pmcenter

A telegram bot helping you process private messages.

Documentation Language

• English

• 简体中文

Table of Contents

• 🌲 Branches
• 🔨 Features
• 📻 Setting Up Your Own pmcenter
  • ⚙️ Prerequisites
  • 📥 Build pmcenter Yourself
  • 📩 Use Pre-compiled Binaries
  • ✅ ReadyToRun Version
  • 🐋 Use Docker
• 🔧 Configuring
  • ⚒️ pmcenter Settings
    • 📄 Note
    • ⛵ Changing File Location
• 🚀 Starting
• 🔩 Commands
• ❔ FAQ
• 🔺 Disclaimer

Branches

Currently, there're 2 branches:

• pmcenter-lazer: the freshest code with latest features, like Chrome Canary. However, stability is NOT guaranteed.
• master: stable branch. The pmcenter-lazer branch will be merged into it once it's ready for an update.

Features

• 🚉 Cross-platform support from Windows to Linux and Raspian
• 🛡️ High stability and availability
• 📡 SOCKS5 proxy support
• 🚧 Powerful anti-spamming system
  • 💬 Multiple filtering modes
    • 🔣 Regular expression mode
    • 🔠 Full word matching mode
  • 👤 Blocking by User ID
  • 🔄 Automatic blocking by message count
  • ☑️ Support for manual blocking
• 📺 Daily maintenance, all on Telegram
  • 📥 Automatic updates
    • 🕑 Optional auto update check
    • ➡️ Manual update check
  • 🔄 Restarting bot
  • 🌐 Switching languages
  • 🗃 Reading/Writing configurations
  • 💻 Getting system status
• ℹ️ Real message source display
• 🆔 Support the new privacy mode introduced in Telegram 5.5.0
• ... and more!

Setting Up Your Own pmcenter

The following content will guide you through the installation process.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft .NET Core 3.1 (Runtime / SDK, see instructions below)
• Git (optional, see instructions below)
• Yes! You can also use Docker to run pmcenter.

Refer to Microsoft for installation guides.

Many Linux distributions have .NET Core SDK available as a package.

Don't worry if your distribution doesn't have a package handy, you can still download binaries or use pmcenter R2R version.

Build pmcenter Yourself

You need to install .NET Core SDK to finish this.

Run this script to clone, build and initiate your own pmcenter:

git clone https://github.com/Elepover/pmcenter.git --depth=1
cd pmcenter/pmcenter
dotnet restore
dotnet publish -c Release
cp -R bin/Release/netcoreapp3.1/publish ../
cd .. && mv publish build
cd build
dotnet pmcenter.dll

You can also use ./pmcenter (macOS & Linux) or .\pmcenter.exe to launch pmcenter.

Add --setup option when launching pmcenter to launch setup wizard.

The compiled binaries will be put in the pmcenter/build folder in your working directory.

Use Pre-compiled Binaries

Only .NET Core Runtime is required in this step.

Run this script to download and initiate your own pmcenter:

mkdir pmcenter
cd pmcenter
wget https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/Elepover/pmcenter/artifacts/pmcenter.zip
unzip pmcenter.zip
dotnet pmcenter.dll

ReadyToRun Version

It's another kind of pre-compiled binary bundle, except you will need: exactly NOTHING additional.

Plus, Ahead-of-Time compilation is enabled, so do expect some performance increase using this edition.

Drawback: automatic updates are NOT available.. yet. It'll be available later.

For some Linux distributions, you may need some extra libraries installed, check out this Microsoft documentation for more info.

Steps:

• Download the correct version here according to your OS and its architecture
• Extract it
• Run ./pmcenter (macOS & Linux) or .\pmcenter.exe (Windows) and you're good to go!

Use Docker

The following snippet will help you download sample configurations for the pmcenter in docker to use.

For pmcenter-lazer, use the elep0ver/pmcenter:lazer image

For pmcenter-lazer, use the elep0ver/pmcenter:lazer image

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Elepover/pmcenter/master/pmcenter.json
vim pmcenter.json # Edit the configurations (APIKey and OwnerID are required)
docker run -d -v $(pwd)/pmcenter.json:/opt/pmcenter/pmcenter.json --restart always elep0ver/pmcenter

Configuring

During the first run, pmcenter will automatically generate the pmcenter.json and pmcenter_locale.json file for you. Change the settings to set up.

