BitlBee User Guide

The latest BitlBee release is always available from http://www.bitlbee.org/. Download the package with your favorite program and unpack it: tar xvfz bitlbee-<version>.tar.gz where <version> is to be replaced by the version number of the BitlBee you downloaded (e.g. 0.91).

BitlBee's build system has to be configured before compiling. The configure script will do this for you. Just run it, it'll set up with nice and hopefully well-working defaults. If you want to change some settings, just try ./configure --help and see what you can do.

Some variables that might be of interest to the normal user:

After running configure, you should run make. After that, run make install as root.

By default, BitlBee runs as the user nobody. You might want to run it as a seperate user (some computers run named or apache as nobody).

Since BitlBee uses inetd, you should add the following line to /etc/inetd.conf:

6667    stream  tcp     nowait nobody /usr/local/sbin/bitlbee bitlbee

Inetd has to be restarted after changing the configuration. Either killall -HUP inetd or /etc/init.d/inetd restart should do the job on most systems.

You might be one of the.. ehr, lucky people running an xinetd-powered distro. xinetd is quite different and they seem to be proud of that.. ;-) Anyway, if you want BitlBee to work with xinetd, just copy the bitlbee.xinetd file to your /etc/xinetd.d/ directory (and probably edit it to suit your needs).

You should create a directory where BitlBee can store it's data files. This should be the directory named after the value 'CONFIG' in Makefile.settings. The default is /var/lib/bitlbee, which can be created with the command mkdir -p /var/lib/bitlbee. This directory has to be owned by the user that runs bitlbee. To make 'nobody' owner of this directory, run chown nobody /var/lib/bitlbee. Because things like passwords are saved in this directory, it's probably a good idea to make this directory owner-read-/writable only.

Since BitlBee acts just like any other irc daemon, you can connect to it with your favorite irc client. Launch it and connect to localhost port 6667 (or whatever host/port you are running bitlbee on).

Once you are connected to the BitlBee server, you are automatically joined to &bitlbee on that server. This channel acts like the 'buddy list' you have on the various other chat networks.

The user 'root' always hangs around in &bitlbee and acts as your interface to bitlbee. All commands you give on &bitlbee are 'answered' by root.

You might be slightly confused by the & in the channel name. This is, however, completely allowed by the IRC standards. Just try it on a regular IRC server, it should work. The difference between the standard #channels and &channels is that the #channels are distributed over all the servers on the IRC network, while &channels are local to one server. Because the BitlBee control channel is local to one server (and in fact, to one person), this name seems more suitable. Also, with this name, it's harder to confuse the control channel with the #bitlbee channel on OFTC.

You can talk to by starting a query with them. In most irc clients, this can be done with either /msg <nick> <text> or /query <nick>.

To keep the number of open query windows limited, you can also talk to people in the control channel, like <nick>: <text>.

Although BitlBee has quite some functionality it is still beta. That means it can crash at any time, corrupt your data or whatever. Don't use it in any production environment and don't rely on it.

Step Two: Add and Connect To your IM Account(s).

To add an account to the account list you will need to use the account add command: account add <protocol> <username> <password> [<server>].

For instance, suppose you have an ICQ account with UIN 72696705 with password QuickStart, you would:

< you> account add oscar 72696705 QuickStart login.icq.com
< root> Account successfully added

Other available IM protocols are jabber, msn, and yahoo. Oscar is the protocol used by ICQ and AOL. For oscar, you need to specify the IM-server as a fourth argument (for msn and yahoo there is no fourth argument). For AOL Instant Messenger, the server name is login.oscar.aol.com. For ICQ, the server name is login.icq.com.

When you are finished adding your account(s) use the account on command to enable all your accounts, type help quickstart3 to continue.

Step Three: Managing Contact Lists: Rename

For most protocols (currently MSN, Jabber, Yahoo and AOL) BitlBee can download the contact list automatically from the IM server and all the on-line users should appear in the control channel when you log in.

BitlBee will convert names into irc-friendly form (for instance: tux@example.com will be given the nickname tux). If you have more than one person who would have the same name by this logic (for instance: tux@example.com and tux@bitlbee.org) the second one to log on will be tux_. The same is true if you have a tux log on to AOL and a tux log on from Yahoo.

It would be easy to get these two mixed up, so BitlBee has a rename command to change the nickname into something more suitable: rename <oldnick> <newnick>

< you> rename tux_ bitlbeetux
 * tux_ is now known as bitlbeetux
< root> Nick successfully changed

When finished, type help quickstart4 to continue.

