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