source: doc/user-guide/user-guide.txt @ 06045f6

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1BitlBee User Guide
2
3Jelmer Vernooij
4
5Wilmer van der Gaast
6
7Sjoerd Hemminga
8
9This is the initial release of the BitlBee User Guide.
10
11Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the
12terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version
13published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no
14Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU
15Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their
16Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place -
17Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
18
19-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20
21Table of Contents
22
231. Installation
24
25    Downloading the package
26    Compiling
27    Configuration
28
292. Usage
30
31    Connecting to the server
32    The #bitlbee control channel
33    Talking to people
34
353. Support
36
37    BitlBee is beta software
38    Support channels
39
40        The World Wide Web
41        IRC
42        Mailinglists
43
444. Quickstart
45
46    Add and Connect To your IM Account(s)
47    Managing Contact Lists: Rename
48    Step Four: Managing Contact Lists: Add and Remove.
49    Chatting
50    Further Resources
51
525. Bitlbee commands
53
54    account - IM-account list maintenance
55
56        account add
57        account del
58        account on
59        account off
60        account list
61
62    add - Add a buddy to your contact list
63    info - Request user information
64    remove - Remove a buddy from your contact list
65    block - Block someone
66    allow - Unblock someone
67    set - Miscellaneous settings
68    help - BitlBee help system
69    save - Save your account data
70    charset
71    private
72    save_on_quit
73    html
74    debug
75    to_char
76    typing_notice
77    ops
78    away_devoice
79    handle_unknown
80    auto_connect
81    auto_reconnect
82    auto_reconnect_delay
83    buddy_sendbuffer
84    buddy_sendbuffer_delay
85    default_target
86    display_namechanges
87    password
88    query_order
89    lcnicks
90    rename - Rename (renick) a buddy
91    yes - Accept a request
92    no - Deny a request
93    qlist - List all the unanswered questions root asked
94    register - Register yourself
95    identify - Identify yourself with your password
96    drop - Drop your account
97    blist - List all the buddies in your contact list
98    nick - Change friendly name, nick
99    import_buddies - Copy local buddy list to server (normally only needed when
100        upgrading)
101
1026. Misc Stuff
103
104    Smileys
105    Groupchats
106    Creating groupchats
107    Groupchat channel names
108    Away states
109
110Chapter 1. Installation
111
112Table of Contents
113
114Downloading the package
115Compiling
116Configuration
117
118Downloading the package
119
120The latest BitlBee release is always available from http://www.bitlbee.org/.
121Download the package with your favorite program and unpack it: tar xvfz
122bitlbee-<version>.tar.gz where <version> is to be replaced by the version
123number of the BitlBee you downloaded (e.g. 0.91).
124
125Compiling
126
127BitlBee's build system has to be configured before compiling. The configure
128script will do this for you. Just run it, it'll set up with nice and hopefully
129well-working defaults. If you want to change some settings, just try ./
130configure --help and see what you can do.
131
132Some variables that might be of interest to the normal user:
133
134  * prefix, bindir, etcdir, mandir, datadir - The place where all the BitlBee
135    program files will be put. There's usually no reason to specify them all
136    separately, just specifying prefix (or keeping the default /usr/local/)
137    should be okay.
138
139  * config - The place where BitlBee will save all the per-user settings and
140    buddy information. /var/lib/bitlbee/ is the default value.
141
142  * msn, jabber, oscar, yahoo - By default, support for all these IM-protocols
143    (OSCAR is the protocol used by both ICQ and AIM) will be compiled in. To
144    make the binary a bit smaller, you can use these options to leave out
145    support for protocols you're not planning to use.
146
147  * debug - Generate an unoptimized binary with debugging symbols, mainly
148    useful if you want to do some debugging or help us to track down a problem.
149
150  * strip - By default, unnecessary parts of the generated binary will be
151    stripped out to make it as small as possible. If you don't want this
152    (because it might cause problems on some platforms), set this to 0.
153
154  * flood - To secure your BitlBee server against flooding attacks, you can use
155    this option. It's not compiled in by default because it needs more testing
156    first.
