Poezio documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#poezio-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶

Note

The contact list also called a roster in XMPP terms.

This is a unique tab, always numbered 0. It contains the list of your contacts. You can add (/add, /accept), remove (/remove) and search contacts from there, and you can open a conversation with them (Enter key).

Use the direction arrows (↑↓) to browse the list, the Space key to fold or unfold a group or a contact.

Area where information messages are displayed.
Actual list of contacts. The first level is group, the second is the contacts and the third is the resources of your online contacts.
More information about the selected contact.

Chatroom tab¶

Chat shortcuts

Note

A chatroom is also called a MUC (for Multi-User-Chat) in XMPP terms.

This tab contains a multi-user conversation.

The conversation window, this is where all the messages and events related to the muc will be displayed. It can be scrolled up and down with PageUp and PageDown.
The participant list. Participants are listed by their role first, and then alphabetically. The status of each participant is symbolized using the color of the character on the left of its nick. That character also shows the chatstate of each participant:
- |: inactive
- X: composing
- A: active
- p: paused
The roles and affiliations of the participants are symbolized by the char before the nick and its color. The characters define the affiliations, and they mean:
- ~: Owner
- &: Admin
- +: Member
- -: None
And their color define their roles, and they mean:
- Red : moderator
- Blue: participant
- Grey: visitor
The nicks have a fixed color assigned using XEP-0392.
Your information in that chatroom (the name of the room, your nick, your role and affiliation).
The topic of the room.

You can configure the room (if you have the rights to do it) using the /configure command, open a private conversation with someone using the /query command, change or view the topic using the /topic command…

Private tab¶

Chat shortcuts

This is the tab opened with the /query command in a Chatroom tab, letting you talk in private with a participant of a multi-user chat.

This is just a simple one to one conversation, with a line showing the status, name and chatstate of the participant.

Conversation tab¶

Chat shortcuts

A tab opened by interacting with the contact list or /message, to talk in private with one of your contacts.

This is also just a simple one to one conversation, with a line showing the status, name and chatstate of the participant, as well as a line at the top showing the status message of the contact. Plugins may add some elements to the status line.

Dataforms tab¶

This tab lets you view a form received from a remote entity, edit the values and send everything back. It is mostly used to configure chatrooms with the /configure command but can actually be used for almost anything.

Use the Up and Down keys to go from one field to the other, and edit the value using the Space, Left or Right keys, or by entering text.

You can then send the completed form using Ctrl+y or cancel using Ctrl+g.

List tab¶

This tab lists all public rooms on a chatroom service (with the /list command). It is currently very limited but will be improved in the future. There currently is no way to search a room.

Use the Up and Down or PageUp and PageDown keys to browse the list, and use Enter or j to join the selected room.

You can sort the rooms by moving the direction arrows (← or →) and pressing Space when you are on the appropriate column.

Confirm tab¶

This kind of tab is used to prompt a binary choice to the user due to external events, such as a certificate change:

Or a XEP-0070 validation:

Bookmarks tab¶

This tab can be obtained using /bookmarks, it is a graphical interface for managing bookmarks. You can edit the bookmark address itself, its password, the storage backend, and the autojoin status. Note that local bookmarks always have autojoin set to True.

Commands¶

Commands start with the / character and can take a list of any number of arguments, separated by spaces. If an argument should contain a space, you can use the " character to surround this argument.

The commands described in this page are shown like this:

/command <mandatory argument> [optional argument]

You can get the same help as below from inside poezio with the /help command.

Note

Use command parameters like this:

Do not use quotes if they are unnecessary (words without special chars or spaces)
If the command takes several agrguments, you need to put quotes around arguments containing special chars such as backslashes or quotes
If the command always takes only one argument, then do not use quotes even for words containing special chars

Global commands¶

These commands work in any tab.

/activity

Usage: /activity [<general> [specific] [comment]]

Send your current activity to your contacts (use the completion to cycle through all the general and specific possible activities).

Nothing means “stop broadcasting an activity”.

/bind

Usage: /bind <key> <eq>

Bind a key to another key or to a “command”. For example, /bind ^H KEY_UP makes Control + h behave the same way as the Up key. See the key bindings documentation page for more details.

