One of the command line tools of interest for light weight micro-notifications is TTYtter. In the CentOS-devel mailing list a few months, I described using it to issue completion, and build closure notices doing a long running, unattended distribution build for a IBM s390x architecture
Twitter has announced, and been testing a move to using OAuth -- Rather repeat details here as to why this is compelling solution to federated authentication, and how it is still secure, please to take a look at: http://oauth.net/, and the Twitter writeup on that topic
Cutting over to the latest TTYtter (which has the needed code to use OAuth) is as easy as doing a download, setting a file permission executable, and updating a test symlink. Some minor edits to the 'rc' file were needed -- the lynx seems to lack needed crypto hooks, and so we edit to cut over to using curl. The tool then leads one through generating, and injecting locally the needed OAuth keying
[herrold@centos-5 ttytter]$ ./ttytter
-- using SSL for default URLs.
trying to find cURL ... /usr/bin/curl
-- checking version at http://www.floodgap.com/software/ttytter/01current.txt
-- your version of TTYtter is up to date (1.1.3)
** warning: -user is ignored when -authtype=oauth (default)
++-------------------------------------------------------------------++
|| WELCOME TO TTYtter: let's get you set up with an OAuth keyfile! ||
++-------------------------------------------------------------------++
Twitter now requires all applications authenticating to it use OAuth, a
more complex authentication system that uses tokens and keys instead of
screen names and passwords. To use TTYtter with this Twitter account,
you will need your own app key and access token. This requires a browser.
The app key/secret and user access token/secret go into a keyfile and
act as your credentials; instead of using -user, you use -keyf. THIS
KEYFILE NEVER EXPIRES. YOU ONLY NEED TO DO THIS ONCE FOR EACH ACCOUNT.
If you DON'T want to use OAuth with TTYtter, PRESS CTRL-C now. Restart
TTYtter with -authtype=basic to use a username and password. THIS IS
WHAT YOU WANT FOR STATUSNET, BUT WON'T WORK WITH TWITTER AFTER AUGUST 2010.
If you need help with this, talk to @ttytter or E-mail ckaiser@floodgap.com.
Otherwise, press RETURN/ENTER now to start the process.
Start your browser.
1. Log in to https://twitter.com/ with your desired account.
2. Go to this URL (all one line). You must be logged into Twitter FIRST!
http://dev.twitter.com/apps/key_exchange?oauth_consumer_key=credentialelided12345
3. Twitter will confirm. Click Authorize, and accept the terms of service.
4. Copy the entire string you get back.
ck=BbEgsckKyR1234567890fw&
cs=QhuEHoZoh1234567890rg5oZjCmaddogk
kjhFnaYE&at1234567890n3lqqFjredbullX
pyTM3iQH6I1234567890k8Wilz&
ats=BVrFP1234567890ggODKHmTChME1234567890PCo9Y
-- Paste it into this terminal, then hit ENTER and CTRL-D to write it ---------
ck=BbEgsckKyR1234567890fw&
cs=QhuEHoZoh1234567890rg5oZjCmaddogk
kjhFnaYE&at1234567890n3lqqFjredbullX
pyTM3iQH6I1234567890k8Wilz&
ats=BVrFP1234567890ggODKHmTChME1234567890PCo9Y
-- EOF ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written new key file /home/herrold/.ttytterkey
Now, restart TTYtter to use this keyfile -- it will use this one by default.
(For multiple key files with multiple accounts, write them to separate
filenames, and tell TTYtter where the key is using -keyf=... .) Easy enough. The edits to the 'RC' file, post changes are shown thus:
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ cat ~/.ttytterrc
#
# user=herrold:oldpass3.2.7172.14159word
keyf=/home/herrold/.ttytterkey
hold=1
ssl=1
# lynx=1
curl=1
# url=https://twitter.com/statuses/public_timeline.json
vcheck=1
#
[herrold@centos-5 ttytter]$ and let's fire it up again and test for function:
[herrold@centos-5 ttytter]$ ./ttytter
-- using SSL for default URLs.
trying to find cURL ... /usr/bin/curl
-- checking version at http://www.floodgap.com/software/ttytter/01current.txt
-- your version of TTYtter is up to date (1.1.3)
(checking credentials) test-login SUCCEEDED!
-- processing credentials: logged in as herrold
######################################################
... After showing recent and direct posts, ends up at a prompt ready for content
...
-- notification: API rate limit is currently 350 req/hr
-- your version of TTYtter is up to date (1.1.3)
-- you are logged in as herrold
TTYtter> hello world and @ttytter using OAuth credentials
TTYtter> c9> hello world and @ttytter using OAuth credentials Let's look a bit at the files with an eye to privacy. Oops
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ cd ~ ; ls -al .ttytt*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 herrold herrold 174 Aug 18 09:43 .ttytterkey
-rwx------ 1 herrold herrold 161 Aug 18 09:48 .ttytterrc
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ I fix that thus, of course:
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ chmod 600 .ttytterkey
[herrold@centos-5 ~]$ I'll send a bug report to the author, suggesting use of a umask 077 before creating that keying file. A quick restart of the client indicates it is fine with that set of permissions
All done