157
158  * ssl - The MSN and Jabber modules require an SSL library for some of their
159    tasks. BitlBee can use three different SSL libraries: GnuTLS, mozilla-nss
160    and OpenSSL. (OpenSSL is, however, a bit troublesome because of licensing
161    issues, so don't forget to read the information configure will give you
162    when you try to use OpenSSL!) By default, configure will try to detect
163    GnuTLS or mozilla-nss. If none of them can be found, it'll give up. If you
164    want BitlBee to use OpenSSL, you have to explicitly specify that.
165
166After running configure, you should run make. After that, run make install as
167root.
168
169Configuration
170
171By default, BitlBee runs as the user nobody. You might want to run it as a
172seperate user (some computers run named or apache as nobody).
173
174Since BitlBee uses inetd, you should add the following line to /etc/inetd.conf:
175
1766667    stream  tcp     nowait nobody /usr/local/sbin/bitlbee bitlbee
177
178Inetd has to be restarted after changing the configuration. Either killall -HUP
179inetd or /etc/init.d/inetd restart should do the job on most systems.
180
181You might be one of the.. ehr, lucky people running an xinetd-powered distro.
182xinetd is quite different and they seem to be proud of that.. ;-) Anyway, if
183you want BitlBee to work with xinetd, just copy the bitlbee.xinetd file to your
184/etc/xinetd.d/ directory (and probably edit it to suit your needs).
185
186You should create a directory where BitlBee can store it's data files. This
187should be the directory named after the value 'CONFIG' in Makefile.settings.
188The default is /var/lib/bitlbee, which can be created with the command mkdir -p
189/var/lib/bitlbee. This directory has to be owned by the user that runs bitlbee.
190To make 'nobody' owner of this directory, run chown nobody /var/lib/bitlbee.
191Because things like passwords are saved in this directory, it's probably a good
192idea to make this directory owner-read-/writable only.
193
194Chapter 2. Usage
195
196Table of Contents
197
198Connecting to the server
199The #bitlbee control channel
200Talking to people
201
202Connecting to the server
203
204Since BitlBee acts just like any other irc daemon, you can connect to it with
205your favorite irc client. Launch it and connect to localhost port 6667 (or
206whatever host/port you are running bitlbee on).
207
208The #bitlbee control channel
209
210Once you are connected to the BitlBee server, you are automatically joined to #
211bitlbee on that server. This channel acts like the 'buddy list' you have on the
212various other chat networks.
213
214The user 'root' always hangs around in #bitlbee and acts as your interface to
215bitlbee. All commands you give on #bitlbee are 'answered' by root.
216
217Talking to people
218
219You can talk to by starting a query with them. In most irc clients, this can be
220done with either /msg <nick> <text> or /query <nick>.
221
222To keep the number of open query windows limited, you can also talk to people
223in the control channel, like <nick>: <text>.
224
225Chapter 3. Support
226
227Table of Contents
228
229BitlBee is beta software
230Support channels
231
232    The World Wide Web
233    IRC
234    Mailinglists
235
236BitlBee is beta software
237
238Although BitlBee has quite some functionality it is still beta. That means it
239can crash at any time, corrupt your data or whatever. Don't use it in any
240production environment and don't rely on it.
241
242Support channels
243
244The World Wide Web
245
246http://www.bitlbee.org/ is the homepage of bitlbee and contains the most recent
247news on bitlbee and the latest releases.
248
249IRC
250
251BitlBee is discussed on #bitlbee on the OFTC IRC network (server:
252irc.oftc.net).
253
254Mailinglists
255
256BitlBee doesn't have any mailinglists.
257
258Chapter 4. Quickstart
259
260Table of Contents
261
262Add and Connect To your IM Account(s)
263Managing Contact Lists: Rename
264Step Four: Managing Contact Lists: Add and Remove.
265Chatting
266Further Resources
267
268Welcome to BitlBee, your IRC gateway to ICQ, MSN, AOL, Jabber and Yahoo Instant
269Messaging Systems.
270
271The center of BitlBee is the control channel, #bitlbee. Two users will always
272be there, you (where "you" is the nickname you are using) and the system user,
273root.
274
275You need register so that all your IM settings (passwords, contacts, etc) can
276be saved on the BitlBee server. It's important that you pick a good password so
277no one else can access your account. Register with this password using the
278register command: register <password> (without the brackets!).
