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gaim(1) gaim(1)
NAME
Gaim v1.5.0-12.el4 - Instant Messaging client
SYNOPSIS
gaim [options]
DESCRIPTION
gaim is a GTK2-based Instant Messaging (IM) application. It supports
multiple protocols via modules, including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN, Jab-
ber, IRC, Napster, Gadu-Gadu and Zephyr. It has many common features
found in other clients, as well as many unique features. Gaim is not
endorsed by or affiliated with America Online, ICQ, Microsoft, or
Yahoo.
OPTIONS
The following options are provided by gaim using the standard GNU com-
mand line syntax:
-a, --acct
Launch the Account Editor rather than the Login window on
start.
-d, --debug
Print debugging messages to stdout. These are the same debug-
ging messages that are displayed in the Debug window.
-c, --config=DIR
Use DIR as the directory for config files instead of ~/.gaim.
-h, --help
Print this help and exit.
-l, --login[=NAME]
Automatically login on start using the default account or the
account specified by the NAME parameter.
-n, --loginwin
Don't automatically login when gaim starts. Show the Login
window instead.
-u, --user=NAME
Use account NAME as default.
-v, --version
Display the version information window.
-w, --away[=MESG]
Automatically go away on signon. You may optionally use the
MESG parameter to set the away message.
BUDDY LIST
The Buddy List window is gaim'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
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 per-
formed when the buddy's state changes. This will open the
Buddy Pounce dialog to be discussed later.
View Log
gaim is capable of automatically log its activities. These
logs are either plain text files (with a .log extension) or
html files (with a menu command will attempt to view this file
with gaim's internal log viewer.
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 display 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 gaim's
configuration file.
If Auto-Login is chosen, this account will automatically login upon
starting gaim.
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 gaim to bring the Buddy List window 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 buddies
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 automatically
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 picture-
only, text-only, combined picture/text, or no buttons will be used for
Conversation windows.
Enable "slash" commands: Determines whether messages starting with
"slash" (eg. /help) will be interpreted as commands by gaim, or if
they will just be sent as messages.
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 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.
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 chats 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 conver-
sation 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 windows 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 gaim to disregard
buddies' color/font/size 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 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).
Sound Events
Lets the user choose when and what sounds are to be played.
Network
IP Address
Autodetect IP Address: Gaim 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 gaim to operate through a
proxy server. gaim currently supports SOCKS 4/5 and HTTP prox-
ies.
Browser
Allows the user to select gaim'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 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 gaim decides that the connec-
tion is idle.
Idle time reporting: If None is selected, account idle time will not
be reported. Gaim usage infers your idle time from your usage of
gaim. X usage infers your idle time from X (this option may not be
universally available).
Auto-away: Determines if and under what conditions gaim will automati-
cally 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 gaim. Several of these
come with gaim, 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 con-
figuration 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 format-
ting. From left to right:
Bold Turns on/off bold.
Italics
Turns on/off italics.
Underline
Turns on/off underline.
Decrease font size
Increases the size of the message text.
Increase font size
Decreases 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 message.
Add hyperlink
Adds a clickable link to the message.
Add smiley
Adds an emoticon (smiley) to your message.
Beneath the lower text box is a row of buttons that execute
commands:
Warn This issues a warning to the other person 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 pro-
tocols where Gaim 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's 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 sen-
tence 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 mes-
sage 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 mes-
sage 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
Gaim allows for dynamic loading of plugins to add extra functionality
to gaim. Plugins can be enabled and configured from the Preferences
window. See plugins/HOWTO for more information on writing plugins.
PERL
Gaim allows for perl scripting. See Perl Scripting HOWTO in the Gaim
documentation for more information about perl scripting.
TCL
Gaim allows for Tcl scripting. See plugins/tcl/TCL-HOWTO for more
information about Tcl scripting.
FILES
/usr/bin/gaim: gaim's location.
/usr/lib/gaim/: gaim's plugins directory.
~/.gaim/prefs.xml: gaim's configuration file.
~/.gaim/accounts.xml: information about your accounts.
~/.gaim/status.xml: stores your away messages.
~/.gaim/pounces.xml: stores your buddy pounces.
~/.gaim/logs/PROTOCOL/ACCOUNT/SCREENNAME/DATE.log: conversation logs.
~/.gaim/blist.xml: the buddy list.
~/.gaim/plugins/: users local plugins
BUGS
Known bugs are listed at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=235&atid=100235
PATCHES
If you fix a bug in gaim (or otherwise enhance it), please submit a
patch (using cvs diff -up > my.diff against the latest CVS version) at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=235&atid=300235
Before sending a bug report, please verify that you have the latest
version of gaim. Many bugs (major and minor) are fixed at each
release, and if yours is out of date, the problem may already have
been solved.
SEE ALSO
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/gaim/
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 MER-
CHANTABILITY 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 Founda-
tion, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
AUTHORS
Gaim's active developers are:
Rob Flynn (maintainer)
Sean Egan (lead developer)
Christian 'ChipX86' Hammond (developer & webmaster)
Herman Bloggs (win32 port)
Nathan 'faceprint' Walp (developer)
Mark 'KingAnt' Doliner (developer)
Ethan 'Paco-Paco' Blanton (developer)
Tim 'marv' Ringenbach (developer)
Luke 'LSchiere' Schierer (support)
Stu 'nosnilmot' Tomlinson (developer)
Our crazy patch writers include:
Benjamin Miller
Decklin Foster
Etan 'deryni' Reisner
Robert 'Robot101' McQueen
Kevin 'SimGuy' Stange
Gary 'grim' Kramlich
Ka-Hing 'javabsp' Cheung
Felipe 'shx' Contreras
Daniel 'datallah' Atallah
The retired developers of gaim are:
Adam Fritzler (former libfaim maintainer)
Eric Warmenhoven (former lead developer)
Jim Duchek (former maintainer)
Jim Seymour (former Jabber developer)
Mark Spencer (original author)
Syd Logan (hacker and designated driver [lazy bum])
This manpage was originally written by Dennis Ristuccia . It has been updated and largely rewritten by Sean Egan
and Ben Tegarden .
gaim(1)
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