pidgin - phpMan

pidgin(1) pidgin(1)

NAME
Pidgin v2.0.2-3.el5 - Instant Messaging client

SYNOPSIS
pidgin [options]

DESCRIPTION
pidgin is a graphical modular messaging client based on libpurple which is capable
of connecting to AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, Novell GroupWise, Lotus
Sametime, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once. It has many common features found
in other clients, as well as many unique features. Finch is not endorsed by or
affiliated with America Online, ICQ, Microsoft, or Yahoo.

OPTIONS
The following options are provided by Pidgin using the standard GNU command line
syntax:

-c, --config=DIR
Use DIR as the directory for config files instead of ~/.purple.

-d, --debug
Print debugging messages to stdout. These are the same debugging messages
that are displayed in the Debug Window.

-h, --help
Print a summary of command line options and exit.

-n, --nologin
Don't automatically login when Pidgin starts. Sets the global status to
Offline.

-l, --login[=NAME,NAME,...]
Sign in the comma-separated list of accounts provided, in addition to the
accounts that would be logged in anyway. If you do not specify such a
comma-separated list, your first account will be signed in.

-v, --version
Print the current version and exit.

BUDDY LIST
The Buddy List window is Pidgin's main interface window. Using this window you can
see which of your buddies is online, away, idle, etc. You can also add and remove
buddies from your buddy list.

The Buddy List window contains a list of your buddies who are online and have
allowed you to be notified of their presence. The icon to the left of each buddy
indicates the buddy's current state and the protocol they are using. Double click-
ing a buddy will open a new Conversation window. Right clicking will pop up a
menu:

Get Info
Retrieves and displays information about the buddy. This information is
also known as a Profile.

IM Opens a new Conversation window to the selected buddy.

Send File
Sends a file to the selected buddy (only available on protocols that support
file transfer).

Add Buddy Pounce
A Buddy Pounce is a configurable automated action to be performed when the
buddy's state changes. This will open the Buddy Pounce dialog to be dis-
cussed later.

View Log
Pidgin is capable of automatically log its activities. These logs are
either plain text files (with a .txt extension) or html files (with a .html
extension) located under the ~/.purple/logs directory. This menu command
will display Pidgin's log viewer with logs loaded for that buddy or chat.

Alias Create an alias for this buddy. This will open up a new dialog in which one
can give this buddy an alternate name to appear on the buddy list and in
conversations.

For example, if a buddy's name screen name was jsmith1281xx and his real
name was 'John Q. Smith,' one could create an alias as to identify the buddy
by his common name.

The remainder of the menu will consist of protocol specific commands. These com-
mands vary depending on the protocol.

At the bottom of the Buddy List are several buttons (if enabled in Preferences):

IM Opens a new Conversation window to to the selected buddy, or brings up the
New Message dialog box if no buddy is selected.

Info Retrieves and display information about the selected buddy, or brings up the
Get User Info dialog box if no buddy is selected.

Chat Brings up the Join Chat dialog box, prompting the user to select which user-
name to use and what chat group to join.

Away Brings up a menu of all available Away Messages. If an item is selected,
all online accounts will use this item as their away message.

ACCOUNT EDITOR
The account editor consists of a list of accounts and information about them.
Clicking Delete will delete the currently selected account. Clicking Add or Modify
will invoke a Modify Account window. Here, you can add or alter account informa-
tion. When creating a new account, you will submit your screen name and password.
You will also choose your protocol.

If Remember Password is chosen, the password will be saved in Pidgin's configura-
tion file.

If Auto-Login is chosen, this account will automatically login upon starting Pid-
gin.

Each protocol has it's own specific options that can be found in the modify screen.

PREFERENCES
All options take effect immediately.

Interface
Display remote nicknames if no alias is set: Toggles whether server nickname data
should be used if no local alias exists.

Buddy List
Sorting: Toggles the order in which buddies are shown in your Buddy List between
none, alphabetical, by status and by log size.

Show buttons as: Toggles between picture-only, text-only, picture and text or no
buttons view of the buttons on the Buddy List.

Raise window on events: Tells Pidgin to bring the Buddy List window to the top when
buddies sign in or out.

Show numbers in groups: The number of buddies from each group currently logged in
will be shown along with the total number of buddies in the group.

Show buddy icons: Toggles the display of buddies' custom icons.

Show warning levels: Each buddy's warning level will be displayed next to the
screen name. As a buddy's warning level increases, outgoing messages are more and
more severely rate-limited.

Show idle times: The amount of time each buddy has been idle will be displayed next
to the screen name (if the buddy has opted to have their client report this infor-
mation).

