1finch(1) General Commands Manual finch(1)
2
6 Finch - A Pimpin' Penguin console frontend to libpurple. Instant Mes‐
7 saging client.
8
10 finch [options]
11
14 finch is a console-based modular messaging client based on libpurple
15 which is capable of connecting to AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC,
16 SILC, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all
17 at once. It has many common features found in other clients, as well as
18 many unique features. Finch is not endorsed by or affiliated with
19 America Online, ICQ, Microsoft, or Yahoo.
20
23 The following options are provided by finch using the standard GNU com‐
24 mand line syntax:
25 -c, --config=DIR
27 Use DIR as the directory for config files instead of ~/.purple.
28 -d, --debug
30 Print debugging messages to stderr and start with the Debug win‐
31 dow. The messages shown in the Debug window are the same as the
32 ones printed in stderr.
33 -h, --help
35 Print this help and exit.
36 -n, --nologin
38 Don't automatically login when finch starts. Sets all accounts
39 to Offline.
40 -v, --version
42 Display the version information window.
43
46 You can use the following shortcuts (see the "Widget Actions" section
47 for a more complete list):
48 Alt + a
50 Bring up a list of available actions. You can use this list to
51 access the accounts window, plugins window, preference window
52 etc.
53 Alt + n
55 Go to the next window.
56 Alt + p
58 Go to the previous window.
59 Alt + w
61 Show the list of windows. You can select and jump to any window
62 from the list.
63 Alt + c
65 Close the current window.
66 Alt + q
68 Quit.
69 Alt + m
71 Start moving a window. Press the cursor keys to move the window.
72 When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
73 Alt + r
75 Start resizing a window. Press the cursor keys to resize the
76 window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
77 Alt + D
79 Dump the contents of the screen in HTML format.
80 Alt + .
82 Move the position of the current window in the window list one
83 place to the right.
84 Alt + ,
86 Move the position of the current window in the window list one
87 place to the left.
88 Alt + l
90 Refresh the windows. This is useful after resizing the terminal
91 window.
92 Alt + 1 2 ... 0
94 Jump to the 1st, 2nd ... 10th window.
95 Alt + Tab
97 Jump to the next URGENT (highlighted) window.
98 Alt + Shift + Tab
100 Jump to the previous URGENT (highlighted) window.
101 Ctrl + o or F10
103 Bring up the menu (if there is one) for a window.
104 F11 or Ctrl + x
106 Popup the context menu (if there is one) for the selected wid‐
107 get.
108 Alt + /
110 Show a list of available key-bindings for the current widget in
111 focus.
112 Alt + >
114 Switch to the next workspace
115 Alt + <
117 Switch to the previous workspace
118 Alt + t
120 Tag (or untag) the current window
121 Alt + T
123 Attached all the tagged windows to the current workspace
124 Alt + s
126 Show the workspace list
127 F9 Create a new workspace and switch to it
129
132 ~/.gntrc: configuration file for gnt applications.
133 A sample file looks like:
135 [Finch]
136 color-available = green; black
137 color-away = blue; black
138 color-idle = gray; black
139 color-offline = red; black
140 color-message-sent = cyan; default
141 color-message-received = red; default
142 color-message-highlight = black; green
143 color-message-action = yellow; default
144 color-timestamp = blue; default
145 #See below for details on color
146 [general]
148 shadow = 0
149 # There is experimental mouse support
150 mouse = 1
151 # To use some custom window-manager
152 wm = /usr/local/lib/gnt/s.so
153 # There's also a custom window manager called irssi.so
154 # Remember window-positions based on the titles (on by default)
155 remember_position = 1
156 # Use borderless one-line high buttons
157 small-button = true
158 # Workspaces are created simply by adding Workspace-X groups as
160 follows:
161 [Workspace-1]
162 name = blist
163 # window-names specifies that windows with these semi-colon sep‐
164 arated names are placed into this workspace
165 window-names = buddylist;debug-window
166 [Workspace-2]
168 name = IM
169 window-names = conversation-window
170 # window-titles specifies that windows with these semi-colon
171 separated titles are placed into this workspace. These are
172 matched as substrings. Window titles take precedence over names.
173 window-titles = Preferences;Pounce
174 [colors]
176 # The RGB values range in [0, 1000]
177 black = 0; 0; 0
178 red = 1000; 0; 0
179 green = 0; 1000; 0
180 blue = 250; 250; 700
181 white = 1000; 1000; 1000
182 gray = 700; 700; 700
183 darkgray = 256; 256; 256
184 [colorpairs]
186 normal = white; black
187 highlight = white; blue
188 highlightd = black; gray
189 shadow = black; darkgray
190 title = white; blue
191 titled = white; gray
192 text = white; blue
193 disabled = gray; black
194 urgent = green; black
195 # Remap some keys for GntEntry
197 [GntEntry::remap]
198 # Remap the up-arrow to the left-arrow
199 ^[[A = ^[[D
200 # Remap the down-arrow to the right-arrow
201 ^[[B = ^[[C
202 # Remap 'a' to 'bcd'
203 a = bcd
204 # Completely ignore the key 'q'
205 q =
206 # But the following will NOT work
207 #abc = bcd
208 # Hitting 'space' will activate a button
210 [GntButton::remap]
211 \ = \r
212
215 You can specifiy key-bindings for specific widgets. The following
216 entries in ~/.gntrc correspond to the default keybindings for the
217 actions:
218 [GntBox::binding]
220 tab = focus-next
221 right = focus-next
222 left = focus-prev
223 [GntComboBox::binding]
225 down = dropdown
226 up = dropdown
227 [GntEntry::binding]
229 c-a = cursor-home
230 home = cursor-home
231 c-e = cursor-end
232 end = cursor-end
233 backspace = delete-prev
234 del = delete-next
235 c-d = delete-next
236 c-u = delete-start
237 c-k = delete-end
238 c-b = cursor-prev
239 left = cursor-prev
240 c-f = cursor-next
241 right = cursor-next
242 tab = suggest-show
243 down = suggest-next
244 up = suggest-prev
245 page-down = suggest-next-page
246 page-up = suggest-prev-page
247 c-w = delete-prev-word
248 a-b = cursor-prev-word
249 a-f = cursor-next-word
250 a-d = delete-next-word
251 c-v = clipboard-paste
252 c-p = history-prev
253 c-n = history-next
254 c-r = history-search
255 c-up = history-prev
256 c-down = history-next
257 [GntTree::binding]
259 up = move-up
260 down = move-down
261 c-n = move-down
262 c-p = move-up
263 pageup = page-up
264 pagedown = page-down
265 backspace = move-parent
266 home = move-first
267 end = move-last
268 # Following is the default binding for the context-menu
269 menu = context-menu
270 # The following will let you open the context-menu in the buddylist
271 with c-b
272 # c-b = context-menu
273 [GntWidget::binding]
275 f11 = context-menu
276 c-x = context-menu
277 [GntWindow::binding]
279 c-o = show-menu
280 f10 = show-menu
281 The c- corresponds to the Control key. You can also use ctrl- or ctr-
283 or ctl- to indicate a combination. For alt-keys, you can use one of a-,
284 alt-, m- or meta-. You can also use home, end, left, right etc. keys.
