Content-type: text/html Man page of finch

finch

Section: User Commands (1)
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NAME

Finch - A Pimpin' Penguin console frontend to libpurple. Instant Messaging client.

SYNOPSIS

finch [options]

DESCRIPTION

finch is a console-based 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 finch using the standard GNU command line syntax:

-d, --debug: Print debugging messages to stderr and start with the Debug window. The messages shown in the Debug window are the same as the ones printed in stderr.
-c, --config=DIR: Use DIR as the directory for config files instead of ~/.purple.
-h, --help: Print this help and exit.
-n, --nologin: Don't automatically login when finch starts. Sets all accounts to Offline.
-v, --version: Display the version information window.

GNT Shortcuts

You can use the following shortcuts:

Alt + a: Bring up a list of available actions. You can use this list to access the accounts window, plugins window, preference window etc.
Alt + n: Go to the next window.
Alt + p: Go to the previous window.
Alt + w: Show the list of windows. You can select and jump to any window from the list.
Alt + c: Close the current window.
Alt + q: Quit.
Alt + m: Start moving a window. Press the cursor keys to move the window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
Alt + r: Start resizing a window. Press the cursor keys to resize the window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
Alt + d: Dump the contents of the screen in HTML format in a file named "dump.html" in working directory.
Alt + .: Move the position of the current window in the window list one place to the right.
Alt + ,: Move the position of the current window in the window list one place to the left.
Alt + l: Refresh the windows. This is useful after resizing the terminal window.
Alt + 1 2 ... 0: Jump to the 1st, 2nd ... 10th window.
Ctrl + o: Bring up the menu (if there is one) for a window. Note that currently only the buddylist has a menu.

FILES

~/.gntrc: configuration file for gnt applications.

A sample file looks like:

[general]
shadow = 0
# There is experimental mouse support
mouse = 1
# To use some custom window-manager
wm = /usr/local/lib/purple/s.so
# Remember window-positions based on the titles (on by default)
remember_position = 1

[colors]
# The RGB values range in [0, 1000]
black = 0; 0; 0
red = 1000; 0; 0
green = 0; 1000; 0
blue = 250; 250; 700
white = 1000; 1000; 1000
gray = 700; 700; 700
darkgray = 256; 256; 256

[colorpairs]
normal = white; black
highlight = white; blue
highlightd = black; gray
shadow = black; darkgray
title = white; blue
titled = white; gray
text = white; blue
disabled = gray; black
urgent = green; black

# Remap some keys for GntEntry
[GntEntry::remap]
# Remap the up-arrow to the left-arrow
^[[A = ^[[D
# Remap the down-arrow to the right-arrow
^[[B = ^[[C
# Remap 'a' to 'bcd'
a = bcd
# Completely ignore the key 'q'
q =
# But the following will NOT work
#abc = bcd

# Hitting 'space' will activate a button
[GntButton::remap]
\ = \r

Widget Actions

You can specifiy key-bindings for specific widgets. The following entries in ~/.gntrc correspond to the default keybindings for the actions:

[GntEntry::binding]
c-a = cursor-home
home = cursor-home
c-e = cursor-end
end = cursor-end
backspace = delete-prev
del = delete-next
c-d = delete-next
c-u = delete-start
c-k = delete-end
c-b = cursor-prev
left = cursor-prev
c-f = cursor-next
right = cursor-next
tab = suggest-show
down = suggest-next
up = suggest-prev
c-w = delete-prev-word
a-b = cursor-prev-word
a-f = cursor-next-word
a-d = delete-next-word
c-v = clipboard-paste

[GntTree::binding]
up = move-up
down = move-down
c-n = move-down
c-p = move-up
pageup = page-up
pagedown = page-down
# Following is the default binding for the context-menu
menu = context-menu
# The following will let you open the context-menu in the buddylist with c-b
# c-b = context-menu

[GntWidget::binding]
f11 = context-menu

[GntWindow::binding]
c-o = show-menu
f10 = show-menu

The c- corresponds to the Control key. You can also use ctrl- or ctr- or ctl- to indicate a combination. For alt-keys, you can use one of a-, alt-, m- or meta-. You can also use home, end, left, right etc. keys.

Mouse Support

There is experimental mouse support. You can focus windows, activate buttons, select rows in a list, scroll using the wheel-scroll etc. Selecting text in a text-view copies it to the gnt clipboard. Mouse support is disabled by default, so you need to enable it in ~/.gntrc (see the sample above).

Window Management

The default window management is very limited. But it is possible to write custom window managers to suit your needs. There is a sample window-manager included (named s.so) which adds a little 'close-button' for the windows, removes the borders from the buddylist and pops up new windows in the middle of the screen, instead of at the upper-left corder. It is provided as a sample simple manager, but it should be possible to write more complex managers, and it's very possible that the window-manager API will need to be enhanced. Look at the sample ~/.gntrc file above to see how to select a window-manager.

It is also possible to rebind the window-manager actions in ~/.gntrc, eg:

[GntWM::binding]
a-n = window-next
a-p = window-prev
a-c = window-close
a-w = window-list
a-d = dump-screen
a-, = shift-left
a-. = shift-right
a-a = action-list
a-m = start-move
a-r = start-resize
a-q = wm-quit
a-l = refresh-screen
# The following action is still incomplete, and doesn't have a default binding
# switch-window-n

# For the sample custom window manager
[GntS::binding]
a-b = toggle-buddylist
a-C = toggle-clipboard

Conversation Commands

There are a few helpful commands in addition to the regular commands. You can use these from any conversation to access other windows.

accounts: for the accounts window.
buddylist: for the buddylist.
debugwin: for the debug window.
plugins: for the plugins window.
prefs: for the preferences window.
status: for the status window.

BUGS

Known bugs are listed at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=235&atid=100235

Before sending a bug report, please verify that you have the latest version of finch and libpurple. 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 finch (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

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

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., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

AUTHORS

Sadrul Habib Chowdhury <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net>

This manpage was written by Sadrul Habib Chowdhury <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net> and Dennis Ristuccia <dennis@dennisr.net>.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 02:39:24 GMT, October 02, 2010