*

SSL support.

*

MUC support (Multi-User Chat).

*

PGP support

*

Chat States support (typing notifications)

*

History logging: If enabled (see the CONFIGURATION FILE section), mcabber can save discussions to history log files.

*

Commands completion: If possible, mcabber will try to complete your command line if you hit the Tab key.

*

Input line history: Any message or command entered is in the input line history and can be reused easily.

*

External actions: Some events (like receiving a message) can trigger an external action such as a shell script if you enable it in your configuration file. A sample events script ("eventcmd") is provided with mcabber source code, in the contrib directory.

--help, -h

Quick help usage message

-f configfile

Use configuration file configfile

Additional key bindings may be specified using the /bind command described in the COMMANDS section.

The authorization status indicates whether a resource is authorized to receive your online status updates, and is displayed by the brackets surrounding the resource's online status. Square brackets, like [o], indicate that this resource is authorized to receive your status. Curly braces, like {o}, indicate that they are not authorized to receive your status. When there are unread messages from the resource which you have not looked at, a hash mark (#) appears in the leftmost section of the roster for that resource. The hash mark disappears once you view that resource's message log. Examples:

--- Buds	This is a group named Buds
#[o] John	John is online, can see your status, and sent you a message that you did not read yet
{?} Sally	Neither you nor Sally have authorized each other to see your online status
{a} Jane	Jane is away, but she cannot see your online status
#[C] x@y.c	You are participating in x@y.c conference room, and there are unread messages

/alias [name [= command line]]

Add "name" as an alias for "command line". Aliases are expanded only once, thus they can not be chained. "/alias name" displays the value associated with the "name" alias; "/alias name =" unsets the "name" alias. "/alias" displays a list of the existing aliases. Example: "/alias away = status away".

/bind [keycode [= command line]]

Bind a command line to the key with the "keycode" code number. Keycodes of unused keys are displayed by mcabber in the log window when pressing the key, for example "Unknown key=265". "/bind keycode" displays the command line bound to the given keycode; "/bind keycode =" unbinds the given keycode. "/bind" displays a list of the bound keycodes. Note: aliases can be used in key bindings. Example: "/bind 265 = status online" (265 is F1 for me, but it may depend on your ncurses installation).

/buffer clear|close|close_all|purge, /buffer top|bottom|date|%|search_backward|search_forward, /buffer scroll_lock|scroll_unlock|scroll_toggle

The buffer command manipulates the current buddy's buffer (chat window).

clear	clear the current buddy chat window
close	empty all contents of the buffer and close the current buddy chat window
close_all	empty all contents of the chat buffers and close the chat windows
purge	clear the current buddy chat window and empty all contents of the chat buffer
top	jump to the top of the current buddy chat buffer
bottom	jump to the bottom of the current buddy chat buffer
up [n]	scroll the buffer up n lines (default: half a screen)
down [n]	scroll the buffer down n lines (default: half a screen)
date date	jump to the first line after the specified date in the chat buffer (date format: "YYYY-mm-dd[THH:MM:SS]", "-" and ":" are optional)
% n	jump to position %n of the buddy chat buffer
search_backward text	search for "text" in the current buddy chat buffer
search_forward text	search for "text" in the current buddy chat buffer
scroll_lock	lock buffer scrolling
scroll_unlock	unlock buffer scrolling
scroll_toggle	toggle buffer scrolling (lock/unlock)

/clear

The clear command is actually an alias for "/buffer clear".

/help [command]

Display generic help or help about a specific mcabber command.

/quit

Disconnect and leave mcabber(1).

/version

Display mcabber version

/connect

Establish connection to the Jabber server.

/disconnect

Terminate connection to the Jabber server. Note: the roster is only available when the connection to the server is active, so the buddylist is empty when disconnected.

/event #n|* accept|ignore|reject, /event list

Tell mcabber what to do about a pending event. If the first parameter is "*", the command will apply to all queued events.

accept	accept the event #n
ignore	remove the event #n from the list
reject	reject the event #n
list	list all pending events

/rawxml send string

send string: send string (raw XML format) to the Jabber server. No check is done on the string provided. BEWARE! Use this only if you know what you are doing, or you could terminate the connection.

/add [jid [nickname]]

Add the "jid" Jabber user to our roster (default group), and send a notification request to this buddy. If no nickname is specified, the jid is used. If no jid (or an empty string "") is provided or if jid is ".", the current buddy is used.

/authorization allow|cancel|request|request_unsubscribe [jid]

Manage the presence subscriptions. If no jid is provided, the current buddy is used.

allow	allow the buddy to receive your presence updates
cancel	cancel the buddy' subscription to your presence updates
request	request a subscription to the buddy's presence updates
request_unsubscribe	request unsubscription from the buddy's presence updates

/del

Delete the current buddy from our roster, unsubscribe from its presence notification and unsubscribe it from ours.

/group fold|unfold|toggle

The group command changes the current group display.

fold	fold (shrink) the current group tree in the roster
unfold	unfold (expand) the current group tree in the roster
toggle	toggle the state (fold/unfold) of the current tree

/info

Display info on the selected entry (user, agent, group...). For users, resources are displayed with the status, priority and status message (if available) of each resource.

/move [groupname]

Move the current buddy to the requested group. If no group is specified, then the buddy is moved to the default group. If the group groupname doesn't exist, it is created. Tip: if the chatmode is enabled, you can use "/roster alternate" to jump to the moved buddy.

