finch(1)

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 XMPP, 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.

OPTIONS
The following options are provided by finch 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 stderr and start with the Debug window. The messages shown in the Debug window are the same as the ones printed in stderr.

-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 (see the "Widget Actions" section for a more complete list):

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.

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.

Alt + Tab
    Jump to the next URGENT (highlighted) window.

Alt + Shift + Tab
    Jump to the previous URGENT (highlighted) window.

Ctrl + o  or  F10
    Bring up the menu (if there is one) for a window.

F11  or  Ctrl + x
    Popup the context menu (if there is one) for the selected widget.

Alt + /
    Show a list of available key-bindings for the current widget in focus.

Alt + >
    Switch to the next workspace

Alt + <
    Switch to the previous workspace

Alt + t
    Tag (or untag) the current window

Alt + T
    Attached all the tagged windows to the current workspace

Alt + s
    Show the workspace list

F9  Create a new workspace and switch to it

FILES
~/.gntrc: configuration file for gnt applications.

A sample file looks like:
    [Finch]
    color-available = green; black
    color-away = blue; black
    color-idle = gray; black
    color-offline = red; black
    color-message-sent = cyan; default
    color-message-received = red; default
    color-message-highlight = black; green
    color-message-action = yellow; default
    color-timestamp = blue; default
    #See below for details on color

    [general]
    shadow = 0
    # There is experimental mouse support
    mouse = 1
    # To use some custom window-manager
    wm = /usr/local/lib/gnt/s.so
    # There's also a custom window manager called irssi.so
    # Remember window-positions based on the titles (on by default)
    remember_position = 1
    # Use borderless one-line high buttons
    small-button = true

    # Workspaces are created simply by adding Workspace-X groups as follows:
    [Workspace-1]
    name = blist
    # window-names specifies that windows with these semi-colon separated names are placed into this workspace
    window-names = buddylist;debug-window

    [Workspace-2]
    name = IM
    window-names = conversation-window
    # window-titles specifies that windows with these semi-colon separated titles are placed into this workspace. These are matched as substrings. Window titles take precedence over names.
    window-titles = Preferences;Pounce

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

[GntBox::binding]
tab = focus-next
right = focus-next
left = focus-prev

[GntComboBox::binding]
down = dropdown
up = dropdown

[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
page-down = suggest-next-page
page-up = suggest-prev-page
c-w = delete-prev-word
a-b = cursor-prev-word
a-f = cursor-next-word
a-d = delete-next-word
c-v = clipboard-paste
c-p = history-prev
c-n = history-next
c-r = history-search
c-up = history-prev
c-down = history-next

[GntTree::binding]
up = move-up
down = move-down
c-n = move-down
c-p = move-up
pageup = page-up
pagedown = page-down
backspace = move-parent
home = move-first
end = move-last
# 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
c-x = 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.

To unbind a key which has a default binding, you simply bind it to the empty string. For example, to unbind Alt + q from the Quit function, you would use:

[GntWM::binding]
a-q =

Menus
You can also specify key-bindings to trigger specific menuitems in windows. For example, the following entry in ~/.gntrc will bind Ctrl + t to the 'Send IM...' item in the buddylist:

[buddylist::menu]
c-t = send-im

The following is the list of IDs of the current menuitems in the buddylist:

send-im
join-chat
show-empty-groups
show-offline-buddies
sort-status
sort-alpha
sort-log
add-buddy
add-chat
add-group

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
a-s = workspace-list
a-t = window-tag
a-T = place-tagged
a-C = toggle-clipboard
a-/ = help-for-widget
a-c-j = window-scroll-down
a-c-k = window-scroll-up
# The following action is still incomplete, and doesn't have a default binding
# switch-window-n
# Other actions: window-next-urgent, window-prev-urgent

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

# For the irssi window manager
[Irssi::binding]
a-L = move-right
a-H = move-left
a-J = move-down
a-K = move-up

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.

FAQ
FAQ for finch is located at
http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch

BUGS
Known bugs are listed at
http://developer.pidgin.im/query?status=new&status=assigned&status=reopened&component=finch+%28gnt%2Fncurses%29&order=priority

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/simpleticket

You are also encouraged to drop by at #pidgin on irc.libera.chat to discuss development.

SEE ALSO
http://pidgin.im/
http://developer.pidgin.im/
purple-remote(1)
pidgin(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
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>.