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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
       languages 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
              debugging 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
       convenience they are defined here:

       Buddy List
              The list of other  users  who  the  user  wants  to  see  status
              information 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
              protocols.  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
              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, 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
              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.

       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
              dictated by the preferences below.

       Show close buttons on tabs
              When  checked,  this  option  will  cause  a  clickable  "U+2715
              MULTIPLICATION  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
              orientations 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
              outgoing messages (only applicable  to  protocols  that  support
              formatting 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
       uninstall 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
              conversation  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.
              Firefox, Galeon, Konqueror,  Mozilla,  Netscape  and  Opera  are
              supported  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
              window.

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

       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
              setting 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
       Conversation 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
              conversation.  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
              features.

       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
              sentence 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,
              Invisible, 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 statuses.

       Transient Statuses
              When  one of the statuses from the topmost section of the status
              selector's menu  is  selected,  this  creates  a  transient,  or
              temporary,  status.   The  status  will  show  in  the  "popular
              statuses" section in the menu until it has not been used  for  a
              sufficiently  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
              status  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
              "Working" 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
              button, 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
              creation  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  message.   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
              selector's menu, Pidgin presents a dialog that lists  all  saved
              statuses.   "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
              operation  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
       combination  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
       conversation  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,
       version, and a short summary  of  its  functionality.  Plugins  can  be
       enabled  with the checkbox beside the name and short description.  More
       information 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
       information 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
       documentation 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}:
       conversation 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.pidgin.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
       MERCHANTABILITY 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) <thekingant@users.sourceforge.net>
         Sean Egan (developer) <seanegan@gmail.com>
         Casey Harkins (developer)
         Gary 'grim' Kramlich (developer)
         Richard 'rlaager' Laager (developer) <rlaager@pidgin.im>
         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) <marv_sf@users.sf.net>
         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:
         Paul Aurich
         Marcus 'malu' Lundblad
         Dennis 'EvilDennisR' Ristuccia
         Peter 'fmoo' Ruibal
         Gabriel 'Nix' Schulhof
         Jorge 'Masca' Villaseor

       Our artists are:
         Hylke Bons <h.bons@student.rug.nl>

       Our retired developers are:
         Herman Bloggs (win32 port) <herman@bluedigits.com>
         Jim Duchek <jim@linuxpimps.com> (maintainer)
         Rob Flynn <gaim@robflynn.com> (maintainer)
         Adam Fritzler (libfaim maintainer)
         Christian    'ChipX86'    Hammond     (developer     &     webmaster)
       <chipx86@chipx86.com>
         Syd Logan (hacker and designated driver [lazy bum])
         Jim Seymour (XMPP developer)
         Mark Spencer (original author) <markster@marko.net>
         Eric Warmenhoven (former lead developer) <eric@warmenhoven.org>

       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
       <dennis@dennisr.net>.  It has been updated  and  largely  rewritten  by
       Sean        Egan        <seanegan@gmail.com>,        Ben       Tegarden
       <tegarden@uclink.berkeley.edu>, and John Bailey <rekkanoryo@pidgin.im>.