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3.5-2
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1<chapter id="misc">
2<title>Misc Stuff</title>
3
4<sect1 id="smileys">
5<title>Smileys</title>
6
7<para>
8All MSN smileys (except one) are case insensitive and work without the nose too.
9</para>
10
11<variablelist>
12        <varlistentry><term>(Y)</term><listitem><para>Thumbs up</para></listitem></varlistentry>
13        <varlistentry><term>(N)</term><listitem><para>Thumbs down</para></listitem></varlistentry>
14        <varlistentry><term>(B)</term><listitem><para>Beer mug</para></listitem></varlistentry>
15        <varlistentry><term>(D)</term><listitem><para>Martini glass</para></listitem></varlistentry>
16        <varlistentry><term>(X)</term><listitem><para>Girl</para></listitem></varlistentry>
17        <varlistentry><term>(Z)</term><listitem><para>Boy</para></listitem></varlistentry>
18        <varlistentry><term>(6)</term><listitem><para>Devil smiley</para></listitem></varlistentry>
19        <varlistentry><term>:-[</term><listitem><para>Vampire bat</para></listitem></varlistentry>
20        <varlistentry><term>(})</term><listitem><para>Right hug</para></listitem></varlistentry>
21        <varlistentry><term>({)</term><listitem><para>Left hug</para></listitem></varlistentry>
22        <varlistentry><term>(M)</term><listitem><para>MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger icon (think a BitlBee logo here ;)</para></listitem></varlistentry>
23        <varlistentry><term>:-S</term><listitem><para>Crooked smiley (Confused smiley)</para></listitem></varlistentry>
24        <varlistentry><term>:-$</term><listitem><para>Embarrassed smiley</para></listitem></varlistentry>
25        <varlistentry><term>(H)</term><listitem><para>Smiley with sunglasses</para></listitem></varlistentry>
26        <varlistentry><term>:-@</term><listitem><para>Angry smiley</para></listitem></varlistentry>
27        <varlistentry><term>(A)</term><listitem><para>Angel smiley</para></listitem></varlistentry>
28        <varlistentry><term>(L)</term><listitem><para>Red heart (Love)</para></listitem></varlistentry>
29        <varlistentry><term>(U)</term><listitem><para>Broken heart</para></listitem></varlistentry>
30        <varlistentry><term>(K)</term><listitem><para>Red lips (Kiss)</para></listitem></varlistentry>
31        <varlistentry><term>(G)</term><listitem><para>Gift with bow</para></listitem></varlistentry>
32        <varlistentry><term>(F)</term><listitem><para>Red rose</para></listitem></varlistentry>
33        <varlistentry><term>(W)</term><listitem><para>Wilted rose</para></listitem></varlistentry>
34        <varlistentry><term>(P)</term><listitem><para>Camera</para></listitem></varlistentry>
35        <varlistentry><term>(~)</term><listitem><para>Film strip</para></listitem></varlistentry>
36        <varlistentry><term>(T)</term><listitem><para>Telephone receiver</para></listitem></varlistentry>
37        <varlistentry><term>(@)</term><listitem><para>Cat face</para></listitem></varlistentry>
38        <varlistentry><term>(&amp;)</term><listitem><para>Dog's head</para></listitem></varlistentry>
39        <varlistentry><term>(C)</term><listitem><para>Coffee cup</para></listitem></varlistentry>
40        <varlistentry><term>(I)</term><listitem><para>Light bulb</para></listitem></varlistentry>
41        <varlistentry><term>(S)</term><listitem><para>Half-moon (Case sensitive!)</para></listitem></varlistentry>
42        <varlistentry><term>(*)</term><listitem><para>Star</para></listitem></varlistentry>
43        <varlistentry><term>(8)</term><listitem><para>Musical eighth note</para></listitem></varlistentry>
44        <varlistentry><term>(E)</term><listitem><para>Envelope</para></listitem></varlistentry>
45        <varlistentry><term>(^)</term><listitem><para>Birthday cake</para></listitem></varlistentry>
46        <varlistentry><term>(O)</term><listitem><para>Clock</para></listitem></varlistentry>
47</variablelist>
48
49</sect1>
50
51<sect1 id="groupchats">
52<title>Groupchats</title>
53<para>
54BitlBee now supports groupchats on all IM networks. This text will try to explain you how they work.