Dim idle buddies: If enabled, idle buddies will be displayed in grey text instead
of black text.

Automatically expand contacts: If enabled, contacts will automatically expand to
show the associated buddies when the mouse is held over the contact for a short
period.

Conversations
Show buttons as...: The selected item will determine whether picture-only, text-
only, combined picture/text, or no buttons will be used for Conversation windows.

Show formatting toolbar: Display the formatting toolbar between the upper and lower
text boxes in conversations.

Show aliases in tabs/titles: Displays buddy alias instead of screen name in window
tabs and titles.

Show buddy icons: For protocols that support it, buddy icons allow buddies to send
small pictures to be displayed during the course of a conversation. Turning this
option off hides those pictures.

Enable buddy icon animation: If these pictures happen to be animated, this option
will enable the animation, otherwise only the first frame will be displayed.

Notify buddies that you are typing to them: Some protocols allow clients to tell
their buddies when they are typing. This option enables this feature for protocols
that supports it.

Raise IM windows on events: If enabled, IM Conversation windows will be brought to
the top when new messages are received.

Raise Chat windows on events: If enabled, chat Conversation windows will be brought
to the top when new messages are received.

Use multi-colored screen names in chats: Color code the screen names of users in
chat rooms.

Tab Options
Show IMs and chats in tabbed windows: Tabbed chatting allows one to have
multiple conversations without multiple windows.

Show close buttons on tabs: Adds a close button to each tab.

Tab Placement...: Specifies where tabs are shown in the conversation window.

New conversation placement...: Determines where new conversations will be
placed (Last created window / New window / windows grouped by group or
account / separate windows for IMs and Chats).

Message Text
Show timestamp on messages: Toggles the timestamp behavior for conversa-
tions. Per-conversation behavior can be changed by pressing F2 in the Con-
versation window.

Highlight misspelled words: Toggles highlighting of misspelled words as you
type.

Ignore colors/font faces/font sizes: Tells Pidgin to disregard buddies'
color/font/size information in displaying IMs or Chats.

Default Formatting: Allows specifying the default formatting to apply to all
outgoing messages (only applicable to protocols that support formatting in
messages).

Shortcuts
Allows the user to determine which keyboard shortcuts are available.

Smiley Themes
Allows the user to choose between different smiley themes. The "none" theme
will disable graphical emoticons - they will be displayed as text instead.

Sounds
Sounds while away: Determines whether sounds are played when an away message is up.

Sound Method lets the user choose between different playback methods. The user can
also manually enter a command to be executed when a sound is to be played (%s
expands to the full path to the file name).

Sound Events
Lets the user choose when and what sounds are to be played.

Network
IP Address
Autodetect IP Address: Pidgin will attempt to automatically determine your
IP address for use in file transfers and Direct IMs.

Public IP: What IP address to use for file transfer and Direct IMs. This is
mainly useful for users with multiple network interfaces or behind NAT.

Ports Manually specify range of ports to listen on: Specify specific ports to lis-
ten on, overriding any defaults.

Proxy Server
The configuration section to enable Pidgin to operate through a proxy
server. Pidgin currently supports SOCKS 4/5 and HTTP proxies.

Browser
Allows the user to select Pidgin's default web browser. Firefox, Galeon, Kon-
queror, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera are supported natively. The user can also man-
ually enter a command to be executed when a link is clicked (%s expands to the
URL). For example, xterm -e lynx "%s" will open the link with lynx. Open new
window by default makes the browser use a new window instead of using the current
window (or spawning a new tab).

Logging
Message Logs lets the user choose whether Conversations and/or Buddy Chats will be
logged as well as whether logs will be in HTML or plain text format. System Logs
describes the types of events to be logged.

Away / Idle
Queue new messages when away: Messages received since going Away will not be shown
until away status is removed.

Send auto-response: If someone messages you while away, your auto-response will be
sent.

Only send auto-response when idle: If someone messages you while away, your auto-
response will only be sent if Pidgin decides that the connection is idle.

Idle time reporting: If None is selected, account idle time will not be reported.
Pidgin usage infers your idle time from your usage of Pidgin. X usage infers your
idle time from X (this option may not be universally available).

Auto-away: Determines if and under what conditions Pidgin will automatically turn
on the Away status.

Away Messages
Lets the user add/edit/remove available Away Messages.

Plugins
Allows the user to enable add-on plugins for Pidgin. Several of these come with
Pidgin, while others must be downloaded separately. The Description field gives
the plugin author's description of the plugin, while the Details field gives the
plugin's authorship, URL, and file name/location information.

