# signal-cli
-signal-cli is a commandline interface for [libtextsecure-java](https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libtextsecure-java). It supports registering, verifying, sending and receiving messages. To be able to receiving messages signal-cli uses a [patched libtextsecure-java](https://github.com/AsamK/libtextsecure-java), because libtextsecure-java [does not yet support registering for the websocket support](https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libtextsecure-java/pull/5). For registering you need a phone number where you can receive SMS or incoming calls.
-It is primarily intended to be used on servers to notify admins of important events. For this use-case, it has a dbus interface, that can be used to send messages from any programming language that has dbus bindings.
-
-## Usage
+signal-cli is a commandline interface
+for [libsignal-service-java](https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java). It supports registering,
+verifying, sending and receiving messages. To be able to link to an existing Signal-Android/signal-cli instance,
+signal-cli uses a [patched libsignal-service-java](https://github.com/AsamK/libsignal-service-java), because
+libsignal-service-java does not yet
+support [provisioning as a linked device](https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java/pull/21). For
+registering you need a phone number where you can receive SMS or incoming calls. signal-cli is primarily intended to be
+used on servers to notify admins of important events. For this use-case, it has a dbus
+interface ([man page](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli-dbus.5.adoc)), that can be used to
+send messages from any programming language that has dbus bindings. It also has a JSON-RPC based interface, see
+the [documentation](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/JSON-RPC-service) for more information.
+
+## Installation
+
+You can [build signal-cli](#building) yourself, or use
+the [provided binary files](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases/latest), which should work on Linux, macOS and
+Windows. For Arch Linux there is also a [package in AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/signal-cli/) and there is
+a [FreeBSD port](https://www.freshports.org/net-im/signal-cli) available as well.
+
+System requirements:
+
+- at least Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 17
+- native library: libsignal-client
+
+ The native libs are bundled for x86_64 Linux (with recent enough glibc, see #643), Windows and MacOS. For other systems/architectures
+ see: [Provide native lib for libsignal](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Provide-native-lib-for-libsignal)
+
+### Install system-wide on Linux
+
+See [latest version](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases).
+
+```sh
+export VERSION=<latest version, format "x.y.z">
+wget https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/releases/download/v"${VERSION}"/signal-cli-"${VERSION}"-Linux.tar.gz
+sudo tar xf signal-cli-"${VERSION}"-Linux.tar.gz -C /opt
+sudo ln -sf /opt/signal-cli-"${VERSION}"/bin/signal-cli /usr/local/bin/
+```
-usage: signal-cli [-h] [-u USERNAME] [-v] {register,verify,send,quitGroup,updateGroup,receive} ...
+You can find further instructions on the Wiki:
-* Register a number (with SMS verification)
+- [Quickstart](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Quickstart)
+- [DBus Service](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/DBus-service)
- signal-cli -u USERNAME register
+## Usage
-* Register a number (with voice verification)
+For a complete usage overview please read
+the [man page](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/master/man/signal-cli.1.adoc) and
+the [wiki](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki).
- signal-cli -u USERNAME register -v
+Important: The ACCOUNT is your phone number in international format and must include the country calling code. Hence it
+should start with a "+" sign. (See [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes) for a list
+of all country codes.)
-* Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice
+* Register a number (with SMS verification)
- signal-cli -u USERNAME verify CODE
+ signal-cli -a ACCOUNT register
-* Send a message to one or more recipients
+ You can register Signal using a land line number. In this case you can skip SMS verification process and jump directly
+ to the voice call verification by adding the `--voice` switch at the end of above register command.
- signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]] [-a [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]]
+ Registering may require solving a CAPTCHA
+ challenge: [Registration with captcha](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-captcha)
-* Pipe the message content from another process.
+* Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice, optionally add `--pin PIN_CODE` if you've added a pin code
+ to your account
- uname -a | signal-cli -u USERNAME send [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]]
+ signal-cli -a ACCOUNT verify CODE
-* Groups
+* Send a message
- * Create a group
+ signal-cli -a ACCOUNT send -m "This is a message" RECIPIENT
- signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -n "Group name" -m [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]]
+* Pipe the message content from another process.