285 To unbind a key which has a default binding, you simply bind it to the
287 empty string. For example, to unbind Alt + q from the Quit function,
288 you would use:
289 [GntWM::binding]
291 a-q =
292
295 You can also specify key-bindings to trigger specific menuitems in win‐
296 dows. For example, the following entry in ~/.gntrc will bind Ctrl + t
297 to the 'Send IM...' item in the buddylist:
298 [buddylist::menu]
300 c-t = send-im
301 The following is the list of IDs of the current menuitems in the bud‐
303 dylist:
304 send-im
306 join-chat
307 show-empty-groups
308 show-offline-buddies
309 sort-status
310 sort-alpha
311 sort-log
312 add-buddy
313 add-chat
314 add-group
315
318 There is experimental mouse support. You can focus windows, activate
319 buttons, select rows in a list, scroll using the wheel-scroll etc.
320 Selecting text in a text-view copies it to the gnt clipboard. Mouse
321 support is disabled by default, so you need to enable it in ~/.gntrc
322 (see the sample above).
323
326 The default window management is very limited. But it is possible to
327 write custom window managers to suit your needs. There is a sample win‐
328 dow-manager included (named s.so) which adds a little 'close-button'
329 for the windows, removes the borders from the buddylist and pops up new
330 windows in the middle of the screen, instead of at the upper-left
331 corder. It is provided as a sample simple manager, but it should be
332 possible to write more complex managers, and it's very possible that
333 the window-manager API will need to be enhanced. Look at the sample
334 ~/.gntrc file above to see how to select a window-manager.
335 It is also possible to rebind the window-manager actions in ~/.gntrc,
337 eg:
338 [GntWM::binding]
340 a-n = window-next
341 a-p = window-prev
342 a-c = window-close
343 a-w = window-list
344 a-d = dump-screen
345 a-, = shift-left
346 a-. = shift-right
347 a-a = action-list
348 a-m = start-move
349 a-r = start-resize
350 a-q = wm-quit
351 a-l = refresh-screen
352 a-s = workspace-list
353 a-t = window-tag
354 a-T = place-tagged
355 a-C = toggle-clipboard
356 a-/ = help-for-widget
357 a-c-j = window-scroll-down
358 a-c-k = window-scroll-up
359 # The following action is still incomplete, and doesn't have a default
360 binding
361 # switch-window-n
362 # Other actions: window-next-urgent, window-prev-urgent
363 # For the sample custom window manager
365 [GntS::binding]
366 a-b = toggle-buddylist
367 # For the irssi window manager
369 [Irssi::binding]
370 a-L = move-right
371 a-H = move-left
372 a-J = move-down
373 a-K = move-up
374
377 There are a few helpful commands in addition to the regular commands.
378 You can use these from any conversation to access other windows.
379 accounts
382 for the accounts window.
383 buddylist
386 for the buddylist.
387 debugwin
390 for the debug window.
391 plugins
394 for the plugins window.
395 prefs for the preferences window.
398 status for the status window.
401
404 FAQ for finch is located at
405 http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch
406
409 Known bugs are listed at
410 http://developer.pidgin.im/query?status=new&status=assigned&sta‐
411 tus=reopened&component=finch+%28gnt%2Fncurses%29&order=priority
412 Before sending a bug report, please verify that you have the latest
414 version of finch and libpurple. Many bugs (major and minor) are fixed
415 at each release, and if yours is out of date, the problem may already
416 have been solved.
417
420 If you fix a bug in finch (or otherwise enhance it), please submit a
421 patch (using mtn diff > my.diff against the latest version from the
422 Monotone repository) at http://developer.pidgin.im/simpleticket
423 You are also encouraged to drop by at #pidgin on irc.freenode.net to
425 discuss development.
426
429 http://pidgin.im/
430 http://developer.pidgin.im/
431 purple-remote(1)
432 pidgin(1)
433
436 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
437 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
438 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
439 option) any later version.
440 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
442 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
443 CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
444 Public License for more details.
445 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
447 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
448 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02111-1301 USA
449
452 Sadrul Habib Chowdhury <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net>
453 This manpage was written by Sadrul Habib Chowdhury
455 <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net> and Dennis Ristuccia <dennis@den‐
456 nisr.net>.
457 finch(1)