279
280Be sure to remember your password. The next time you connect to the BitlBee
281server you will need to identify <password> so that you will be recognised and
282logged in to all the IM services automatically.
283
284When finished, type help quickstart2 to continue.
285
286Add and Connect To your IM Account(s)
287
288Step Two: Add and Connect To your IM Account(s).
289
290To add an account to the account list you will need to use the account add
291command: account add <protocol> <username> <password> [<server>].
292
293For instance, suppose you have an ICQ account with UIN 72696705 with password
294QuickStart, you would:
295
296< you> account add oscar 72696705 QuickStart login.icq.com
297< root> Account successfully added
298
299Other available IM protocols are jabber, msn, and yahoo. Oscar is the protocol
300used by ICQ and AOL. For oscar, you need to specify the IM-server as a fourth
301argument (for msn and yahoo there is no fourth argument). For AOL Instant
302Messenger, the server name is login.oscar.aol.com. For ICQ, the server name is
303login.icq.com.
304
305When you are finished adding your account(s) use the account on command to
306enable all your accounts, type help quickstart3 to continue.
307
308Managing Contact Lists: Rename
309
310Step Three: Managing Contact Lists: Rename
311
312For most protocols (currently MSN, Jabber, Yahoo and AOL) BitlBee can download
313the contact list automatically from the IM server and all the on-line users
314should appear in the control channel when you log in.
315
316BitlBee will convert names into irc-friendly form (for instance:
317tux@example.com will be given the nickname tux). If you have more than one
318person who would have the same name by this logic (for instance:
319tux@example.com and tux@bitlbee.org) the second one to log on will be tux_. The
320same is true if you have a tux log on to AOL and a tux log on from Yahoo.
321
322It would be easy to get these two mixed up, so BitlBee has a rename command to
323change the nickname into something more suitable: rename <oldnick> <newnick>
324
325< you> rename tux_ bitlbeetux
326 * tux_is now known as bitlbeetux
327< root> Nick successfully changed
328
329When finished, type help quickstart4 to continue.
330
331Step Four: Managing Contact Lists: Add and Remove.
332
333Step Four: Managing Contact Lists: Add and Remove.
334
335Now you might want to add some contacts, to do this we will use the add
336command. It needs two arguments: a connection ID (which can be a number (try
337account list), protocol name or (part of) the screenname) and the user's
338handle. It is used in the following way: add <connection> <handle>
339
340< you> add 0 r2d2@example.com
341 * r2d2has joined #bitlbee
342
343In this case r2d2 is online, since he/she joins the channel immediately. If the
344user is not online you will not see them join until they log on.
345
346Lets say you accidentally added r2d3@example.com rather than r2d2@example.com,
347or maybe you just want to remove a user from your list because you never talk
348to them. To remove a name you will want to use the remove command: remove
349<nick>
350
351When finished, type help quickstart5 to continue.
352
353Chatting
354
355Step Five: Chatting.
356
357First of all, a person must be on your contact list for you to chat with them
358(unless it's a group chat, help groupchats for more). If someone not on your
359contact list sends you a message, simply add them to the proper account with
360the add command. Once they are on your list and online, you can chat with them
361in #bitlbee:
362
363< you> tux: hey, how's the weather down there?
364< tux> you: a bit chilly!
365
366If you'd rather chat with them in a separate window use the /msg or /query
367command, just like you would for a private message in IRC. If you want to have
368messages automatically come up in private messages rather than in the #bitlbee
369channel, use the set private command: set private true (set private false to
370change back).
371
372You know the basics. If you want to get to know more about BitlBee, please type
373help quickstart6.
374
375Further Resources
376
377So you want more than just chatting? Or maybe you're just looking for a
378feature?
379
380You can type help set to learn more about the possible BitlBee user settings.
381Among these user settings you will find options for common issues, such as
382changing the charset, HTML stripping and automatic connecting (simply type set
383to see current user settings).
384
385For more subjects (like groupchats and away states), please type help index.
386
387If you're still looking for something, please visit us in #bitlbee on the OFTC
388network (you can connect via irc.bitlbee.org), or mail us your problem/
389suggestion. Good luck and enjoy the Bee!