55</para>
56
57<para>
58As soon as someone invites you into a groupchat, you will be force-joined or invited (depending on the protocol) into a new virtual channel with all the people in there. You can leave the channel at any time, just like you would close the window in regular IM clients. Please note that root-commands don't work in groupchat channels, they only work in control channels (or to root directly).
59</para>
60
61<para>
62Of course you can also create your own groupchats. Type <emphasis>help groupchats2</emphasis> to see how.
63</para>
64
65</sect1>
66
67<sect1 id="groupchats2">
68<title>Creating groupchats</title>
69
70<para>
71To open a groupchat, use the <emphasis>chat with</emphasis> command. For example,  to start a groupchat with the person <emphasis>lisa_msn</emphasis> in it, just type <emphasis>chat with lisa_msn</emphasis>. BitlBee will create a new virtual channel with root, you and lisa_msn in it.
72</para>
73
74<para>
75Then, just use the ordinary IRC <emphasis>/invite</emphasis> command to invite more people. Please do keep in mind that all the people have to be on the same network and contact list! You can't invite Yahoo! buddies into an MSN groupchat.
76</para>
77
78<para>
79Some protocols (like Jabber) also support named groupchats. BitlBee supports these too. You can use the <emphasis>chat add</emphasis> command to join them. See <emphasis>help chat add</emphasis> for more information.
80</para>
81
82<para>
83If you don't know the name of a named groupchat, you can try the <emphasis>chat list</emphasis> command to get a list of chatrooms from a server. See <emphasis>help chat list</emphasis> for usage instructions.
84</para>
85</sect1>
86
87<sect1 id="away">
88<title>Away states</title>
89
90<para>
91To mark yourself as away, you can just use the <emphasis>/away</emphasis> command in your IRC client. BitlBee supports most away-states supported by the protocols.
92</para>
93
94<para>
95Away states have different names across different protocols. BitlBee will try to pick the best available option for every connection:
96</para>
97
98<simplelist>
99        <member>Away</member>
100        <member>NA</member>
101        <member>Busy, DND</member>
102        <member>BRB</member>
103        <member>Phone</member>
104        <member>Lunch, Food</member>
105        <member>Invisible, Hidden</member>
106</simplelist>
107
108<para>
109So <emphasis>/away Food</emphasis> will set your state to "Out to lunch" on your MSN connection, and for most other connections the default, "Away" will be chosen.
110</para>
111
112<para>
113You can also add more information to your away message. Setting it to "Busy - Fixing BitlBee bugs" will set your IM-away-states to Busy, but your away message will be more descriptive for people on IRC. Most IM-protocols can also show this additional information to your buddies.
114</para>
115
116<para>
117If you want to set an away state for only one of your connections, you can use the per-account <emphasis>away</emphasis> setting. See <emphasis>help set away</emphasis>.
118</para>
119
120</sect1>
121
122<sect1 id="nick_changes">
123<title>Changing your nickname</title>
124
125<para>
126BitlBee now allows you to change your nickname. So far this was not possible because it made managing saved accounts more complicated.
127</para>
128
129<para>
130The restriction no longer exists now though. When you change your nick (just using the <emphasis>/nick</emphasis> command), your logged-in status will be reset, which means any changes made to your settings/accounts will not be saved.
131</para>
132
133<para>
134To restore your logged-in status, you need to either use the <emphasis>register</emphasis> command to create an account under the new nickname, or use <emphasis>identify -noload</emphasis> to re-identify yourself under the new nickname. The <emphasis>-noload</emphasis> flag tells the command to verify your password and log you in, but not load any new settings. See <emphasis>help identify</emphasis> for more information.
