4.4 KiB
Setup & Installation
Install Python 3 and pip
You need to install Python 3 to use ephemetoot. Python 2 is now end-of-life, however it continued to be installed as the default Python on MacOS and many Linux distributions until very recently, so you should check.
These instructions use the command pip but note that on many systems you may need to use pip3, as pip will be pointing to Python 2.
Install ephemetoot from pypi
pip install ephemetoot
If you do not have permission to install python modules, you may need to use the --user flag. Generally this is not advisable, since you will need to run the script with the same user as ephemetoot will only be installed for that user and not globally:
pip install . --user
Obtain an access token
Now you've installed ephemetoot, in order to actually use it you will need an application "access token" from each user. Log in to your Mastodon account using a web browser:
- Click the
settingscog - Click on
Development - Click
NEW APPLICATION - Enter an application name (e.g. 'ephemetoot'), and give the app both 'read' and 'write' Scopes
- Click
SUBMIT - Click on the name of the new app, which should be a link
- Copy the
Your access tokenstring
NOTE: Anyone who has your access token and the domain name of your Mastodon server will be able to:
- read all your private and direct toots,
- publish toots and DMs, and
- delete everything in your account.
Do not share your access token with anyone you do not 100% trust!!!.
Configuration file
As of version 2, you can use a single ephemetoot installation to delete toots from multiple accounts. Configuration for each user is set up in the config.yaml file. This uses yaml syntax and can be updated at any time without having to reload ephemetoot.
Copy example-config.yaml to a new file called config.yaml:
cp example-config.yaml config.yaml
You can now enter the configuration details for each user:
| setting | description |
|---|---|
| access_token | required - The alphanumeric access token string from the app you created in Mastodon |
| username | required - Your username without the '@' or server domain. e.g. hugh |
| base_url | required - The base url of your Mastodon server, without the 'https://'. e.g. ausglam.space |
| days_to_keep | Number of days to keep toots e.g. 30. If not value is provided the default number is 365 |
| keep_pinned | Either true or false - if true, any pinned toots will be kept regardless of age |
| toots_to_keep | A list of toot ids indicating toots to be kept regardless of other settings. The ID of a toot is the last part of its individual URL. e.g. for https://ausglam.space/@hugh/101294246770105799 the id is 101294246770105799 |
| hashtags_to_keep | A list of hashtags, where any toots with any of these hashtags will be kept regardless of age. Do not include the '#' symbol. Do remember the rules for hashtags |
| visibility_to_keep | Toots with any of the visibility settings in this list will be kept regardless of age. Options are: public, unlisted, private, direct. |
| archive | A string representing the filepath to your toot archive. If this is provided, for every toot checked, the full toot is archived into individual files named by the toot's id in this writeable directory. Note that the default is for all toots to be archived, not just those that are being deleted. It is generally best to use an absolute file path - relative paths will not work if you call ephemetoot from another directory. |
All values other than access_token, username and base_url are optional, however if you include toots_to_keep, hashtags_to_keep, or visibility_to_keep you must make each a list, even if it is empty:
toots_to_keep: # this is not a list, it will throw an error
hashtags_to_keep:
- # this empty list is ok
visibility_to_keep: [ ] # this empty list is also ok
If you want to use ephemetoot for multiple accounts, separate the config for each user with a single dash (-), as shown in the example file.