390
391Chapter 5. Bitlbee commands
392
393Table of Contents
394
395account - IM-account list maintenance
396
397    account add
398    account del
399    account on
400    account off
401    account list
402
403add - Add a buddy to your contact list
404info - Request user information
405remove - Remove a buddy from your contact list
406block - Block someone
407allow - Unblock someone
408set - Miscellaneous settings
409help - BitlBee help system
410save - Save your account data
411charset
412private
413save_on_quit
414html
415debug
416to_char
417typing_notice
418ops
419away_devoice
420handle_unknown
421auto_connect
422auto_reconnect
423auto_reconnect_delay
424buddy_sendbuffer
425buddy_sendbuffer_delay
426default_target
427display_namechanges
428password
429query_order
430lcnicks
431rename - Rename (renick) a buddy
432yes - Accept a request
433no - Deny a request
434qlist - List all the unanswered questions root asked
435register - Register yourself
436identify - Identify yourself with your password
437drop - Drop your account
438blist - List all the buddies in your contact list
439nick - Change friendly name, nick
440import_buddies - Copy local buddy list to server (normally only needed when
441    upgrading)
442
443account - IM-account list maintenance
444
445Syntax:
446
447account <action> [<arguments>]
448
449Available actions: add, del, list, on, off. See help account <action> for more
450information.
451
452account add
453
454Syntax:
455
456account add <protocol> <username> <password> [<server>]
457
458Adds an account on the given server with the specified protocol, username and
459password to the account list. Supported protocols right now are: Jabber, MSN,
460OSCAR (AIM/ICQ) and Yahoo. For more information about adding an account, see
461help account add <protocol>.
462
463account add jabber
464
465Syntax:
466
467account add jabber <handle> <password> [<servertag>]
468
469Note that the servertag argument is optional. You only have to use it if the
470part after the @ in your handle isn't the hostname of your Jabber server, or if
471you want to use SSL/connect to a non-standard port number. The format is
472simple: [<servername>[:<portnumber>][:ssl]]. For example, this is how you can
473connect to Google Talk:
474
475Note that Google talk is SSL-only, but officially reachable over both port 5222
476and 5223. However, for some people only port 5222 works, for some people only
4775223. This is something you'll have to try out.
478
479< wilmer> account add jabber example@gmail.com hobbelmeeuw talk.google.com:5223:ssl
480< root> Account successfully added
481
482account add msn
483
484Syntax:
485
486account add msn <handle> <password>
487
488For MSN connections there are no special arguments.
489
490account add oscar
491
492Syntax:
493
494account add oscar <handle> <password> [<servername>]
495
496Specifying a server is required for OSCAR, since OSCAR can be used for both
497ICQ- and AIM-connections. Although these days it's supposed to be possible to
498connect to ICQ via AIM-servers and vice versa, we like to stick with this
499separation for now. For ICQ connections, the servername is login.icq.com, for
500AIM connections it's login.oscar.aol.com.
501
502< wilmer> account add oscar 72696705 hobbelmeeuw login.icq.com
503< root> Account successfully added
504
505account add yahoo
506
507Syntax:
508
509account add yahoo <handle> <password>
510
511For Yahoo! connections there are no special arguments.
512
513account del
514
515Syntax:
516
517account del <account id>
518
519This commands deletes an account from your account list. You should signoff the
520account before deleting it.
521
522The account ID can be a number (see account list), the protocol name or (part
523of) the screenname, as long as it matches only one connection.
524
525account on
526
527Syntax:
528
529account on [<account id>]
530
531This command will try to log into the specified account. If no account is
532specified, BitlBee will log into all the accounts. (Including accounts awaiting
533a reconnection)
534
535The account ID can be a number (see account list), the protocol name or (part
536of) the screenname, as long as it matches only one connection.
537
538account off
539
540Syntax:
541
542account off [<account id>]
543
544This command disconnects the connection for the specified account. If no
545account is specified, BitlBee will deactivate all active accounts. (Including
546accounts awaiting a reconnection)
547
548The account ID can be a number (see account list), the protocol name or (part
549of) the screenname, as long as it matches only one connection.
550
551account list
552
553Syntax:
554
555account list
556
557This command gives you a list of all the accounts known by BitlBee, including
558the numbers you'll need for most account commands.
