nmode's Git Repositories - signal-cli/blob - README.md

   1 # signal-cli
   2
   3 signal-cli is a commandline interface for the [Signal messenger](https://signal.org/).
   4 It supports registering, verifying, sending and receiving messages.
   5 signal-cli uses a [patched libsignal-service-java](https://github.com/Turasa/libsignal-service-java),
   6 extracted from the [Signal-Android source code](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/tree/main/libsignal-service).
   7 For registering you need a phone number where you can receive SMS or incoming calls.
   8
   9 signal-cli is primarily intended to be used on servers to notify admins of important events.
  10 For this use-case, it has a daemon mode with JSON-RPC interface ([man page](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli-jsonrpc.5.adoc))
  11 and D-BUS interface ([man page](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli-dbus.5.adoc)) .
  12 For the JSON-RPC interface there's also a simple [example client](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/tree/master/client), written in Rust.
  13
  14 signal-cli needs to be kept up-to-date to keep up with Signal-Server changes.
  15 The official Signal clients expire after three months and then the Signal-Server can make incompatible changes.
  16 So signal-cli releases older than three months may not work correctly.
  17
  18 ## Installation
  19
  20 You can [build signal-cli](#building) yourself or use
  21 the [provided binary files](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases/latest), which should work on Linux, macOS and
  22 Windows. There's also a [docker image and some Linux packages](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Binary-distributions) provided by the community.
  23
  24 System requirements:
  25
  26 - at least Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 21
  27 - native library: libsignal-client
  28
  29   The native libs are bundled for x86_64 Linux (with recent enough glibc), Windows and MacOS. For other
  30   systems/architectures
  31   see: [Provide native lib for libsignal](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Provide-native-lib-for-libsignal)
  32
  33 ### Install system-wide on Linux
  34
  35 See [latest version](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases).
  36
  37 ```sh
  38 export VERSION=<latest version, format "x.y.z">
  39 wget https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases/download/v"${VERSION}"/signal-cli-"${VERSION}".tar.gz
  40 sudo tar xf signal-cli-"${VERSION}".tar.gz -C /opt
  41 sudo ln -sf /opt/signal-cli-"${VERSION}"/bin/signal-cli /usr/local/bin/
  42 ```
  43
  44 You can find further instructions on the Wiki:
  45
  46 - [Quickstart](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Quickstart)
  47
  48 ## Usage
  49
  50 For a complete usage overview please read
  51 the [man page](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli.1.adoc) and
  52 the [wiki](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki).
  53
  54 Important: The ACCOUNT is your phone number in international format and must include the country calling code. Hence it
  55 should start with a "+" sign. (See [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes) for a list
  56 of all country codes.)
  57
  58 * Register a number (with SMS verification)
  59
  60       signal-cli -a ACCOUNT register
  61
  62   You can register Signal using a landline number. In this case you can skip SMS verification process and jump directly
  63   to the voice call verification by adding the `--voice` switch at the end of above register command.
  64
  65   Registering may require solving a CAPTCHA
  66   challenge: [Registration with captcha](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-captcha)
  67
  68 * Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice, optionally add `--pin PIN_CODE` if you've added a pin code
  69   to your account
  70
  71       signal-cli -a ACCOUNT verify CODE
  72
  73 * Send a message
  74
  75      ```sh
  76      signal-cli -a ACCOUNT send -m "This is a message" RECIPIENT
  77      ```
  78
  79 * Pipe the message content from another process.
  80
  81       uname -a | signal-cli -a ACCOUNT send --message-from-stdin RECIPIENT
  82
  83 * Receive messages
  84
  85       signal-cli -a ACCOUNT receive
  86
  87 **Hint**: The Signal protocol expects that incoming messages are regularly received (using `daemon` or `receive`
  88 command). This is required for the encryption to work efficiently and for getting updates to groups, expiration timer
  89 and other features.
  90
  91 ## Storage
  92
  93 The password and cryptographic keys are created when registering and stored in the current users home directory:
  94
  95     $XDG_DATA_HOME/signal-cli/data/
  96     $HOME/.local/share/signal-cli/data/
  97
  98 ## Building
  99
 100 This project uses [Gradle](http://gradle.org) for building and maintaining dependencies. If you have a recent gradle
 101 version installed, you can replace `./gradlew` with `gradle` in the following steps.
 102
 103 1. Checkout the source somewhere on your filesystem with
 104
 105        git clone https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli.git
 106
 107 2. Execute Gradle:
 108
 109        ./gradlew build
 110
 111    2a. Create shell wrapper in *build/install/signal-cli/bin*:
 112
 113        ./gradlew installDist
 114
 115    2b. Create tar file in *build/distributions*:
 116
 117        ./gradlew distTar
 118
 119    2c. Create a fat tar file in *build/libs/signal-cli-fat*:
 120
 121        ./gradlew fatJar
 122
 123    2d. Compile and run signal-cli:
 124
 125       ```sh
 126       ./gradlew run --args="--help"
 127       ```
 128
 129 ### Building a native binary with GraalVM (EXPERIMENTAL)
 130
 131 It is possible to build a native binary with [GraalVM](https://www.graalvm.org). This is still experimental and will not
 132 work in all situations.
 133
 134 1. [Install GraalVM and setup the environment](https://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/#install-graalvm)
 135 2. Execute Gradle:
 136
 137        ./gradlew nativeCompile
 138
 139    The binary is available at *build/native/nativeCompile/signal-cli*
 140
 141 ## FAQ and Troubleshooting
 142
 143 For frequently asked questions and issues have a look at the [wiki](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/FAQ).
 144
 145 ## License
 146
 147 This project uses libsignal-service-java from Open Whisper Systems:
 148
 149 https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java
 150
 151 Licensed under the GPLv3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html