Step Four: Managing Contact Lists: Add and Remove.

Now you might want to add some contacts, to do this we will use the add command. It needs two arguments: a connection ID (which can be a number (try account list), protocol name or (part of) the screenname) and the user's handle. It is used in the following way: add <connection> <handle>

< you> add 0 r2d2@example.com
 * r2d2 has joined &bitlbee

In this case r2d2 is online, since he/she joins the channel immediately. If the user is not online you will not see them join until they log on.

Lets say you accidentally added r2d3@example.com rather than r2d2@example.com, or maybe you just want to remove a user from your list because you never talk to them. To remove a name you will want to use the remove command: remove <nick>

When finished, type help quickstart5 to continue.

Step Five: Chatting.

First of all, a person must be on your contact list for you to chat with them (unless it's a group chat, help groupchats for more). If someone not on your contact list sends you a message, simply add them to the proper account with the add command. Once they are on your list and online, you can chat with them in &bitlbee:

< you> tux: hey, how's the weather down there?
< tux> you: a bit chilly!

If you'd rather chat with them in a separate window use the /msg or /query command, just like you would for a private message in IRC. If you want to have messages automatically come up in private messages rather than in the &bitlbee channel, use the set private command: set private true (set private false to change back).

You know the basics. If you want to get to know more about BitlBee, please type help quickstart6.

So you want more than just chatting? Or maybe you're just looking for a feature?

You can type help set to learn more about the possible BitlBee user settings. Among these user settings you will find options for common issues, such as changing the charset, HTML stripping and automatic connecting (simply type set to see current user settings).

For more subjects (like groupchats and away states), please type help index.

If you're still looking for something, please visit us in #bitlbee on the OFTC network (you can connect via irc.bitlbee.org), or mail us your problem/suggestion. Good luck and enjoy the Bee!

Syntax: 

account <action> [<arguments>]

Available actions: add, del, list, on, off. See help account <action> for more information.

account add <protocol> <username> <password> [<server>]

account add jabber <handle> <password> [<servertag>]

< wilmer> account add jabber example@gmail.com hobbelmeeuw talk.google.com:5223:ssl
< root> Account successfully added

account add msn <handle> <password>

account add oscar <handle> <password> [<servername>]

< wilmer> account add oscar 72696705 hobbelmeeuw login.icq.com
< root> Account successfully added

account add yahoo <handle> <password>

account del <account id>

account on [<account id>]

account off [<account id>]

account list

Syntax: 

add <connection> <handle> [<nick>]
add -tmp <connection> <handle> [<nick>]

Adds the given buddy at the specified connection to your buddy list. The account ID can be a number (see account list), the protocol name or (part of) the screenname, as long as it matches only one connection.

If you want, you can also tell BitlBee what nick to give the new contact. Of course you can also use the rename command for that, but sometimes this might be more convenient.

Adding -tmp adds the buddy to the internal BitlBee structures only, not to the real contact list (like done by set handle_unknown add). This allows you to talk to people who are not in your contact list.

< ctrlsoft> add 3 gryp@jabber.org grijp
 * grijp has joined &bitlbee

Syntax: 

info <connection> <handle>
info <nick>

Requests IM-network-specific information about the specified user. The amount of information you'll get differs per protocol. For some protocols (ATM Yahoo! and MSN) it'll give you an URL which you can visit with a normal web browser to get the information.

< ctrlsoft> info 0 72696705
< root> User info - UIN: 72696705 Nick: Lintux First/Last name: Wilmer van der Gaast E-mail: lintux@lintux.cx

Syntax: 

remove <nick>

Removes the specified nick from your buddy list.

< ctrlsoft> remove gryp
 * gryp has quit [Leaving...]

Syntax: 

block <nick>
block <connection> <handle>
block <connection>

Puts the specified user on your ignore list. Either specify the user's nick when you have him/her in your contact list or a connection number and a user handle.

When called with only a connection specification as an argument, the command displays the current block list for that connection.

Syntax: 

allow <nick>
allow <connection> <handle>

Reverse of block. Unignores the specified user or user handle on specified connection.

When called with only a connection specification as an argument, the command displays the current allow list for that connection.

Syntax: 

set [<variable> [<value>]]

Without any arguments, this command lists all the set variables. You can also specify a single argument, a variable name, to get that variable's value. To change this value, specify the new value as the second argument.

To get more help information about a setting, try:

< ctrlsoft> help set private

Syntax: 

help [subject]

This command gives you the help information you're reading right now. If you don't give any arguments, it'll give a short help index.

