What is Weechat-Matrix?

Weechat is an extensible chat client.

Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralized communication.

Weechat-Matrix is a Python plugin for Weechat that lets Weechat communicate over the Matrix protocol.

Project Status

Weechat-Matrix already supports large parts of the Matrix protocol, end to end encryption support is still experimental.

Installation

Install libolm 3.1+
- Debian 11+ (testing/sid) or Ubuntu 19.10+ install libolm-dev
- Archlinux based distribution (see https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libolm/) use your favorite pacman frontend with AUR support (yaourt, yay, pikaur, …)
- Failing any of the above see https://git.matrix.org/git/olm for instructions about building it from sources

Clone the repo and install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/poljar/weechat-matrix.git
cd weechat-matrix
pip install -r requirements.txt

As your regular user, just run: make install in this repository directory.

This installs the main python file (main.py) into ~/.weechat/python/ (renamed to matrix.py) along with the other python files it needs (from the matrix subdir).

Note that weechat only supports Python2 OR Python3, and that setting is determined at the time that Weechat is compiled. Weechat-Matrix can work with either Python2 or Python3, but when you install dependencies you will have to take into account which version of Python your Weechat was built to use.

The minimal supported python2 version is 2.7.10.

To check the python version that weechat is using, run:
```
 /python version
```

Using virtualenv

If you want to install dependencies inside a virtualenv, rather than globally for your system or user, you can use a virtualenv. Weechat-Matrix will automatically use any virtualenv it finds in a directory called venv next to its main Python file (after resolving symlinks). Typically, this means ~/.weechat/python/venv.

To create such a virtualenv, you can use something like below. This only needs to happen once:

virtualenv ~/.weechat/python/venv

Then, activate the virtualenv:

. ~/.weechat/python/venv/bin/activate

This needs to be done whenever you want to install packages inside the virtualenv (so before running the pip install command documented above.

Once the virtualenv is prepared in the right location, Weechat-Matrix will automatically activate it when the plugin is loaded. This should not affect other plugins, which seem to have a separate Python environment.

Note that this only supports virtualenv tools that support the activate_this.py way of activation. This includes the virtualenv command, but excludes pyvenv and the Python3 venv module. In particular, this works if (for a typical installation of matrix.py) the file ~/.weechat/python/venv/bin/activate_this.py exists.

Run from git directly

Rather than copying files into ~/.weechat (step 3 above), it is also possible to run from a git checkout directly using symlinks.

For this, you need two symlinks:

ln -s /path/to/weechat-matrix/main.py ~/.weechat/python/matrix.py
ln -s /path/to/weechat-matrix/matrix ~/.weechat/python/matrix

This first link is the main python file, that can be loaded using /script load matrix.py. The second link is to the directory with extra python files used by the main script. This directory must be linked as ~/.weechat/python/matrix so it ends up in the python library path and its files can be imported using e.g. import matrix from the main python file.

Note that these symlinks are essentially the same as the files that would have been copied using make install.

Uploading files

Uploads are done using a helper script, which is found under contrib/matrix_upload. We recommend you install this under your PATH as matrix_upload.

Downloading encrypted files

Encrypted files can be opened by passing the displayed emxc:// URI to the contrib/matrix_decrypt helper script.

Configuration

Configuration is completed primarily through the Weechat interface. First start Weechat, and then issue the following commands:

Start by loading the Weechat-Matrix plugin:
```
/script load matrix.py
```

Now set your username and password:

/set matrix.server.matrix_org.username johndoe
/set matrix.server.matrix_org.password jd_is_awesome

Now try to connect:
```
/matrix connect matrix_org
```
If everything works, save the configuration
```
/save
```

For using a custom (not matrix.org) matrix server:

Add your custom server to the plugin:

/matrix server add myserver myserver.org

Add the appropriate credentials

/set matrix.server.myserver.username johndoe
/set matrix.server.myserver.password jd_is_awesome

If everything works, save the configuration
```
/save
```

Single sign-on:

Single sign-on is supported using a helper script, the script found under contrib/matrix_sso_helper should be installed under your PATH as matrix_sso_helper.

For single sign-on to be the preferred leave the servers username and password empty.

After connecting a URL will be presented which needs to be used to perform the sign on. Please note that the helper script spawns a HTTP server which waits for the sign-on token to be passed back. This makes it necessary to do the sign on on the same host as Weechat.

A hsignal is sent out when the SSO helper spawns as well, the name of the hsignal is matrix_sso_login and it will contain the name of the server in the server variable and the full URL that can be used to log in in the url variable.

To open the login URL automatically in a browser a trigger can be added:

    /trigger add sso_browser hsignal matrix_sso_login "" "" "/exec -bg firefox ${url}"

If signing on on the same host as Weechat is undesirable the listening port of the SSO helper should be set to a static value using the sso_helper_listening_port setting:

   /set matrix.server.myserver.sso_helper_listening_port 8443

After setting the listening port the same port on the local machine can be forwarded using ssh to the remote host:

    ssh -L 8443:localhost:8443 example.org

This forwards the local port 8443 to the localhost:8443 address on example.org. Note that it is necessary to forward the port to the localhost address on the remote host because the helper only listens on localhost.

Bar items

There are two bar items provided by this script:

matrix_typing_notice - shows the currently typing users
matrix_modes - shows room and server info (encryption status of the room, server connection status)

They can be added to the weechat status bar as usual: /set weechat.bar.status.items

The matrix_modes bar item is replicated in the already used buffer_modes bar item.

Typing notices and read receipts

The sending of typing notices and read receipts can be temporarily disabled via the /room command, they can also be permanently configured using standard weechat conditions settings with the following settings:

matrix.network.read_markers_conditions
matrix.network.typing_notice_conditions

Helpful Commands

/help matrix will print information about the /matrix command.

/help olm will print information about the /olm command that is used for device verification.

/matrix help [command] will print information for subcommands, such as /matrix help server

Adrijaned/weechat-matrix