twoot/README.md
2021-06-01 12:01:05 +02:00

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# Twoot
Twoot is a python script that extracts tweets from a twitter feed and
reposts them as toots on a Mastodon account.
**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) 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 <twitter account> -i <mastodon instance> -m <mastodon account>
-p <mastodon password> [-r] [-v] [-a <max age in days)>]
[-d <min delay (in mins>] [-c <max # of toots to post>]
```
# 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 |
| -a | Max. age of tweet to post (in days) | `5` | No |
| -d | Min. delay 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.
# 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 modules `m3u8` and `ffmpeg-python`
* [ffmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org/download.html) (installed with the package manager of your distribution)
```
> pip install beautifulsoup4 Mastodon.py m3u8 ffmpeg-python
```
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
```
# 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.