135</para>
136
137</sect1>
138
139<sect1 id="channels">
140<title>Dealing with channels</title>
141
142<para>
143You can have as many channels in BitlBee as you want. You maintain your channel list using the <emphasis>channel</emphasis> command. You can create new channels by just joining them, like on regular IRC networks.
144</para>
145
146<para>
147You can create two kinds of channels. Control channels, and groupchat channels. By default, BitlBee will set up new channels as control channels if their name starts with an &amp;, and as chat channels if it starts with a #.
148</para>
149
150<para>
151Control channels are where you see your contacts. By default, you will have one control channel called &amp;bitlbee, containing all your contacts. But you can create more, if you want, and divide your contact list across several channels.
152</para>
153
154<para>
155For example, you can have one channel with all contacts from your MSN Messenger account in it. Or all contacts from the group called "Work".
156</para>
157
158<para>
159Type <emphasis>help channels2</emphasis> to read more.
160</para>
161
162</sect1>
163
164<sect1 id="channels2">
165<title>Creating a channel</title>
166
167<para>
168When you create a new channel, BitlBee will try to guess from its name which contacts to fill it with. For example, if the channel name (excluding the &amp;) matches the name of a group in which you have one or more contacts, the channel will contain all those contacts.
169</para>
170
171<para>
172Any valid account ID (so a number, protocol name or part of screenname, as long as it's unique) can also be used as a channel name. So if you just join &amp;msn, it will contain all your MSN contacts. And if you have a Facebook account set up, you can see its contacts by just joining &amp;facebook.
173</para>
174
175<para>
176To start a simple group chat, you simply join a channel which a name starting with #, and invite people into it. All people you invite have to be on the same IM network and contact list.
177</para>
178
179<para>
180If you want to configure your own channels, you can use the <emphasis>channel set</emphasis> command. See <emphasis>help channels3</emphasis> for more information.
181</para>
182
183</sect1>
184
185<sect1 id="channels3">
186<title>Configuring a control channel</title>
187
188<para>
189The most important setting for a control channel is <emphasis>fill_by</emphasis>. It
190tells BitlBee what information should be used to decide if someone should be shown
191in the channel or not. After setting this setting to, for example, <emphasis>account</emphasis>, you
192also have to set the <emphasis>account</emphasis> setting. Example:
193</para>
194
195<ircexample>
196        <ircline nick="wilmer">chan &amp;wlm set fill_by account</ircline>
197        <ircline nick="root">fill_by = `account'</ircline>
198        <ircline nick="wilmer">chan &amp;wlm set account msn</ircline>
199        <ircline nick="root">account = `msn'</ircline>
200</ircexample>
201
202<para>
203Also, each channel has a <emphasis>show_users</emphasis> setting which lets you
204choose, for example, if you want to see only online contacts in a channel, or
205also/just offline contacts. Example:
206</para>
207
208<ircexample>
209        <ircline nick="wilmer">chan &amp;offline set show_users offline</ircline>
210        <ircline nick="root">show_users = `offline'</ircline>
211</ircexample>
212
213<para>
214See the help information for all these settings for more information.
215</para>
216
217</sect1>
218
219<sect1 id="nick_format">
220<title>Nickname formatting</title>
221
222<para>
223The <emphasis>nick_format</emphasis> setting can be set globally using
224the <emphasis>set</emphasis> command, or per account using <emphasis>account
225set</emphasis> (so that you can set a per-account suffix/prefix or have
226nicknames generated from full names for certain accounts).
227</para>
228
229<para>
230The setting is basically some kind of format string. It can contain normal
231text that will be copied to the nick, combined with several variables:
232</para>
233
234<variablelist>
235        <varlistentry><term>%nick</term><listitem><para>Nickname suggested for this contact by the IM protocol, or just the handle if no nickname was suggested.</para></listitem></varlistentry>
236        <varlistentry><term>%handle</term><listitem><para>The handle/screenname of the contact.</para></listitem></varlistentry>
237        <varlistentry><term>%full_name</term><listitem><para>The full name of the contact.</para></listitem></varlistentry>
238        <varlistentry><term>%first_name</term><listitem><para>The first name of the contact (the full name up to the first space).</para></listitem></varlistentry>
239        <varlistentry><term>%group</term><listitem><para>The name of the group this contact is a member of</para></listitem></varlistentry>
240        <varlistentry><term>%account</term><listitem><para>Account tag of the contact</para></listitem></varlistentry>
241</variablelist>
242
243<para>
244Invalid characters (like spaces) will always be stripped. Depending on your
245locale settings, characters with accents will be converted to ASCII.
