pidgin

pidgin(1)                                                            pidgin(1)



Ri.

NAME
       pidgin - 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.   Pidgin  is not endorsed by or affiliated with
       America Online, ICQ, Microsoft, or Yahoo.

       Pidgin can be extended by plugins written in multiple programming  lan‐
       guages and controlled through DBus or purple-remote.


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  debug‐
              ging messages that are displayed in the Debug Window.

       -f, --force-online
              Try to be online even if the network is reported (by Windows, or
              NetworkManager on Linux) to be unavailable.

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

       -m, --multiple
              Allow multiple instances of Pidgin to run.

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

       -l, --login[=NAME,NAME,...]
              Enable  the comma-separated list of accounts provided, disabling
              all other accounts.  If the user does not specify such a  comma-
              separated  list,  the  first  account  in  accounts.xml  will be
              enabled.

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


TERMS
       Pidgin uses a few terms differently from other applications.  For  con‐
       venience they are defined here:

       Buddy List
              The  list of other users who the user wants to see status infor‐
              mation for and have quick access to for messaging.

       Buddy  A user who has been added to the Buddy List.

       Contact
              A grouping of more than one buddy who are all the  same  person.
              A  contact may contain buddies from any protocol and may contain
              as many buddies as the user desires.  Contact  arrangements  are
              stored locally only.

       Alias  A  private  "nickname"  that  may be set for Buddies or the user
              himself.  On some protocols, aliases are saved on the server but
              not  visible  to  other  users.  On other protocols, aliases are
              saved only locally.

       Protocol
              A messaging service.  AIM, XMPP, MSN, Zephyr,  etc.  are  proto‐
              cols.   Others  may call these "service types," "account types,"
              "services," and so on.


BUDDY LIST
       The Buddy List window is Pidgin's main interface  window.   Using  this
       window  a  user can see which of his/her buddies is online, away, idle,
       etc.  The user can also add buddies to  and  remove  buddies  from  the
       buddy list.

       The  Buddy  List  window  contains a list of the user's buddies who are
       online and have allowed the user to be notified of their presence.  The
       icon  to  the  left of each buddy indicates the buddy's current status.
       Double clicking 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 infor‐
              mation 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 per‐
              formed when the buddy's state changes.  This will open the Buddy
              Pounce dialog, which will be discussed later.

       View Log
              Pidgin is capable of automatically logging messages.  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 show an editable text
              field where the buddy's name was displayed.  In this  field  one
              can  give  this buddy an alternate, more friendly name to appear
              on the buddy list and in conversations.

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

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

       Status Selector
              At  the  bottom  of  the  Buddy  List is a status selector which
              allows one to change his/her status.   This  will  be  discussed
              further in the STATUS MESSAGES section below.


ACCOUNT EDITOR
       The account editor consists of a list of accounts and information about
       them.  It can be accessed by selecting Manage from the  Accounts  menu.
       Clicking  Delete  will delete the currently selected account.  Clicking
       Add or Modify will invoke a Modify Account window.  Here, the user  can
       add  or  alter  account  information.  When creating a new account, the
       user will submit a username and password.  The user  will  also  choose
       the protocol for the account.

       If  Remember Password is chosen, the password will be saved in Pidgin's
       ~/.purple/accounts.xml configuration file.

       If Enabled is checked in the accounts dialog, this account will  follow
       the  status  currently  selected  in the status selector.  If it is not
       checked, the account will always be offline.

       Each protocol has its own specific options that can  be  found  in  the
       modify screen.


PREFERENCES
       All options take effect immediately.


Interface
       Show system tray icon
              Specifies when to show a Pidgin icon in the notification area of
              the user's panel (commonly referred to as the System Tray).


       Hide new IM conversations
              Specifies when to hide new IM  messages.   Messages  will  queue
              under  the specified condition until shown.  Clicking the Pidgin
              icon in the notification area or system tray  will  display  the
              queued  messages.  An icon also appears in the buddy list's menu
              bar; this icon may also be used to display queued messages.


       Show IMs and chats in tabbed windows
              When checked, this option will cause IM  and  chat  sessions  to
              appear  in  windows  with multiple tabs.  One tab will represent
              one conversation or chat.  Where tabs are placed  will  be  dic‐
              tated by the preferences below.


       Show close buttons on tabs
              When  checked, this option will cause a clickable "U+2715 MULTI‐
              PLICATION X" unicode character to appear at the  right  edge  of
              each tab.  Clicking this will cause the tab to be closed.


       Placement
              Specifies  where to place tabs in the window.  Some tab orienta‐
              tions may allow some users to fit more tabs into a single window
              comfortably.


       New conversations
              Specifies  under  which conditions tabs are placed into existing
              windows or into new windows.  For a single window,  select  Last
              created window here.