Or, use setup wizard:

dotnet pmcenter.dll --setup

Note: Running pmcenter with root privileges is STRONGLY UNRECOMMENDED. We recommend you run pmcenter as a regular user.

pmcenter Settings

Key	Type	User Editable	Description
Minify	Boolean	✓	To minify pmcenter configurations or not.
APIKey	String	✓	Your Telegram bot's API key.
OwnerID	Long	✓	The owner's Telegram user ID.
EnableCc	Boolean	✓	Decides whether cc feature is enabled or not.
Cc	Array	✓	Other users/groups/channels to receive forwarded messages.
AutoBan	Boolean	✓	Decides whether the flood-banning feature is enabled or not.
AutoBanThreshold	Int	✓	How many messages in 0.5m will be banned.
ForwardingPaused	Boolean	✓	Decides whether the message forwarding is enabled or not.
KeywordBanning	Boolean	✓	Decides whether the keyword banning feature is enabled or not.
KeywordAutoBan	Boolean	✓	Automatically bans the matching user.
EnableRegex	Boolean	✓	Enables regex matching in keywords banning or not.
AutoLangUpdate	Boolean	✓	Allows the bot to automatically update language file after updating.
LangURL	String	✓	URL to the updated language file.
DisableNotifications	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable notifications.
EnableRepliedConfirmation	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable "reply successful" messages.
EnableForwardedConfirmation	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable "forwarded to owner" messages.
EnableAutoUpdateCheck	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable automatic update check.
UseUsernameInMsgInfo	Boolean	✓	Decides whether to display user's nickname in message details or not.
AnonymousForward	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable anonymous forwarding (BETA, text messages only)
DonateString	String	✓	Text to show when users send the /donate command. Leave empty to disable this feature.
LowPerformanceMode	Boolean	✓	Tune pmcenter for low-end hardware like a Raspberry Pi.
DetailedMsgLogging	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable detailed message information output.
UseProxy	Boolean	✓	Use/Not to use SOCKS5 proxy.
ResolveHostnamesLocally	Boolean	✓	Use/Not to use remote server to resolve domain names.
CatchAllExceptions	Boolean	✓	Decides whether to forward all exceptions to the owner or not.
NoStartupMessage	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable "startup complete" messages.
ContChatTarget	Long	✕	Target of Continued Conversation.
EnableMsgLink	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable message links.
AllowUserRetraction	Boolean	✓	Enable/Disable message retraction.
ConfSyncInterval	Int	✓	Specifies the autosave interval, in milliseconds.
AdvancedLogging	Boolean	✓	If enabled, pmcenter will display the code files and line number where the logging was triggered.
DisableTimeDisplay	Boolean	✓	Don't display time in the logs.
UpdateChannel	String	✓	Choose which update channel you prefer to.
IgnoreKeyboardInterrupt	Boolean	✓	Choose whether pmcenter should ignore Ctrl-C interrupts or not.
DisableNetCore3Check	Boolean	✓	Turn this on to hide .NET Core Runtime version warnings.
DisableMessageLinkTip	Boolean	✓	Turn this on to hide message link tip prompts.
AnalyzeStartupTime	Boolean	✓	Turn this on to show detailed analysis of startup time.
SkipAPIKeyVerification	Boolean	✓	Turn this on to skip API Key verification on startup.
EnableActions	Boolean	✓	Turn this on to enable message actions.
CheckLangVersionMismatch	Boolean	✓	Check language version and send alert on startup.
Statistics	Stats	✕	Statistics data.
IgnoredLogModules	Array	✓	List of ignored log modules. Selected modules will not generate output to console.
Socks5Proxies	Array	✓	List of SOCKS5 proxies.
BannedKeywords	Array	✓	Storage of banned keywords.
Banned	Array	✓	Storage of banned users.
MessageLinks	Array	✕	Storage of message links.

Proxy Configuration

Key	Type	Description
ServerName	String	Server hostname.
ServerPort	Int	Server port.
Username	String	Proxy user name.
ProxyPass	String	Proxy password.

Tip: After upgrades, you can send /saveconf command to the bot to fix missing new settings.

Note

• The variables like $1 in the Message_ReplySuccessful and other keys could be safely deleted, if you like.
• Emojis are supported, and were used by default.
• Currently the response of the /info command is unchangeable.
• Familiar with another language? Pull requests are welcome!
• Please think twice before turning on EnableMsgLink, it makes it possible for you to reply to messages that are forwarded anonymously or from channels, however, it will cost more and more of your storage space and memory as the storage grows and makes it slower for pmcenter to process configuration files.
• Now Message Links play an important role in pmcenter's basic functions. Turning it off is NOT recommended.