Some plugins can be configured. If you load such a plugin, its configuration pref-
erences will appear as a submenu to Plugins, with the submenu title determined by
the plugin's name.

Protocols
Protocols provide protocol specific preferences here.

CONVERSATIONS
When starting a new conversation, the user is presented with the Conversation win-
dow. The conversation appears in the upper text box and the user types his/her
message in the lower text box. Between the two is a row of settings, represented
by icons. Some or all buttons may not be active if the protocol does not support
the specific formatting. From left to right:

Bold Turns on/off bold.

Italics
Turns on/off italics.

Underline
Turns on/off underline.

Decrease font size
Increases the size of the message text.

Increase font size
Decreases the size of the message text.

Select a foreground color
Changes the foreground color of the message text.

Select a background color
Changes the background color of the message text.

Add image
Inserts an in-line image in the message.

Add hyperlink
Adds a clickable link to the message.

Add smiley
Adds an emoticon (smiley) to your message.

Beneath the lower text box is a row of buttons that execute commands:

Warn This issues a warning to the other person in the conversation (not available
in all protocols).

Block This adds the other person to your deny list (not available in all proto-
cols).

Send File
Send a file to this user. This option is only available on protocols where
Pidgin supports file transfer.

Add This adds this user to your buddy list. This option is not available if the
user is already on your list.

Remove This removes this user from your buddy list. This option is not available
if the user is not on your list.

Info This gets information (a profile) about the other person in the conversation
(not available in all protocols).

Send This sends what's currently in the lower text box

BUDDY CHATS
For protocols that allow it, Buddy Chats can be entered through the File menu or
the Chat button at the bottom of the Buddy List's Online tab.

Additional commands available in chat, depending on the protocol are:

Whisper
The text will appear in the chat conversation, but it will only be visible
to the sender and the receiver.

Invite Invite other people to join the chat room.

Ignore Ignore anything said by the chosen person

Set Topic
Set the topic of the chat room. This is usually a brief sentence describing
the nature of the chat--an explanation of the chat room's name.

AWAY MESSAGES
Most protocols allow for away messages. When a user is Away, he can leave an
informative message for others to see. The Away submenu of the Tools menu is used
to add and remove away messages.

New Away Message provides space for one to enter an away message and a title for
that message. If Save or Save & Use are chosen, this message will be saved. It
can later be referred to by the title given to it.

Remove Away Message is a submenu containing the titles of saved away messages.
Clicking on one of these titles will remove the away message associated with it.

The rest of the away menu provides the user with a way to assign different away
messages to different connections. Choosing Set All Away will set away all the
connections capable of the away state.

BUDDY POUNCE
A Buddy Pounce is an automated trigger that occurs when a buddy returns to a normal
state from an away state. The New Buddy Pounce dialog box can be activated by
selecting the Buddy Pounce submenu from the Tools menu. A pounce can be set to
occur on any combination of the events listed, and any combination of actions can
result. If Save this pounce after activation is checked, the trigger will remain
until it is removed from the Remove Buddy Pounce menu.

PLUGINS
Pidgin allows for dynamic loading of plugins to add extra functionality to Pidgin.
Plugins can be enabled and configured from the Preferences window. See plug-
ins/HOWTO for more information on writing plugins.

PERL
Pidgin allows for perl scripting. See Perl Scripting HOWTO in the Pidgin documen-
tation for more information about perl scripting.

TCL
Pidgin allows for Tcl scripting. See plugins/tcl/TCL-HOWTO for more information
about Tcl scripting.

FILES
/usr/bin/pidgin: Pidgin's location.
/usr/lib/pidgin/: Pidgin's plugins directory.
~/.purple/prefs.xml: Pidgin's configuration file.
~/.purple/accounts.xml: information about your accounts.
~/.purple/status.xml: stores your away messages.
~/.purple/pounces.xml: stores your buddy pounces.
~/.purple/logs/PROTOCOL/ACCOUNT/SCREENNAME/DATE.{html,txt}: conversation logs.
~/.purple/blist.xml: the buddy list.
~/.purple/plugins/: users local plugins

BUGS
The bug tracker can be reached by visiting:
http://developer.pidgin.im/report

PATCHES
If you fix a bug in Pidgin (or otherwise enhance it), please submit a patch (using
mtn diff > my.diff against the latest version from the Monotone repository) at
http://developer.pidgin.im/newticket

Before sending a bug report, please verify that you have the latest version of Pid-
gin. Many bugs (major and minor) are fixed at each release, and if yours is out of
date, the problem may already have been solved.