Ubuntu Manpage: tircd - An ircd proxy to the twitter API

NAME

       tircd  - An ircd proxy to the twitter API

DESCRIPTION

       tircd presents twitter as an irc channel.  You can connect to tircd with any irc client, and twitter as
       if you were on irc

INSTALLATION

       tircd requires a recent version of perl, and the following modules:

       POE

       POE::Filter::IRCD

       Net::Twitter::Lite::WithAPIv1_1

       JSON::Any

       Time::Local

       File::Glob

       IO::File

       LWP::UserAgent

       Storable

       URI

       List::Util

       HTML::Entities

       Digest::SHA1

       If you're using a redhat or debian based system, attempt to use the distrobutions CPAN module packages,
       in yum or apt.

       To install all modules via CPAN:

       cpan -i POE POE::Filter::IRCD Net::Twitter::Lite JSON::Any Time::Local File::Glob IO::File LWP::UserAgent
       Storable URI List::Util HTML::Entities Digest::SHA1

USAGE

Running tircd
./tircd.pl [/path/to/tircd.cfg]

When started, tircd will look for a configuration file in the following places:

tircd.cfg (in the current directory)

~/.tircd

/etc/tircd.cfg

You can specify an alternate path to the configuration file on the commandline if you want to keep
the configuration in another location. There is an example config provided as part of the
distribution. The easiest way to get started is to just rename that file from tircd.cfg.example to
tircd.cfg

Connecting
By default, tircd listens on localhost port 6667.

The first time you connect with a new twitter account you must specify a tircd password for that nick.
This password does not have to (and should not) be the same as your twitter password. This password will
protect your tircd account from unauthorized usage.

The above password is to protect your tircd account, and is not related to your twitter account. The
tircd nick password will only be saved once you have logged into Twitter

With many irc clients you can do this by issuing the command /SERVER localhost 6667 <tircd password>
<twitter username>. Check your client's documentation for the appropirate syntax.

Tircd will make an OAuth challenege to Twitter, and Twitter will return a link to a page where you can
authorize the connection. This link will appear in your IRC connection status window.

Make sure you are either logged into twitter as the account you plan to use, or not logged in. Click the
authorize link and log-in, then click "Allow". Twitter will then present you with a PIN number. To
complete your connection to tircd, type: /stats pin <PIN NUMBER>. On some clients you may have to type:
/quote stats pin <PIN NUMBER>.

If the PIN is accepted by Twitter, the connection will be established. You may now join #twitter to
begin. If the PIN is not accepted, another authorization link will be generated.

Account password protection
If your tircd installation is running in a shared environment (either listening on the localhost
address on a shared computer, or listening on a public IP) you might want to password protect your
account, or anyone can access your twitter account knowing the server address and your twitter
username. Your tircd-password do NOT need to be (and should not be!) the same as your twitter
password.

Tircd supports password protection in the following way.

• The first time you connect to tircd with a new Username, no password checking is done. You are
presented with the OAuth URL, and need to log in to twitter on the web, and enter the PIN as
described above.

• When the PIN is accepted, IF your client connected with a password set, this password is
encrypted (hashed) and saved along with your twitter access-tokens.

• Next time you connect, tircd will first check to see if a password is saved in your
Username.config, and comapre it with the one your client sends.

• If they match, your connecton is allowed, and tircd continue to verify the OAuth tokens with
twitter.

• If they don't match, the client is disconnected with an error message.

• If you want to change your password, or did not set one on your first connection, you can do so
after you have connected to tircd with a simple "/STATS password <password>"

• Be aware that if you do this, you will also have to make sure your client uses the same password
next time you connect to tircd.

• If you want to remove the password, simply issue a "/STATS password" without any password set.

There is currently no way of regaining access to your account if you forget it. To reset your tircd
password, you will have to remove your Username.config and authorize with twitter using OAuth and a
PIN again.

After connecting
Once connected "/JOIN #twitter" to get started. The channel #twitter is where you will perform most
opertions

Updating your status
To update your status on twitter, simply send a message starting with "!t " to the #twitter channel.
The server will keep your most recent update in the topic at all times.