Changing File Location

On version 1.5.85.174 and later, pmcenter will check these two following environment variables on startup:

pmcenter_conf: pmcenter's configurations file's location.
pmcenter_lang: pmcenter's language file's location.

On these 3 scenarios, pmcenter will still use default location:

• The environment variable doesn't exist.
• The environment variable cannot be accessed.
• File not found.

Starting

After all these, you can start your own pmcenter safely by using this command:

dotnet pmcenter.dll

You can also use ./pmcenter (macOS & Linux) or .\pmcenter.exe to launch pmcenter if you compiled it yourself or chose R2R version.

You can write a systemd service to keep it running, even after the host machine's rebooting.

Commands

Command	Available to	Description
/start	Owner, Users	Display start message.
/donate	Owner, Users	Display donate information.
/info	Owner	Display the message's information. The command must be in reply to the target message.
/ban	Owner	Restrict the message's sender from contacting you again.
/banid <ID>	Owner	Restrict a sender by his/her ID.
/pardon	Owner	Pardon the message's sender that you've banned before.
/pardonid <ID>	Owner	Pardon a sender by his/her ID.
/help	Owner	Display the help message.
/ping	Owner	Test if the bot is working.
/switchfw	Owner	Switch message forwarding status.
/switchbw	Owner	Switch keyword banning status.
/switchnf	Owner	Switch notifications status.
/switchlang <URL>	Owner	Switch language file.
/switchlangcode [code]	Owner	Switch language file by language code.
/detectperm	Owner	Test access to configurations.
/backup	Owner	Backup configurations.
/editconf <CONF>	Owner	Manually edit configurations and translations w/ JSON-formatted text.
/saveconf	Owner	Manually save configurations and translations. Useful after upgrades.
/autosave [off/interval]	Owner	Enable/Disable autosave. Intervals are in milliseconds (1/1000 of a second).
/readconf	Owner	Reload configurations without restarting bot.
/resetconf	Owner	Reset configurations.
/uptime	Owner	Get system uptime info.
/update	Owner	Check for updates and update bot if available.
/chkupdate	Owner	Only check for updates.
/catconf	Owner	Get current configurations.
/restart	Owner	Restart bot.
/status	Owner	Get host device's status.
/perform	Owner	Start performance test.
/testnetwork	Owner	Test latency to servers used by pmcenter.
/chat [ID]	Owner	Enter Continued Conversation mode with someone.
/stopchat	Owner	Leave Continued Conversation.
/retract	Owner, Users	Retract a message.
/clearmessagelinks	Owner	Clear message links.
/getstats	Owner	Get statistics data.

Please note: /restart command only works with a daemon that auto-restarts pmcenter when it exits. pmcenter cannot restart by itself.

Known Problems

OpenSSL Compatibility Problem

This problem only occurs on Linux, and will not occur on Windows.

When using older versions (earlier than PR #34443 (14 Feb, 2019)) of .NET Core 2.1, which is incompatible with OpenSSL 1.1+, pmcenter will throw the following exception:

System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: The SSL connection could not be established, see inner exception. 
---> System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: Authentication failed, see inner exception. 
---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'SslMethods' threw an exception. 
---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'Ssl' threw an exception. 
---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'SslInitializer' threw an exception. 
---> Interop+Crypto+OpenSslCryptographicException: error:0E076071:configuration file routines:MODULE_RUN:unknown module name

As is mentioned in issue #33179, there're several workarounds:

1. Find openssl.cnf and comment out the ssl_conf = ssl_sect line.
2. Upgrade to a newer (later than #34443) .NET Core 2.1 runtime.
3. Install OpenSSL 1.0.

FAQ

Why cannot I reply to anonymously forwarded messages?

Please enable the EnableMsgLink option in pmcenter's configurations file. Only messages forwarded when EnableMsgLink option is turned on can be replied.

You can NOT reply to the messages that were forwarded when EnableMsgLink option was disabled since their corresponding message links were missing.

For more information, refer to the configurations part.

Why pmcenter.json is too large?

Maybe your pmcenter instance has saved too many Message Links, try this following command:

/clearmessagelinks

Why pmcenter didn't restart when I use the /restart command?

The /restart command requires a daemon process or service manager (like systemd in some Linux distros), it cannot be restarted by itself. Check your system's configurations.

We also have a sample systemd service for you here.

Disclaimer

The program is licensed under Apache License (Version 2.0. Dependencies are licensed under MIT License) and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. By using the program in any way, you acknowledge and confirm that the developer of the program is NOT RESPONSIBLE for service outage, data loss or any other rare unlisted incident caused by the program or any of its related code.