/bookmark

Usage: /bookmark [roomname][/nick] [autojoin] [password]

Bookmark the specified room. This command uses almost the same syntax as /join. Type /help join for syntax examples. Note that when typing /bookmark on its own, the room will be bookmarked with the nickname you’re currently using in this room (instead of default_nick). You can specify an optional autojoin and password if you call it with the full line (/bookmark alone will put the room in autojoin without password). The bookmarks stored with this command are stored on your xmpp server.

/bookmark_local

Usage: /bookmark_local [roomname][/nick]

Bookmark the specified room (you will then auto-join it on each poezio start). This commands uses almost the same syntax as /join. Type /help join for syntax examples. Note that when typing /bookmark on its own, the room will be bookmarked with the nickname you’re currently using in this room (instead of default_nick). The bookmarks stored with this command will be stored locally. They have priority over the ones stored online.

/bookmarks

Usage: /bookmarks

Open a Bookmarks tab in order to edit the current boookmarks.

/close

Close the tab.

Note

The /close command will work everywhere, except in the Contact list tab, which can’t be closed.

/destroy_room

Usage: /destroy_room [room JID]

Try to destroy the room given as a parameter, or the current room is not parameter is given and the current tab is a chatroom.

You need to be the owner of a room or a server admin to destroy it.

/exit

/quit

Just disconnect from the server and exit poezio.

/gaming

Usage: /gaming [<game name> [server address]]

Send your current gaming activity to your contacts.

Nothing means “stop broadcasting a gaming activity”.

/help

Usage: /help [command]

If called without an argument, this command will list the available commands. If it has a valid command as an argument, this command will show the usage and the help for the given command.

/invitations

Show the pending invitations.

/invite

Usage: /invite <jid> <room> [reason]

Invite jid to room with reason (if provided).

/join

Usage: /join [room_name][@server][/nick] [password]

Join the specified room. You can specify a nickname after a slash (/). If no nickname is specified, you will use the default_nick in the configuration file. You can omit the room name: you will then join the room you’re looking at (useful if you were kicked). You can also provide a room_name without specifying a server, the server of the room you’re currently in will be used. You can also provide a password to join the room.

Examples:

/join room@server.tld
/join room@server.tld/John
/join room2
/join /me_again
/join
/join room@server.tld/my_nick password
/join / password

/last_activity

Usage: /activity <jid>

Show the last activity of a contact or a server (its uptime, in that case).

/list

Usage: /list [server.tld]

Get the list of public chatrooms in the specified server (open a List tab)

/load

Usage: /load <plugin name> [<other plugin> …]

Load or reload one or several plugins.

/message

Usage: /message <jid> [optional message]

Open a conversation with the specified JID (event if it is not in our contact list), and send a message to them, if specified.

/mood

Usage: /mood [<mood> [comment]] Send your current mood to your contacts (use the completion to cycle through all the possible moods).

Nothing means “stop broadcasting a mood”.

/move_tab

Usage: /move_tab <source> <destination>

Move tab <source> to <destination>. If the create_gaps option is true, then it will leave a gap at the <source> position, leading to usual behaviour. If create_gaps is not enabled, then the tabs will number from 0 to your actual tab number, without gaps (which means their number will change if you close a tab on the left of the list).

A value of . for a parameter means the current tab.

/next

Go to the next room.

/plugins

List the loaded plugins.

/presence

Usage: /presence <jid> [type] [status]

Send a directed presence to jid using type and status if provided.

/prev

Go to the previous room.

/rawxml

Usage: /rawxml <stanza>

Send a custom XML stanza.

/reload

Reload the config. You can achieve the same by sending SIGUSR1 to poezio.

/remove_bookmark

Usage: /remove_bookmark [room_jid]

Remove the bookmark on room_jid or the one on the current tab, if any.

/runkey

Usage: /runkey <key>

Execute the action defined for key. For example, /runkey KEY_PPAGE will scroll up, or /runkey ^N will go to the next tab.

/self

Reminds you of who you are and what your status is.

/server_cycle

Usage: /server_cycle [server.tld] [message]

Disconnect and reconnect in all the rooms of server.tld.

