source: skype/README @ 6b266f6

Last change on this file since 6b266f6 was 6b266f6, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-01-21T14:05:20Z

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@vmiklos.hu>
3
4== Status
5
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
15One day I browsed the BitlBee bugtracker and found
16http://bugs.bitlbee.org/bitlbee/ticket/82[this] ticket. Then after a while I
17returned and saw that it was still open. So I wrote it.
18
19It's pretty stable, I use it for my daily work. Being a plug-in, no patching
20is required, you can just install it after installing BitlBee itself.
21
22NOTE: You will see that this implementation of the Skype plug-in still requires
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
29== Requirements
30
31* Skype >= 1.4.0.99. The latest version I've tested is 2.0.0.27.
32* bitlbee >= 1.1.1dev. (This is the latest version I've tested, probably
33  newer versions will work, too.)
34* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
35* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
36* pygobject
37
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
41== How to set it up
42
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
46package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
47
48NOTE: The order is important. First you have to start Skype. Then `skyped` can
49connect to it, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`. (In fact `skyped`
50automatically reconnect if you restart Skype.)
51
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
56- You need the BitlBee testing/development version:
57
58----
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
62----
63
64NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
65
66- Now compile and install it:
67
68----
69$ ./configure
70$ make
71# make install install-dev
72----
73
74- Get the plugin code:
75
76----
77$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
78$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
79$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
80----
81
82It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
83by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
84
85- Compile and install it:
86
87----
88$ ./configure
89$ make
90# make install
91----
92
93- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
94
95(You may remember that previous versions of `skyped` did not require this
96package. This because it now uses the X11 interface of Skype (because the
97previously used `DBus` interface had
98http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=94545&view=findpost&p=431710[known
99problems]), but I wanted to prevent a large code duplication from that project.
100In addition it then no longer requires the `dbus-python` package, just
101`pygobject`.)
102
103- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
104  `username` should be your Skype login and the `password` can be whatever you
105  want, but you will have to specify that one when adding the Skype account to
106  BitlBee (see later).
107
108NOTE: Here, and later - `/usr/local/etc` can be different on your installation
109if you used the `--sysconfdir` switch when running bitlbee-skype's `configure`.
110
111- Generate the SSL pem files:
112
113----
114# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
115# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
116        -keyout skyped.key.pem
117----
118
119NOTE: Maybe you want to adjust the permissions in the `/usr/local/etc/skyped`
120dir. For example make it readable by just your user.
121
122- Start Skype and `skyped` (the tcp server):
123
124----
125$ skype
126$ skyped
127----
128
129NOTE: You should run `skyped` on the same `X11` display, otherwise it won't be
130able to connect to Skype!
131
132- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
133
134----
135account add skype <user> <pass> localhost
136----
137
138<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
139in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
140`localhost` with the name of the machine.
141
142== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
143
144Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
145a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
146work, too.
147
148First run
149
150----
151$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
152----
153
154and create a password. You will need it at least once.
155
156Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
157
158----
159#!/bin/sh
160
161sleep 1
162skype &
163sleep 5
164skyped
165----
166
167Adjust the permissions:
168
169----
170$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
171----
172
173Then start the server:
174
175----
176$ vncserver
177----
178
179Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable auto-login, and
180allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when Skype asks about it).
181
182Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
183with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
184your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
185
186== What works
187
188- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
189
190- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
191
192- Sending messages
193
194- Receiving messages
195
196- Receiving away status changes
197
198- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
199
200- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
201
202- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
203
204- Adding / removing contacts
205
206- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
207
208- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
209
210- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
211
212- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
213
214- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
215
216- Group chat support:
217
218  * Detect if we're invited
219
220  * Send / receive group chat messages
221
222  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
223
224  * Part from group chats
225
226  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
227
228- Topic changes in group chats:
229
230  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
231
232  * Notice when someone changes the topic
233
234  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
235
236- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
237
238- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
239
240- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
241
242- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
243  communication is encrypted.
244
245== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
246
247- Fix `set skype/display_name foo`. It seem to be an upstream issue. (`nick
248  skype foo` works fine.)
249
250- Add support for accepting/rejecting and starting calls via settings. (Depends
251  on the previous fix.)
252
253- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
254
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..
258
259- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
260  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
261  server.
262
263== I would like to have support for ...
264
265If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
266contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
267problem may be already fixed there.
268
269In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
270setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
271then it would be nice to include them here.
272
273== Known bugs
274
275- None at this time.
276
277== Screenshots
278
279You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
280
281== Additional resources
282
283You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
284http://repo.or.cz/w/bitlbee-skype.git[here].
285
286The Skype API documentation is
287https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
288
289== Thanks
290
291for the following people:
292
293* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the bitlbee plugin interface
294
295* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
296
297* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
298  messages
299
300* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
301  timezone different to mine
302
303* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
304
305Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
306
307// vim: ft=asciidoc
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