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 XMPP, IRC, SILC, Novell GroupWise,
16 Lotus Sametime, Zephyr, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once. It has many com‐
17 mon features found in other clients, as well as many unique features.
18
21 The following options are provided by finch using the standard GNU com‐
22 mand line syntax:
23 -c, --config=DIR
25 Use DIR as the directory for config files instead of ~/.purple.
26 -d, --debug
28 Print debugging messages to stderr and start with the Debug win‐
29 dow. The messages shown in the Debug window are the same as the
30 ones printed in stderr.
31 -h, --help
33 Print this help and exit.
34 -n, --nologin
36 Don't automatically login when finch starts. Sets all accounts
37 to Offline.
38 -v, --version
40 Display the version information window.
41
44 You can use the following shortcuts (see the "Widget Actions" section
45 for a more complete list):
46 Alt + a
48 Bring up a list of available actions. You can use this list to
49 access the accounts window, plugins window, preference window
50 etc.
51 Alt + n
53 Go to the next window.
54 Alt + p
56 Go to the previous window.
57 Alt + w
59 Show the list of windows. You can select and jump to any window
60 from the list.
61 Alt + c
63 Close the current window.
64 Alt + q
66 Quit.
67 Alt + m
69 Start moving a window. Press the cursor keys to move the window.
70 When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
71 Alt + r
73 Start resizing a window. Press the cursor keys to resize the
74 window. When you are done, press Enter or Escape.
75 Alt + D
77 Dump the contents of the screen in HTML format.
78 Alt + .
80 Move the position of the current window in the window list one
81 place to the right.
82 Alt + ,
84 Move the position of the current window in the window list one
85 place to the left.
86 Alt + l
88 Refresh the windows. This is useful after resizing the terminal
89 window.
90 Alt + 1 2 ... 0
92 Jump to the 1st, 2nd ... 10th window.
93 Alt + Tab
95 Jump to the next URGENT (highlighted) window.
96 Alt + Shift + Tab
98 Jump to the previous URGENT (highlighted) window.
99 Ctrl + o or F10
101 Bring up the menu (if there is one) for a window.
102 F11 or Ctrl + x
104 Popup the context menu (if there is one) for the selected wid‐
105 get.
106 Alt + /
108 Show a list of available key-bindings for the current widget in
109 focus.
110 Alt + >
112 Switch to the next workspace
113 Alt + <
115 Switch to the previous workspace
116 Alt + t
118 Tag (or untag) the current window
119 Alt + T
121 Attached all the tagged windows to the current workspace
122 Alt + s
124 Show the workspace list
125 F9 Create a new workspace and switch to it
127
130 ~/.gntrc: configuration file for gnt applications.
131 A sample file looks like:
133 [Finch]
134 color-available = green; black
135 color-away = blue; black
136 color-idle = gray; black
137 color-offline = red; black
138 color-message-sent = cyan; default
139 color-message-received = red; default
140 color-message-highlight = black; green
141 color-message-action = yellow; default
142 color-timestamp = blue; default
143 #See below for details on color
144 [general]
146 shadow = 0
147 # There is experimental mouse support
148 mouse = 1
149 # To use some custom window-manager
150 wm = /usr/local/lib/gnt/s.so
151 # There's also a custom window manager called irssi.so
152 # Remember window-positions based on the titles (on by default)
153 remember_position = 1
154 # Use borderless one-line high buttons
155 small-button = true
156 # Workspaces are created simply by adding Workspace-X groups as
158 follows:
159 [Workspace-1]
160 name = blist
161 # window-names specifies that windows with these semi-colon sep‐
162 arated names are placed into this workspace
163 window-names = buddylist;debug-window
164 [Workspace-2]
166 name = IM
167 window-names = conversation-window
168 # window-titles specifies that windows with these semi-colon
169 separated titles are placed into this workspace. These are
170 matched as substrings. Window titles take precedence over names.
171 window-titles = Preferences;Pounce
172 [colors]
174 # The RGB values range in [0, 1000]
175 black = 0; 0; 0
176 red = 1000; 0; 0
177 green = 0; 1000; 0
178 blue = 250; 250; 700
179 white = 1000; 1000; 1000
180 gray = 700; 700; 700
181 darkgray = 256; 256; 256
182 [colorpairs]
184 normal = white; black
185 highlight = white; blue
186 highlightd = black; gray
187 shadow = black; darkgray
188 title = white; blue
189 titled = white; gray
190 text = white; blue
191 disabled = gray; black
192 urgent = green; black
193 # Remap some keys for GntEntry
195 [GntEntry::remap]
196 # Remap the up-arrow to the left-arrow
197 ^[[A = ^[[D
198 # Remap the down-arrow to the right-arrow
199 ^[[B = ^[[C
200 # Remap 'a' to 'bcd'
201 a = bcd
202 # Completely ignore the key 'q'
203 q =
204 # But the following will NOT work
205 #abc = bcd
206 # Hitting 'space' will activate a button
208 [GntButton::remap]
209 \ = \r
210
213 You can specify key-bindings for specific widgets. The following en‐
214 tries in ~/.gntrc correspond to the default keybindings for the ac‐
215 tions:
216 [GntBox::binding]
218 tab = focus-next
219 right = focus-next
220 left = focus-prev
221 [GntComboBox::binding]
223 down = dropdown
224 up = dropdown
225 [GntEntry::binding]
227 c-a = cursor-home
228 home = cursor-home
229 c-e = cursor-end
230 end = cursor-end
231 backspace = delete-prev
232 del = delete-next
233 c-d = delete-next
234 c-u = delete-start
235 c-k = delete-end
236 c-b = cursor-prev
237 left = cursor-prev
238 c-f = cursor-next
239 right = cursor-next
240 tab = suggest-show
241 down = suggest-next
242 up = suggest-prev
243 page-down = suggest-next-page
244 page-up = suggest-prev-page
245 c-w = delete-prev-word
246 a-b = cursor-prev-word
247 a-f = cursor-next-word
248 a-d = delete-next-word
249 c-v = clipboard-paste
250 c-p = history-prev
251 c-n = history-next
252 c-r = history-search
253 c-up = history-prev
254 c-down = history-next
255 [GntTree::binding]
257 up = move-up
258 down = move-down
259 c-n = move-down
260 c-p = move-up
261 pageup = page-up
262 pagedown = page-down
263 backspace = move-parent
264 home = move-first
265 end = move-last
266 # Following is the default binding for the context-menu
267 menu = context-menu
268 # The following will let you open the context-menu in the buddylist
269 with c-b
270 # c-b = context-menu
271 [GntWidget::binding]
273 f11 = context-menu
274 c-x = context-menu
275 [GntWindow::binding]
277 c-o = show-menu
278 f10 = show-menu
279 The c- corresponds to the Control key. You can also use ctrl- or ctr-
281 or ctl- to indicate a combination. For alt-keys, you can use one of a-,
282 alt-, m- or meta-. You can also use home, end, left, right etc. keys.
