source: skype/README @ 71dd27d

Last change on this file since 71dd27d was 4966d841, checked in by Miklos Vajna <vmiklos@…>, at 2008-05-11T23:23:36Z

README: document how to avoid compiling bitlbee from source under deb

01:13 < wilmer> vmiklos: Ok, bitlbee-dev will be in unstable in a few hours!

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1= Skype plugin for BitlBee
2Miklos Vajna <vmiklos-at-vmiklos-dot-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 2.0.0.63.
32* BitlBee >= 1.1.1dev. The latest version I've tested is 1.2.
33* Skype4Py >= 0.9.28.7. Previous versions won't work due to API changes.
34* Python >= 2.5. Skype4Py does not work with 2.4.
35* PyGObject >= 2.8.0. Older versions are part of PyGTK. (And you don't want to
36  install GTK for nothing, right?)
37* pyopenssl or python-gnutls.
38
39`bitlbee-skype` has been tested under Linux and Mac OS X. Skype and Skype4py is
40available under Windows, too, so it probably works, but this has not been tested.
41
42== How to set it up
43
44Before you start. The setup is the following: BitlBee can't connect directly to
45Skype servers (the company's ones). It needs a running Skype client to do so.
46In fact BitlBee will connect to `skyped` (a tcp server, provided in this
47package) and `skyped` will connect to to your Skype client.
48
49NOTE: The order is important. First `skyped` starts Skype. Then `skyped` can
50connect to Skype, finally BitlBee can connect to `skyped`.
51
52- If you happen to be a happy Frugalware user:
53
54----
55# pacman-g2 -S bitlbee-skype
56----
57
58and you don't have to compile anything manually.
59
60- If you use Debian:
61
62----
63# apt-get install bitlbee-dev
64----
65
66and you have to install `bitlbee-skype` from source.
67
68- Otherwise, you need the latest stable BitlBee release:
69
70----
71$ wget http://get.bitlbee.org/src/bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
72$ tar xf bitlbee-1.2.tar.gz
73$ cd bitlbee-1.2
74----
75
76NOTE: You no longer need additional patches, as of version 1.1.1dev.
77
78- Now compile and install it:
79
80----
81$ ./configure
82$ make
83# make install install-dev
84----
85
86- Get the plugin code:
87
88----
89$ wget http://vmiklos.hu/project/bitlbee-skype/bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
90$ tar xf bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@.tar.gz
91$ cd bitlbee-skype-@VERSION@
92----
93
94It doesn't matter where do you get it, it'll install the plugin to `/usr/local`
95by default (that's the location where BitlBee searches for plugins by default).
96
97- Compile and install it:
98
99----
100$ ./configure
101$ make
102# make install
103----
104
105- Install http://skype4py.sourceforge.net/[Skype4Py].
106
107- Edit `/usr/local/etc/skyped/skyped.conf`: adjust `username` and `password`. The
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
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----
118# cd /usr/local/etc/skyped
119# openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -config skyped.cnf -out skyped.cert.pem \
120        -keyout skyped.key.pem
121----
122
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
126- If both pyopenssl and python-gnutls are available, then python-gnutls
127  will be used. This behaviour can be overwritten by:
128
129----
130$ export SKYPED_NO_GNUTLS=1
131----
132
133- Start `skyped` (the tcp server):
134
135----
136$ skyped
137----
138
139- Start your `IRC` client, connect to BitlBee and add your account:
140
141----
142account add skype <user> <pass>
143account set skype/server localhost
144----
145
146<user> should be your Skype account name, <pass> should be the one you declared
147in `skyped.conf`. If you want to run skyped on a remote machine, replace
148`localhost` with the name of the machine.
149
150If you are running skyped on a custom port:
151
152----
153account set skype/port <port>
154----
155
156If you want to set your full name (optional):
157
158----
159account set skype/display_name "John Smith"
160----
161
162If you want to see your skypeout contacts online as well (they are
163offline by default):
164
165----
166account set skype/skypeout_offline false
167----
168
169== Setting up Skype in a VNC server (optional)
170
171Optionally, if you want to run Skype on a server, you might want to setup up
172a `VNC` server as well. I used `tightvnc` but probably other `VNC` servers will
173work, too.
174
175First run
176
177----
178$ vncpasswd ~/.vnc/passwd
179----
180
181and create a password. You will need it at least once.
182
183Now create `~/.vnc/xstartup` with the following contents:
184
185----
186#!/bin/sh
187
188twm
189----
190
191Adjust the permissions:
192
193----
194$ chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup
195----
196
197Then start the server:
198
199----
200$ vncserver
201----
202
203Then connect to it, and set up Skype (username, password, enable
204auto-login, start skyped and allow the `SkypeApiPythonShell` client when
205Skype asks about it).