559
560add - Add a buddy to your contact list
561
562Syntax:
563
564add <connection> <handle> [<nick>]
565
566Adds the given buddy at the specified connection to your buddy list. The
567account ID can be a number (see account list), the protocol name or (part of)
568the screenname, as long as it matches only one connection.
569
570If you want, you can also tell BitlBee what nick to give the new contact. Of
571course you can also use the rename command for that, but sometimes this might
572be more convenient.
573
574< ctrlsoft> add 3 gryp@jabber.org grijp
575 * grijphas joined #bitlbee
576
577info - Request user information
578
579Syntax:
580
581info <connection> <handle>
582info <nick>
583
584Requests IM-network-specific information about the specified user. The amount
585of information you'll get differs per protocol. For some protocols (ATM Yahoo!
586and MSN) it'll give you an URL which you can visit with a normal web browser to
587get the information.
588
589< ctrlsoft> info 0 72696705
590< root> User info - UIN: 72696705 Nick: Lintux First/Last name: Wilmer van der Gaast E-mail: lintux@lintux.cx
591
592remove - Remove a buddy from your contact list
593
594Syntax:
595
596remove <nick>
597
598Removes the specified nick from your buddy list.
599
600< ctrlsoft> remove gryp
601 * gryphas quit [Leaving...]
602
603block - Block someone
604
605Syntax:
606
607block <nick>
608block <connection> <handle>
609
610Puts the specified user on your ignore list. Either specify the user's nick
611when you have him/her in your contact list or a connection number and a user
612handle.
613
614allow - Unblock someone
615
616Syntax:
617
618allow <nick>
619allow <connection> <handle>
620
621Reverse of block. Unignores the specified user or user handle on specified
622connection.
623
624set - Miscellaneous settings
625
626Syntax:
627
628set [<variable> [<value>]]
629
630Without any arguments, this command lists all the set variables. You can also
631specify a single argument, a variable name, to get that variable's value. To
632change this value, specify the new value as the second argument.
633
634To get more help information about a setting, try:
635
636< ctrlsoft> help set private
637
638help - BitlBee help system
639
640Syntax:
641
642help [subject]
643
644This command gives you the help information you're reading right now. If you
645don't give any arguments, it'll give a short help index.
646
647save - Save your account data
648
649Syntax:
650
651save
652
653This command saves all your nicks and accounts immediately. Handy if you have
654the autosave functionality disabled, or if you don't trust the program's
655stability... ;-)
656
657charset
658
659Type: string
660
661The charset setting enables you to use different character sets in BitlBee.
662These get converted to UTF-8 before sending and from UTF-8 when receiving.
663
664If you don't know what's the best value for this, at least iso8859-1 is the
665best choice for most Western countries. You can try to find what works best for
666you on http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html
667
668private
669
670Type: boolean
671
672If value is true, messages from users will appear in separate query windows. If
673false, messages from users will appear in the control channel.
674
675This setting is remembered (during one session) per-user, this setting only
676changes the default state. This option takes effect as soon as you reconnect.
677
678save_on_quit
679
680Type: boolean
681
682If enabled causes BitlBee to save all current settings and account details when
683user disconnects. This is enabled by default, and these days there's not really
684a reason to have it disabled anymore.
685
686html
687
688Type: string
689
690Determines what BitlBee should do with HTML in messages. If set to nostrip,
691HTML in messages will not be touched. If set to strip, all HTML will be
692stripped from messages. Unfortunately this sometimes strips too much.
693
694debug
695
696Type: boolean
697
698Some debugging messages can be sent to the control channel if you wish. They're
699probably not really useful for you, unless you're doing some development on
700BitlBee.
701
702to_char
703
704Type: string
705
706It's customary that messages meant for one specific person on an IRC channel
707are prepended by his/her alias followed by a colon ':'. BitlBee does this by
708default. If you prefer a different character, you can set it using set to_char.
709
710Please note that this setting is only used for incoming messages. For outgoing
711messages you can use ':' (colon) or ',' to separate the destination nick from
712the message, and this is not configurable.
