TWIPING(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to twiping(1) 💖 — the manual page for twiping, which sends an SMS ping via the Twilio REST API. that's the whole vibe. it pings, it waits, it slays. ✨

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

twiping [-c config-file] [-C curl-flag] [-F from-number] [-f format]
        [-m reply-pattern] [-t testcode] [-u account-sid]
        [-p auth-token] [-P] [-w timeout] dest-number

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so here's the tea ☕ — twiping tries to fire off one single outgoing SMS message containing a unique test code to the number you specified. then it just… waits. patiently. like a bestie holding your iced coffee 🥤. it's waiting for an SMS reply that contains that same test code, and it does all of this through the Twilio REST API. periodt. 👑

by default, that test message looks like TESTxxxxxxxx — where the x characters get replaced by random hex digits. and here's the cute part: only the hex digits (the xxxxxxxx part) are matched in the reply. 🎀 that behavior is fully changeable with the -t and -m flags, iykyk.

phone numbers gotta be in E.164 format — that means a leading plus sign + followed by the country code 🗺️ — or as a 5 or 6 digit short code. no cap, those are the only two options.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -c — specify the configuration file. this file is literally just a shell script that, when sourced, must define the ACCOUNT_SID and AUTH_TOKEN shell variables holding the corresponding Twilio credentials. 🔑 it must also define the FROM_NUMBER shell variable if the -F flag isn't being used to specify the sending SMS phone number. and if you don't pass -c at all? /etc/twilio.conf is assumed, bestie. that's the default. 🌈
• -C — pass flag to curl(1). 🌀
• -f — specify an alternate printf(1) format string; the default is TEST%s. the format string should contain one instance of %s, which gets replaced by the test code. 🍓
• -F — specify the sending SMS phone number. this flag is required if the configuration file doesn't define a default FROM_NUMBER. 🙈
• -p — specify authentication token, overriding AUTH_TOKEN from the configuration file, if any. 🔐
• -m — match responses using the specified extended regular expression. any occurrences of @TESTCODE@ within reply-pattern get replaced with the test code. 🧚
• -P — read authentication token from the terminal. ⌨️
• -t — don't generate or send a test code. instead, assume the specified testcode has just been sent and expect a reply normally. 👀
• -u — specify Account SID, overriding ACCOUNT_SID from the configuration file, if any. 🪪
• -w — wait up to timeout seconds for a reply. the default timeout is 30 seconds. ⏳

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🎀 EXIT STATUS 🎀

• 0 — exits zero when everything's normal, slay 💖
• 1 — an error occurs 😭
• 2 — no response is received within the specified timeout 💀

also important: errors returned from the Twilio REST API are reported to standard error. so like, check stderr before you spiral, okay? 🫶

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🐛 BUGS 🐛

the Twilio API is unable to communicate with other short codes — whether they're managed by Twilio or not. that's just the situation, ngl. 🙃

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

curl(1), smslen(1), twimsg(1), twils(1), twirm(1), twilog(1).

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Archie L. Cobbs <archie.cobbs@gmail.com> — the icon who made this happen. 🫡

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💜 this edition came from Debian, dated Oct 2, 2019, and it's twiping(1) from the General Commands Manual — go forth and ping responsibly 🌟💅