/set

Usage: /set [plugin|][section] <option> <value>

Set the value to the option in your configuration file. You can, for example, change your default nickname by doing “/set default_nick toto” or your password with “/set password blabla”. Doing so will write in the main config file, and in the main section ([Poezio]). But you can also write to another section, with /set bindings M-i ^i, to a plugin configuration with /set mpd_client| host main (notice the |, it is mandatory to write in a plugin), or even to another section in a plugin configuration /set plugin|other_section option value. toggle can be used as a special value for a boolean option. It just set the option to true if it’s currently false, and to false if it’s currently true.

/set_default

Usage: /set_default [section] <option>

Set the value of an option back to the default. For example, /set_default password will reset the password option.

/status

Usage: /status <availability> [status message]

Set your availability and (optionaly) your status message. The <availability> argument is one of “available, chat, away, afk, dnd, busy, xa” and the optional [status] argument will be your status message.’

/theme

Usage: /theme [theme_name]

Reload the theme defined in the config file. If theme_name is given, this command will act like /set theme theme_name then /theme.

/toggle

Usage: /toggle <option>

Toggle an option, shortcut for /set <option> toggle.

/unload

Usage: /unload <plugin name> [<other plugin> …]

Unload one or several plugins.

/version

Usage: /version <jid>

Get the software version of the given JID (usually its XMPP client and Operating System).

/win

/w

Usage: /win <number or string>

Go to the matching tab. If the argument is a number, it goes to the tab with that number. Otherwise, it goes to the next tab whose name contains the given string.

/xml_tab

Open an XML tab.

Chat tab commands¶

These commands will work in any conversation tab (MultiUserChat, Private, or: Conversation tabs).

/clear

Clear the current buffer.

/correct

Usage: /correct <corrected message>

Replace the content of the last sent message with corrected message.

/say

Usage: /say <message>

Just send the message (only useful it you want your message to begin with a /). Note that you can also send message starting with a / by starting it with //.

/xhtml

Usage: /xhtml <custom xhtml>

Send a custom xhtml message to the current tab.

MultiUserChat tab commands¶

/affiliation

Usage: /affiliation <nick> <affiliation>

Sets the affiliation of the participant designated by nick to the given affiliation (can be one of owner, admin, member, outcast and none).

/clear [Chatroom version]

Usage: /clear

Clear the messages buffer.

/color

Usage: /color <nick> <color>

Assign a color to the given nick. The nick and all its alias (nicks are considered identical if they only differ by the presence of one ore more _ character at the beginning or the end. For example _Foo and Foo___ are considered aliases of the nick Foo) will then always have the specified color, in all MultiUserChat tabs. This is true whatever the value of deterministic_nick_colors is.

Use the completion to get a list of all the available color values. Use the special color unset to remove the attributed color on this nick. You can also use random to attribute a random color.

/configure

Configure the current room through a form (Open a Dataforms tab).

/cycle

Usage: /cycle [message]

Leave the current room an rejoint it immediatly. You can specify an optional quit message.

/ignore

Usage: /ignore <nickname>

Ignore a specified nickname.

/info

Usage: /info <nickname>

Display some information about the user in the room: his/her role, affiliation, status, and status message.

/invite [Chatroom version]

Usage: /invite <jid> [reason]

Invite jid to this room with reason (if provided).

/kick

Usage: /kick <nick> [reason]

Kick the user with the specified nickname. You can also give an optional reason.

/names

Get the list of the users in the room, their number, and the list of the people assuming different roles.

/nick

Usage: /nick <nickname>

Change your nickname in the current room.

/part

Usage: /part [message]

Disconnect you from a room. You can specify an optional message.

/query

Usage: /query <nick> [message]

Open a Private tab with <nick>. This nick has to be present in the room you’re currently in. If you specified a message after the nickname, it will be sent to this user.

/recolor

Usage: /recolor [random]

Re-assign a color to all the participants in the current room, based on the last time they talked. Use this if the participants currently talking have too many identical colors. If a random argument is given, the participants will be shuffled before they are assigned a color.

/role

Usage: /affiliation <nick> <role>

Sets the role of the participant designated by nick to the given role (can be one of moderator, participant, visitor and none).

/topic

Usage: /topic [subject]

Change the subject of the room.

Using the auto-completion of this command writes the current topic in the input, to help the user make a small change to the topic whithout having to rewrite it all by hand.

If no subject is specified as an argument, the current topic is displayed, unchanged.

/unignore

Usage: /unignore <nickname>

Remove the specified nickname from the ignore list.

