9 ms·

Command Line Interface for Signal

164 points by janekg 5y ago

tomrod 5y ago
I look forward to reviewing this. Neat idea.
jacob019 5y ago
How does this compare with signald? I wrote a signald xmpp bridge, but signald can be a bit wonky. One time it just stopped responding, and it doesn't pull in as much peer data as the official client.
- finnn 5y ago
  signald is a fork of signal-cli
- BlackLotus89 5y ago
  signald is developed slower. Right now you need to compile it from git from a branch to fix groups v2. signald works in the background and can be used with libpurple. If you want to use bitlbee, spectrum2 or similar you need to use signald. Signald needs to be controller over signaldctl Signal-cli needs to be called manually. There are a few clients that provide wrapper functionality for it and it has dbus functionality. Edit: removed a sentence over commit frequency and quality as I feel everyone should make their own assesment of this
gnull 5y ago
Didn't Signal have some weird licence restriction saying that non-official clients are not allowed to connect to official servers? How does this client bypass it? Can I use it to text a friend who uses the official servers?
- finnn 5y ago
  It's not a licensing restriction, it's a terms of use for their network service. It's also not enforced. Their clients are open source, signal-cli uses a fork of the Android app's client library.
  - Macha 5y ago
    > It's also not enforced https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issuecomment-217211165 https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco... When did this stance change? Is there a current statement from moxie to that effect?
    - gnull 5y ago
      I guess what finnn meant is that nobody can actually stop you from ignoring moxie's statement.
      - finnn 5y ago
        signal-cli uses a clearly identifiable user agent [0] that could easily be blocked if Signal wanted to. signal-cli could escalate by trying to evade that kind of a block, but as it stands signal-cli has been operating without trouble for several years. I meant they may ask some clients not to use their servers, but they don't have any enforcement mechanism in place beyond asking them to stop on github. [0] https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/05abb3f9f6294677d2de97a9d88c8e9de04c10ec/src/main/java/org/asamk/signal/BaseConfig.java#L8 https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/05abb3f9f6294677d2d...
        Fnoord 5y ago
        If it'd be enforced, we'd see a cat and mouse game of forks spoofing their user agent, and who knows what else.
        gnull 5y ago
        They can apply measures to the users. They are not doing it right now, but they could suddenly start. By the discussion on some reddit threads [1], this moxie guy looks sketchy to say the least. But I support the devs who work on alternative clients. The official Electron app is just bad, especially on Wayland. Hope signal-cli will keep working. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mp2j0j/starting_a_native_adaptive_linux_client_for_signal/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mp2j0j/starting_a_na...
freedomben 5y ago
This makes me really miss Keybase.io. Anyone around from Keybase? Will it just bit rot away or will it get some attention/love in the future?
- yepthatsreality 5y ago
  It will probably bit rot away, or be rebooted when Zoom wants to make a PR move. In my opinion, the Keybase founders always intended to sell it off and never intended to keep their promises of OSS-ing the tech. It was a cool idea, but I never saw any vision for the idea or really what benefits it brought the tech community.
  - kreetx 5y ago
    Do you have any citations for the "founders intended to sell it off" part?
    - wasmitnetzen 5y ago
      There's a "In my opinion" in front of that sentence. You don't need citations for opinions.
      - kreetx 5y ago
        Absolutely, but there are at least some circumstantial things you have heard/read to opine this way?
- client4 5y ago
  I still use Keybase heavily for work and personal contacts, and the Linux client just got updated. It's not really a platform with high visibility usage (which is a benefit IMHO).
  - kreetx 5y ago
    There are several great e2ee features: - 250GB of free storage - personal subdomain that serves your public folder - git (e2ee)
jerheinze 5y ago
A really useful tool for us folks who don't use smartphones, been using it for the last 5 years to have Signal-desktop without a smartphone. Can't thank the maintainer and contributors enough! https://ctrl.alt.coop/en/post/signal-without-a-smartphone/ https://ctrl.alt.coop/en/post/signal-without-a-smartphone/
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
  > us folks who don't use smartphones Good to know you. I'm working on a plan to get rid of it myself in the near future, Is there any community for non-smartphone but technically inclined?
dheera 5y ago
> at least Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 11 Yeah I stopped right there. I've had enough of one app wanting IBM Java, another wanting Oracle Java, another wanting Sun Java, another wanting 32-bit Java, another wanting 64-bit Java, another wanting Java 8, another wanting Java 11, ... I really wish this were written in literally any other language, ideally one whose compiler can be apt-gotten on a default Ubuntu install.
- bbernhard90 5y ago
  You could use a docker container. e.g https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api (I am the author of REST API wrapper) But I agree with you on that...Java isn't my preferred language either.
- Arnt 5y ago
  Fascinating. I know how to write an app that requires java 8 (just use lambdas) or 11 (just use newish TLS), but wow does one even write an app that needs 32-bit or 64-bit java? Or that works with Sun java but not with others?
  - monocasa 5y ago
    JNI libraries.
    - Arnt 5y ago
      Good point.
  - Hackbraten 5y ago
    Some apps rely on optional JRE features or even private APIs. Newer Java versions have started blocking private API usage. You can override the block but hopefully, it helps developers become aware of what they’re doing.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  apt install openjdk-11-jdk
moss2 5y ago
So... we're gonna write code in python ...that interfaces with a CLI ...that's a wrapper around a Java library ...that communicates with Signal's API? Would it not be better to write code in python that communicates directly with Signal's API?
- kuschku 5y ago
  > Would it not be better to write code in python that communicates directly with Signal's API? Only the official builds of the official signal clients are allowed to connect to the signal servers, everything else is considered unauthorized use (under the CFAA) by moxie, Signal’s lead dev. At least that’s what he said on the bugtracker of the fork "LibreSignal" while forcing them to shut their fork down.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - quotemstr 5y ago
    Forcing?
janekg 5y ago
still missing some kind of ncurses UI for Signal now
sword_smith 5y ago
It asks me to get a captcha on https://signalcaptchas.org/registration/generate.html https://signalcaptchas.org/registration/generate.html, but the site does not seem to work.
- flotzam 5y ago
  "After filling the captcha, the site doesn't show the token but redirects to a signalcaptcha:// url that contains the token. [...] To see the URL you can open the browser developer tools (F12) before completing the captcha." https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-captcha https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-c... Using Tor Browser I can see the signalcaptcha:// address in the window title of a detached Developer Tools window.