246</para>
247
248<para>
249See <emphasis>help nick_format2</emphasis> for some more information.
250</para>
251
252</sect1>
253
254<sect1 id="nick_format2">
255<title>Nickname formatting - modifiers</title>
256
257<para>
258Two modifiers are currently available: You can include only the first few
259characters of a variable by putting a number right after the %. For
260example, <emphasis>[%3group]%-@nick</emphasis> will include only the first
261three characters of the group name in the nick.
262</para>
263
264<para>
265Also, you can truncate variables from a certain character using
266the <emphasis>-</emphasis> modifier. For example, you may want to leave out
267everything after the @. <emphasis>%-@handle</emphasis> will expand to
268everything in the handle up to the first @.
269</para>
270
271</sect1>
272
273<sect1 id="identify_methods">
274<title>Identifying to your BitlBee account</title>
275
276<para>There are several methods to identify (log in) to your registered BitlBee account. All of these are equivalent:</para>
277
278<variablelist>
279        <varlistentry>
280                <term>The 'identify' command</term>
281                <listitem><para>sent to &amp;bitlbee or root. See <emphasis>help identify</emphasis> for details.</para></listitem>
282        </varlistentry>
283        <varlistentry>
284                <term>/msg nickserv identify</term>
285                <listitem><para>Same as above, but sent to NickServ. Useful with some auto-identify scripts.</para></listitem>
286        </varlistentry>
287        <varlistentry>
288                <term>/nickserv or /ns</term>
289                <listitem><para>Same as above, but using the command aliases to NickServ.</para></listitem>
290        </varlistentry>
291        <varlistentry>
292                <term>Server password</term>
293                <listitem><para>A field in the server connection settings of your irc client.</para></listitem>
294        </varlistentry>
295        <varlistentry>
296                <term>SASL PLAIN</term>
297                <listitem><para>A newer method, good choice if your client supports it. (Note: "SASL" is <emphasis>not</emphasis> related to "SSL")</para></listitem>
298        </varlistentry>
299</variablelist>
300
301<para>To configure your client to auto-identify, the last two methods are recommended. SASL if you have it, but server password is often the easiest.</para>
302
303<para>Note: If you changed bitlbee.conf to have <emphasis>AuthMode = Closed</emphasis>, server password will be used for that instead. If you have never heard of that setting before, you can ignore it and just use it.</para>
304
305</sect1>
306
307<sect1 id="whatsnew010206">
308<title>New stuff in BitlBee 1.2.6</title>
309
310<para>
311Twitter support. See <emphasis>help account add twitter</emphasis>.
312</para>
313</sect1>
314
315<sect1 id="whatsnew010300">
316<title>New stuff in BitlBee 1.3dev</title>
317
318<para>
319Support for multiple configurable control channels, each with a subset of
320your contact list. See <emphasis>help channels</emphasis> for more
321information.
322</para>
323
324<para>
325File transfer support for some protocols (more if you use libpurple). Just
326/DCC SEND stuff. Incoming files also become DCC transfers.
327</para>
328
329<para>
330Only if you run your own BitlBee instance: You can build a BitlBee that uses
331libpurple for connecting to IM networks instead of its own code, adding
332support for some of the more obscure IM protocols and features.
333</para>
334
335<para>
336Many more things, briefly described in <emphasis>help news1.3</emphasis>.
337</para>
338</sect1>
339
340<sect1 id="whatsnew030000">
341<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.0</title>
342
343<para>
344BitlBee can be compiled with support for OTR message encryption (not available
345on public servers since encryption should be end-to-end).
