Send message as format "MARKDOWN". If not specified,
message will be sent as format "TEXT". E.g. that
allows sending of text formatted in MarkDown language.
-k, --code Send message as format "CODE". If not specified,
message will be sent as format "TEXT". If both --html
and --code are specified then --code takes priority.
This is useful for sending ASCII-art or tabbed output
like tables as a fixed-sized font will be used for
display.
-p SPLIT, --split SPLIT
If set, split the message(s) into multiple messages
wherever the string specified with --split occurs.
E.g. One pipes a stream of RSS articles into the
program and the articles are separated by three
newlines. Then with --split set to "\n\n\n" each
article will be printed in a separate message. By
default, i.e. if not set, no messages will be split.
--config CONFIG Location of a config file. By default, no config file
is used. If this option is provided, the provided file
name will be used to read configuration from. Not
implemented.
--proxy PROXY Optionally specify a proxy for connectivity. By
default, i.e. if this option is not set, no proxy is
used. If this option is used a proxy URL must be
provided. The provided proxy URL will be used for the
HTTP connection to the server. The proxy supports
SOCKS4(a), SOCKS5, and HTTP (tunneling). Examples of
valid URLs are "http://10.10.10.10:8118" or
"socks5://user:password@127.0.0.1:1080". URLs with
"https" or "socks4a" are not valid. Only "http",
"socks4" and "socks5" are valid.
-n, --notice Send message as notice. If not specified, message will
be sent as text.
--encrypted Send message end-to-end encrypted. Encryption is
always turned on and will always be used where
possible. It cannot be turned off. This flag does
nothing as encryption is turned on with or without
this argument.
-l [LISTEN], --listen [LISTEN]
The --listen option takes one argument. There are
several choices: "never", "once", "forever", "tail",
and "all". By default, --listen is set to "never". So,
by default no listening will be done. Set it to
"forever" to listen for and print incoming messages to
stdout. "--listen forever" will listen to all messages
on all rooms forever. To stop listening "forever", use
Control-C on the keyboard or send a signal to the
process or service. The PID for signaling can be found
in a PID file in directory "/home/user/.run". "--
listen once" will get all the messages from all rooms
that are currently queued up. So, with "once" the
program will start, print waiting messages (if any)
and then stop. The timeout for "once" is set to 10
seconds. So, be patient, it might take up to that
amount of time. "tail" reads and prints the last N
messages from the specified rooms, then quits. The
number N can be set with the --tail option. With
"tail" some messages read might be old, i.e. already
read before, some might be new, i.e. never read
before. It prints the messages and then the program
stops. Messages are sorted, last-first. Look at --tail
as that option is related to --listen tail. The option
"all" gets all messages available, old and new. Unlike
"once" and "forever" that listen in ALL rooms, "tail"
and "all" listen only to the room specified in the
credentials file or the --room options. Furthermore,
when listening to messages, no messages will be sent.
Hence, when listening, --message must not be used and
piped input will be ignored.
-t [TAIL], --tail [TAIL]
The --tail option reads and prints up to the last N
messages from the specified rooms, then quits. It
takes one argument, an integer, which we call N here.
If there are fewer than N messages in a room, it reads
and prints up to N messages. It gets the last N
messages in reverse order. It print the newest message
first, and the oldest message last. If --listen-self
is not set it will print less than N messages in many
cases because N messages are obtained, but some of
them are discarded by default if they are from the
user itself. Look at --listen as this option is
related to --tail.Furthermore, when tailing messages,
no messages will be sent. Hence, when tailing or
listening, --message must not be used and piped input
will be ignored.
-y, --listen-self If set and listening, then program will listen to and
print also the messages sent by its own user. By
default messages from oneself are not printed.
--print-event-id If set and listening, then 'matrix-commander' will
print also the event id for each received message or
other received event. If set and sending, then
'matrix-commander' will print the event id of the sent
message or the sent object (audio, file, event) to
stdout. Other information like room id and reference
to what was sent will be printed too. For sending this
is useful, if after sending the user wishes to perform
further operations on the sent object, e.g.
redacting/deleting it after an expiration time, etc.