164 points by janekg 5y ago

I look forward to reviewing this. Neat idea.

How does this compare with signald? I wrote a signald xmpp bridge, but signald can be a bit wonky. One time it just stopped responding, and it doesn't pull in as much peer data as the official client.

finnn 5y ago
signald is a fork of signal-cli
BlackLotus89 5y ago
signald is developed slower. Right now you need to compile it from git from a branch to fix groups v2. signald works in the background and can be used with libpurple. If you want to use bitlbee, spectrum2 or similar you need to use signald. Signald needs to be controller over signaldctl Signal-cli needs to be called manually. There are a few clients that provide wrapper functionality for it and it has dbus functionality. Edit: removed a sentence over commit frequency and quality as I feel everyone should make their own assesment of this

gnull 5y ago

Didn't Signal have some weird licence restriction saying that non-official clients are not allowed to connect to official servers? How does this client bypass it? Can I use it to text a friend who uses the official servers?

finnn 5y ago
It's not a licensing restriction, it's a terms of use for their network service. It's also not enforced. Their clients are open source, signal-cli uses a fork of the Android app's client library.
- Macha 5y ago
  > It's also not enforced https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issuecomment-217211165 https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco... When did this stance change? Is there a current statement from moxie to that effect?
  - gnull 5y ago
    I guess what finnn meant is that nobody can actually stop you from ignoring moxie's statement.
    - finnn 5y ago
      signal-cli uses a clearly identifiable user agent [0] that could easily be blocked if Signal wanted to. signal-cli could escalate by trying to evade that kind of a block, but as it stands signal-cli has been operating without trouble for several years. I meant they may ask some clients not to use their servers, but they don't have any enforcement mechanism in place beyond asking them to stop on github. [0] https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/05abb3f9f6294677d2de97a9d88c8e9de04c10ec/src/main/java/org/asamk/signal/BaseConfig.java#L8 https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/blob/05abb3f9f6294677d2d...
      - Fnoord 5y ago
        If it'd be enforced, we'd see a cat and mouse game of forks spoofing their user agent, and who knows what else.
      - gnull 5y ago
        They can apply measures to the users. They are not doing it right now, but they could suddenly start. By the discussion on some reddit threads [1], this moxie guy looks sketchy to say the least. But I support the devs who work on alternative clients. The official Electron app is just bad, especially on Wayland. Hope signal-cli will keep working. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mp2j0j/starting_a_native_adaptive_linux_client_for_signal/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/mp2j0j/starting_a_na...

