99 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
99 lines
5.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. title: Weechat, SSH and Notification
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.. date: 2019-01-01
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.. updated: 2019-07-02
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.. status: published
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.. tags: irc, ssh, weechat, notification,
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.. category: irc
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.. slug: weechat-ssh-and-notification
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.. authors: Elijah Lazkani
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.. description: A way to patch weechat notifications through your system's libnotify over ssh.
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.. type: text
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I have been on IRC for as long as I have been using *Linux* and that is a long time. Throughout the years, I have moved between *terminal IRC* clients. In this current iteration, I am using `Weechat <https://weechat.org/>`_.
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There are many ways one can use *weechat* and the one I chose is to run it in *tmux* on a *cloud server*. In other words, I have a *Linux* server running on one of the many cloud providers on which I have *tmux* and *weechat* installed and configured the way I like them. If you run a setup like mine, then you might face the same issue I have with IRC notifications.
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.. TEASER_END
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Why?
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====
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*Weechat* can cause a terminal bell which will show on some *terminals* and *window managers* as a notification. But you only know that *weechat* pinged. Furthermore, if this is happening on a server that you are *ssh*'ing to, and with various shell configurations, this system might not even work. I wanted something more useful than that so I went on the hunt for the plugins available to see if any one of them could offer me a solution. I found many official plugins that did things in a similar fashion and each in a different and interesting way but none the way I want them to work.
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Solution
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========
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After trying multiple solutions offered online which included various plugins, I decided to write my own. That's when *weenotify* was born. If you know my background then you know, already, that I am big on open source so *weenotify* was first released on `Gitlab <https://gitlab.com/elazkani/weenotify>`_. After a few changes, requested by a weechat developer (**FlashCode** in **#weechat** on `Freenode <https://freenode.net/>`_), *weenotify* became as an `official weechat plugin <https://weechat.org/scripts/source/weenotify.py.html/>`_.
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Weenotify
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=========
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Without getting into too many details, *weenotify* acts as both a weechat plugin and a server. The main function is to intercept weechat notifications and patch them through the system's notification system. In simple terms, if someone mentions your name, you will get a pop-up notification on your system with information about that. The script can be configured to work locally, if you run weechat on your own machine, or to open a socket and send the notification to *weenotify* running as a server. In the latter configuration, *weenotify* will display the notification on the system the server is is running on.
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Configuration
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=============
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Let's look at the configuration to accomplish this... As mentioned in the beginning of the post, I run weechat in *tmux* on a server. So I *ssh* to the server before attaching *tmux*. The safest way to do this is to **port forward over ssh** and this can be done easily by *ssh*'ing using the following example.
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.. code:: text
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$ ssh -R 5431:localhost:5431 server.example.com
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At this point, you should have port **5431** forwarded between the server and your machine.
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Once the previous step is done, you can test if it works by trying to run the *weenotify* script in server mode on your machine using the following command.
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.. code:: text
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$ python weenotify.py -s
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Starting server...
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Server listening locally on port 5431...
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The server is now running, you can test port forwarding from the server to make sure everything is working as expected.
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.. code:: text
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$ telnet localhost 5431
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Trying ::1...
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Connected to localhost.
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Escape character is '^]'.
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If the connection is successful then you know that port forwarding is working as expected. You can close the connection by hitting **Ctrl + ]**.
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Now we are ready to install the plugin in weechat and configure it. In weechat, run the following command.
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.. code:: text
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/script search weenotify
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At which point, you should be greeted with the buffer shown in the screenshot below.
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.. thumbnail:: /images/weechat_ssh_and_notification/01-weechat_weenotify.png
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:align: center
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:alt: weenotify
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You can install the plugin with **Alt + i** and make sure it autoloads with **Alt + A**. You can get more information about working with weechat scripts by reading the help menu. You can get the scripts help menu by running the following in weechat.
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.. code:: text
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/help script
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The *weenotify* plugin is installed at this stage and only needs to be configured. The plugin has a list of values that can be configured. My configuration looks like the following.
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.. code:: text
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plugins.var.python.weenotify.enable string "on"
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plugins.var.python.weenotify.host string "localhost"
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plugins.var.python.weenotify.mode string "remote"
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plugins.var.python.weenotify.port string "5431"
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Each one of those configuration options can be set as shown in the example below in weechat.
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.. code:: text
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/set plugins.var.python.weenotify.enable on
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Make sure that the plugin **enable** value is **on** and that the **mode** is **remote**, if you're following this post and using ssh with port forwarding. Otherwise, If you want the plugin to work locally, make sure you set the **mode** to **local**.
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If you followed this post so far, then whenever someone highlights you on weechat you should get a pop-up on your system notifying you about it.
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