Conversations
       Enable buddy icon animation
              If  a  buddy's  icon  happens  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.  For XMPP, this also enables sending the "User has
              left the conversation" message when ending the conversation.


       Default Formatting
              Allows specifying the default formatting to apply to all  outgo‐
              ing  messages (only applicable to protocols that support format‐
              ting in messages).


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.  The Add and Remove buttons may be used to  install  or  unin‐
       stall  smiley  themes.   Themes  may  also be installed by dragging and
       dropping them onto the list of themes.


Sounds
       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).


       Sounds when conversation has focus
              When  checked, sounds will play for events in the active conver‐
              sation if the window is focused.  When  unchecked,  sounds  will
              not play for the active conversation when the window is focused.


       Enable Sounds
              Determines when to play sounds.


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


Network
       STUN server
              This  allows specifying a server which uses the STUN protocol to
              determine a host's public IP address.  This can be  particularly
              useful for some protocols.


       Autodetect IP address
              When  checked,  causes Pidign to attempt to determine the public
              IP address of the host on which Pidgin is running  and  disables
              the Public IP text field listed below.


       Public IP
              If Autodetect IP address is disabled, this field allows manually
              specifying the public IP address for the host on which Pidgin is
              running.   This is mainly useful for users with multiple network
              interfaces or behind NATs.


       Manually specify range of ports to listen on
              Specify a range ports to listen  on,  overriding  any  defaults.
              This is sometimes useful for file transfers and Direct IM.


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


Browser
       Browser
              Allows  the  user to select Pidgin's default web browser.  Fire‐
              fox, Galeon, Konqueror, Mozilla, Netscape  and  Opera  are  sup‐
              ported  natively.  The user can also manually 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 link in
              Allows  the user to specify whether to use an existing window, a
              new tab, a new window, or to let the browser to decide  what  to
              do  when  calling the browser to open a link.  Which options are
              available will depend on which browser is selected.


Logging
       Log format
              Specifies how to log.  Pidgin supports HTML and plain text,  but
              plugins can provide other logging methods.


       Log all instant messages
              When  enabled,  all  IM  conversations  are logged.  This can be
              overridden on a per-conversation basis in the conversation  win‐
              dow.


       Log all chats
              When  enabled,  all  chat conversations are logged.  This can be
              overridden on a per-conversation basis in the conversation  win‐
              dow.


       Log all status changes to system log
              When enabled, status changes are logged.


Status / Idle
       Report idle time
              Determines under which conditions to report idle time.  Based on
              keyboard and mouse use  uses  keyboard  and  mouse  activity  to
              determine  idle  time.   From last sent message uses the time at
              which the user last sent a message in Pidgin to determine  idle.
              Never disables idle reporting.


       Auto-reply
              Determines when to send an auto-reply on protocols which support
              it (currently only AIM).


       Change status when idle
              When enabled, this uses the Minutes  before  becoming  idle  and
              Change  status  to  preferences described below to set status on
              idle.


       Minutes before becoming idle
              Specifies how many minutes of  inactivity  are  required  before
              considering the user to be idle.


       Change status to
              Specifies  which  "primitive" or "saved" status to use when set‐
              ting status on idle.


       Use status from last exit at startup
              If this is checked, Pidgin will remember what status was  active
              when  the  user  closed  Pidgin  and restore it at the next run.
              When disabled, Pidgin will always set  the  status  selected  in
              Status to apply at startup at startup.


       Status to apply at startup
              When  Use  status  from  last  exit at startup is disabled, this
              specifies which "primitive" or "saved" status to use at startup.


CONVERSATIONS
       When starting a new conversation, the user is presented with  the  Con‐
       versation  window.   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 options, represented by icons.  Some or all buttons may not
       be active if the protocol does not  support  the  specific  formatting.
       From left to right:

       Font   This  menu provides font control options for the current conver‐
              sation.  Size, style, and face may be configured here.

       Insert This menu provides the  ability  to  insert  images,  horizontal
              rules,  and links where the protocol supports each of these fea‐
              tures.

       Smile! Allows the insertion of graphical smileys via the  mouse.   This
              button  shows  the  user a dialog with the available smileys for
              the current conversation.


CHATS
       For protocols that allow it, Chats can be entered through  the  Buddies
       menu.

       Additional features 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  sen‐
              tence  describing  the nature of the chat--an explanation of the
              chat room's name.

       Private Message (IM)
              Send a message to a specific person in the chat.  Messages  sent
              this  way will not appear in the chat window, but instead open a
              new IM conversation.