/version

Usage: /version <nickname or jid>

Get the software version of the given nick in room or the given jid (usually its XMPP client and Operating System).

Private tab commands¶

/info: Display some info about this user in the MultiUserChat.
/unquery: Close the tab.
/version: Get the software version of the current interlocutor (usually its XMPP client and Operating System).

Normal Conversation tab commands¶

/info: Display the status of this contact.
/unquery: Close the tab.
/version: Get the software version of the current interlocutor (usually its XMPP client and Operating System).

Contact list tab commands¶

/accept

Usage: /accept [jid]

Authorize the provided JID (or the selected contact in the contact list) to see your presence.

/add

Usage: /add <jid>

Add the specified JID to your contact list and authorize them to see your presence. If they accepts you, the subscription will be mutual (and if they don’t, you can still /remove them).

/deny

Usage: /deny [jid]

Prevent the provided JID (or the selected contact in the contact list) from seeing your presence.

/groupadd

Usage: ``/groupadd (<jid> <group>|<group>)

Add the given JID to the given group (if the group does not exist, it will be created). If no jid is provided, the currently selected item on the contact list (resource or JID) will be used.

/groupmove

Usage: /groupmove <jid> <old_group> <new_group>

Move the given JID from one group to another (the JID has to be in the first group, and the new group may not exist).

/groupremove

Usage: /groupremove <jid> <group>

Remove the given JID from the given group (if the group is empty after that, it will get deleted).

/name

Usage: /name <jid> <name>

Set the given JID’s name in your contact list.

/password

Usage: /password <password>

Change your password.

/reconnect

Disconnect from the remote server (if connected) and then connect to it again.

/remove

Usage: /remove [jid]

Remove the specified JID from your contact list. This will unsubscribe you from its presence, cancel its subscription to yours, and remove the item from your contact list.

Note

The following commands only exist if your server announces it supports them.

/block

Usage: /block [jid]

Block the following JID using simple blocking. You will not receive any of his messages and won’t be able to send some to him either.

/cert_add

Usage: /cert_add <name> <certificate file> [management]

Add a client X.509 certificate to the list of the certificates which grand access to your account. It must have an unique name the file must be in PEM format. [management] is true by default and specifies if the clients connecting with this particular certificate will be able to manage the list of authorized certificates.

/cert_disable

Usage: /cert_disable <name>

Remove a certificate from the authorized list. Clients currently connected with the certificate identified by <name> will however not be disconnected.

/cert_fetch

Usage: /cert_fetch <name> <path>

Download the public key of the authorized certificate identified by name from the XMPP server, and store it in <path>.

/cert_revoke

Usage: /cert_revoke <name>

Remove a certificate from the authorized list. Clients currently connected with the certificate identified by <name> will be disconnected.

/certs

List the remotely stored X.509 certificated allowed to connect to your accounts.

/list_blocks

List the blocked JIDs.

/unblock

Usage: /unblock [jid]

Unblock a previously blocked JID using simple blocking. You will be able to send and receive messages from him again.

Note

The following commands do not comply with any XEP or whatever, but they can still prove useful when you are migrating to an other JID.

/export

Usage: /export [/path/to/file]

Export your contacts into /path/to/file if specified, or $HOME/poezio_contacts if not.

/import

Usage: /import [/path/to/file]

Import your contacts from /path/to/file if specified, or $HOME/poezio_contacts if not.

XML tab commands¶

/clear [XML tab version]

Clear the current buffer.

/dump

Usage: /dump <filename>

Write the content of the XML buffer into a file.

/filter_from

Usage: /filter_from <jid>

Filter by JID for from attribute.

/filter_id

Usage: /filter_id <id>

Filter by stanza id attribute.

/filter_jid

Usage: /filter_jid <jid>

Filter by JID, both to and from.

/filter_reset

Reset the stanza filters.

/filter_to

Usage: /filter_to <jid>

Filter by JID for the to attribute.

/filter_xmlmask

Usage: /filter_xmlmask <xml mask>

Filter using an XML mask

/filter_xpath

Usage: /filter_xpath <xpath>

Filter with an XPath selector.

Keys¶

This file describes the default keys of poezio and explains how to configure them.

By default, most keys manipulating the input (where you type your messages and commands) behave like emacs does.

