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Command Line Client for Tinode

tn-cli/README.md

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Command Line Client for Tinode

This is a scriptable command line chat client. It's written in Python and can be used to extend Tinode using gRPC API.

Python 2.7 or 3.4+ is required. PIP 9.0.1 or newer is required.

Install dependencies:

$ python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the client from the command line:

python tn-cli.py --login-basic=alice:alice123

If you are updating an existent installation, make sure the tinode_grpc version matches the server version. Upgrade tinode_grpc if needed:

python -m pip install --upgrade tinode_grpc==X.XX.XX

where X.XX.XX is the version number which must match the server version number.

The client takes optional parameters:

  • --host is the address of the gRPC server to connect to; default localhost:16060.
  • --web-host is the address of Tinode web server, used for file uploads only; default localhost:6060.
  • --ssl the server requires a secure connection (SSL)
  • --ssl-host the domain name to use for SNI if different from the --host domain name.
  • --login-basic is the login:password to be authenticated with.
  • --login-token is the token to be authenticated with.
  • --login-cookie direct the client to read the token from the cookie file .tn-cli-cookie generated during an earlier login.
  • --no-login do not login even if cookie file is present; this is the default in non-interactive (scripted) mode.
  • --no-cookie do not save cookie on successful login; this is the default in non-interactive (scripted) mode.
  • --api-key web API key for file uploads; default AQEAAAABAAD_rAp4DJh05a1HAwFT3A6K
  • --load-macros path to a macro file.
  • --verbose log incoming and outgoing messages as JSON.
  • --background start interactive session in background; non-interactive sessions are always started in background.

If multiple login-XYZ are provided, login-cookie is considered first, then login-token then login-basic. Authentication with token (and cookie) is much faster than with the username-password pair.

Commands

Type <command> -h for help

See some of these commands in use in the sample-script.txt. Try it as

python tn-cli.py < sample-script.txt

Local (non-networking)

  • .await - issue a gRPC call and wait for completion, optionally assign result to a variable.
  • .delmark - use custom delete marker instead of default DEL!; needed when some value is to be removed rather than set to blank.
  • .exit - terminate execution and exit the CLI; also .quit.
  • .log - write a value of a variable to stdout.
  • .must - issue a gRPC call and wait for completion, optionally assign result to a variable; raise an exception if result is not a success.
  • .quit - terminate execution and exit the CLI; also .exit.
  • .sleep - suspend the process for a number of milliseconds.
  • .use - set default user (on_behalf_of user) or topic.
  • .verbose - toggle logging verbosity.

gRPC calls

  • acc - create or modify an account
  • login - authenticate current session
  • sub - subscribe to topic
  • leave - detach or unsubscribe from topic
  • pub - post message to topic
  • get - query topic for metadata or messages
  • set - update topic metadata
  • del - delete message(s), topic, subscription, or user
  • note - send notification
  • file - upload or download large file out of band

HTTP requests

  • upload - (deprecated, use file) upload file out of band

Macros

Macros are high-level wrappers for series of gRPC calls. Currently, the following macros are available:

  • chacs - change default permissions/acs for a user (requires root privileges)
  • chcred - add or delete a credential for a user (requires root privileges)
  • passwd - set user's password (requires root privileges)
  • resolve - resolve login and print the corresponding user id
  • useradd - create a new user account
  • userdel - delete user account (requires root privileges)
  • usermod - modify user account (requires root privileges)
  • thecard - print user's public and private info (requires root privileges)

You can define your own macros in macros.py or create a separate python module (you can load it via --load-macros). Refer to macros.py for examples.

Connecting to secure (HTTPS) server

If the server is configured to use TLS, i.e. running as httpS://my-server.example.com/, the gRPC endpoint also uses the same SSL certificate. In that case add the --ssl option.

If you want to connect to the secure gRPC endpoint over a local network or under a different name i.e. as localhost instead of my-server.example.com in this example, you must specify the SSL domain name to use, otherwise the server will not be able to find the right SSL certificate:

python tn-cli.py --host=localhost:6001 --ssl --ssl-host=my-server.example.com

The --ssl-host option makes the connection susceptible to the Man-in-the-middle attack, so don't do it over public networks.

Crash on shutdown

Python 3.6 sometimes crashes on shutdown with a message Fatal Python error: PyImport_GetModuleDict: no module dictionary!. That happens because Python is buggy: https://bugs.python.org/issue26153