source: skype/README @ eeeb30e

Last change on this file since eeeb30e was 10a42d9, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-01-12T21:05:39Z

put localhost back to readme
as it may now more likely that one wants to run skyped on a remote machine

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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
[9fcaedc0]33  newer versions probably 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
[7e4f0ca1]48NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
[64f8b8ea]49connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
50automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
[7e4f0ca1]51
[11eed8f]52- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user, you can install the `bitlbee`
53  and `bitlbee-skype` packages from
54  http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/[my repo].
55
[d044a5a]56- You need the BitlBee testing/development version:
[afe221f]57
[0c60f96]58----
[ccb50f5]59$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
60$ tar xf bitlbee-1.1.1dev.tar.gz
61$ cd bitlbee-1.1.1dev
[0c60f96]62----
[afe221f]63
[d044a5a]64NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
[b8b0bfd]65
[afe221f]66- Now compile and install it:
67
[0c60f96]68----
[ccb50f5]69$ ./configure
70$ make
71# make install install-dev
[0c60f96]72----
[afe221f]73
74- Get the plugin code:
75
[0c60f96]76----
[ccb50f5]77$ git clone git://vmiklos.hu/bitlbee-skype
[0c60f96]78----
[afe221f]79
[b8351a2]80(Or you can use the tarballs below, see the Changelog about what
81features/bugfixes will you miss in this case).
82
[6e97a7a]83NOTE: It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to
84`/usr/local` by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins
85by default).
86
[afe221f]87- Compile and install it:
88
[0c60f96]89----
[ccb50f5]90$ cd bitlbee-skype
91$ make prepare
92$ ./configure
93$ make
94# make install
[0c60f96]95----
[afe221f]96
[c15f71a]97- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
98
99(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
100package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
[4c3a4c8]101previously used `DBus` interface had
[c15f71a]102http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
103problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
104In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
105`pygobject`.)
106
[52d377d]107- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
[e65ceaa]108  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
109  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
110  BitlBee (see later).
111
[52d377d]112NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
113if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
114
115- Generate the SSL pem files:
116
117----
[ccb50f5]118# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
119# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
[52d377d]120        -keyout skyped.key.pem
121----
122
[ccb50f5]123NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
124dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
125
[2fcad6e]126- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
[afe221f]127
[0c60f96]128----
[ccb50f5]129$ skype
130$ skyped
[0c60f96]131----
[ba20c39]132
[c60b864]133NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be
134able to connect to Skype!
[afe221f]135
[4c3a4c8]136- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
[7338d59]137
138----
[10a42d9]139account add skype <user> <pass> localhost
[7338d59]140----
141
[e65ceaa]142<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
[10a42d9]143in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
144`localhost` with the name of the machine.
[7338d59]145
[23b84e1]146== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
147
148Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
[4c3a4c8]149a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
[23b84e1]150work, too.
151
152First run
153
154----
[ccb50f5]155$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
[23b84e1]156----
157
158and create a password. You will need it at least once.
159
160Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
161
162----
163#!/bin/sh
164
[19b805c]165sleep 1
166skype &
167sleep 5
168skyped
[23b84e1]169----
170
[57087df]171Adjust the permissions:
172
173----
[ccb50f5]174$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
[57087df]175----
176
[23b84e1]177Then start the server:
178
179----
[ccb50f5]180$ vncserver
[23b84e1]181----
182
[4c3a4c8]183Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
[23b84e1]184allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
185
[dffa24f]186Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
187with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
188your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
189
[9e03e55]190== What works
[b6d26ac]191
[adce2de]192- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
[b6d26ac]193
[39a0d64]194- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
195
[93ece66]196- Sending messages
197
[8dd21bb]198- Receiving messages
199
[72f697b]200- Receiving away status changes
201
[62bb4e4]202- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
[ed2e37f]203
[62bb4e4]204- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
[afe221f]205
[62bb4e4]206- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
[440665b]207
[6627d92]208- Adding / removing contacts
209
[23411c6]210- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
211
[d3cbd17]212- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
[348a3a2]213
[d3cbd17]214- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
[348a3a2]215
[d3cbd17]216- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
[8dd21bb]217
[df9255d]218- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
219
[d6a371e]220- Group chat support:
221
222  * Detect if we're invited
223
224  * Send / receive group chat messages
[93ece66]225
[ff58445]226  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
[c5dd164]227
[d6a371e]228  * Part from group chats
[c5dd164]229
[ff58445]230  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
231
[e103e73]232- Topic changes in group chats:
233
234  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
235
236  * Notice when someone changes the topic
237
238  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
239
[fb36492]240- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
241
[a06a0a5]242- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
243
244- Setting your mood text using the `nick` command.
245
[ccb50f5]246- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
247  communication is encrypted.
248
[d6a371e]249== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
[c5dd164]250
[846ceffb]251- Add a question callback for calls.
252
[d6a371e]253- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
254
[4285920]255- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
256  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
257  `/join` to a public chat..
[d6a371e]258
[fdde7d8]259- Split skyped from the plugin, so that one could install just the relevant
260  code if they are not running on the same machine.
261
[0c60f96]262== I would like to have support for ...
263
[23b84e1]264If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
[80d9004]265contact me! Please also try the git version before reporting a bug, your
266problem may be already fixed there.
[23b84e1]267
268In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
269setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
270then it would be nice to include them here.
[afe221f]271
[f78f949]272== Known bugs
273
[5652d43]274- None at this time.
[f78f949]275
[0c60f96]276== Screenshots
277
[668a122]278You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
[ddd3502]279
[25d87e4]280== Additional resources
[a60c3c2]281
[25d87e4]282You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
[3d73b02]283http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here].
[a60c3c2]284
[c09f90f]285The Skype API documentation is
286https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
287
[65e4020]288== Thanks
289
290for the following people:
291
292* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
293
[56a3616]294* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
[65e4020]295
[9834597]296* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
297  messages
298
299* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
300  timezone different to mine
[65e4020]301
[437ddf5]302* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
303
[eb9cbb8]304Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
305
[0c60f96]306// vim: ft=asciidoc
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