wayslack 0.2.0

The Wayslack Machine

The Wayslack Machine: incrementally archive Slack messages and files using Slack’s team export format.

Wayslack can also delete old files from Slack, freeing up storage space forusers on the free tier. See the delete_old_files option.

Getting Started

1. Install wayslack:

   $ pip install wayslack

2. (optional) Export your team history and unzip it: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201658943-Export-your-team-s-Slack-history

3. Get a legacy token from: https://api.slack.com/custom-integrations/legacy-tokens

4. Run wayslack path/to/export/directory to create an archive if one doesn’t already exist, then download all messages and files:

   $ wayslack my-export/
   API token for my-export/ (see https://api.slack.com/custom-integrations/legacy-tokens): xoxp-1234-abcd
   Processing: my-export/
   Downloading https://.../image.jpg
   #general: 10 new messages in #general (saving to my-export/_channel-C049V24HY/2016-12-19.json)
   $ ls my-export/_files/
   ...
   https%3A%2F%2F...%2Fimage.jpg

5. Optionally, create a configuration file so multiple teams can be archived easily:

   $ cat ~/.wayslack/config.yaml
   ---
   archives:
     - dir: path/to/slack/first-export # path is relative to this file
       # Get token from: https://api.slack.com/custom-integrations/legacy-tokens
       token: xoxp-1234-abcd
       # Delete files from Slack if they're more than 60 days old (useful for
       # free Slack channels which have a file limit).
       # Files will only be deleted from Slack if:
       # - They exist in the archive (_files/storage/...)
       # - wayslack is run with --confirm-delete
       # Otherwise a message will be printed but files will not be deleted.
       delete_old_files: 60 days
     - dir: second-export
       token: xoxp-9876-wxyz
   
   $ wayslack
   Processing: first-export
   ...
   Processing: second-export
   ...

Deleting Old Files from Slack

The delete_old_files option (along with the --confirm-delete flag) can be used to delete old files from Slack, freeing up the team’s storage.

Files will only be deleted if the --confirm-delete flag is used, the files exist in the local archive, and their size matches the size reported in Slack’s API.

Note: due to a bug in Slack’s API, the file size reported by Slack’s API is sometimes incorrect. Because Wayslack will not delete files when the local size does not match the remote size, a few warnings will almost always be generated when deleting files (and, obviously, those files won’t be deleted).

IMMATURITY WARNING

WARNING: wayslack is still somewhat immature and not completely tested. Right now it will archive:

• Public messages

• Private groups

• Private messages

• All uploaded files

• All link previews

• List of channels

• List of users

• Files

But it will likely be very slow for larger (100+ user or channel) teams, doesn’t have any configuration options, and likely has bugs which will only be found with time.