206
207Please be aware about that Skype has serious memory leak issues. After running
208with for a few weeks it may eat >300 MB of memory. Just don't forget to restart
209your VNC server regularly. (How ugly.)
210
211== Features
212
213- Download nicks and away statuses from Skype
214
215- Noticing joins / parts while we're connected
216
217- Sending messages
218
219- Receiving messages
220
221- Receiving away status changes
222
223- `skyped` (the tcp daemon that is a gateway between Skype and tcp)
224
225- Error handling when `skyped` is not running and when it exits
226
227- Marking received messages as seen so that Skype won't say there are unread messages
228
229- Adding / removing contacts
230
231- Set away state when you do a `/away`.
232
233- When you `account off`, Skype will set status to `Offline`
234
235- When you `account on`, Skype will set status to `Online`
236
237- Detect when somebody wants to add you and ask for confirmation
238
239- Detect when somebody wants to transfer a file
240
241- Group chat support:
242
243  * Detect if we're invited
244
245  * Send / receive group chat messages
246
247  * Invite others (using `/invite <nick>`)
248
249  * Part from group chats
250
251  * Starting a group chat (using `/j #nick`)
252
253- Topic changes in group chats:
254
255  * Show the current topic (if any) on join
256
257  * Notice when someone changes the topic
258
259  * Support changing the topic using `/topic`
260
261- Viewing the profile using the `info` command.
262
263- Handling skype actions (when the `CHATMESSAGE` has `EMOTED` type)
264
265- Setting your display name using the `nick` command.
266
267- Running Skype on a machine different to BitlBee is possible, the
268  communication is encrypted.
269
270- Managing outgoing calls (with call duration at the end, including
271  SkypeOut calls if you use a phone number instead of a nick):
272
273  * `account set skype/call nick`
274  * `account set -del skype/call`
275
276- Managing incoming calls via questions, just like when you add / remove
277  contacts.
278
279- Querying the current SkypeOut balance:
280
281  * `account set skype/balance query`
282
283== What needs to be done (aka. TODO)
284
285- Notice if foo invites bar. Currently you can see only that bar joined.
286
287- Public chats. See link:http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=98872[this
288  forum thread], it is still unclear how could it be done for you to be able to
289  `/join` to a public chat..
290
291- Add `--disable-skyped` and `--disable-plugin` switches in case one wants to
292  build `bitlbee-skype` only for a public server or only for use with a public
293  server.
294
295== I would like to have support for ...
296
297If something does not work and it's not in the TODO section, then please
298contact me! Please also try the link:HACKING[git version] before reporting a bug, your
299problem may be already fixed there.
300
301In fact, of course, I wrote this documentation after figured out how to do this
302setup, so maybe I left out some steps. If you needed 'any' additional tricks,
303then it would be nice to include them here.
304
305== Known bugs
306
307- None at this time.
308
309== Screenshots
310
311You can reach some screenshots link:shot[here].
312
313== Additional resources
314
315You can reach the Changelog link:Changelog[here], and a gitweb interface
316http://vmiklos.hu/gitweb/?p=bitlbee-skype.git[here].
317
318The Skype API documentation is
319https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc[here] if you're interested.
320
321
322== Testimonials
323
324----
32500:56 < scathe> vmiklos: I like your skype plugin :)
326----
327
328----
329It's really working great so far.
330
331Good Job and thank you!
332Sebastian
333----
334
335----
336Big respect for your work, i really appreciate it.
337
338Martin
339----
340
341----
342Thanks for bitlbee-skype. As a blind Linux user, I cannot use the
343skype GUI client because qt apps ar not accessible yet with the
344available screen readers. bitlbee-skype allows me to make use of skype
345without having to interact much with the GUI client, which helps me a
346lot.
347
348Lukas
349----
350
351----
35202:12 < newton> i must say, i love this little bee ;)
35302:15 < newton> tried it out today with the skype plugin, good work!
354----
355
356== Thanks
357
358for the following people:
359
360* Wilmer van der Gaast, for answering questions about the BitlBee plugin interface
361
362* Arkadiusz Wahlig, author of skype4py, for making suggestions to skyped
363
364* Gabor Adam Toth (tg), for noticing extra code is needed to handle multiline
365  messages
366
367* Cristobal Palmer (tarheelcoxn), for helping to testing the plugin in a
368  timezone different to mine
369
370* Risko Gergely, for his SkypeOut ideas
371
372* people on `#bitlbee` for feedback
373
374Back to my link:/projects[projects page].
375
376// vim: ft=asciidoc
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