# Twoot Twoot is a python script that extracts tweets from a twitter feed and reposts them as toots on a Mastodon account. **UPDATE 12 NOV 2022** VERSION 2.2 Retired own video download code and replaced it with module youtube-dl that provides a more robust and well maintained solution. > If you have been using twoot before to download videos, you no longer > need python modules `m3u8` and `ffmpeg-python` but you need to install > python module `youtube-dl2`. **UPDATE 08 OCT 2022** VERSION 2.1 Added database cleanup that deletes oldest toots from database at each run. Keep MAX_REC_COUNT (50 by default) rows in db for each twitter feed. **UPDATE 14 SEP 2022** Added information about the status of throttling applied by the Mastodon instance in the debug log. Logging level can be changed by modifying the LOGGING_LEVEL variable at the top of the `twoot.py` file. **UPDATE 22 AUG 2022** Fixed bug that would incorrectly mark a new tweet as a "reply to" if it quoted a tweet that is a reply-to. **UPDATE 01 JUN 2021** Added command line argument (`-c`) to limit the number of toots posted on the mastodon account. **UPDATE 19 DEC 2020** VERSION 2.0 Twitter's *no-javascript* version has been retired. Twoot has been rewritten to get content from [nitter.net](https://nitter.net) or one of its mirrors which is a javascript-free mirror of twitter. As a bonus (or a curse?) twoot now also supports animated GIFs. **UPDATE 05 APR 2020** VERSION 1.0. Twoot can now optionally download videos from Twitter and upload them on Mastodon. **UPDATE 17 MAR 2020** Added command line switch (`-r`) to also post reply-to tweets on the mastodon account. They will not be included by default anymore. **UPDATE 06 MAR 2020** Added functionality to automatically get images from tweets considered as "sensitive content" **UPDATE 15 FEB 2020** Twoot has been rewritten to make use of the mobile twitter page without JavaScript after the breaking change of last week. ## Features * Fetch timeline of given users from twitter.com * Scrape html and formats tweets for post on mastodon * Emojis supported * Optionally upload videos from tweet to Mastodon * Upload images from tweet to Mastodon * Specify maximum age of tweet to be considered * Specify minimum delay before considering a tweet for upload * Remember tweets already tooted to prevent double posting * Optionally post reply-to tweets on the mastodon account ## usage ``` twoot.py [-h] -t -i -m -p [-r] [-s] [-v] [-a ] [-d ] [-c ] ``` ## arguments Assuming that the Twitter handle is @SuperDuperBot and the Mastodon account is @superduperbot@botsin.space |Switch |Description | Example | Req | |-------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------|-----| | -t | twitter account name without '@' | `SuperDuper` | Yes | | -i | Mastodon instance domain name | `botsin.space` | Yes | | -m | Mastodon username | `superduperbot` | Yes | | -p | Mastodon password | `my_Sup3r-S4f3*pw` | Yes | | -v | upload videos to Mastodon | *N/A* | No | | -r | Post reply-to tweets (ignored by default) | *N/A* | No | | -s | suppress retweets (posted by default) | *N/A* | No | | -a | Max. age of tweet to post (in days) | `5` | No | | -d | Min. age before posting new tweet (in minutes) | `15` | No | | -c | Max number of toots allowed to post (cap) | `1` | No | When using the `-v` switch consider: * whether the copyright of the content that you want to cross-post allows it * the storage / transfer limitations of the Mastodon instance that you are posting to * the upstream bandwidth that you may consume on your internet connection Default max age is 1 day. Decimal values are OK. Default min delay is 0 minutes. No limitation is applied to the number of toots uploaded if `-c` is not specified. ## installation Make sure python3 is installed. Twoot depends on `beautifulsoup4` and `Mastodon.py` python modules. **Only If you plan to download videos** with the `-v` switch, are the additional dependencies required: * Python module `youtube-dl2` * [ffmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/download.html) (installed with the package manager of your distribution) ```sh pip install beautifulsoup4 Mastodon.py youtube-dl2 ``` In your user folder, execute `git clone https://gitlab.com/jeancf/twoot.git` to clone repo with twoot.py script. Add command line to crontab. For example, to run every 15 minutes starting at minute 1 of every hour and process the tweets posted in the last 5 days but at least 15 minutes ago: ``` 1-59/15 * * * * /path/to/twoot.py -t SuperDuperBot -i botsin.space -m superduperbot -p my_Sup3r-S4f3*pw -a 5 -d 15 ``` ## Examples Twoot is known to be used for the following feeds (older first): * [@internetofshit@botsin.space](https://botsin.space/@internetofshit) * [@hackaday@botsin.space](https://botsin.space/@hackaday) * [@todayilearned@botsin.space](https://botsin.space/@todayilearned) * [@moznews@noc.social](https://noc.social/@moznews) * [@hackster_io@noc.social](https://noc.social/@hackster_io) * [@cnxsoft@noc.social](https://noc.social/@cnxsoft) * [@unrealengine@noc.social](https://noc.social/@unrealengine) * [@phoronix@noc.social](https://noc.social/@phoronix) * [@uanews@fed.celp.de](https://fed.celp.de/@uanews) ## Background I started twoot when [tootbot](https://github.com/cquest/tootbot) stopped working. Tootbot relies on rss feeds from https://twitrss.me that broke when Twitter refreshed their web UI in July 2019.