pidgin(1) User Commands pidgin(1)NAMEpidgin - Instant Messaging client
SYNOPSISpidgin [--config=directory] [--debug] [--login=name] [--nologin]
[-gnome-std-options]
DESCRIPTIONpidgin is a graphical modular messaging client based on libpurple. It
supports multiple protocols including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC,
GroupWise and GTalk all at once. It has many common features found in
other clients, as well as many unique features.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-c, --config=directory Use directory as the directory for con‐
fig files instead of ~/.purple.
-d, --debug Print debug messages to stdout. These
are the same debug messages that are
displayed in the Debug window.
-l, --login[=name,name,...] Log in with the comma-separated list of
accounts provided, in addition to any
accounts that are configured to be
logged in automatically. If no argu‐
ment is provided, your first account
will be signed in.
-n, --nologin Do not automatically login when pidgin
starts. Sets the global status to Off‐
line.
gnome-std-options Standard options available for use with
most GNOME applications. See gnome-std-
options(5).
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
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 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 informa‐
tion 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 discussed 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 direc‐
tory. 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 commands 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 displays 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 username 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 information. 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
configuration file.
If Auto-Login is chosen, this account will automatically login upon
starting pidgin.
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 win‐
dow to the top when buddies sign in or out.
Show numbers in groups: The number of buddies from each group cur‐
rently logged in will be shown along with the total number of bud‐
dies 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 information).
Dim idle buddies: If enabled, idle buddies will be displayed in
grey text instead of black text.
Automatically expand contacts: If enabled, contacts will automati‐
cally 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 pic‐
ture-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 ani‐
mated, 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 chat 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 con‐
versation window.
New conversation placement...: Determines where new conversa‐
tions will be placed (Last created window / New window / win‐
dows grouped by group or account / separate windwos for IMs and
Chats).
Message Text
Show timestamp on messages: Toggles the timestamp behavior for
conversations. Per-conversation behavior can be changed by
pressing F2 in the Conversation 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/isze 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 meth‐
ods. The user can also manually enter a command to be executed when
a sound is to be played (%s expands to the full path of 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 listen 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, Konqueror, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera are supported
natively. The user can also manually enter a command to be exe‐
cuted 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 preferences 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 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 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 Decreases the size of the message text.
Increase font size Increases 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 mes‐
sage.
Add hyperlink Adds a clickable link to the message.
Add smiley Adds an emoticon (smiley) to your mes‐
sage.
Beneath the lower text box is a row of
buttons that execute commands:
Warn This issues a warning to the other per‐
son in the conversation (not available
in all protocols).
Block This adds the other person to your deny
list (not available in all protocols).
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 is 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 dif‐
ferent 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 plugins/HOWTO for more information on writing plugins.
PERL
pidgin allows for perl scripting. See Perl Scripting HOWTO in the pid‐
gin documentation for more information about perl scripting.
TCL
pidgin allows for Tcl scripting. See plugins/tcl/TCL-HOWTO for more
information about Tcl scripting.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Launching pidgin
example% pidginEXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Application exited successfully
>0 Application exited with failure
FILES
The following files are used by this application:
/usr/bin/pidgin Executable for pidgin
/usr/lib/pidgin Location of pidgin plugins.
~/.purple/prefs.xml pidgin 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/ User's local plugins.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │communication/im/pidgin │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface stability │Volatile │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOotr_parse(1), attributes(5), gnome-std-options(5)pidgin Manual, http://pidgin.im/
NOTES
This man page was originally written by Dennis Ristuccia (dennis@den‐
nisr.net). Updated and largely rewritten by Sean Egan (bj91704@bing‐
hamton.edu) and Ben Tegarden (tegarden@uclink.berkeley.edu). Updated
by Stephen Browne, Rick Ju, and Brian Cameron, Sun Microsystems Inc,
2003, 2006, 2007.
SunOS 5.11 12 Nov 2007 pidgin(1)