--download-media [DOWNLOAD_MEDIA]
If set and listening, then program will download
received media files (e.g. image, audio, video, text,
PDF files). media will be downloaded to local
directory. By default, media will be downloaded to is
"./media/". You can overwrite default with your
preferred directory. If media is encrypted it will be
decrypted and stored decrypted. By default media files
will not be downloaded.
-o, --os-notify If set and listening, then program will attempt to
visually notify of arriving messages through the
operating system. By default there is no notification
via OS.
--set-device-name SET_DEVICE_NAME
Set or rename the current device to the device name
provided. Send, listen and verify operations are
allowed when renaming the device.
--set-display-name SET_DISPLAY_NAME
Set or rename the display name for the current user to
the display name provided. Send, listen and verify
operations are allowed when setting the display name.
--get-display-name Get the display name of matrix-commander (itself), or
of one or multiple users. Specify user(s) with the
--user option. If no user is specified get the display
name of itself. Send, listen and verify operations are
allowed when getting display name(s).
--set-presence SET_PRESENCE
Set presence of matrix-commander to the given value.
Must be one of these values: “online”, “offline”,
“unavailable”. Otherwise an error will be produced.
--get-presence Get presence of matrix-commander (itself), or of one
or multiple users. Specify user(s) with the --user
option. If no user is specified get the presence of
itself. Send, listen and verify operations are allowed
when getting presence(s).
--upload UPLOAD [UPLOAD ...]
Upload one or multiple files to the content
repository. The files will be given a Matrix URI and
stored on the server. --upload allows the optional
argument --plain to skip encryption for upload. See
tests/test-upload.sh for an example.
--download DOWNLOAD [DOWNLOAD ...]
Download one or multiple files from the content
repository. You must provide one or multiple Matrix
URIs (MXCs) which are strings like this
'mxc://example.com/SomeStrangeUriKey'. If found they
will be downloaded, decrypted, and stored in local
files. If file names are specified with --file-name
the downloads will be saved with these file names. If
--file-name is not specified the original file name
from the upload will be used. If neither specified nor
available on server, then the file name of last resort
'mxc-<mxc-id>' will be used. If a file name in --file-
name contains the placeholder __mxc_id__, it will be
replaced with the mxc-id. If a file name is specified
as empty string in --file-name, then also the name
'mxc-<mxc-id>' will be used. By default, the upload
was encrypted so a decryption dictionary must be
provided to decrypt the data. Specify one or multiple
decryption keys with --key-dict. If --key-dict is not
set, not decryption is attempted; and the data might
be stored in encrypted fashion, or might be plain-text
if the --upload skipped encryption with --plain. See
tests/test-upload.sh for an example.
--delete-mxc DELETE_MXC [DELETE_MXC ...]
Delete one or multiple objects (e.g. files) from the
content repository. You must provide one or multiple
Matrix URIs (MXC) which are strings like this
'mxc://example.com/SomeStrangeUriKey'. Alternatively,
you can just provide the MXC id, i.e. the part after
the last slash. If found they will be deleted from the
server database. In order to delete objects one must
have server admin permissions. Having only room admin
permissions is not sufficient and it will fail. Read
https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/admi
nistration/admin_api/ for learning how to set server
admin permissions on the server. Alternatively, and
optionally, one can specify an access token which has
server admin permissions with the --access-token
argument. See tests/test-upload.sh for an example.
--delete-mxc-before DELETE_MXC_BEFORE [DELETE_MXC_BEFORE ...]
