| Linux + Mac |
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nchat is a console-based chat client for Linux and macOS with support for Telegram.
Usage:
nchat [OPTION]
Command-line Options:
-e, --verbose enable verbose logging
-h, --help display this help and exit
-s, --setup set up chat protocol account
-v, --version output version information and exit
Interactive Commands:
Tab next chat
Sh-Tab previous chat
PageDn next page
PageUp previous page
Ctrl-e enable/disable emoji
Ctrl-n enable/disable msgid
Ctrl-q exit
Ctrl-r receive file
Ctrl-t transfer file
Ctrl-u next unread chat
Ctrl-x send message
Emojis can be entered on the format :smiley:. Refer to
emojicpp
for a full list of supported emojis. One can also toggle display of graphical
emojis in the chat history with Ctrl-e to easily see their textual
counterpart.
To send a file, enter the file path and press Ctrl-t. To receive a file, enter the number found in the chat history [Document] tag, and press Ctrl-r. Once downloaded the chat history message will be updated with the path to the local copy of the file.
To reply and quote a specific message, first enable display of message id by
pressing Ctrl-n. Then start the message with a line containing only |0x12345
(replace the number 0x12345 with the actual message id) and write the message
on the following line(s). Press Ctrl-x to send like normal.
nchat is developed and tested on Linux and macOS. Current version has been tested on:
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Nchat consists of a large code-base (mainly the Telegram client library), so be prepared for a relatively long first build time. Subsequent builds will be faster with ccache installed.
Dependencies
sudo apt install ccache cmake build-essential gperf help2man libreadline-dev libssl-dev libncurses-dev libncursesw5-dev ncurses-doc zlib1g-dev
Source
git clone https://github.com/d99kris/nchat && cd nchat
Build
mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make -s
Install
sudo make install
Dependencies
brew install gperf cmake openssl ncurses ccache readline help2man
Source
git clone https://github.com/d99kris/nchat && cd nchat
Build
mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make -s
Install
make install
The Telegram client library subcomponent requires relatively large amount of RAM to build by default (3.5GB using g++, and 1.5 GB for clang++). It is possible to adjust the Telegram client library source code so that it requires less RAM (but takes longer time). Doing so reduces the memory requirement to around 1GB under g++ and 0.5GB for clang++. Also, it is recommended to build nchat in release mode (which is default if downloading zip/tar release package - but with a git/svn clone it defaults to debug mode), to minimize memory usage. Steps to build nchat on a low memory system:
Source
git clone https://github.com/d99kris/nchat && cd nchat
Build
cd ext/td ; php SplitSource.php ; cd -
mkdir -p build && cd build
CC=/usr/bin/clang CXX=/usr/bin/clang++ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .. && make -s
Install
sudo make install
Revert Source Code Split (Optional)
cd ../ext/td ; php SplitSource.php --undo ; cd - # optional step to revert source split
In order to configure / setup an account one needs to run nchat in setup mode:
nchat --setup
The setup mode prompts for phone number, which shall be entered with country code. Example:
$ nchat --setup
Protocols:
0. telegram
1. Exit setup
Select protocol (0): 0
Enter phone number: +6511111111
Enter authentication code: xxxxx
Saving to /home/d99kris/.nchat/main.conf
If you are not sure what phone number to enter, open Telegram on your phone and press the menu button and use the number displayed there (omitting spaces, so for the below screenshot the number to enter is +6511111111).
Once the setup process is completed nchat will exit, and can now be restarted in normal mode:
nchat
If any issues are observed, try running nchat with verbose logging
nchat --verbose
and provide a copy of ~/.nchat/main.log when reporting the issue. The preferred way of reporting issues and asking questions is by opening a Github issue.
A Telegram group https://t.me/nchatusers is available for users to discuss nchat usage and related topics.
Bug reports, feature requests and usage questions directed at the nchat maintainer(s) should however be reported using Github issues to ensure they are properly tracked and get addressed.
Telegram user data is locally stored in ~/.nchat/tdlib encrypted with a key
randomly generated by nchat (not cryptographically secure PRNG). The key is
stored as plain text in ~/.nchat/telegram.conf. Default file permissions
only allow user access, but anyone who can gain access to a user's private
files can also access the user's personal Telegram data. To protect against
the most simple attack vectors it may be suitable to use disk encryption and
to ensure ~/.nchat is not backed up unencrypted.
The following configuration files (listed with current default values) can be used to configure nchat.
This configuration file determines which protocols should be enabled
(currently Telegram is the only supported). Protocols are automatically
enabled after succesful setup, and thus the protocol
(e.g. telegram_is_enabled) only needs to be manually configured if wanting
to disable a protocol.
The ui parameter controls which UI plugin/skin to use. There are currently
two supported:
uidefaultwhich can be seen in the main screenshot above.uilitewhich is a lightweight interface with no contact list, see below.
Default ~/.nchat/main.conf content:
telegram_is_enabled=0
ui=uidefault
This configuration file should not be edited manually by end users. Content:
local_key=
This configuration file (and uilite.conf for uilite) controls the UI aspects,
in particular subwindows size (input_rows, list_width), shortcut keys and
whether to show emojis graphically.
bell_msg_any_chat=1
bell_msg_current_chat=0
highlight_bold=1
input_rows=3
key_backspace=KEY_BACKSPACE
key_curs_down=KEY_DOWN
key_curs_left=KEY_LEFT
key_curs_right=KEY_RIGHT
key_curs_up=KEY_UP
key_delete=KEY_DC
key_exit=KEY_CTRLQ
key_linebreak=KEY_RETURN
key_next_chat=KEY_TAB
key_next_page=KEY_NPAGE
key_next_unread=KEY_CTRLU
key_prev_chat=KEY_BTAB
key_prev_page=KEY_PPAGE
key_receive_file=KEY_CTRLR
key_send=KEY_CTRLX
key_toggle_emoji=KEY_CTRLE
key_toggle_keycode_dump=KEY_CTRLK
key_toggle_msgid=KEY_CTRLN
key_transmit_file=KEY_CTRLT
list_width=14
show_emoji=1
show_msgid=0
Refer to function Util::GetKeyCode() in
src/util.cpp
for a list of supported key names to use in the config file. Alternatively
key codes may be entered in hex format (e.g. 0x9). If unsure of what the
(ncurses) key code for a certain key combination is, one can enable
"keycode dump" in nchat by pressing CTRL-K, which will log all subsequently
pressed keys to the log file ~/.nchat/main.log.
Deleting a configuration entry line (while nchat is not running) and starting nchat will populate the configuration file with the default entry.
nchat is implemented in C++. Its source tree includes the source code of the following third-party libraries:
nchat is distributed under the MIT license. See LICENSE file.
Other terminal/console-based Telegram clients:
command line, console based, linux, macos, chat client, telegram, ncurses, terminal.