If you want to have all message you send to #twitter posted as tweets, you can set the config option
"auto_post" to 1. Either in tircd.conf or via the /stats command. Messages beginning with an
exclamation point ("!") will still be processed as commands, not tweeted.

Getting your friend's status
When users you follow update their status, it will be sent to the channel as a message from them.
Each status will be preceded by a 3 letter identifier such as [a7f]. This identifier is used for
retweeting and replying to tweets.

@replies are also sent to the channel as messages.

Retweeting a status
To retweet a status, use the offerbot command !retweet followed by the 3 letter tweet identifier.

!retweet a7f

Replying to a status
To reply to a status update, use the offerbot command !retweet followed by the 3 letter tweet
identifier.

!reply 6eb @tircdbot not today!

Favoriting a tweet
To favorite a tweet use the offerbot command !favorite followed by the 3 letter tweet identifier.

!favorite a44

Listing the users you follow
Each user you follow will be in the #twitter channel. If you follow a new user outside of tircd,
that user will join the channel the first time they update their status. People who follow you back
are given voice (+v) to indicate that fact.

Direct Messages
Direct messages to you will show up as a private message from the user.

To send a direct message, simply send a private message to the user you want to dm.

Getting additional information on users
You can /WHO or /WHOIS a user to view their Location / Bio / Website. Their last status update (and
time sent) will also be returned.

Issuing a /WHOIS on your own user name will also provide the number of API calls that have been used
in the last hour.

Following new users
To begin following a new user, simply /INVITE them to #twitter. The user will join the channel if
the request to follow was successful. If you attempt to invite a user who protects their updates,
you will receive a notice that you have requested to follow them. The user will join the channel if
they accept your request and update their status.

!invite is the analagous offerbot command.

Unfollowing / removing users
To stop following a user, /KICK them from #twitter.

!kick is the analagous offerbot command.

Blocking users
To block a user /BAN them. There is currently no way to get a list of users you've currently blocked
via the API, so listing the bans in #twitter will only return users you've blocked in the current
session.

Unblocking users
To unblock a user /UNBAN them.

Multiple Channels / Groups
If you want to create a channel with just a subset of the people you follow, you can "/JOIN <any
channel>" and then /INVITE them to the channel. tircd will send a user's updates to #twitter and any
other channels you have invited a user to.

Search
If you want to have updated search results for a specific term delivered, you can "/JOIN <any
channel>" then set the /topic for the channnel to your search query. Results that match that query
will be sent to that channel. The /TOPIC can be almost anything supported by the twitter search (see
http://support.twitter.com/articles/71577-how-to-use-advanced-twitter-search
<http://support.twitter.com/articles/71577-how-to-use-advanced-twitter-search> for exmaples). Using
the 'near' option is not currently supported.

User config
Certain options are changeable at runtime and set per user. To see a list of options and their
current values simply send an "/STATS m" command to the server.

These options are saved in a file with the name Username.config (where Username is your twitter
username) located in a directory set in the global config file (default: /tmp/tricd)

Offerbot commands
Tircd supports offerbot style control. All functions available through the offerbot are available as
they're metaphorically appropriate IRC functions. Therefore, retweeting, replying to a specific
tweet, and saving the user configuration are only available through the offerbot.

![update|up|refresh] - Updates the #twitter stream immediately.

![tweet|t] <text of tweet> - Posts the given text as an update to your feed.

![retweet|rt] <tweed-id> - Posts a retweet. tweet-id is the 3 digit code preceding the tweet.

![reply|re] <tweet-id <message text>> - Replies to a tweet. tweet-id is a the 3 digit code preceding
the tweet.

![conversation|conv] <tweet-id> - Replay a conversation from begining. If tweet is not a reply, shows
related tweets.

![add|invite|follow] <username> - Begin following the specified twitter username.

![remove|kick|unfollow] <username> - Remove the username from the list of people your account
follows.

!save - Saves twitter-username specific configuration immediately.

!help - Shows this help message.

AUTHOR

       Tim Sogard <tircd@timsogard.com> [2010-2011]

       Ola Thoresen <olen@inni.no> [2010-2011]

       Chris Nelson <cnelson@crazybrain.org>  [2009]

LICENSE