gurk-rs

gurk

Signal Messenger client for terminal.

Installation

Pre-compiled binary

Download a pre-compiled binary from Releases.

Or, if you have cargo-binstall:

cargo binstall --git https://github.com/boxdot/gurk-rs gurk

From source (using cargo)

Prerequisites:

• protoc compiler
• perl

cargo install --git https://github.com/boxdot/gurk-rs gurk

Arch Linux

pacman -S gurk

(as root)

• Official repository, tagged releases: gurk

yay -S gurk

• AUR source build from Git HEAD: gurk-git

Nix/NixOS

Either per user:

$ nix-env --install gurk-rs

or system-wide:

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ gurk-rs ];

Freebsd

(as root)

pkg install net-im/gurk-rs

• pkg repositories

cd /usr/ports/net-im/gurk-rs
make install clean

• ports tree

Usage

Run

gurk

On the first run, it will open a QR code in your favorite image viewer, such that you can link the client as a new device. This will also create a configuration file at the default config location. For the configuration directives, see src/config.rs.

Note: The binary cannot be published on crates.io, because it depends on several official Signal libraries that are not available on crates.io.

Chat

Key bindings

Default keybindings

• App navigation
  • f1 Toggle help panel.
  • ctrl+c Quit.
• Message input
  • tab Send emoji from input line as reaction on selected message.
  • alt+enter Switch between multi-line and single-line input modes.
  • alt+left, alt+right Jump to previous/next word.
  • ctrl+w / ctrl+backspace / alt+backspace Delete last word.
  • ctrl+u Delete to the start of the line.
  • enter when input box empty in single-line mode Open URL from selected message.
  • enter otherwise Send message.
• Multi-line message input
  • enter New line
  • ctrl+j / Up Previous line
  • ctrl+k / Down Next line
• Cursor
  • alt+f / alt+Right / ctrl+Right Move forward one word.
  • alt+b / alt+Left / ctrl+Left Move backward one word.
  • ctrl+a / Home Move cursor to the beginning of the line.
  • ctrl+e / End Move cursor the the end of the line.
• Message/channel selection
  • esc Reset message selection or close channel selection popup.
  • alt+Up / alt+k / PgUp Select previous message.
  • alt+Down / alt+j / PgDown Select next message.
  • ctrl+j / Up Select previous channel.
  • ctrl+k / Down Select next channel.
  • ctrl+p Open / close channel selection popup.
  • alt+m Toggle mute for the selected channel (silences notifications; muted channels are marked with [M]).
• Clipboard
  • alt+y Copy selected message to clipboard.
• Help menu
  • esc Close help panel.
  • ctrl+j / Up / PgUp Previous line
  • ctrl+k / Down / PgDown Next line

File Uploads

• file:///path/to/file Upload File "file" at path "/path/to/"
• file://clip Upload Content of Clipboard

Configuration

Command-line options

-c, --config <PATH>     Path to config file
    --data-dir <PATH>   Path to data directory

Environment variables

Variable Description GURK_CONFIG Path to config file (same as --config) GURK_DATA_DIR Path to data directory (same as --data-dir) XDG_CONFIG_HOME Base directory for config files (works on all platforms) XDG_DATA_HOME Base directory for data files (works on all platforms)

Config file locations

If no config path is specified, gurk searches these locations in order:

1. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gurk/gurk.toml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gurk.toml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
3. Platform config directory (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support on macOS, ~/.config on Linux)
4. $HOME/.gurk.toml

Data directory

The data directory (for messages, Signal database, attachments) is determined by:

1. --data-dir CLI option or GURK_DATA_DIR env var
2. data_dir setting in config file
3. $XDG_DATA_HOME/gurk (if XDG_DATA_HOME is set)
4. Platform data directory (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/gurk on macOS)

Custom keybindings

The default keybindings can be overwritten at startup by configuring keybindings in gurk.toml using the format keybindings.<mode>.<keycombination> = "<command>". Valid commands are anywhere, normal, message_selected, channel_modal, multiline, and help. Valid key combination specifiers are e.g. left, alt-j, ctrl-f, backspace, pagedown. The default keybindings can be disabled by setting default_keybindings = false. An empty command removes an existing binding if it exists in the given mode. Configuration troubleshooted by running RUST_LOG=gurk=trace,presage=trace,libsignal=trace gurk --verbose and examining the resulting gurk.log.

Supported commands

help
quit
toggle_channel_modal
toggle_multiline
react
scroll help up|down entry
move_text previous|next character|word|line
select_channel previous|next
select_channel_modal previous|next
select_message previous|next entry
kill_line
kill_whole_line
kill_backward_line
kill_word
copy_message selected
beginning_of_line
end_of_line
delete_character previous|next
edit_message
delete_message
open_url
open_file
toggle_mute_channel

Example configuration

default_keybindings = true

[keybindings.anywhere]
ctrl-c = ""
ctrl-q = "quit"

[keybindings.normal]
ctrl-j = ""
ctrl-k = "kill_line"
ctrl-n = "select_channel next"
ctrl-p = "select_channel previous"
alt-c = "toggle_channel_modal"
up = "select_message previous entry"
down = "select_message next entry"

[keybindings.channel_modal]
ctrl-j = ""
ctrl-k = ""
ctrl-n = "select_channel_modal next"
ctrl-p = "select_channel_modal previous"

[keybindings.message_selected]
alt-y = ""
alt-w = "copy_message selected"
ctrl-t = "react :thumbsup:"
ctrl-h = "react ❤️"

License

• GNU Affero General Public License v3 only (AGPL-3.0-only or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html)

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this document by you, as defined in the AGPL-3.0-only license, shall be licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.