Note

Keys are case sensitive. Ctrl-X is not the same than Ctrl-x

Key bindings listing¶

Some key bindings are available only in some tabs, others are global.

Global keys¶

These keys work in any tab.

Ctrl-p or F5: Go to the previous tab.

Ctrl-n or F6: Go to the next tab.

Alt-number: Go to the tab with that number.

Alt-j: Waits for you to type a two-digits number. Go to tab number xx.

Alt-e: Go to the tab with a higher priority (private message > highlight > message > non-empty input).

Alt-z: Go to the previously selected tab.

Alt-r: Go to the contact list tab.

F4: Toggle the left pane.

F7: Shrink the information buffer.

F8: Grow the information buffer.

Ctrl-l: Refresh the screen.

Alt-D: Scroll the information buffer up.

Alt-C: Scroll the information buffer down.

Input keys¶

These keys concern only the inputs.

NOTE: The clipboard is common to all inputs. This lets you cut a text from one input to paste it into an other one.

Ctrl-a: Move the cursor to the beginning of line.

Ctrl-e: Move the cursor to the end of line.

Ctrl-u: Delete the text from the start of the input until the cursor and save it to the clipboard.

Ctrl-k: Delete the text from the cursor until the end of the input and save it to the clipboard.

Ctrl-y: Insert the content of the clipboard at the cursor position.

Ctrl-Enter or Ctrl-j: Insert a line break. Since the input is only one line, the line break is represented by the character | in it but will be sent as the real \n character.

Alt-k: Escape the next key pressed. For example if you press Alt-k, followed by Ctrl-q, this will enter “^Q” into the text input. This is useful for example in conjunction with the bind command, to help you know how to bind something to a key combination without having to remember how to write them by hand.

Chat tab input keys¶

These keys work in any conversation tab (MultiUserChat, Private or Conversation tabs).

Key Up: Use the previous message from the message history.

Key Down: Use the next message from the message history.

Page Up: Scroll up in the conversation by x lines, where x is the height of the conversation window - 1.

Page Down: Like Page Up, but down.

Ctrl-b: Go one line up in the buffer.

Ctrl-f: Go one line down in the buffer.

Ctrl-s: Go half a screen up in the buffer.

Ctrl-x: Go half a screen down in the buffer.

Alt-/: Complete what you’re typing using the “recent” words from the current conversation, if any.

Alt-v: Move the separator at the bottom of the tab.

Alt-h: Scroll to the separator, if there is one.

Ctrl-c: Insert xhtml formatting.

You have to press Ctrl-c then a character listed below:

1: Red

2: Green

3: Yellow/Orange

4: Blue

5: Pink

6: Turquoise

b: Bold

u: Underlined

o: Stop formatting

MultiUserChat tab input keys¶

These keys work only in the MultiUserChat tab.

Alt-u: Scroll the user list down.

Alt-y: Scroll the user list up.

Alt-p: Scroll to the previous highlight.

Alt-n: Scroll to the next highlight.

tabulation: Complete a nick.

MultiUserChat List tab input keys¶

These keys work only in the MultiUserChat List tab (obtained with /list).

Up: Go up one row.

Down: Go down one row.

j: Join the MultiUserChat currently selected.

J: Join the MultiUserChat currently selected, without giving focus to its tab.

Ctrl-M: Join the MultiUserChat currently selected (same as j.

PageUp: Scroll a page of chats up.

PageDown: Scroll a page of chats down.

Contact list tab input keys¶

These keys work only in the Contact list tab (the tab number 0).

/: Open a prompt for commands.

s: Start a search on the contacts.

S: Start a (slow) search with approximation on the contacts.

Alt-u: Move the cursor to the next group.

Alt-y: Move the cursor to the previous group.

Ctrl-c: Cancel the input (search or command)

Enter on a contact/resource: open a chat tab with this contact/resource

Enter on a group: fold/unfold that group

Up: Move the cursor down one contact.

Down: Move the cursor up one contact.

PageUp: Scroll a page of contacts up.

PageDown: Scroll a page of contacts down.

Note

The following will not work if you can still write things in the input (meaning you previously typed s or /)

Space: Fold/Unfold the current item.

o: Show the offline contacts.