freedomben 5y ago

This makes me really miss Keybase.io. Anyone around from Keybase? Will it just bit rot away or will it get some attention/love in the future?

yepthatsreality 5y ago
It will probably bit rot away, or be rebooted when Zoom wants to make a PR move. In my opinion, the Keybase founders always intended to sell it off and never intended to keep their promises of OSS-ing the tech. It was a cool idea, but I never saw any vision for the idea or really what benefits it brought the tech community.
- kreetx 5y ago
  Do you have any citations for the "founders intended to sell it off" part?
  - wasmitnetzen 5y ago
    There's a "In my opinion" in front of that sentence. You don't need citations for opinions.
    - kreetx 5y ago
      Absolutely, but there are at least some circumstantial things you have heard/read to opine this way?
client4 5y ago
I still use Keybase heavily for work and personal contacts, and the Linux client just got updated. It's not really a platform with high visibility usage (which is a benefit IMHO).
- kreetx 5y ago
  There are several great e2ee features: - 250GB of free storage - personal subdomain that serves your public folder - git (e2ee)

jerheinze 5y ago

A really useful tool for us folks who don't use smartphones, been using it for the last 5 years to have Signal-desktop without a smartphone. Can't thank the maintainer and contributors enough! https://ctrl.alt.coop/en/post/signal-without-a-smartphone/ https://ctrl.alt.coop/en/post/signal-without-a-smartphone/

Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
> us folks who don't use smartphones Good to know you. I'm working on a plan to get rid of it myself in the near future, Is there any community for non-smartphone but technically inclined?

dheera 5y ago

> at least Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 11 Yeah I stopped right there. I've had enough of one app wanting IBM Java, another wanting Oracle Java, another wanting Sun Java, another wanting 32-bit Java, another wanting 64-bit Java, another wanting Java 8, another wanting Java 11, ... I really wish this were written in literally any other language, ideally one whose compiler can be apt-gotten on a default Ubuntu install.

bbernhard90 5y ago
You could use a docker container. e.g https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api (I am the author of REST API wrapper) But I agree with you on that...Java isn't my preferred language either.
Arnt 5y ago
Fascinating. I know how to write an app that requires java 8 (just use lambdas) or 11 (just use newish TLS), but wow does one even write an app that needs 32-bit or 64-bit java? Or that works with Sun java but not with others?
- monocasa 5y ago
  JNI libraries.
  - Arnt 5y ago
    Good point.
- Hackbraten 5y ago
  Some apps rely on optional JRE features or even private APIs. Newer Java versions have started blocking private API usage. You can override the block but hopefully, it helps developers become aware of what they’re doing.
Symbiote 5y ago
apt install openjdk-11-jdk

moss2 5y ago

So... we're gonna write code in python ...that interfaces with a CLI ...that's a wrapper around a Java library ...that communicates with Signal's API? Would it not be better to write code in python that communicates directly with Signal's API?

kuschku 5y ago
> Would it not be better to write code in python that communicates directly with Signal's API? Only the official builds of the official signal clients are allowed to connect to the signal servers, everything else is considered unauthorized use (under the CFAA) by moxie, Signal’s lead dev. At least that’s what he said on the bugtracker of the fork "LibreSignal" while forcing them to shut their fork down.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- quotemstr 5y ago
  Forcing?

janekg 5y ago

still missing some kind of ncurses UI for Signal now

sword_smith 5y ago

It asks me to get a captcha on https://signalcaptchas.org/registration/generate.html https://signalcaptchas.org/registration/generate.html, but the site does not seem to work.

flotzam 5y ago
"After filling the captcha, the site doesn't show the token but redirects to a signalcaptcha:// url that contains the token. [...] To see the URL you can open the browser developer tools (F12) before completing the captcha." https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-captcha https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli/wiki/Registration-with-c... Using Tor Browser I can see the signalcaptcha:// address in the window title of a detached Developer Tools window.