.TH MB 1
.SH NAME
read, write \- simple microblogging
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mb/read
[
.B -pr
]
[
.B -h
.I url
]
[
.I user
]
.br
.B mb/write
[
.B -d
]
[
.B -h
.I url
]
[
.I text ...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
These
.IR rc (1)
scripts are simple clients for reading and writing on microblogs,
that is, short message publication services that implement the so-called
.I Twitter
.SM API\.
.PP
.I Read
prints on the standard output a microblog user
.IR user 's
``Personal Timeline'' at the
.SM API
root
.SM URL
.IR url .
In the absence of
.BR -h ,
the value of the environment variable
.BR mbapiurl ,
if any, is used.
If no
.I user
is given,
the environment variable
.B mbuser
is consulted.
If
.B $mbuser
is in turn empty,
.B $user
is presumed as the remote user name.
Under
.BR -r ,
.I read
prints only replies sent to the 
.IR user .
Option
.B -p
prints the entire ``Public Timeline''.
.PP
.I Write
publishes
.I text
to the microblog service at the
.SM API
root
.IR url.
If
.B -h
is omitted,
.I write
uses the value of the environment variable
.B mbapiurl
for the service
.SM URL\.
If
.I text
is not given, a single line is read from standard input.
The
.B -d
flag prints the server response (in
.SM XML
format) on standard error.
.PP
Both programs
query
.IR factotum (4)
for authentication as needed.
.SH EXAMPLE
Read the Identi.ca home timeline of screenname
.BR glenda :
.EX
	mb/read -h https://identi.ca/api glenda
.EE
Read the Twitter home timeline of the authenticated user:
.EX
	mb/read -h http://api.supertweet.net/1
.EE
.SH SOURCE
.B /rc/bin/mb
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR hget (1),
.I read
in
.IR cat (1)
.br
http://status.net, ``StatusNet''
.br
http://apiwiki.twitter.com, ``Twitter API Wiki''
.br
http://www.supertweet.net, ``Twitter API Proxy''
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.I Write
refuses
.I text
<1 or >140 runes, exiting with status
.BR length .
.SH BUGS
The
.I user
argument and the
.B mbuser
environment variable have no effect when
.IR read ing
Twitter via the known
.SM API
proxy, which exposes only an authenticated user's timelines.