During a search¶

Enter: end the search while keeping the selected contact under the cursor (tip: press Enter a second time to open a chat window)

Data Forms tab keys¶

Ctrl+y: Validate the form, send it and close the tab.

Ctrl+g: Cancel that form (do not send your changes) and close the tab.

Up: Select the next field.

Down: Select the previous field.

Right/Left: Switch between possible values, in a jid-multi,: list-multi, list-single or text-multi field.

Space: Select that option

XML tab input keys¶

These keys only work in the XML tab (obtained with /xml_tab)

Ctrl+k: Freeze or un-freeze the display in order to have a clear view of: the stanzas.

Key configuration¶

Bindings are keyboard shortcut aliases. You can use them to define your own keys to replace the default ones. where ^x means Control + x and M-x means Alt + x

To know exactly what the code of a key is, just run

python3 poezio/keyboard.py

And enter any key.

Turn Alt-i into a tab key (completion, etc):

M-i = ^I

Actions¶

Mapping actions on keys¶

One may want to add keyboard shortcuts on actions that were not mapped already in poezio. To this effect, you can map the keys on actions using the Key configuration seen in the previous section.

The actions are pseudo-keystrokes, and have to be treated the same way. They all begin with an underscore to prevent any possible collision with things already defined.

Actions list¶

Note

Even if some of these actions are labelled as similar to other keystrokes, remapping the keystrokes will not remap the actions defined here.

_bookmark

Bookmarks the current room.

Similar to /bookmark.

_bookmark_local Bookmarks the current room, locally.

Similar to /bookmark_local

_close_tab: Closes the current tab.

This is the same as /close. The first tab (the contact list) can not be closed.

_disconnect: Disconnects poezio from the server.

_quit: Exits poezio.

Similar to /quit.

_reconnect: Disconnects then reconnects poezio, if possible.

This is similar to /reconnect.

_redraw_screen: Redraws the screen.

This isn’t normally useful, similar to Ctrl-l.

_reload_theme: Reloads the theme.

Similar to /theme.

_remove_bookmark: Removes the bookmark on the current room.

Similar to /remove_bookmark.

_room_left: Goes to the room on the left.

Similar to the default Ctrl-p action.

_room_right: Goes to the room on the right.

Similar to the default Ctrl-n action.

_show_roster: Goes to the contact list

Similar to Alt-r action.

_scroll_down: Scrolls down in the current buffer.

Similar to PAGEDOWN.

_scroll_up: Scrolls up in the current buffer.

Similar to PAGEUP.

_scroll_info_down: Scrolls down in the info buffer.

Similar to Alt-c.

_scroll_info_up: Scrolls up in the info buffer.

Similar to Alt-d.

_server_cycle: Cycles in the current chatroom server.

Similar to /server_cycle in a chatroom. If you are not in a chatroom, you will get an error.

_show_bookmarks: Shows the current bookmarks.

Similar to /bookmarks.

_show_important_room: Goes to the most important room.

Similar to Alt-e.

_show_invitations: Shows all the pending chatroom invitations.

Similar to /invitations.

_show_plugins: Shows the currently loaded plugins.

Similar to /plugins.

_show_xmltab: Opens an XML tab.

Similar to /xml_tab.

_toggle_pane: Toggles the left pane.

Similar to F4.

Status actions¶

_available: Sets the status to available.

Similar to /status available.

_away: Sets the status to away.

Similar to /status away.

_chat: Sets the status to chat.

Similar to /status chat.

_dnd: Sets the status to dnd.

Similar to /status dnd.

_xa: Sets the status to xa.

Similar to /status xa.

Command execution¶

With that kind of actions, you can also execute arbitrary commands, with the _exc_ keyword.

You only have to prefix your command line with _exc_, and without the /.

/kick Partauche bound on Ctrl-w:

^W = _exc_kick Partauche

That key binding will only work in the tabs defining the command (here, the chatroom tab), and will show an error message in the others.

Examples¶

Config with user-defined actions

[bindings]
^W = _close_tab
M-x = _show_xmltab
M-i = _show_important_room
M-p = _toggle_pane

Config with commands mapped

[bindings]
M-c = _exc_configure
^Q = _exc_part RAGE QUIT
^J = _exc_join
^F = _exc_load figlet
^R = _exc_load rainbow
^S = _exc_say llollllllllllll

Quickstart guide¶

This page is an attempt at providing first aid to new users, who must first follow the Install Guide to get a working poezio install.

