2.7 KiB
MATRIX-SEND(1) - General Commands Manual
NAME
matrix-send - send a message to a Matrix room
SYNOPSIS
matrix-send [-c] [-h] [-v] message room
DESCRIPTION
matrix-send is a script to send a message to a Matrix room. It works by sending a JSON request to your Matrix server. The message type will always be m.text, but other options may be considered in the future.
To begin, start by making a configuration file. This always has the location of ~/.config/matrix-send.conf.
At the very least, your configuration file has to contain 3 directives: Server, Username, and Password. Let's say your Matrix server is envs.net. Your username is john, and your password is supersecretpassword. Your configuration could look like this:
Server matrix.envs.net
Username john
Password supersecretpassword
In that example, we used matrix.envs.net instead of envs.net. This is because matrix.envs.net is the address in which the Client-Server API is listening on. You can find your server's Client-Server API URL in Element by entering in your server into the Homeserver dialogue in the sign-in screen, then hovering over it once entered. Your server's Client-Server API URL should appear once you hover over it. If it doesn't appear, you've already got it.
You may have noticed that with this configuration, your password is visible in plain sight.
At its most basic, matrix-send.conf is a shell script. This means you could replace the Password line with something similar to this
Password $(gpg -d /path/to/passwd.gpg)
where /path/to/passwd.gpg is a GPG-encrypted plain text file containing only your password. This line would mean that you would be asked for the passphrase required to decrypt your password file before authenticating. This way, your password is not in plain text.
More information on configuration options can be found in matrix-send.conf(5).
To use matrix-send, you will need to get the Room ID of the room you'd like to send to. This will be something like !zyxwvutsrq:example.org.
Type the Room ID as the argument after the message you wish to send. You may have to escape the exclamation mark with a backslash. For example:
matrix-send "Hello world!" zyxwvutsrq:example.org
That should send a message saying Hello world! to the room with the Room ID !zyxwvutsrq:example.org.
By default, matrix-send caches access tokens in $HOME/.cache/matrix-send/access-token. If you would like to disable caching of access tokens, add NoCache to your matrix-send.conf.
FILES
~/.config/matrix-send.conf
configuration file for matrix-send
~/.cache/matrix-send/access-token
access token cache file
SEE ALSO
matrix-send.conf(5)
OpenBSD 7.1 - July 28, 2022