Delete objects (e.g. files) from the content
repository that are older than a given timestamp. It
is the timestamp of last access, not the timestamp
when the file was created. Additionally you can
specify a size in bytes to indicate that only files
older than timestamp and larger than size will be
deleted. You must provide a timestamp of the following
format: 'DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS' like '20.01.2022
19:38:42' for January 20, 2022, 7pm 38min 42sec. Files
that are still used in image data (e.g user profile,
room avatar) will not be deleted from the server
database. In order to delete objects one must have
server admin permissions. Having only room admin
permissions is not sufficient and it will fail. Read
https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/admi
nistration/admin_api/ for learning how to set server
admin permissions on the server. Alternatively, and
optionally, one can specify an access token which has
server admin permissions with the --access-token
argument. See tests/test-upload.sh for an example.
--joined-rooms Print the list of joined rooms. All rooms that you are
a member of will be printed, one room per line.
--joined-members JOINED_MEMBERS [JOINED_MEMBERS ...]
Print the list of joined members for one or multiple
rooms. If you want to print the joined members of all
rooms that you are member of, then use the special
character '*'.
--mxc-to-http MXC_TO_HTTP [MXC_TO_HTTP ...]
Convert one or more matrix content URIs to the
corresponding HTTP URLs. The MXC URIs to provide look
something like this
'mxc://example.com/SomeStrangeUriKey'. See tests/test-
upload.sh for an example.
--devices, --get-devices
Print the list of devices. All device of this account
will be printed, one device per line.
--discovery-info Print discovery information about current homeserver.
Note that not all homeservers support discovery and an
error might be reported.
--login-info Print login methods supported by the homeserver. It
prints one login method per line.
--content-repository-config
Print the content repository configuration, currently
just the upload size limit in bytes.
--rest REST [REST ...]
Use the Matrix Client REST API. Matrix has several
extensive REST APIs. With the --rest argument you can
invoke a Matrix REST API call. This allows the user to
do pretty much anything, at the price of not being
very convenient. The APIs are described in
https://matrix.org/docs/api/,
https://spec.matrix.org/latest/client-server-api/,
https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/usage/admi
nistration/admin_api/, etc. Each REST call requires
exactly 3 arguments. So, the total number of arguments
used with --rest must be a multiple of 3. The argument
triples are: (a) the method, a string of GET, POST,
PUT, DELETE, or OPTIONS. (b) a string containing the
data (if any) in JSON format. (c) a string containing
the URL. All strings must be UTF-8. There are a few
placeholders. They are: __homeserver__ (like
https://matrix.example.org), __hostname__ (like
matrix.example.org), __access_token__, __user_id__
(like @mc:matrix.example.com), __device_id__, and
__room_id__. If a placeholder is found it is replaced
with the value from the local credentials file. An
example would be: --rest 'GET' ''
'__homeserver__/_matrix/client/versions'. If there is
no data, i.e. data (b) is empty, then use '' for it.
Optionally, --access-token can be used to overwrite
the access token from credentials (if needed). See
tests/test-rest.sh for an example.
--set-avatar SET_AVATAR
Set the avatar MXC resource used by matrix-commander.
Provide one MXC URI that looks like this
'mxc://example.com/SomeStrangeUriKey'.
--get-avatar [GET_AVATAR ...]
Get the avatar MXC resource used by matrix-commander,
or one or multiple other users. Specify zero or more
user ids. If no user id is specified, the avatar of
matrix-commander will be fetched. If one or more user
ids are given, the avatars of these users will be
fetched. As response both MXC URI as well as URL will
be printed.
--get-profile [GET_PROFILE ...]
Get the user profile used by matrix-commander, or one
or multiple other users. Specify zero or more user
ids. If no user id is specified, the user profile of
matrix-commander will be fetched. If one or more user
ids are given, the user profiles of these users will
be fetched. As response display name and avatar MXC
URI as well as possible additional profile information
(if present) will be printed. One line per user will
be printed.
--has-permission HAS_PERMISSION [HAS_PERMISSION ...]
