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The latest BitlBee release is always available from http://www.lintux.cx/bitlbee.html. Download the package with your favorite program and unpack it: tar xvfz BitlBee-0.71.tar.gz
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:
config - The place where BitlBee will save settings for all the users. /var/bitlbee/ is the default value.
tcpd - If you enable this one, you can specify what hosts should be allowed to use your BitlBee by editting /etc/hosts.deny and/or /etc/hosts.deny.
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:
127.0.0.1:6667 stream tcp nowait _bitlbee /usr/local/sbin/bitlbee bitlbee |
Inetd has to be restarted after changing the configuration. kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inetd.pid` should do the job.
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/bitlbee, which can be created with the command mkdir -p /var/bitlbee. This directory has to be owned by the user that runs bitlbee. To make 'nobody' owner of this directory, run chown nobody /var/bitlbee. Because things like passwords are saved in this directory, it's probably a good idea to make this directory owner-read-/writable only.
Note from port-maintainer: already done
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 should 'join' #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.
BitlBee can be configured by giving 'commands' in the #bitlbee channel. 'root' responds to these commands.
Syntax: help
Gives a list of commands bitlbee supports with syntax. You can get an up-to-date list of available commands using the help commands command. This information is usually more up-to-date than the information in this file.
Syntax: login <protocol> <username> <password> [<server>]
Logs in to the given server with the specified protocol, username and password. Specifying the server is optional and principally only necessary when using oscar.
Example:
00:10 < ctrlsoft> login jabber ctrlsoft@jabber.org secret 00:10 < root> JABBER - Logging in: Connecting 00:10 < root> JABBER - Logging in: Connected 00:10 < root> JABBER - Logging in: Requesting Authentication Method 00:10 < root> JABBER - Logging in: Authenticating 00:10 < root> JABBER - Logged in |
Syntax: slist
Gives a list of all active connections to servers
Example:
00:09 < ctrlsoft> slist 00:09 < root> 0. MSN, jelmervernooij@hotmail.com 00:09 < root> 1. OSCAR, 30761007 on login.icq.com 00:09 < root> 2. OSCAR, JelmerVernooij on login.oscar.aol.com 00:09 < root> 3. JABBER, ctrlsoft@jabber.org 00:09 < root> End of connection list |
Syntax: logout <connection-number>
Log out of the specified connection number's network. The correct connection number can be retrieved by running the slist command.
Example:
00:11 < ctrlsoft> logout 3 00:11 -!- gryp [gryp@jabber.jabber.org] has quit [Leaving...] 00:11 < root> JABBER - Logged out |
Syntax: add <connection> <handle>
Adds the given buddy at the specified connection to your buddy list. The connection number can be retrieved with the slist command.
Example:
00:15 < ctrlsoft> add 3 gryp@jabber.org 00:15 -!- gryp (gryp@jabber.org) [gryp@jabber.jabber.org] has joined #bitlbee |
Syntax: remove <nick>
Removes the specified nick from your buddy list.
Example:
00:14 < ctrlsoft> remove gryp 00:14 -!- gryp [gryp@jabber.jabber.org] has quit [Leaving...] |
Syntax: block [<nick<|<connection> <handle>]
Puts the specified user on your ignore list. Either specify the users' nick when you have him/her in your contact list or a connection number and a user handle. The connection number can be retrieved with the slist command.
Syntax: allow [<nick<|<connection> <handle>]
Reverse of block. Unignores the specified user or user handle on specified connection. Connection number can be retrieved using the slist command.
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.
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... ;-)
BitlBee can be configured by using the set command. The available settings are discussed in this section.
Type: boolean
Default: False
If value is true, messages from users will appear in seperate query windows. If false, messages from users will appear in #bitlbee.
Type: boolean
Default: True
If enabled causes bitlbee to save all current settings and account details when user disconnects.
Type: string
Default: nostrip
Determines what bitlbee should do with HTML in messages. If set to nostrip, HTML in messages will not be touched. If set to strip, all html will be stripped from messages.
Type: boolean
Default: False
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.
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.
http://www.lintux.cx/bitlbee.html is the homepage of bitlbee and contains the most recent news on bitlbee and the latest releases.