Syntax: 

save

This command saves all your nicks and accounts immediately. Handy if you have the autosave functionality disabled, or if you don't trust the program's stability... ;-)

The charset setting enables you to use different character sets in BitlBee. These get converted to UTF-8 before sending and from UTF-8 when receiving.

If you don't know what's the best value for this, at least iso8859-1 is the best choice for most Western countries. You can try to find what works best for you on http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html

If value is true, messages from users will appear in separate query windows. If false, messages from users will appear in the control channel.

This setting is remembered (during one session) per-user, this setting only changes the default state. This option takes effect as soon as you reconnect.

If enabled causes BitlBee to save all current settings and account details when user disconnects. This is enabled by default, and these days there's not really a reason to have it disabled anymore.

Determines what BitlBee should do with HTML in messages. Normally this is turned on and HTML will be stripped from messages, if BitlBee thinks there is HTML.

If BitlBee fails to detect this sometimes (most likely in AIM messages over an ICQ connection), you can set this setting to always, but this might sometimes accidentally strip non-HTML things too.

Some debugging messages can be sent to the control channel if you wish. They're probably not really useful for you, unless you're doing some development on BitlBee.

It's customary that messages meant for one specific person on an IRC channel are prepended by his/her alias followed by a colon ':'. BitlBee does this by default. If you prefer a different character, you can set it using set to_char.

Please note that this setting is only used for incoming messages. For outgoing messages you can use ':' (colon) or ',' to separate the destination nick from the message, and this is not configurable.

Sends you a /notice when a user starts typing a message (if the protocol supports it, MSN for example). This is a bug, not a feature. (But please don't report it.. ;-) You don't want to use it. Really. In fact the typing-notification is just one of the least useful 'innovations' ever. It's just there because some guy will probably ask me about it anyway. ;-)

Some people prefer themself and root to have operator status in &bitlbee, other people don't. You can change these states using this setting.

The value "both" means both user and root get ops. "root" means, well, just root. "user" means just the user. "none" means nobody will get operator status.

With this option enabled, the root user devoices people when they go away (just away, not offline) and gives the voice back when they come back. You might dislike the voice-floods you'll get if your contact list is huge, so this option can be disabled.

Messages from unknown users are echoed like this by default:

If you want this lame user to be added automatically, you can set this setting to "add". If you prefer to ignore messages from people you don't know, you can set this one to "ignore". "add_private" and "add_channel" are like add, but you can use them to make messages from unknown buddies appear in the channel instead of a query window.

With this option enabled, when you identify BitlBee will automatically connect to your accounts, with this disabled it will not do this.

If an IM-connections breaks, you're supposed to bring it back up yourself. Having BitlBee do this automatically might not always be a good idea, for several reasons. If you want the connections to be restored automatically, you can enable this setting.

See also the auto_reconnect_delay setting.

Tell BitlBee after how many seconds it should attempt to bring an IM-connection back up after a crash. It's not a good idea to set this value very low, it will cause too much useless traffic when an IM-server is down for a few hours.

See also the auto_reconnect setting.

By default, when you send a message to someone, BitlBee forwards this message to the user immediately. When you paste a large number of lines, the lines will be sent in separate messages, which might not be very nice to read. If you enable this setting, BitlBee will buffer your messages and wait for more data.

Using the buddy_sendbuffer_delay setting you can specify the number of seconds BitlBee should wait for more data before the complete message is sent.

Please note that if you remove a buddy from your list (or if the connection to that user drops) and there's still data in the buffer, this data will be lost. BitlBee will not try to send the message to the user in those cases.

Tell BitlBee after how many (mili)seconds a buffered message should be sent. Values greater than 5 will be interpreted as miliseconds, 5 and lower as seconds.

See also the buddy_sendbuffer setting.

With this value set to root, lines written in the control channel without any nickname in front of them will be interpreted as commands. If you want BitlBee to send those lines to the last person you addressed in the control channel, set this to last.

Use this setting to change your "NickServ" password.

This changes the order in which the questions from root (usually authorization requests from buddies) should be answered. When set to lifo, BitlBee immediately displays all new questions and they should be answered in reverse order. When this is set to fifo, BitlBee displays the first question which comes in and caches all the others until you answer the first one.

Although the fifo setting might sound more logical (and used to be the default behaviour in older BitlBee versions), it turned out not to be very convenient for many users when they missed the first question (and never received the next ones).

Hereby you can change whether you want all lower case nick names or leave the case as it intended by your peer.

Syntax: 

rename <oldnick> <newnick>

Renick a user in your buddy list. Very useful, in fact just very important, if you got a lot of people with stupid account names (or hard ICQ numbers).