STATUS MESSAGES
       Most protocols allow for status messages.  By using status messages,  a
       user  can  leave  an informative message for others to see.  Status and
       status messages are configured via the status selector at the bottom of
       the  Buddy List window.  By default the menu shown here is divided into
       sections for "primitive" status types, such as Available, Away, etc.; a
       few  "popular"  statuses  (including  "transient" statuses)  which have
       been recently used, and a section which shows New Status...  and  Saved
       Statuses... options for more advanced status manipulation.


       Primitive Statuses
              A  primitive status is a basic status supported by the protocol.
              Examples of primitive statuses would be Available, Away, Invisi‐
              ble,  etc.  A primitive status can be used to create a Transient
              Status or a Saved Status, both  explained  below.   Essentially,
              primitive  statuses are building blocks of more complicated sta‐
              tuses.


       Transient Statuses
              When one of the statuses from the topmost section of the  status
              selector's menu is selected, this creates a transient, or tempo‐
              rary, status.  The status will show in  the  "popular  statuses"
              section  in  the  menu  until  it has not been used for a suffi‐
              ciently long time.  A transient status may also  be  created  by
              selecting  New  Status...  from the status selector's menu, then
              clicking Use once the user has entered the message.


       Saved Statuses
              Saved statuses are  permanent--once  created,  they  will  exist
              until  deleted.  Saved statuses are useful for statuses and sta‐
              tus messages that will be used on a  regular  basis.   They  are
              also useful for creating complex statuses in which some accounts
              should always have a different status from others.  For example,
              one might wish to create a status called "Sleeping" that has all
              accounts set to "Away", then create another status called "Work‐
              ing"  that  has three accounts set to "Away" and another account
              set to "Available."


       New Status Window
              When the user selects New Status...  from  the  status  selector
              menu,  Pidgin presents the user with a dialog asking for status-
              related information.  That information is discussed below:

              Title - The name of the status that will appear  in  the  status
              selctor's  menu.  If the user clicks the Save or Save & Use but‐
              ton, this name will also be shown in the  Saved  Status  Window.
              The title should be a short description of the status.

              Status  -  The  type of status being created, such as Available,
              Away, etc.

              Message - The content of the status message.  This  is  what  is
              visible to other users.  Some protocols will allow formatting in
              some status messages; where formatting is not supported it  will
              be stripped to the bare text entered.

              Use  a different status for some accounts - This allows the cre‐
              ation of complex statuses in which some accounts' status differs
              from  that  of other accounts.  To use this, the user will click
              the expander to the left of the  text,  then  select  individual
              accounts  which  will have a different status and/or status mes‐
              sage.  When the user selects an  account,  Pidgin  will  present
              another status dialog asking for a status and a message just for
              the selected account.


       Saved Status Window
              When the user selects Saved Statuses... from the  status  selec‐
              tor's  menu,  Pidgin presents a dialog that lists all saved sta‐
              tuses.  "Transient" statuses, discussed  above,  are  NOT  shown
              here.  This window provides the ability to manage saved statuses
              by allowing the creation, modification, and  deletion  of  saved
              statuses.  The Use, Modify, and Delete buttons here allow opera‐
              tion on the status selected from the list; the dd button  allows
              creation  of a new saved status, and the Close button closes the
              window.


BUDDY POUNCE
       A Buddy Pounce is an automated trigger that occurs when a buddy returns
       to  a normal state from an away state.  The Buddy Pounce dialog box can
       be activated by selecting the Buddy Pounce option from the Tools  menu.
       From  this  dialog,  new pounces can be created with the Add button and
       existing pounces can be removed with the Delete button.  A  pounce  can
       be set to occur on any combination of the events listed, and any combi‐
       nation of actions can result.  If Pounce only when  my  status  is  not
       Available  is checked, the pounce will occur only if the user is set to
       a non-available status, such as invisible, do not disturb,  away,  etc.
       If  Recurring  is  checked, the pounce will remain until removed by the
       Delete button.


CUSTOM SMILIES
       Pidgin 2.5.0 introduced support for custom smilies on  those  protocols
       for  which  interested contributors have developed support.  The custom
       smiley manager can be accessed by selecting Smiley from the Tools menu.
       From  here, custom smilies may be added, edited, or deleted by clicking
       the Add, Edit, or Delete buttons, respectively.

       During a conversation with another user, that user's custom smileys may
       be added to the user's own custom smiley list directly from the conver‐
       sation window by right-clicking the new custom smiley and selecting Add
       Custom Smiley...


PLUGINS
       Pidgin allows for dynamic loading of plugins to add extra functionality
       to Pidgin.  See plugins/HOWTO or http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/CHowTo
       for information on writing plugins.

       The  plugins dialog can be accessed by selecting Plugins from the Tools
       menu. Each plugin available appears in this dialog with its name,  ver‐
       sion,  and a short summary of its functionality. Plugins can be enabled
       with the checkbox beside the name and short description.  More informa‐
       tion  on  the  currently  selected  plugin is available by clicking the
       expander beside the text Plugin Details.  If the  selected  plugin  has
       preferences  or configuration options, the Configure Plugin button will
       present the plugin's preferences dialog.