283 To unbind a key which has a default binding, you simply bind it to the
285 empty string. For example, to unbind Alt + q from the Quit function,
286 you would use:
287 [GntWM::binding]
289 a-q =
290
293 You can also specify key-bindings to trigger specific menuitems in win‐
294 dows. For example, the following entry in ~/.gntrc will bind Ctrl + t
295 to the 'Send IM...' item in the buddylist:
296 [buddylist::menu]
298 c-t = send-im
299 The following is the list of IDs of the current menuitems in the bud‐
301 dylist:
302 send-im
304 join-chat
305 show-empty-groups
306 show-offline-buddies
307 sort-status
308 sort-alpha
309 sort-log
310 add-buddy
311 add-chat
312 add-group
313
316 There is experimental mouse support. You can focus windows, activate
317 buttons, select rows in a list, scroll using the wheel-scroll etc. Se‐
318 lecting text in a text-view copies it to the gnt clipboard. Mouse sup‐
319 port is disabled by default, so you need to enable it in ~/.gntrc (see
320 the sample above).
321
324 The default window management is very limited. But it is possible to
325 write custom window managers to suit your needs. There is a sample win‐
326 dow-manager included (named s.so) which adds a little 'close-button'
327 for the windows, removes the borders from the buddylist and pops up new
328 windows in the middle of the screen, instead of at the upper-left
329 corder. It is provided as a sample simple manager, but it should be
330 possible to write more complex managers, and it's very possible that
331 the window-manager API will need to be enhanced. Look at the sample
332 ~/.gntrc file above to see how to select a window-manager.
333 It is also possible to rebind the window-manager actions in ~/.gntrc,
335 eg:
336 [GntWM::binding]
338 a-n = window-next
339 a-p = window-prev
340 a-c = window-close
341 a-w = window-list
342 a-d = dump-screen
343 a-, = shift-left
344 a-. = shift-right
345 a-a = action-list
346 a-m = start-move
347 a-r = start-resize
348 a-q = wm-quit
349 a-l = refresh-screen
350 a-s = workspace-list
351 a-t = window-tag
352 a-T = place-tagged
353 a-C = toggle-clipboard
354 a-/ = help-for-widget
355 a-c-j = window-scroll-down
356 a-c-k = window-scroll-up
357 # The following action is still incomplete, and doesn't have a default
358 binding
359 # switch-window-n
360 # Other actions: window-next-urgent, window-prev-urgent
361 # For the sample custom window manager
363 [GntS::binding]
364 a-b = toggle-buddylist
365 # For the irssi window manager
367 [Irssi::binding]
368 a-L = move-right
369 a-H = move-left
370 a-J = move-down
371 a-K = move-up
372
375 There are a few helpful commands in addition to the regular commands.
376 You can use these from any conversation to access other windows.
377 accounts
380 for the accounts window.
381 buddylist
384 for the buddylist.
385 debugwin
388 for the debug window.
389 plugins
392 for the plugins window.
393 prefs for the preferences window.
396 status for the status window.
399
402 FAQ for finch is located at
403 http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch
404
407 Known bugs are listed at
408 http://developer.pidgin.im/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=re‐
409 opened&component=finch+%28gnt%2Fncurses%29&order=priority
410 Before sending a bug report, please verify that you have the latest
412 version of finch and libpurple. Many bugs (major and minor) are fixed
413 at each release, and if yours is out of date, the problem may already
414 have been solved.
415
418 If you fix a bug in finch (or otherwise enhance it), please submit a
419 patch (using mtn diff > my.diff against the latest version from the
420 Monotone repository) at http://developer.pidgin.im/simpleticket
421 You are also encouraged to drop by at #pidgin on irc.libera.chat to
423 discuss development.
424
427 http://pidgin.im/
428 http://developer.pidgin.im/
429 purple-remote(1)
430 pidgin(1)
431
434 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
435 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
436 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
437 option) any later version.
438 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
440 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
441 CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
442 Public License for more details.
443 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
445 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
446 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02111-1301 USA
447
450 Sadrul Habib Chowdhury <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net>
451 This manpage was written by Sadrul Habib Chowdhury
453 <sadrul@users.sourceforge.net> and Dennis Ristuccia <dennis@den‐
454 nisr.net>.
455 finch(1)