346</para>
347
348<para>
349The MSN module was heavily updated to support features added to MSN Messenger
350over the recent years. You can now see/set status messages, send offline
351messages, and many strange issues caused by Microsoft breaking old-protocol
352compatibility should now be resolved.
353</para>
354
355<para>
356Twitter extended: IRC-style replies ("BitlBee:") now get converted to proper
357Twitter replies ("@BitlBee") and get a reference to the original message
358(see <emphasis>help set auto_reply_timeout</emphasis>). Retweets and some
359other stuff is also supported now (see <emphasis>help set commands</emphasis>).
360</para>
361</sect1>
362
363<sect1 id="news1.3">
364<title>New stuff in BitlBee 1.3dev (details)</title>
365
366<para>
367Most of the core of BitlBee was rewritten since the last release. This entry
368should sum up the majority of the changes.
369</para>
370
371<para>
372First of all, you can now have as many control channels as you want. Or you
373can have none, it's finally possible to leave &amp;bitlbee and still talk to
374all your contacts. Or you can have a &amp;work with all your work-related
375contacts, or a &amp;msn with all your MSN Messenger contacts. See <emphasis>help
376channels</emphasis> for more information about this.
377</para>
378
379<para>
380Also, you can change how nicknames are generated for your contacts. Like
381automatically adding a [fb] tag to the nicks of all your Facebook contacts.
382See <emphasis>help nick_format</emphasis>.
383</para>
384
385<para>
386When you're already connected to a BitlBee server and you connect from
387elsewhere, you can take over the old session.
388</para>
389
390<para>
391Instead of account numbers, accounts now also get tags. These are
392automatically generated but can be changed (<emphasis>help set
393tag</emphasis>). You can now use them instead of accounts numbers.
394(Example: <emphasis>acc gtalk on</emphasis>)
395</para>
396
397<para>
398Last of all: You can finally change your nickname and
399shorten root commands (try <emphasis>acc li</emphasis> instead
400of <emphasis>account list</emphasis>).
401</para>
402
403</sect1>
404
405<sect1 id="whatsnew030005">
406<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.0.5</title>
407
408<para>
409OAuth2 support in Jabber module (see <emphasis>help set oauth</emphasis>).
410For better password security when using Google Talk, Facebook XMPP, or for
411using MSN Messenger via XMPP. Especially recommended on public servers.
412</para>
413
414<para>
415Starting quick groupchats on Jabber is easier now (using the <emphasis>chat
416with</emphasis> command, or <emphasis>/join</emphasis> + <emphasis>/invite</emphasis>).
417</para>
418
419<para>
420SSL certificate verification. Works only with GnuTLS, and needs to be enabled
421by updating your <emphasis>bitlbee.conf</emphasis>.
422</para>
423</sect1>
424
425<sect1 id="whatsnew030200">
426<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.2</title>
427
428<para>
429Upgradeed to Twitter API version 1.1. This is necessary because previous
430versions will stop working from March 2013. At the same time, BitlBee now
431supports the streaming API and incoming direct messages.
432</para>
433</sect1>
434
435<sect1 id="whatsnew030202">
436<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.2.2</title>
437
438<para>
439The OTR plugin now uses libotr 4.0 (AKA libotr5 in debian based distros)
440</para>
441
442<para>
443A few minor fixes/additions, like being able to use /oper to change
444passwords with <emphasis>account tag set -del password</emphasis>
445</para>
446</sect1>
447
448<sect1 id="whatsnew030400">
449<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.4</title>
450
451<para>
452Lots of bugfixes! <emphasis>Important:</emphasis> Recompiling third party plugins such as bitlbee-steam or bitlbee-facebook is <emphasis>required</emphasis>!