Inquire if user used by matrix-commander has
permission for one or multiple actions in one or
multiple rooms. Each inquiry requires 2 parameters:
the room id and the permission type. One or multiple
of these parameter pairs may be specified. For each
parameter pair there will be one line printed to
stdout. Values for the permission type are 'ban',
'invite', 'kick', 'notifications', 'redact', etc. See
https://spec.matrix.org/v1.2/client-server-
api/#mroompower_levels.
--import-keys IMPORT_KEYS IMPORT_KEYS
Import Megolm decryption keys from a file. This is an
optional argument. If used it must be followed by two
values. (a) a file name from which the keys will be
read. (b) a passphrase with which the file can be
decrypted with. The keys will be added to the current
instance as well as written to the database. See also
--export-keys.
--export-keys EXPORT_KEYS EXPORT_KEYS
Export all the Megolm decryption keys of this device.
This is an optional argument. If used it must be
followed by two values. (a) a file name to which the
keys will be written to. (b) a passphrase with which
the file will be encrypted with. Note that this does
not save other information such as the private
identity keys of the device.
--room-set-alias ROOM_SET_ALIAS [ROOM_SET_ALIAS ...], --room-put-alias ROOM_SET_ALIAS [ROOM_SET_ALIAS ...]
Add an alias to a room, or aliases to multiple rooms.
Provide pairs of arguments. In each pair, the first
argument must be the alias you want to assign to the
room given via room id in the second argument of the
pair. E.g. the 4 arguments 'a1 r1 a2 r2' would assign
the alias 'a1' to room 'r1' and the alias 'a2' to room
'r2'. If you just have one single pair then the second
argument is optional. If just a single value is given
(an alias) then this alias is assigned to the default
room of matrix-commander (as found in credentials
file). In short, you can have just a single argument
or an even number of arguments forming pairs. You can
have multiple room aliases per room. So, you may add
multiple aliases to the same room. A room alias looks
like this: '#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'. Short
aliases like 'someRoomAlias' are also accepted. In
case of a short alias, it will be automatically
prefixed with '#' and the homeserver will be
automatically appended. Adding the same alias multiple
times to the same room results in an error. --room-
put-alias is eqivalent to --room-set-alias.
--room-resolve-alias ROOM_RESOLVE_ALIAS [ROOM_RESOLVE_ALIAS ...]
Resolves a room alias to the corresponding room id, or
multiple room aliases to their corresponding room ids.
Provide one or multiple room aliases. A room alias
looks like this: '#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'.
Short aliases like 'someRoomAlias' are also accepted.
In case of a short alias, it will be automatically
prefixed with '#' and the homeserver from the default
room of matrix-commander (as found in credentials
file) will be automatically appended. Resolving an
alias that does not exist results in an error. For
each room alias one line will be printed to stdout
with the result.
--room-delete-alias ROOM_DELETE_ALIAS [ROOM_DELETE_ALIAS ...]
Delete one or multiple rooms aliases. Provide one or
multiple room aliases. You can have multiple room
aliases per room. So, you may delete multiple aliases
from the same room or from different rooms. A room
alias looks like this:
'#someRoomAlias:matrix.example.org'. Short aliases
like 'someRoomAlias' are also accepted. In case of a
short alias, it will be automatically prefixed with
'#' and the homeserver from the default room of
matrix-commander (as found in credentials file) will
be automatically appended. Deleting an alias that does
not exist results in an error.
--get-openid-token [GET_OPENID_TOKEN ...]
Get an OpenID token for matrix-commander, or for one
or multiple other users. It prints an OpenID token
object that the requester may supply to another
service to verify their identity in Matrix. See
http://www.openid.net/. Specify zero or more user ids.
If no user id is specified, an OpenID for matrix-
commander will be fetched. If one or more user ids are
given, the OpenID of these users will be fetched. As
response the user id(s) and OpenID(s) will be printed.
--room-get-visibility [ROOM_GET_VISIBILITY ...]