/msay begin|verbatim|send|send_to|toggle|toggle_verbatim|abort

Send a multi-line message. To write a single message with several lines, the multi-line mode should be used. In multi-line mode, each line (except command lines) typed in the input line will be added to the multi-line message. Once the message is finished, it can be sent to the current selected buddy with the "/msay send" command (or Ctrl-d). The begin subcommand enables multi-line mode. Note that it allows a message subject to be specified. The verbatim multi-line mode disables commands, so that it is possible to enter lines starting with a slash. Only the "/msay" command (with send or abort parameters) can be used to exit verbatim mode. The toggle and toggle_verbatim subcommands can be bound to a key to use the multi-line mode quickly (for example, "bind M109 = msay toggle" to switch using the Meta-m combination).

begin [subject]	enter multi-line mode
verbatim	enter verbatim multi-line mode
send	send the current multi-line message to the currently selected buddy
send_to jid	send the current multi-line message to "jid"
toggle	switch to/from multi-line mode (begin/send)
toggle_verbatim	same with verbatim multi-line mode
abort	leave multi-line mode without sending the message

/pgp disable|enable|info [jid], /pgp setkey [jid [key]]

Manipulate PGP settings for the specified jid (by default the currently selected contact). Please note that PGP encryption won't be used if no remote PGP support is detected, even if PGP is enabled with this command.

disable [jid]	disable PGP encryption for jid (or the currently selected contact)
enable [jid]	enable PGP encryption for jid (or the currently selected contact)
info [jid]	show current PGP settings for the contact
setkey [jid [key]]	set the PGP key to be used to encrypt message for this contact. If no key is provided, the current key is erased. You can use the shortcut-jid "." for the currently selected contact.

/rename name

Rename current buddy or group to the given name. Please note that a group name change is only done when the server's acknowledgment is received, so a slight delay can be noticed.

/request last|time|vcard|version [jid]

Send a "IQ" query to the current buddy, or to the specified Jabber user. If the resource is not provided with the jid, mcabber will send the query to all known resources for this user.

/room join|leave|names|nick|privmsg|remove|topic|unlock|destroy, /room invite|kick|ban|role|affil, /room bookmark [add|del] [-autojoin|+autojoin]

The room command handles Multi-User Chat room actions.

join [room [nick [pass]]]	join "room", using "nick" as nickname. If no nickname is provided (or if it is an empty string), the "nickname" option value is used (see sample configuration file). If the currently selected entry is correctly recognized as a room by mcabber, the shortcut "." can be used instead of the full room id. A password can be provided to enter protected rooms. If your nickname contains space characters, use quotes.
whois nick	display MUC information about "nick"
ban jid [reason]	ban jid from the current room
invite jid [reason]	invite jid to the current room
kick nick [reason]	kick "nick" from the current room
role jid role [reason]	change jid's role (role can be "none", "visitor", "participant", "moderator")
affil jid affil [reason]	change jid's affiliation (affil can be "none", "member", "admin", "owner") bookmark add/update/remove a room bookmark, set/unset autojoin
leave [message]	leave the current room
names	display members of the current room
nick nick	change your nickname in the current room
privmsg nick msg	send private message "msg" to "nick"
remove	remove the current room from the roster (you must have left this room before)
topic	set topic for current room
unlock	unlock current room (if you are the owner)
destroy [reason]	destroy the current room (use with care!)

/roster bottom|top|up|down|group_prev|group_next, /roster alternate|unread_first|unread_next, /roster search bud, /roster hide_offline|show_offline|toggle_offline, /roster item_lock|item_unlock, /roster hide|show|toggle, /roster note [-|text]

The roster command manipulates the roster/buddylist. Here are the available parameters:

bottom	jump to the bottom of the roster
search bud	search for a buddy with a name or jid containing "bud" (only in the displayed buddylist)
hide_offline	hide offline buddies
show_offline	show offline buddies
toggle_offline	toggle display of offline buddies
item_lock jid	lock the roster item so it remains visible regardless of its status
item_unlock jid	undo the effects of item_lock
hide	hide roster (full-width chat window)
show	show roster
toggle	toggle roster visibility
note [text]	display or set an annotation (if text is "-", the annotation is deleted). In the "status" buffer, it will display all annotations.
top	jump to the top of the roster
up	move up in the roster
down	move down in the roster
group_prev	jump to the previous group in the roster
group_next	jump to the next group in the roster
alternate	jump to alternate buddy. The "alternate" buddy is the last buddy left while being in chat mode (this command is thus especially useful after commands like "/roster unread_first")
unread_first	jump to the first unread message
unread_next	jump to the next unread message

/say text

Send the "text" message to the currently selected buddy. Can be useful if you want to send a message beginning with a slash, for example.

/say_to jid text

Send the "text" message to the specified jid. Please note that this command doesn't set the default resource for a contact, so if you want to send several messages to a specific resource you will have to use "/say_to" for each message.

/status [online|avail|invisible|free|dnd|notavail|away [-|StatusMessage]]

Show or set the current status. If no status is specified, display the current status. If a status message is specified, it will overrride the message* variables (these variables can be set in the configuration file). If no relevant message* variable is set and no status message provided, the current status message is kept. If StatusMessage is "-", the current status message is cleared.

/status_to jid online|avail|invisible|free|dnd|notavail|away [StatusMessage]

Send the requested status to the specified Jabber user. If the specified jid is ".", the current buddy is used. Note: this status will be overridden by subsequent "/status" commands. If you are using the auto-away feature, the status will overridden too. Note: The jid can include a resource (i.e. user@server/resource).

$HOME/.mcabber/mcabberrc    Default configuration file
$HOME/.mcabberrc            Configuration file used if no other has been found
$HOME/.mcabber/histo/       Default directory for storing chat history files, if enabled