713
714typing_notice
715
716Type: boolean
717
718Sends you a /notice when a user starts typing a message (if the protocol
719supports it, MSN for example). This is a bug, not a feature. (But please don't
720report it.. ;-) You don't want to use it. Really. In fact the
721typing-notification is just one of the least useful 'innovations' ever. It's
722just there because some guy will probably ask me about it anyway. ;-)
723
724ops
725
726Type: string
727
728Some people prefer themself and root to have operator status in #bitlbee, other
729people don't. You can change these states using this setting.
730
731The value "both" means both user and root get ops. "root" means, well, just
732root. "user" means just the user. "none" means nobody will get operator status.
733
734away_devoice
735
736Type: boolean
737
738With this option enabled, the root user devoices people when they go away (just
739away, not offline) and gives the voice back when they come back. You might
740dislike the voice-floods you'll get if your contact list is huge, so this
741option can be disabled.
742
743handle_unknown
744
745Type: string
746
747Messages from unknown users are echoed like this by default:
748
749If you want this lame user to be added automatically, you can set this setting
750to "add". If you prefer to ignore messages from people you don't know, you can
751set this one to "ignore". "add_private" and "add_channel" are like add, but you
752can use them to make messages from unknown buddies appear in the channel
753instead of a query window.
754
755auto_connect
756
757Type: boolean
758
759With this option enabled, when you identify BitlBee will automatically connect
760to your accounts, with this disabled it will not do this.
761
762auto_reconnect
763
764Type: boolean
765
766If an IM-connections breaks, you're supposed to bring it back up yourself.
767Having BitlBee do this automatically might not always be a good idea, for
768several reasons. If you want the connections to be restored automatically, you
769can enable this setting.
770
771See also the auto_reconnect_delay setting.
772
773auto_reconnect_delay
774
775Type: integer
776
777Tell BitlBee after how many seconds it should attempt to bring an IM-connection
778back up after a crash. It's not a good idea to set this value very low, it will
779cause too much useless traffic when an IM-server is down for a few hours.
780
781See also the auto_reconnect setting.
782
783buddy_sendbuffer
784
785Type: boolean
786
787By default, when you send a message to someone, BitlBee forwards this message
788to the user immediately. When you paste a large number of lines, the lines will
789be sent in separate messages, which might not be very nice to read. If you
790enable this setting, BitlBee will buffer your messages and wait for more data.
791
792Using the buddy_sendbuffer_delay setting you can specify the number of seconds
793BitlBee should wait for more data before the complete message is sent.
794
795Please note that if you remove a buddy from your list (or if the connection to
796that user drops) and there's still data in the buffer, this data will be lost.
797BitlBee will not try to send the message to the user in those cases.
798
799buddy_sendbuffer_delay
800
801Type: integer
802
803Tell BitlBee after how many seconds a buffered message should be sent.
804
805See also the buddy_sendbuffer setting.
806
807default_target
808
809Type: string
810
811With this value set to root, lines written in the control channel without any
812nickname in front of them will be interpreted as commands. If you want BitlBee
813to send those lines to the last person you addressed in the control channel,
814set this to last.
815
816display_namechanges
817
818Type: boolean
819
820password
821
822Type: string
823
824Use this setting to change your "NickServ" password.
825
826query_order
827
828Type: string
829
830This changes the order in which the questions from root (usually authorization
831requests from buddies) should be answered. When set to lifo, BitlBee
832immediately displays all new questions and they should be answered in reverse
833order. When this is set to fifo, BitlBee displays the first question which
834comes in and caches all the others until you answer the first one.
835
836Although the fifo setting might sound more logical (and used to be the default
837behaviour in older BitlBee versions), it turned out not to be very convenient
838for many users when they missed the first question (and never received the next
839ones).
840
841lcnicks
842
843Type: boolean
844
845Hereby you can change whether you want all lower case nick names or leave the
846case as it intended by your peer.
847
848rename - Rename (renick) a buddy
849
850Syntax:
851
852rename <oldnick> <newnick>
853
854Renick a user in your buddy list. Very useful, in fact just very important, if
855you got a lot of people with stupid account names (or hard ICQ numbers).
856
857< itsme> rename itsme_ you
858 * itsme_is now known as you
859
860yes - Accept a request
861
862Syntax:
863
864yes [<number>]
865
866Sometimes an IM-module might want to ask you a question. (Accept this user as
867your buddy or not?) To accept a question, use the yes command.