Get the visibility of one or more rooms. Provide zero
or more room ids as arguments. If no argument is
given, then the default room of matrix-commander (as
found in credentials file) will be used. For each room
the visibility will be printed. Currently, this is
either the string 'private' or 'public'. As response
one line per room will be printed to stdout.
--room-get-state [ROOM_GET_STATE ...]
Get the state of one or more rooms. Provide zero or
more room ids as arguments. If no argument is given,
then the default room of matrix-commander (as found in
credentials file) will be used. For each room the
state will be printed. The state is a long list of
events including events like 'm.room.create',
'm.room.encryption', 'm.room.guest_access',
'm.room.history_visibility', 'm.room.join_rules',
'm.room.member', 'm.room.power_levels', etc. As
response one line per room will be printed to stdout.
The line can be very long as the list of events can be
very large. To get output into a human readable form
pipe output through sed and jq as shown in an example
in tests/test-setget.sh.
--delete-device DELETE_DEVICE [DELETE_DEVICE ...]
Delete one or multiple devices. By default devices
belonging to matrix-commander will be deleted. If the
devices belong to a different user, use the --user
argument to specify the user, i.e. owner. Only exactly
one user can be specified with the optional --user
argument. Device deletion requires the user password.
It must be specified with the --password argument. If
the server uses only HTTP (and not HTTPS), then the
password can be visible to attackers. Hence, if the
server does not support HTTPS this operation is
discouraged.
--room-redact ROOM_REDACT [ROOM_REDACT ...], --room-delete-content ROOM_REDACT [ROOM_REDACT ...]
Strip information out of one or several events, e.g.
messages. Redact is used in the meaning of 'strip,
wipe, black-out', not in the meaning of 'edit'. This
action removes, deletes the content of an event while
not removing the event. You can wipe text from a
previous message, etc. Typical Matrix clients like
Element will delete messages, images and other objects
from the GUI once they have been redacted. So, --room-
redact is a way to delete a message, images, etc. The
content is wiped, the GUI deletes the message, but the
server keeps the event history. Note, while this
deletes from the client (GUI, e.g. Element), it does
not delete from the database on the server. So, this
call is not a way to clean up the server database.
Each redact (wipe, strip, delete) operation requires
exactly 3 arguments. The argument triples are: (a) the
room id. (b) the id of the event to be redacted. (c) a
string containing the reason for the redaction. Use ''
if you do not want to give a reason. So, the total
number of arguments used with --room-redact must be a
multiple of 3, but we also accept 2 in which case only
one redaction will be done without specifying a
reason. Room ids start with the dollar sign ($).
Depending on your shell, you might have to escape the
'$' to '\$'. --room-delete-content is an alias for
--room-redact. They can be used interchangeably.
--whoami Print the user id used by matrix-commander (itself).
One can get this information also by looking at the
credentials file.
--no-ssl Skip SSL verification. By default (if this option is
not used) the SSL certificate is validated for the
connection. But, if this option is used, then the SSL
certificate validation will be skipped. This is useful
for home-servers that have no SSL certificate. If used
together with the "--ssl-certificate" parameter, this
option is meaningless and an error will be raised.
--ssl-certificate SSL_CERTIFICATE
Use this option to use your own local SSL certificate
file. This is an optional parameter. This is useful
for home servers that have their own SSL certificate.
This allows you to use HTTPS/TLS for the connection
while using your own local SSL certificate. Specify
the path and file to your SSL certificate. If used
together with the "--no-ssl" parameter, this option is
meaningless and an error will be raised.
--file-name FILE_NAME [FILE_NAME ...]
Specify one or multiple file names for some actions.
This is an optional argument. Use this option in
combination with options like --download to specify
one or multiple file names. Ignored if used by itself
without an appropriate corresponding action.
--key-dict KEY_DICT [KEY_DICT ...]
