source: skype/README @ 3a2a0b2

Last change on this file since 3a2a0b2 was 833eaee, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-02-23T02:17:06Z

doc update: manual start of skype no longer necessary

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[0c60f96]1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
[668a122]2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@vmiklos.hu>
[afe221f]3
[56e4ac4]4== Status
5
[4eaadf6]6[Wilmer van der Gaast (author of BitlBee)]
7____
8Okay, this exists now, with lots of thanks to vmiklos for his *excellent*
9work!!
10
11It's not in the main BitlBee and it'll never be for various reasons, but
12because it's a plugin that shouldn't be a problem.
13____
14
[56e4ac4]15One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
16http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
[1138b25]17returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it.
[56e4ac4]18
[2042b56]19It's pretty stable, I use it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching
[20994cb]20is required, you can just install it after installing BitlBee itself.
[75742cc]21
[4c3a4c8]22NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
[54c269d]23a Skype instance to be running. This is because I'm not motivated to reverse
24engineer Skype's
25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_Protocol#Obfuscation_Layer[obfuscation
26layer]. (Not mentioning that you should ask your lawyer about if it is legal or
27not..)
28
[22d97b4]29== Requirements
30
[3d9fd79]31* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.27.
[c60b864]32* bitlbee >= 1.1.1dev. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably
[57f0440]33  newer versions will work, too.)
[eb39102]34* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
[c60b864]35* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
[22d97b4]36* pygobject
37
[760ed1f]38`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Windows. Skype is available
39under OSX, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
40
[9e03e55]41== How to set it up
[afe221f]42
[751b149]43Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
44Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
45In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
[4c3a4c8]46package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
[751b149]47
[833eaee]48NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped` can
49connect to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
[7e4f0ca1]50
[11eed8f]51- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
52  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
53  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
54
[d044a5a]55- You need the BitlBee testing/development version:
[afe221f]56
[0c60f96]57----
[ccb50f5]58$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
59$ tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
60$ cd bitlbee-1.1.1dev
[0c60f96]61----
[afe221f]62
[d044a5a]63NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
[b8b0bfd]64
[afe221f]65- Now compile and install it:
66
[0c60f96]67----
[ccb50f5]68$ ./configure
69$ make
70# make install install-dev
[0c60f96]71----
[afe221f]72
73- Get the plugin code:
74
[0c60f96]75----
[3b495c0]76$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
77$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
78$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
[0c60f96]79----
[afe221f]80
[3b495c0]81It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
82by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
[6e97a7a]83
[afe221f]84- Compile and install it:
85
[0c60f96]86----
[ccb50f5]87$ ./configure
88$ make
89# make install
[0c60f96]90----
[afe221f]91
[c15f71a]92- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
93
94(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
95package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
[4c3a4c8]96previously used `DBus` interface had
[c15f71a]97http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
98problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
99In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
100`pygobject`.)
101
[52d377d]102- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
[e65ceaa]103  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
104  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
105  BitlBee (see later).
106
[52d377d]107NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
108if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
109
110- Generate the SSL pem files:
111
112----
[ccb50f5]113# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
114# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
[52d377d]115        -keyout skyped.key.pem
116----
117
[ccb50f5]118NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
119dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
120
[833eaee]121- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
[afe221f]122
[0c60f96]123----
[ccb50f5]124$ skyped
[0c60f96]125----
[ba20c39]126
[4c3a4c8]127- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
[7338d59]128
129----
[10a42d9]130account add skype <user> <pass> localhost
[7338d59]131----
132
[e65ceaa]133<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
[10a42d9]134in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
135`localhost` with the name of the machine.
[7338d59]136
[23b84e1]137== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
138
139Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
[4c3a4c8]140a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
[23b84e1]141work, too.
142
143First run
144
145----
[ccb50f5]146$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
[23b84e1]147----
148
149and create a password. You will need it at least once.
150
151Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
152
153----
154#!/bin/sh
155
[19b805c]156sleep 1
157skyped
[23b84e1]158----
159
[57087df]160Adjust the permissions:
161
162----
[ccb50f5]163$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
[57087df]164----
165
[23b84e1]166Then start the server:
167
168----
[ccb50f5]169$ vncserver
[23b84e1]170----
171
[4c3a4c8]172Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
[23b84e1]173allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
174
[dffa24f]175Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
176with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
177your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
178
[9e03e55]179== What works
[b6d26ac]180
[adce2de]181- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
[b6d26ac]182
[39a0d64]183- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
184
[93ece66]185- Sending messages
186
[8dd21bb]187- Receiving messages
188
[72f697b]189- Receiving away status changes
190
[62bb4e4]191- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
[ed2e37f]192
[62bb4e4]193- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
[afe221f]194
[62bb4e4]195- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
[440665b]196
[6627d92]197- Adding / removing contacts
198
[23411c6]199- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
200
[d3cbd17]201- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
[348a3a2]202
[d3cbd17]203- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
[348a3a2]204
[d3cbd17]205- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
[8dd21bb]206
[df9255d]207- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
208
[d6a371e]209- Group chat support:
210
211  * Detect if we're invited
212
213  * Send / receive group chat messages
[93ece66]214
[ff58445]215  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
[c5dd164]216
[d6a371e]217  * Part from group chats
[c5dd164]218
[ff58445]219  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
220
[e103e73]221- Topic changes in group chats:
222
223  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
224
225  * Notice when someone changes the topic
226
227  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
228
[fb36492]229- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
230
[a06a0a5]231- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
232
[6b266f6]233- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
[a06a0a5]234
[ccb50f5]235- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
236  communication is encrypted.
237
[d6a371e]238== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
[c5dd164]239
[3511d80]240- Fix `set skype/display_name foo`. It seem to be an upstream issue. (`nick
241  skype foo` works fine.)
242
243- Add support for accepting/rejecting and starting calls via settings. (Depends
244  on the previous fix.)
[846ceffb]245
[d6a371e]246- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
247
[4285920]248- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
249  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
250  `/join` to a public chat..
[d6a371e]251
[3511d80]252- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
253  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
254  server.
[fdde7d8]255
[0c60f96]256== I would like to have support for ...
257
[23b84e1]258If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
[e72d869]259contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
[80d9004]260problem may be already fixed there.
[23b84e1]261
262In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
263setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
264then it would be nice to include them here.
[afe221f]265
[f78f949]266== Known bugs
267
[5652d43]268- None at this time.
[f78f949]269
[0c60f96]270== Screenshots
271
[668a122]272You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
[ddd3502]273
[25d87e4]274== Additional resources
[a60c3c2]275
[25d87e4]276You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
[6f01885]277http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
[a60c3c2]278
[c09f90f]279The Skype API documentation is
280https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
281
[65e4020]282== Thanks
283
284for the following people:
285
286* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
287
[56a3616]288* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
[65e4020]289
[9834597]290* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
291  messages
292
293* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
294  timezone different to mine
[65e4020]295
[437ddf5]296* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
297
[eb9cbb8]298Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
299
[0c60f96]300// vim: ft=asciidoc
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