< itsme> rename itsme_ you
 * itsme_ is now known as you

Syntax: 

yes [<number>]

Sometimes an IM-module might want to ask you a question. (Accept this user as your buddy or not?) To accept a question, use the yes command.

By default, this answers the first unanswered question. You can also specify a different question as an argument. You can use the qlist command for a list of questions.

Syntax: 

no [<number>]

Sometimes an IM-module might want to ask you a question. (Accept this user as your buddy or not?) To reject a question, use the no command.

By default, this answers the first unanswered question. You can also specify a different question as an argument. You can use the qlist command for a list of questions.

Syntax: 

qlist

This gives you a list of all the unanswered questions from root.

Syntax: 

register <password>

BitlBee can save your settings so you won't have to enter all your IM passwords every time you log in. If you want the Bee to save your settings, use the register command.

Please do pick a secure password, don't just use your nick as your password. Please note that IRC is not an encrypted protocol, so the passwords still go over the network in plaintext. Evil people with evil sniffers will read it all. (So don't use your root password.. ;-)

To identify yourself in later sessions, you can use the identify command. To change your password later, you can use the set password command.

Syntax: 

identify <password>

BitlBee saves all your settings (contacts, accounts, passwords) on-server. To prevent other users from just logging in as you and getting this information, you'll have to identify yourself with your password. You can register this password using the register command.

Once you're registered, you can change your password using set password <password>.

Syntax: 

drop <password>

Drop your BitlBee registration. Your account files will be removed and your password will be forgotten. For obvious security reasons, you have to specify your NickServ password to make this command work.

Syntax: 

blist [all|online|offline|away]

You can get a better readable buddy list using the blist command. If you want a complete list (including the offline users) you can use the all argument.

Syntax: 

nick <connection> [<new nick>]
nick

This command allows to set the friendly name of an im account. If no new name is specified the command will report the current name. When the name contains spaces, don't forget to quote the whole nick in double quotes. Currently this command is only supported by the MSN protocol.

< wouter> nick 1 "Wouter Paesen"
< root> Setting your name on connection 1 to `Wouter Paesen'

Syntax: 

import_buddies <connection> [clear]

This command copies the locally stored buddy list to the server. This command exists for upgrading purposes. Previous versions of BitlBee didn't support server-side buddy lists for ICQ, so the list was stored locally.

Since version 0.91 however, server-side contact lists are supported for all protocols, so the local list is now ignored. When upgrading from an older BitlBee to version 0.91, you might need this command to get your buddy list back.

The only argument this command needs is your ICQ account identification. If your serverside buddy list contains some old buddies you don't want anymore, you can pass clear as a second argument.

After giving this command, you have to wait for a while before all the adds are handled, because of ICQ's rate limiting. If your buddy list is very large and the ICQ server starts complaining, you might have to reconnect and enter this command again.

All MSN smileys (except one) are case insensitive and work without the nose too.

This list was extracted from http://help.msn.com/!data/en_us/data/messengerv50.its51/$content$/EMOTICONS.HTM?H_APP=.

Since version 0.8x, BitlBee supports groupchats on the MSN and Yahoo! networks. This text will try to explain you how they work.

As 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 the control channel (or to root directly).

Of course you can also create your own groupchats. Type help groupchats2 to see how.

If you want to start a groupchat with the person jim_msn in it, just join the channel #jim_msn. BitlBee will refuse to join you to the channel with that name, but it will create a new virtual channel with root, you and jim_msn in it.

Of course a channel with only two people isn't really exciting yet. So the next step is to invite some other people to the channel. For this, you can use the /invite command of your IRC client. 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.

This is all you'll probably need to know. If you have any problems, please read help groupchats3.

Obviously the (numbered) channel names don't make a lot of sense. Problem is that groupchats usually don't have names at all in the IM-world, while IRC insists on a name. So BitlBee just generates something random, just don't pay attention to it. :-)

Please also note that BitlBee doesn't support groupchats for all protocols yet. BitlBee will tell you so. Support for other protocols will hopefully come later.

As you might've expected, you can just use the /away command in your IRC client to set an away-state. BitlBee supports most away-states supported by the protocols.

Not all away states are supported by all protocols, and some protocols have different names for them. BitlBee will try to pick the best available alias from this list for every connection:

So /away Food will set your state to "Out to lunch" on your MSN connection, and for most other connections the default, "Away" or "Away from computer" will be chosen.

You 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. Protocols like Yahoo! and Jabber will also show this complete away message to your buddies.