Specify one or multiple key dictionaries for
decryption. One or multiple decryption dictionaries
are provided by the --upload action as a result. A
decryption dictionary is a string like this: "{'v':
'v2', 'key': {'kty': 'oct', 'alg': 'A256CTR', 'ext':
True, 'k': 'somekey', 'key_ops': ['encrypt',
'decrypt']}, 'iv': 'someiv', 'hashes': {'sha256':
'someSHA'}}". If you have a list of key dictionaries
and want to skip one, use the empty string.
--plain Disable encryption for a specific action. By default,
everything is always encrypted. Actions that support
this option are: --upload.
--separator SEPARATOR
Set a custom separator used for certain print outs. By
default, i.e. if --separator is not used, 4 spaces are
used as separator between columns in print statements.
You could set it to '\t' if you prefer a tab, but tabs
are usually replaced with spaces by the terminal. So,
that might not give you what you want. Maybe ' || ' is
an alternative choice.
--access-token ACCESS_TOKEN
Set a custom access token for use by certain actions.
It is an optional argument. By default --access-token
is ignored and not used. It is used by the --delete-
mxc, --delete-mxc-before, and --rest actions.
--password PASSWORD Specify a password for use by certain actions. It is
an optional argument. By default --password is ignored
and not used. It is used by '--login password' and '--
delete-device' actions. If not provided for --login
the user will be queried via keyboard.
--homeserver HOMESERVER
Specify a homeserver for use by certain actions. It is
an optional argument. By default --homeserver is
ignored and not used. It is used by '--login' action.
If not provided for --login the user will be queried
via keyboard.
--device DEVICE Specify a device name, for use by certain actions. It
is an optional argument. By default --device is
ignored and not used. It is used by '--login' action.
If not provided for --login the user will be queried
via keyboard. If you want the default value specify
''. Multiple devices (with different device id) may
have the same device name. In short, the same device
name can be assigned to multiple different devices if
desired.
--version Print version information. After printing version
information program will continue to run. This is
useful for having version number in the log files.
You are running version 3.0.1 2022-06-25. Enjoy, star on Github and contribute
by submitting a Pull Request.
Autocompletion
Tab completion is provided for shells (e.g. bash), courtesy of @mizlan).
Here is a sample snapshot of tab completion in action:
Performance and Speed
matrix-commanderis written in Python and hence rather on the slow side- It is not thread-safe. One cannot just simply run multiple instances at the same time. However, with very careful set-up one can run multiple instances, but that is not the target use case.
- Where possible bundle several actions together into a single call.
For example if one wants to send 8 images, then it is significantly faster
to call
matrix-commanderonce with-ispecifying 8 images, than to callmatrix-commander8 times with one image each call. One needs to send 5 messages, 10 images, 5 audios, 3 PDF files and 7 events to the same user? Callmatrix-commanderonce, not 30 times.
For Developers
- Don't change tabbing, spacing, or formatting as file is automatically sorted, linted and formatted.
pylama:format=pep8:linters=pep8- first
isortimport sorter - then
flake8linter/formater - then
blacklinter/formater - line length: 79
- isort matrix_commander.py
- flake8 matrix_commander.py
- python3 -m black --line-length 79 matrix_commander.py
- There is a script called
lintmc.shinscriptsdirectory for that.
License
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
When preparing to package matrix-commander for NIX the question
came up if matrix-commander is GPL3Only or GPL3Plus. GPL3PLus was
deemed to be better. As such the license was changed from GPL3Only
to GPL3Plus on May 25, 2021. Versions before this date are licensed
under GPL3. Versions on or after this date are GPL3Plus, i.e.
GPL3 or later.
See GPL3 at FSF.
Things to do, Things missing
- see Issues on Github
Final Remarks
- Thanks to all of you who already have contributed! So appreciated!
- ❤️ and 👍 to @fyfe, @berlincount, @ezwen, @Scriptkiddi, @pelzvieh, @mizlan, @edwinsage, @jschwartzentruber, @nirgal, @benneti, @opk12, @pataquets, @KizzyCode, etc.
- Enjoy!
- Give it a ⭐ star on GitHub! Pull requests are welcome ❤️