868
869By default, this answers the first unanswered question. You can also specify a
870different question as an argument. You can use the qlist command for a list of
871questions.
872
873no - Deny a request
874
875Syntax:
876
877no [<number>]
878
879Sometimes an IM-module might want to ask you a question. (Accept this user as
880your buddy or not?) To reject a question, use the no command.
881
882By default, this answers the first unanswered question. You can also specify a
883different question as an argument. You can use the qlist command for a list of
884questions.
885
886qlist - List all the unanswered questions root asked
887
888Syntax:
889
890qlist
891
892This gives you a list of all the unanswered questions from root.
893
894register - Register yourself
895
896Syntax:
897
898register <password>
899
900BitlBee can save your settings so you won't have to enter all your IM passwords
901every time you log in. If you want the Bee to save your settings, use the
902register command.
903
904Please do pick a secure password, don't just use your nick as your password.
905Please note that IRC is not an encrypted protocol, so the passwords still go
906over the network in plaintext. Evil people with evil sniffers will read it all.
907(So don't use your root password.. ;-)
908
909To identify yourself in later sessions, you can use the identify command.
910
911identify - Identify yourself with your password
912
913Syntax:
914
915identify <password>
916
917BitlBee saves all your settings (contacts, accounts, passwords) on-server. To
918prevent other users from just logging in as you and getting this information,
919you'll have to identify yourself with your password. You can register this
920password using the register command.
921
922Once you're registered, you can change your password using set password
923<password>.
924
925drop - Drop your account
926
927Syntax:
928
929drop <password>
930
931Drop your BitlBee registration. Your account files will be removed and your
932password will be forgotten. For obvious security reasons, you have to specify
933your NickServ password to make this command work.
934
935blist - List all the buddies in your contact list
936
937Syntax:
938
939blist [all|online|offline|away]
940
941You can get a better readable buddy list using the blist command. If you want a
942complete list (including the offline users) you can use the all argument.
943
944nick - Change friendly name, nick
945
946Syntax:
947
948nick <connection> [<new nick>]
949nick
950
951This command allows to set the friendly name of an im account. If no new name
952is specified the command will report the current name. When the name contains
953spaces, don't forget to quote the whole nick in double quotes. Currently this
954command is only supported by the MSN protocol.
955
956< wouter> nick 1 "Wouter Paesen"
957< root> Setting your name on connection 1 to `Wouter Paesen'
958
959import_buddies - Copy local buddy list to server (normally only needed when
960upgrading)
961
962Syntax:
963
964import_buddies <connection> [clear]
965
966This command copies the locally stored buddy list to the server. This command
967exists for upgrading purposes. Previous versions of BitlBee didn't support
968server-side buddy lists for ICQ, so the list was stored locally.
969
970Since version 0.91 however, server-side contact lists are supported for all
971protocols, so the local list is now ignored. When upgrading from an older
972BitlBee to version 0.91, you might need this command to get your buddy list
973back.
974
975The only argument this command needs is your ICQ account identification. If
976your serverside buddy list contains some old buddies you don't want anymore,
977you can pass clear as a second argument.
978
979After giving this command, you have to wait for a while before all the adds are
980handled, because of ICQ's rate limiting. If your buddy list is very large and
981the ICQ server starts complaining, you might have to reconnect and enter this
982command again.
983
984Chapter 6. Misc Stuff
985
986Table of Contents
987
988Smileys
989Groupchats
990Creating groupchats
991Groupchat channel names
992Away states
993
994Smileys
995
996All MSN smileys (except one) are case insensitive and work without the nose
997too.
