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Quick start

If you are not used to or confident with IRC, here is a step by step procedure in order to enjoy Minbif. Most exemple proposed assume that you are using Irssi as IRC client. If not, please refer to your IRC client manual for IRC commands.

For exemple, we are using the /connect command in our exemples, but some IRC clients use /sconnect.

First connection to Minbif

Open an IRC client and connect to localhost.

For example, for irssi:
Take care of the fact that with irssi, /server command will end the connexion to the server related to the active window:

/server localhost 6667 minbif_password

An alternative is the /connect command:

/connect localhost 6667 minbif_password

Note: first time you connect to Minbif, a Minbif account is created with your nickname as login and the specified password.

Abstract

As you may know a little about the IRC protocol, you must consider that:

  • You are on an IRC network.
  • You are connected to an IRC server, Minbif, which is linked to each server related to your IM accounts.
  • An IM account has an unique ID: <protocol><number>, for example :jabber0, or jabber0. You can change this ID.
  • Connected buddies are listed on a status channel. Each IM account can have its own status channel, but you can also use a unique status channel for all your IM accounts. See Adding an account below for more details.
  • Each buddy is an unique IRC user, with an IRC nickname.
  • A channel on an IM account is called a remote channel.
  • Status channels names begin with '&', and remote channels names begin with '#'.

Adding an account

First, you can display every available protocols with this command:

/STATS p

There are default libpurple's plugins protocols, but also every third-party plugins you may have installed.

To add an account, firstly use this command:

/MAP add PROTO

It displays the specific options you can use with this protocol. For exemple:

/map add jabber

will return

Usage: /MAP add jabber USERNAME [-accid value] [-password value] [-status_channel value] [-[!]require_tls]
                                [-[!]old_ssl] [-[!]auth_plain_in_clear] [-port int] [-connect_server value]
                                [-ft_proxies value] [-bosh_url value] [-[!]custom_smileys]

Note: The status channel will be your main interface with your buddy list. You can choose to have all your accounts in one by using the same channel name every time you add an account, but you can also use different status channels to group accounts. The default one is &minbif. Status channels begin with a &.

For exemple:

/map add jabber john.doe@jabber.org -password xmlsucks -custom_smileys -status_channel &minbif

You can modify parameters after creating an account. See below. You can define any -status_channel you wish as status channel, and modify it after too.

You can list your account with:

/MAP

You can use the /SCONNECT and /SQUIT commands to connect and disconnect an account.

Modifying an account

In order to display account parameters, use the command:

/map edit ACCOUNTID

For exemple:

/map edit jabber0

will display:

-- Parameters of account john.doe@jabber.org/Home:jabber0 --
accid = jabber0
auth_plain_in_clear = false
bosh_url =
connect_server =
custom_smileys = true
ft_proxies = proxy.jabber.org:7777
old_ssl = false
password = *******
port = 5222
require_tls = false
status_channel = &status

If you want to modify an account parameter, use the command:

/map edit ACCOUNTID PARAMETER VALUE

For exemple, in order to change the port for :jabber0 from 1863 to 8080 :

/map edit jabber0 port 8080

Buddies

As you are on the status channel of an account, you can add a buddy in your list with the /INVITE command:

For exemple:

/invite rofl@jabberfr.com

When using a single status channel for multiple IM accounts (&minbif for exemple), you have to suffix the buddy handle by the account ID.

/invite HANDLE[:ACCOUNTID]

For exemple:

/invite rofl@jabberfr.com:jabber0

To remove a buddy, just use the /KILL command:

/KILL NICKNAME

To block a user, use the /BAN command:

/BAN NICKNAME
/BAN HANDLE[:accountID]

Note: you can also ban an handle which is not in your buddy list.

For example:

/BAN romain
/BAN *!romain@example.org:msn0
/BAN *katia*!*@*
/BAN *!*@hotmail.com:msn*

See also Commands list.

Chat with a buddy

You can start a query with a buddy with your IRC client, for example with IRC use /query nickname and start to chat.

For exemple:

/query Lisa

Change your status message

When you use the TOPIC command on a status channel, it changes the status message on each account associated. For example:

/TOPIC &minbif I'm poo'ing

See also Status management.

Conversation chats

Minbif support conversation chats on IM networks. To join a conversation chat, use this command:

/JOIN #NAME:accountID

For example, to join a Jabber conference chat:

/join #anti-irc@conference.peerfuse.org:jabber0

Note: to join an IRC channel, you have to prefix the channel name with a '#', for example:

/join ##anti-irc:irc0

Parameters

Sometimes, to enter in a channel, you need to give parameter, for example a password. You can set these parameters as the “password” field of the /JOIN command. Syntax is:

/join #NAME:accountID [key=value[;key=value[;...]]]

For example:

/join #linuxfr.org@conference.linuxfr.org:jabber0 handler=romain__;password=blah

If you want to auto-join a channel with a needed parameter, just set that string into the “password” field of your IRC client.

To display every available parameters and their default values for a specific account, use this command:

/stats c accountID

Administration of MinBif

If you are Minbif's administrator, you can add a block in configuration allowing you to be an IRC Operator:

irc {
        #...
        oper {
                login = romain
                password = pupuce
                email = romain@peerfuse.org
        }
}

Login with:

/OPER romain pupuce

Then, you can send a wallops message to every users, or rehash configuration of every minbif instance:

/WALLOPS hi everybody, I like p*rno!
/REHASH

This commands are broadcasted to every minbif instances only with the fork daemon mode.

See also

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