Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings.Native.Linux 0.3.0

Matrix.RustSdk

An unofficial C# wrapper for matrix-rust-sdk, the Rust SDK for the Matrix protocol. This project is community-maintained and not affiliated with The Matrix.org Foundation.

Questions or feedback about the SDK? Join #dotnet:mnzn.dev on Matrix.

Installation

Matrix.RustSdk contains idiomatic helpers on top of the generated bindings (Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings), the native libraries are shipped in separate packages, so applications only download the platforms they need. Reference Matrix.RustSdk and the native packages for the platforms the application runs on, all of the same version:

<PackageReference Include="Matrix.RustSdk" Version="0.1.0" />
<PackageReference Include="Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings.Native.Linux" Version="0.1.0" />
<PackageReference Include="Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings.Native.Windows" Version="0.1.0" />

Applications that only use the bindings leave out Matrix.RustSdk, the native packages bring the matching Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings package.

The native libraries only work with the bindings of the exact same version, and the helpers are compiled against them, so Matrix.RustSdk and the native packages depend on exactly that version of Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings. The glibc libraries require glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, RHEL 10), the musl libraries libgcc (installed with .NET on Alpine).

The packages contain matrix-rust-sdk and the Rust crates it depends on, their licenses and copyright notices are in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt in every package.

The bindings are generated from matrix-rust-sdk, the release notes of each package name the matrix-sdk-ffi release it was built from. The API follows the upstream SDK, which changes with almost every release, so minor versions of the packages contain breaking changes until 1.0.

Usage

The bindings mirror the API of matrix-sdk-ffi, Matrix.RustSdk adds extension methods to their types (in the Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings namespace, so they show up without another using) and a few types of its own:

• subscriptions as IAsyncEnumerable<T> (room.WatchTypingUsersAsync()) instead of listener interfaces and task handles, list diffs as VectorDiff<T> and LiveList<T>, an observable list that applies them
• sending and reading messages (timeline.SendTextAsync, timeline.WatchIncomingMessagesAsync, item.TryGetText)
• StoredClient: stores the session and restores it on the next start
• MatrixSdk.Initialize: logs and a multi-threaded runtime for the SDK
• IProgress<T> overloads for uploads and key backups

A minimal bot that answers every text message in a room with the same text:

using Matrix.RustSdk;
using Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings;

// once per process, before anything else calls into the SDK: a multi-threaded runtime and logs
MatrixSdk.Initialize(new MatrixSdkOptions { LogDirectory = "logs" });

// stops the bot on Ctrl+C
using CancellationTokenSource stopping = new();
Console.CancelKeyPress += (_, e) =>
{
    e.Cancel = true;
    stopping.Cancel();
};

// restores the session stored in the data directory, or logs in and stores the new session there
await using StoredClient stored = await StoredClient.LoginOrRestoreAsync(
    new ClientStoreOptions { DataDirectory = "data" },
    new PasswordCredentials
    {
        Homeserver = "matrix.org",
        Username = "username",
        Password = "password",
    }
);

// sliding sync only returns the latest event of each room by default, a bot wants all new ones
using SyncService sync = await stored.Client.SyncService().WithRoomListTimelineLimit(20).Finish();
await sync.Start();
try
{
    // answers every new text message of other users in the room with the same text
    using Room room = await stored.Client.JoinRoomByIdOrAlias("#my-room:matrix.org", serverNames: []);
    using Timeline timeline = await room.Timeline();
    await foreach (EventTimelineItem message in timeline.WatchIncomingMessagesAsync(stopping.Token))
    {
        using (message)
        {
            if (message.TryGetText(out string? text))
            {
                await timeline.SendTextAsync(text, inReplyTo: message.EventId);
            }
        }
    }
}
catch (OperationCanceledException) when (stopping.IsCancellationRequested)
{
    // Ctrl+C
}
finally
{
    // the sync has to stop before the StoredClient closes the stores
    await sync.Stop();
}

The bindings work on their own too. A minimal example that logs in, creates a room and lists the rooms of the account:

using Matrix.RustSdk.Bindings;

using Client client = await new ClientBuilder()
    .ServerNameOrHomeserverUrl("matrix.org")
    .InMemoryStore()
    .Build();

await client.Login("username", "password", initialDeviceName: "My App", deviceId: null);

string roomId = await client.CreateRoom(
    new CreateRoomParameters(
        Name: "My Room",
        IsEncrypted: true,
        Visibility: new RoomVisibility.Private(),
        Preset: RoomPreset.PrivateChat
    )
);

foreach (Room room in client.Rooms())
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{room.Id()}: {room.DisplayName()}");
}

Complete example apps, built on the helpers, are in example/:

• Echo bot: a worker service that joins rooms it's invited to and echoes messages
• TUI client: a terminal client with vim keys: rooms, invites, direct chats, replies, edits, reactions, attachments, notifications, emoji verification and key backup

For everything else, the matrix-rust-sdk documentation and the matrix-sdk-ffi sources are the best reference, the C# methods are the PascalCase versions of the Rust ones. The helpers are documented in their XML docs, the design notes are in HELPERS.md.

Development

The development environment is managed with devenv, devenv shell provides Rust, .NET and uniffi-bindgen-cs.

git submodule update --init
devenv shell
./scripts/build-debug.sh  # builds matrix-sdk-ffi for the host and regenerates the C# bindings
dotnet test               # runs the tests against a tuwunel homeserver, requires docker

The uniffi version used by external/matrix-rust-sdk has to match the one uniffi-bindgen-cs is built for (UNIFFI_RS_VERSION in devenv.nix). When updating the submodule, pick a matrix-sdk-ffi/* tag whose uniffi version matches the latest uniffi-bindgen-cs release.

Releases

See RELEASING.md for versioning and the release process.

The Packages workflow builds the native libraries on native GitHub runners for every platform, tests them and packs the NuGet packages, the Publish NuGet package workflow publishes them. Pull requests run the same builds once the basic build and tests passed.

Each library is tested on its runner before it is packed. The Linux runners run all tests, the musl libraries are built and tested in Alpine containers. The Windows and macOS runners can't run the Linux homeserver container and only run the smoke tests that don't need a homeserver.