998
999(Y)
1000
1001    Thumbs up
1002
1003(N)
1004
1005    Thumbs down
1006
1007(B)
1008
1009    Beer mug
1010
1011(D)
1012
1013    Martini glass
1014
1015(X)
1016
1017    Girl
1018
1019(Z)
1020
1021    Boy
1022
1023(6)
1024
1025    Devil smiley
1026
1027:-[
1028
1029    Vampire bat
1030
1031(})
1032
1033    Right hug
1034
1035({)
1036
1037    Left hug
1038
1039(M)
1040
1041    MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger icon (think a BitlBee logo here ;)
1042
1043:-S
1044
1045    Crooked smiley (Confused smiley)
1046
1047:-$
1048
1049    Embarrassed smiley
1050
1051(H)
1052
1053    Smiley with sunglasses
1054
1055:-@
1056
1057    Angry smiley
1058
1059(A)
1060
1061    Angel smiley
1062
1063(L)
1064
1065    Red heart (Love)
1066
1067(U)
1068
1069    Broken heart
1070
1071(K)
1072
1073    Red lips (Kiss)
1074
1075(G)
1076
1077    Gift with bow
1078
1079(F)
1080
1081    Red rose
1082
1083(W)
1084
1085    Wilted rose
1086
1087(P)
1088
1089    Camera
1090
1091(~)
1092
1093    Film strip
1094
1095(T)
1096
1097    Telephone receiver
1098
1099(@)
1100
1101    Cat face
1102
1103(&)
1104
1105    Dog's head
1106
1107(C)
1108
1109    Coffee cup
1110
1111(I)
1112
1113    Light bulb
1114
1115(S)
1116
1117    Half-moon (Case sensitive!)
1118
1119(*)
1120
1121    Star
1122
1123(8)
1124
1125    Musical eighth note
1126
1127(E)
1128
1129    Envelope
1130
1131(^)
1132
1133    Birthday cake
1134
1135(O)
1136
1137    Clock
1138
1139This list was extracted from http://help.msn.com/!data/en_us/data/
1140messengerv50.its51/$content$/EMOTICONS.HTM?H_APP=.
1141
1142Groupchats
1143
1144Since version 0.8x, BitlBee supports groupchats on the MSN and Yahoo! networks.
1145This text will try to explain you how they work.
1146
1147As soon as someone invites you into a groupchat, you will be force-joined or
1148invited (depending on the protocol) into a new virtual channel with all the
1149people in there. You can leave the channel at any time, just like you would
1150close the window in regular IM clients. Please note that root-commands don't
1151work in groupchat channels, they only work in the control channel (or to root
1152directly).
1153
1154Of course you can also create your own groupchats. Type help groupchats2 to see
1155how.
1156
1157Creating groupchats
1158
1159If you want to start a groupchat with the person jim_msn in it, just join the
1160channel #jim_msn. BitlBee will refuse to join you to the channel with that
1161name, but it will create a new virtual channel with root, you and jim_msn in
1162it.
1163
1164Of course a channel with only two people isn't really exciting yet. So the next
1165step is to invite some other people to the channel. For this, you can use the /
1166invite command of your IRC client. Please do keep in mind that all the people
1167have to be on the same network and contact list! You can't invite Yahoo!
1168buddies into an MSN groupchat.
1169
1170This is all you'll probably need to know. If you have any problems, please read
1171help groupchats3.
1172
1173Groupchat channel names
1174
1175Obviously the (numbered) channel names don't make a lot of sense. Problem is
1176that groupchats usually don't have names at all in the IM-world, while IRC
1177insists on a name. So BitlBee just generates something random, just don't pay
1178attention to it. :-)
1179
1180Please also note that BitlBee doesn't support groupchats for all protocols yet.
1181BitlBee will tell you so. Support for other protocols will hopefully come
1182later.
1183
1184Away states
1185
1186As you might've expected, you can just use the /away command in your IRC client
1187to set an away-state. BitlBee supports most away-states supported by the
1188protocols.
1189
1190Not all away states are supported by all protocols, and some protocols have
1191different names for them. BitlBee will try to pick the best available alias
1192from this list for every connection:
1193
1194Away from computer, Away, Extended away
1195NA, N/A, Not available
1196Busy, Do not disturb, DND, Occupied
1197Be right back, BRB
1198On the phone, Phone, On phone
1199Out to lunch, Lunch, Food
1200
1201So /away Food will set your state to "Out to lunch" on your MSN connection, and
1202for most other connections the default, "Away" or "Away from computer" will be
1203chosen.
1204
1205You can also add more information to your away message. Setting it to "Busy -
1206Fixing BitlBee bugs" will set your IM-away-states to Busy, but your away
1207message will be more descriptive for people on IRC. Protocols like Yahoo! and
1208Jabber will also show this complete away message to your buddies.
1209
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