Telegram messenger CLI Build Status Command-line interface for Telegram. Uses readline interface. API, Protocol documentation Documentation for Telegram API is available here: http://core.telegram.org/api Documentation for MTproto protocol is available here: http://core.telegram.org/mtproto Upgrading to version 1.0 First of all, the binary is now in ./bin folder and is named telegram-cli. So be careful, not to use old binary. Second, config folder is now ${HOME}/.telegram-cli Third, database is not compatible with older versions, so you'll have to login again. Fourth, in peer_name '#' are substitued to '@'. (Not applied to appending of '#%d' in case of two peers having same name). Installation Clone GitHub Repository git clone --recursive https://github.com/vysheng/tg.git && cd tg Python Support Python support is currently limited to Python 2.7 or Python 3.1+. Other versions may work but are not tested. Linux and BSDs Install libs: readline, openssl and (if you want to use config) libconfig, liblua, python and libjansson. If you do not want to use them pass options --disable-libconfig, --disable-liblua, --disable-python and --disable-json respectively. On Ubuntu/Debian use: sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev libconfig-dev libssl-dev lua5.2 liblua5.2-dev libevent-dev libjansson-dev libpython-dev make On gentoo: sudo emerge -av sys-libs/readline dev-libs/libconfig dev-libs/openssl dev-lang/lua dev-libs/libevent dev-libs/jansson dev-lang/python On Fedora: sudo dnf install lua-devel openssl-devel libconfig-devel readline-devel libevent-devel libjansson-devel python-devel On Archlinux: yaourt -S telegram-cli-git On FreeBSD: pkg install libconfig libexecinfo lua52 python On OpenBSD: pkg_add libconfig libexecinfo lua python On openSUSE: sudo zypper in lua-devel libconfig-devel readline-devel libevent-devel libjansson-devel python-devel libopenssl-devel Then, ./configure make Other methods to install on linux On Gentoo: use ebuild provided. On Arch: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/telegram-cli-git Mac OS X The client depends on readline library and libconfig, which are not included in OS X by default. You have to install these libraries manually. If using Homebrew: brew install libconfig readline lua python libevent jansson export CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/Cellar/readline/6.3.8/include" export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/Cellar/readline/6.3.8/lib" ./configure && make Thanks to @jfontan for this solution. If using MacPorts: sudo port install libconfig-hr sudo port install readline sudo port install lua51 sudo port install python34 sudo port install libevent export CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include -I/opt/local/include -I/opt/local/include/lua-5.1" export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib -L/opt/local/lib -L/opt/local/lib/lua-5.1" ./configure && make Install these ports: devel/libconfig devel/libexecinfo lang/lua52 Then build: env CC=clang CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib LUA=/usr/local/bin/lua52 LUA_INCLUDE=-I/usr/local/include/lua52 LUA_LIB=-llua-5.2 ./configure make Other UNIX If you manage to launch it on other UNIX, please let me know. Contacts If you would like to ask a question, you can write to my telegram or to the github (or both). To contact me via telegram, you should use import_card method with argument 000653bf:0738ca5d:5521fbac:29246815:a27d0cda Usage bin/telegram-cli -k <public-server-key> By default, the public key is stored in tg-server.pub in the same folder or in /etc/telegram-cli/server.pub. If not, specify where to find it: bin/telegram-cli -k tg-server.pub Client support TAB completion and command history. Peer refers to the name of the contact or dialog and can be accessed by TAB completion. For user contacts peer name is Name Lastname with all spaces changed to underscores. For chats it is it's title with all spaces changed to underscores For encrypted chats it is <Exсlamation mark> Name Lastname with all spaces changed to underscores. If two or more peers have same name, number is appended to the name. (for example A_B, A_B#1, A_B#2 and so on) Supported commands Messaging msg <peer> Text - sends message to this peer fwd <user> <msg-seqno> - forward message to user. You can see message numbers starting client with -N chat_with_peer <peer> starts one on one chat session with this peer. /exit or /quit to end this mode. add_contact <phone-number> <first-name> <last-name> - tries to add contact to contact-list by phone rename_contact <user> <first-name> <last-name> - tries to rename contact. If you have another device it will be a fight mark_read <peer> - mark read all received messages with peer delete_msg <msg-seqno> - deletes message (not completly, though) restore_msg <msg-seqno> - restores delete message. Impossible for secret chats. Only possible short time (one hour, I think) after deletion Multimedia send_photo <peer> <photo-file-name> - sends photo to peer send_video <peer> <video-file-name> - sends video to peer send_text <peer> <text-file-name> - sends text file as plain messages load_photo/load_video/load_video_thumb/load_audio/load_document/load_document_thumb <msg-seqno> - loads photo/video/audio/document to download dir view_photo/view_video/view_video_thumb/view_audio/view_document/view_document_thumb <msg-seqno> - loads photo/video to download dir and starts system default viewer fwd_media <msg-seqno> send media in your message. Use this to prevent sharing info about author of media (though, it is possible to determine user_id from media itself, it is not possible get access_hash of this user) set_profile_photo <photo-file-name> - sets userpic. Photo should be square, or server will cut biggest central square part Group chat options chat_info <chat> - prints info about chat chat_add_user <chat> <user> - add user to chat chat_del_user <chat> <user> - remove user from chat rename_chat <chat> <new-name> create_group_chat <chat topic> <user1> <user2> <user3> ... - creates a groupchat with users, use chat_add_user to add more users chat_set_photo <chat> <photo-file-name> - sets group chat photo. Same limits as for profile photos. Search search <peer> pattern - searches pattern in messages with peer global_search pattern - searches pattern in all messages Secret chat create_secret_chat <user> - creates secret chat with this user visualize_key <secret_chat> - prints visualization of encryption key. You should compare it to your partner's one set_ttl <secret_chat> <ttl> - sets ttl to secret chat. Though client does ignore it, client on other end can make use of it accept_secret_chat <secret_chat> - manually accept secret chat (only useful when starting with -E key) Stats and various info user_info <user> - prints info about user history <peer> [limit] - prints history (and marks it as read). Default limit = 40 dialog_list - prints info about your dialogs contact_list - prints info about users in your contact list suggested_contacts - print info about contacts, you have max common friends stats - just for debugging show_license - prints contents of GPLv2 help - prints this help get_self - get our user info Card export_card - print your 'card' that anyone can later use to import your contact import_card <card> - gets user by card. You can write messages to him after that. Other quit - quit safe_quit - wait for all queries to end then quit