453</para>
454
455<simplelist>
456        <member><emphasis>twitter:</emphasis> Filter channels - Search by keyword/hashtag or a list of users. See the <emphasis>HowtoTwitter</emphasis> wiki page for more details!</member>
457        <member><emphasis>twitter:</emphasis> Add "rawreply" command, like reply but bitlbee won't add @mention. Also add "favorite" / "fav" command aliases.</member>
458        <member><emphasis>twitter:</emphasis> Start stream from last tweet on connect/reconnect to avoid showing duplicate tweets</member>
459        <member><emphasis>jabber:</emphasis> Fixed crashes with file transfers (they still fail at bypassing NATs, but at least they fail without crashing)</member>
460        <member><emphasis>purple:</emphasis> Improved support for gadugadu, whatsapp and telegram.</member>
461        <member><emphasis>msn:</emphasis> disabled in this release since the protocol we used (MSNP18) stopped working.</member>
462        <member>Add a 'pattern' parameter to the blist command, to filter it.</member>
463        <member>The <emphasis>utf8_nicks</emphasis> setting should be more reliable now.</member>
464</simplelist>
465
466<para>
467See the full changelog for details!
468</para>
469
470</sect1>
471
472<sect1 id="whatsnew030401">
473<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.4.1</title>
474
475<simplelist>
476        <member><emphasis>msn:</emphasis> Upgraded protocol version to MSNP21, works again</member>
477        <member><emphasis>jabber:</emphasis> Add "hipchat" protocol, for smoother login. Takes the same username as the official client. Note that unlike the 'hip-cat' branch, this doesn't preload channels. See the <emphasis>HowtoHipchat</emphasis> wiki page for details</member>
478        <member><emphasis>jabber:</emphasis> Gmail notifications support</member>
479        <member><emphasis>twitter:</emphasis> Show quoted tweets inline. Added "url" command, can be used to quote tweets.</member>
480</simplelist>
481
482</sect1>
483
484<sect1 id="whatsnew030402">
485<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.4.2</title>
486
487<simplelist>
488        <member><emphasis>irc:</emphasis> Self-messages (messages sent by yourself from other IM clients), see <emphasis>help set self_messages</emphasis>. IRCv3.1 support and part of 3.2. Many important groupchat related bugfixes.</member>
489        <member><emphasis>jabber:</emphasis> Carbons, see <emphasis>help set carbons</emphasis>. Removed facebook XMPP, use bitlbee-facebook instead. SASL ANONYMOUS login, see <emphasis>help set anonymous</emphasis>.</member>
490        <member><emphasis>hipchat:</emphasis> Channels can now be added with <emphasis>chat add hipchat "channel name"</emphasis> which tries to guess the channel JID.</member>
491        <member><emphasis>skype:</emphasis> Show all messages as groupchats since we can't tell which ones are private. This plugin is mostly-deprecated and mostly-broken, use the skypeweb purple plugin or msn instead.</member>
492        <member><emphasis>purple:</emphasis> Fix problems remembering SSL certificates as trusted. Groupchat related fixes. Better error reporting. Fixed setting jabber away states.</member>
493</simplelist>
494
495<para>
496        And lots of bugfixes / stability improvements. See the full changelog for details!
497</para>
498
499</sect1>
500
501<sect1 id="whatsnew030500">
502<title>New stuff in BitlBee 3.5</title>
503
504<simplelist>
505        <member>New commands: <emphasis>chat list</emphasis> and <emphasis>plugins</emphasis>. New settings: <emphasis>nick_lowercase</emphasis>, <emphasis>nick_underscores</emphasis></member>
506        <member><emphasis>twitter:</emphasis> Hide muted tweets / no-retweets, add mute/unmute commands. Show full version of extended tweets.</member>
507        <member><emphasis>jabber:</emphasis> <emphasis>always_use_nicks</emphasis> channel setting. Don't send parts in a chat if someone is still connected from other devices. Personal oauth token login for hipchat.</member>
508        <member><emphasis>purple:</emphasis> Setting /topic. Fixes for SIPE and LINE. Don't ask for password if not needed (hangouts, telegram). Set nicks to %full_name for a few protocols (hangouts, funyahoo, icq, line)</member>
509</simplelist>
510
511<para>
512See the full changelog for details!
513</para>
514
515</sect1>
516
517</chapter>
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