Reading the more detailed Usage page is recommended to get a deeper understanding of poezio.

Anonymous usage¶

If you run poezio right after installing, you will get connected to the default anonymous server, which allows you to join rooms, and talk to people.

Joining rooms¶

The /join command allows you to join a chatroom and start talking to people right away. It opens a new Chatroom tab.

Talking to people¶

You can use the /message command if you know the address of people you want to talk to. This will open a Conversation tab.

Normal usage¶

In order to use an account, you have to edit the Configuration first, to set the account address and password (optionally). Sadly, poezio doesn’t allow account creation yet, so if you don’t have an account you will have to either use another client like gajim to create your account, or stay in anonymous mode.

After obtaining an account and setting the jid config option to the right value, you should go through the configuration file to get an overview of the different configuration options available. If you don’t set the value of the password option, you will be prompted to enter it on startup.

Joining rooms¶

Just as in the anonymous mode, the /join command allows you to join a chatroom and start talking to people right away. It opens a new Chatroom tab.

Talking to people¶

Just as in the anonymous mode, you can use the /message command if you know the address of people you want to talk to. This will open a Conversation tab.

Adding people¶

However, one of the benefits of having an account is to have contacts, see when they are online and offline, see their activity, mood, etc. To this end, you should add the people you know to your contact list.

The Contact list tab is the tab numbered 0, and the only one which is always open. To add people, use /add, to accept a contact request use /accept.

Using end-to-end encryption¶

To use OTR end-to-end encryption, you have to enable the OTR plugin. The plugin requires python-potr for python3, so make sure you have it installed first.

After that, you can enable the OTR plugin with /load otr. Further usage is discussed in the plugin documentation.

Exiting poezio¶

Use the /exit command to quit poezio.

Themes¶

This page describes how themes work in poezio and how to create or modify one.

A theme contains color attributes and character definitions. Poezio can display up to 256 colors if your terminal supports it. Most of the time, if it doesn’t work, that’s because the $TERM environnment variable is wrong. For example with tmux or screen, set it to screen-256color, in xterm, set it to xterm-256color, etc.

If your terminal doesn’t have 256 colors, only 8 colors will be available, and poezio will replace the colors by one of the 8 values available. Thus, some theme files may not work properly if you only have 8 colors, for example light gray on dark gray may be converted to black on black, making the text impossible to read).

Note

The default theme should work properly in any case. If not, that’s a bug.

A theme file is a python file (with the .py extension) containing a class, inheriting the theming.Theme class defined into the theming poezio module.

To check how many colors your current terminal/$TERM supports, do:

tput colors

Create a theme¶

To create a theme named foo, create a file named foo.py into the theme directory (by default it’s ~/.local/share/poezio/themes/) and add:

import theming

class FooTheme(theming.Theme):
      # Define here colors for that theme
theme = FooTheme()

To define a color pair and assign it to the COLOR_NAME option, just do

class FooTheme(theming.Theme):
      COLOR_NAME = (fg_color, bg_color, opt_attr)

You do not have to define all the Available options, you can decide that your theme will only change some options, the other one will just have the default value (from the default theme).

Colors and attributes¶

A color pair defines how the text will be displayed on the screen. It has a foreground color (fg_color), a background color (bg_color) and an optional attribute (opt_attr).

Colors¶

A color is a number between -1 and 255. If it is -1, this is the default color defined by your terminal (for example if your terminal displays white text on black by default, a fg_color of -1 is white, and a bg_color of -1 is black). If it’s between 0 and 256 it represents one of the colors on this image:

The list of all 256 colors

Attributes¶

An attribute is a python string (so, it has to be surrounded by simple or double quotes). It can be one of the following:

'b': bold text
'u': underlined text

Use a theme¶

To use a theme, just define the theme option into the configuration file to the name of the theme you want to use. If that theme is not found, the default theme will be used instead.

Note that the default theme is defined directly into poezio’s source code, and not in a theme file.

Change the theme directory¶

To change the default theme directory (~/.local/share/poezio/themes/ by default), you have to change the themes_dir option in the configuration file to the directory that contains your theme files.

Available options¶

Warning

This section is not complete.