PERL
       Pidgin allows for plugins to be written in the perl scripting language.
       See  Perl Scripting HOWTO in the Pidgin documentation for more informa‐
       tion about perl scripting.


TCL
       Pidgin allows for plugins to be written in the Tcl scripting  language.
       See plugins/tcl/TCL-HOWTO for more information about Tcl scripting.


D-Bus
       Pidgin  allows  for interaction via D-Bus.  Currently very little docu‐
       mentation about this interaction exists.


FILES
         /usr/bin/pidgin: Pidgin's location.
         ~/.purple/blist.xml: the buddy list.
         ~/.purple/accounts.xml: information about the user's accounts.
         ~/.purple/pounces.xml: stores the user's buddy pounces.
         ~/.purple/prefs.xml: Pidgin's configuration file.
         ~/.purple/status.xml: stores the user's away messages.
         ~/.purple/logs/PROTOCOL/ACCOUNT/BUDDYNAME/DATE.{html,txt}:  conversa‐
       tion logs.


DIRECTORIES
         /usr/lib/pidgin/: Pidgin's plugins directory.
         /usr/lib/purple-2/: libpurple's plugins directory.
         ~/.purple: users' local settings
         ~/.purple/plugins/: users' local plugins


BUGS
       The  bug  tracker  can  be  reached  by  visiting http://developer.pid‐
       gin.im/query

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


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/simpleticket

       You  are  also  encouraged to drop by at #pidgin on irc.freenode.net to
       discuss development.



SEE ALSO
       http://pidgin.im/
       http://developer.pidgin.im/
       purple-remote(1)
       finch(1)


LICENSE
       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under  the  terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at  your
       option) any later version.

       This  program  is  distributed  in the hope that it will be useful, but
       WITHOUT ANY  WARRANTY;  without  even  the  implied  warranty  of  MER‐
       CHANTABILITY  or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General
       Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
       51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02111-1301  USA


AUTHORS
       Pidgin's active developers are:
         Daniel 'datallah' Atallah (developer)
         Paul 'darkrain42' Aurich (developer)
         John 'rekkanoryo' Bailey (developer and bugmaster)
         Ethan 'Paco-Paco' Blanton (developer)
         Thomas Butter (developer)
         Ka-Hing Cheung (developer)
         Sadrul Habib Chowdhury (developer)
         Mark 'KingAnt' Doliner (developer) 
         Sean Egan (developer) 
         Casey Harkins (developer)
         Ivan Komarov
         Gary 'grim' Kramlich (developer)
         Richard 'rlaager' Laager (developer) 
         Sulabh 'sulabh_m' Mahajan (developer)
         Richard 'wabz' Nelson (developer)
         Christopher 'siege' O'Brien (developer)
         Bartosz Oler (developer)
         Etan 'deryni' Reisner (developer)
         Tim 'marv' Ringenbach (developer) 
         Michael 'Maiku' Ruprecht (developer, voice and video)
         Elliott 'QuLogic' Sales de Andrade (developer)
         Luke 'LSchiere' Schierer (support)
         Megan 'Cae' Schneider (support/QA)
         Evan Schoenberg (developer)
         Kevin 'SimGuy' Stange (developer and webmaster)
         Will 'resiak' Thompson (developer)
         Stu 'nosnilmot' Tomlinson (developer)
         Nathan 'faceprint' Walp (developer)


       Our crazy patch writers include:
         Marcus 'malu' Lundblad
         Dennis 'EvilDennisR' Ristuccia
         Peter 'fmoo' Ruibal
         Gabriel 'Nix' Schulhof
         Jorge 'Masca' Villaseñor


       Our artists are:
         Hylke Bons 


       Our retired developers are:
         Herman Bloggs (win32 port) 
         Jim Duchek  (maintainer)
         Rob Flynn  (maintainer)
         Adam Fritzler (libfaim maintainer)
         Christian    'ChipX86'    Hammond     (developer     &     webmaster)
       
         Syd Logan (hacker and designated driver [lazy bum])
         Jim Seymour (XMPP developer)
         Mark Spencer (original author) 
         Eric Warmenhoven (former lead developer) 


       Our retired crazy patch writers include:
         Felipe 'shx' Contreras
         Decklin Foster
         Peter 'Bleeter' Lawler
         Robert 'Robot101' McQueen
         Benjamin Miller


       This  manpage  was  originally written by Dennis Ristuccia        nisr.net>.  It has been updated and  largely  rewritten  by  Sean  Egan
       ,  Ben Tegarden , and
       John Bailey .



Pidgin v2.7.7                                                        pidgin(1)