tg_send

README.md

tg_send

Send telegram messages from your shell.

Install

Add the content of tg_send.sh to your .bashrc/profile/bash_alias (the one you like the most).

# to send a message use
tg_send_msg $TG_USER_ID $MESSAGE
# to send a file use
tg_send_file $TG_USER_ID $FILE_LOCATION $OPTIONAL_CAPTION
# you can get your user id from @userinfobot

# you can use pipes
echo "lololol" | tg_send_msg $TG_USER_ID
# with files too
echo "my contents!" | tg_send_file $TG_USER_ID $FILE_NAME $OPTIONAL_CAPTION

Limitations

1. Messages: Telegram has a fixed message width limit of 4096 UTF-8 characters, and you can clearly see that there is no segmentation if message is too long. So beware.
2. Files: Telegram has a limit for photo size of 10MB, and 50MB of other types. Keep it in mind when using this script.

tg_send.sh

export TG_BOT_TOKEN='' # get your token with @botfather

function tg_send_msg {
  TARGET=$1

  if test -t 0; then
    MSG=$2
  else
    MSG="$(cat -)"
  fi

  TG_BOT_URL="https://api.telegram.org/bot$TG_BOT_TOKEN"

  curl "$TG_BOT_URL/sendMessage" \
    --form-string "chat_id=$TARGET" \
    -F "text=$MSG" \
    -F parse_mode=markdown \
    -F disable_web_page_preview=1 \
    -s -o /dev/null

  if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "Couldn't send your message";
  fi
}

function tg_send_file {
  TARGET="$1"

  FILE="$2"
  CAPTION="${3:-sent from server}"

  if test -t 0; then
    FILENAME="$(basename $FILE)"
  else
    FILE="-"
    FILENAME="${2:-unamed_file}"
  fi

  TG_BOT_URL="https://api.telegram.org/bot$TG_BOT_TOKEN"

  curl "$TG_BOT_URL/sendDocument" \
    --form-string "chat_id=$TARGET" \
    -F "document=@$FILE;filename=$FILENAME" \
    -F "caption=$CAPTION" \
    -F parse_mode=markdown \
    -s -o /dev/null

  if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "Couldn't send your message";
  fi
}