All available options can be found into the default theme, which is into the theming.py file from the poezio’s source code.

class poezio.theming.Theme[source]¶

The theme class, from which all themes should inherit. All of the following values can be replaced in subclasses, in order to create a new theme.

Do not edit this file if you want to change the theme to suit your needs. Create a new theme and share it if you think it can be useful for others.

Plugins¶

Starting from the 0.7.5 version, poezio supports plugins. Here is a quick howto and a plugin index.

Setting up plugins¶

Poezio seeks the plugins in the ~/.local/share/poezio/plugins/ dir (more generally, the $XDG_DATA_HOME/poezio/plugins/ dir), but that can be changed by setting the plugins_dir option to the directory where you want to put your plugins.

By default, poezio will also seek the plugins in ../plugins, in the source directory, in order to always load the latest versions. You should put a plugin in $XDG_DATA_HOME/poezio/plugins only if you have a custom version (that will override the one in ../plugins), or if it is a plugin you made.

Plugin autoload¶

Use the plugins_autoload option to select which plugins should be loaded on startup. The value is a list of plugin names separated by colons, e.g.

plugins_autoload = tell:exec

Manual plugin load¶

Plugins can of course be loaded with the command /load and unloaded with the command /unload.

Plugin configuration¶

Most plugins will manage their configuration internally, and you do not (and should not) have to edit it, but some (e.g. mpd_client) require manual editing (the /set command can be used, but it is not pleasant to set multiple values with it).

The plugin configuration directory is located in ~/.config/poezio/plugins/ (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/poezio/plugins/) and the file related to a specific plugin is named plugin_name.cfg. The configuration options should usually be inside a section named after the plugin (sections are delimited with []).

[plugin_name]
key = value
other_key = other_value

Plugin index¶

Admin

Creates convenient aliases for chatroom administration.

Alias

Allows you to create your own aliases.

Amsg

Allows a message to be broadcasted on all the rooms your are in. Caution: do not overuse.

Autocorrect

Add new ways to correct messages.

Close all

Close all tabs except chatrooms and the contact list.

CSI

Set the client state indication manually.

Cyber

Add a cybertouch to your messages.

Day Change

Logs the day change inside the buffers, to keep track of the days when backlogging.

Dice

Roll one or several dice using message corrections.

Disco

Add a /disco command to display the disco#info of a JID.

Display corrections

Lists old versions of a corrected message.

Double

Double the first word of each sentence.

Embed

Send an URL annotating it as embedded.

Exec

Runs a system command an optionally sends the output as a message.

Figlet

Ascii-art writing (requires the figlet package on your system).

IQ Show

Shows the received IQs, for debugging purposes.

IRC

Manage IRC gateways with biboumi more easily

Link

Opens links in a web browser, locally or remotely using a FIFO and SSH.

Marquee

Reproduce the behavior of the <marquee/> html tag.

MPD Client

Sends the current song (and optionally the progress inside the song) to the current (chat) tab.

OTR

Allows encrypted and deniable exchanges using OTR.

PacoKick

Kicks a random user in the room.

Ping

Sends a ping probe to an entity (XEP-0199)

Pipe Command

Send commands to poezio through a named pipe.

PointPoint

Documention

Insert dots in your messages.

Quote

Adds a /quote command to quote a message at HH:MM:SS and put it in the input (to prevent painful copy/pastes).

Rainbow

Sends your messages in rainbow colors using XHTML-IM.

Regex Admin

Add regex-based kick and ban commands.

Reminder

Reminds you to do something every now and then.

Reorder

Reorder the tabs according to a static layout.

Replace

Replace some patterns in your messages.

Revstr

Reverse everything you say.

Screen Detach

Changes your status to away if the screen (or tmux) poezio is in gets detached.

Send Delayed

Program the sending of futur messages.

Server Part

Add a /server_part command.

Shuffle

Shuffle everything you say.

Simple notify

Sends a notification with a command of your choice on (non-chatroom) messages.

Spam

Adds a subtle little advertising in your messages.

Status

Adds convenient aliases to /status (/away, etc).

Tell

Sends a message to a nick when he connects to a chatroom.

Time Marker

Display the time between two messages.

Title change

Change the title of the terminal according to the name of the current tab.

Upload

Documentation

Add an /upload command to upload a file.

Uptime

Gets the uptime of a XMPP server or a component.

vCard