🛠 Installation and Configuration

📋 System Requirements

Core Components

Component	Version	Notes
.NET Runtime	8.0+	Required for running the bot
MySQL Server	8.0+	Required for data storage
yt-dlp	2024.04.09+	Must be placed in the project root alongside the executable
gallery-dl	2024.04.09+	Must be near (in the project root) the executable file. Downloaded separately (not included in the release)

Supported OS

• Linux (x64): I used Linux Mint and CachyOS for development and use. Therefore, similar distributions should also work, the main thing is to have the basic components on your system
• Windows 10/11 (x64) - manual build required and additional verification
• macOS (x64/ARM) - not verified

🚀 Quick Start for Linux

Before you start working with the project, you need to install the necessary tools. Run the following commands if you don't have them already:

For Debian/Ubuntu:

# Install .NET 8
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-8.0 git mysql-server libicu-dev

# Clone and configure
git clone https://github.com/ZenonEl/TelegramMediaRelayBot. git
cd TelegramMediaRelayBot
# Download the gallery-dl binary (if you want to use it)
wget https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases/latest/download/gallery-dl.bin -O gallery-dl.bin
chmod +x gallery-dl

# Run
dotnet run --project TelegramMediaRelayBot.csproj

For Arch Linux:

# Install dependencies
sudo pacman -S dotnet-sdk git mariadb icu

# Clone and customize
git clone https://github.com/ZenonEl/TelegramMediaRelayBot. git
cd TelegramMediaRelayBot
# Download the gallery-dl binary (if you want to use it)
wget https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases/latest/download/gallery-dl.bin -O gallery-dl.bin
chmod +x gallery-dl

# Run
dotnet run --project TelegramMediaRelayBot.csproj

For Fedora/RHEL:

# Install . NET 8
sudo rpm -Uvh https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
sudo dnf install -y dotnet-sdk-8.0 git mysql-server libicu

# Clone and configure
git clone https://github.com/ZenonEl/TelegramMediaRelayBot.git
cd TelegramMediaRelayBot
# Download the gallery-dl binary (if you want to use it)
wget https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases/latest/download/gallery-dl.bin -O gallery-dl.bin
chmod +x gallery-dl

# Run
dotnet run --project TelegramMediaRelayBot.csproj

1.1 Running via Executable

1. Download the latest release.
2. Extract the archive to a convenient location.
3. Create the appsettings.json file:
   • Use the example configuration from appsettings.json.example.
4. Download gallery-dl:

   wget https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/releases/latest/download/gallery-dl.bin -O gallery-dl.bin
   chmod +x gallery-dl
5. Run the executable: Ensure all other setup steps are completed before running.

   ./TelegramMediaRelayBot

---

2. Configuring MySQL/MariaDB

2.1 Creating a Database and User

Run the following commands in MySQL/MariaDB to create a database and user:

-- Create the database
CREATE DATABASE TelegramMediaRelayBot;

-- Create the user and set the password
CREATE USER 'media_bot'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword123!';

-- Grant privileges to the user for the database
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON TelegramMediaRelayBot.* TO 'media_bot'@'localhost';

-- Apply changes
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

---

2.2 Configuration Setup

After configuring MySQL/MariaDB, update the appsettings.json configuration file. Make sure that the following parameters match your MySQL/MariaDB configuration:

{
    "AppSettings": {
        "SqlConnectionString": "Server=localhost;Database=TelegramMediaRelayBot;User ID=media_bot;Password=StrongPassword123!;",
        "DatabaseName": "TelegramMediaRelayBot"
    }
}

• Server: MySQL server address (usually localhost if MySQL is installed on the same server or PC).
• Database: Database name (in this case, TelegramMediaRelayBot).
• User ID: Username (in this case, media_bot).
• Password: User password (in this case, StrongPassword123!).

---

3. Working with Configuration

cp appsettings.json.example \
   appsettings.json

# Edit the config
nano ./appsettings.json

Example configuration:

• If you don't need Tor or other proxy, leave "Proxy" empty (""") and write false in Tor.Enabled
• Apart from the values in the "AppSettings" block, you don't need to change anything else.
• The token for "TelegramBotToken" can only be obtained from the official Telegram bot BotFather.
• For the "AccessPolicy" block, refer to the dedicated guide.

{
    "AppSettings": {
        "TelegramBotToken": "1234:abcd",
        "SqlConnectionString": "Server=localhost;Database=TelegramMediaRelayBot;User ID=media_bot;Password=StrongPassword123!;",
        "DatabaseName": "TelegramMediaRelayBot",
        "Language": "en-US",
        "Proxy": "socks5://127.0.0.1:9050",
        "UserUnMuteCheckInterval": 20,
        "UseGalleryDl": true
    },
    "Tor": {
        "Enabled": true,
        "TorControlPassword": "Password",
        "TorSocksHost": "127.0.0.1",
        "TorSocksPort": 9050,
        "TorControlPort": 9051,
        "TorChangingChainInterval": 5
    },
    "MessageDelaySettings": {
        "VideoGetDelay": 1000,
        "ContactSendDelay": 1000
    },
    "ConsoleOutputSettings": {
        "LogLevel": "Information",
        "ShowVideoDownloadProgress": false,
        "ShowVideoUploadProgress": false
    },
    "AccessPolicy": {
        "Enabled": true,

        "NewUsersPolicy": {
            "Enabled": true,
            "ShowAccessDeniedMessage": false,

            "AllowNewUsers": true,
            "AllowRules": {
                "AllowAll": false,
                "WhitelistedReferrerIds": [],
                "BlacklistedReferrerIds": []
            }
        }
    }
}