- * Update a group
+ uname -a | signal-cli -a ACCOUNT send RECIPIENT
- signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -g GROUP_ID -n "New group name"
+* Receive messages
- * Send a message to a group
+ signal-cli -a ACCOUNT receive
- signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" -g GROUP_ID
+**Hint**: The Signal protocol expects that incoming messages are regularly received (using `daemon` or `receive`
+command). This is required for the encryption to work efficiently and for getting updates to groups, expiration timer
+and other features.
-## DBus service
+## Storage
-signal-cli can run in daemon mode and provides an experimental dbus interface.
-For dbus support you need jni/unix-java.so installed on your system (Debian: libunixsocket-java ArchLinux: libmatthew-unix-java (AUR)).
+The password and cryptographic keys are created when registering and stored in the current users home directory:
-* Run in daemon mode (dbus session bus)
+ $XDG_DATA_HOME/signal-cli/data/
+ $HOME/.local/share/signal-cli/data/
- signal-cli -u USERNAME daemon
+## Building
-* Send a message via dbus
+This project uses [Gradle](http://gradle.org) for building and maintaining dependencies. If you have a recent gradle
+version installed, you can replace `./gradlew` with `gradle` in the following steps.
- signal-cli --dbus send -m "Message" [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]] [-a [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]]
+1. Checkout the source somewhere on your filesystem with
-### System bus
+ git clone https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli.git
-To run on the system bus you need to take some additional steps.
-It’s advisable to run signal-cli as a separate unix user, the following steps assume you created a user named *signal-cli*.
-These steps, executed as root, should work on all distributions using systemd.
+2. Execute Gradle:
-```bash
-cp data/org.asamk.Signal.conf /etc/dbus-1/system.d/
-cp data/org.asamk.Signal.service /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/
-cp data/signal.service /etc/systemd/system/
-sed -i -e "s|%dir%|<INSERT_INSTALL_PATH>|" -e "s|%number%|<INSERT_YOUR_NUMBER>|" /etc/systemd/system/signal.service
-systemctl daemon-reload
-systemctl enable signal.service
-systemctl reload dbus.service
-```
+ ./gradlew build
-Then just execute the send command from above, the service will be autostarted by dbus the first time it is requested.
+ 2a. Create shell wrapper in *build/install/signal-cli/bin*:
-## Storage
+ ./gradlew installDist
-The password and cryptographic keys are created when registering and stored in the current users home directory:
+ 2b. Create tar file in *build/distributions*:
- $HOME/.config/signal/data/
+ ./gradlew distTar
-## Building
+ 2c. Create a fat tar file in *build/libs/signal-cli-fat*:
-This project uses [Gradle](http://gradle.org) for building and maintaining
-dependencies.
+ ./gradlew fatJar
-1. Checkout the source somewhere on your filesystem with
+ 2d. Compile and run signal-cli:
- git clone https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli.git
+ ./gradlew run --args="--help"
-2. Execute Gradle:
+### Building a native binary with GraalVM (EXPERIMENTAL)
- ./gradlew build
+It is possible to build a native binary with [GraalVM](https://www.graalvm.org). This is still experimental and will not
+work in all situations.
-3. Create shell wrapper in *build/install/signal-cli/bin*:
+1. [Install GraalVM and setup the enviroment](https://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/#install-graalvm)
+2. [Install prerequisites](https://www.graalvm.org/reference-manual/native-image/#prerequisites)
+3. Execute Gradle:
- ./gradlew installDist
+ ./gradlew nativeCompile
-4. Create tar file in *build/distributions*:
+ The binary is available at *build/native/nativeCompile/signal-cli*
- ./gradlew distTar
+## FAQ and Troubleshooting
-## Troubleshooting
-If you use a version of the Oracle JRE and get an InvalidKeyException you need to enable unlimited strength crypto. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6481627/java-security-illegal-key-size-or-default-parameters for instructions.
+For frequently asked questions and issues have a look at the [wiki](https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/FAQ)
## License
-This project uses libtextsecure-java from Open Whisper Systems:
+This project uses libsignal-service-java from Open Whisper Systems:
-https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libtextsecure-java
+https://github.com/WhisperSystems/libsignal-service-java
Licensed under the GPLv3: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
git.nmode.ca / signal-cli / blobdiff
