Making all in po
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/ZachThibeau/PChat/files/PChat-1.1/po'
file=./`echo ca | sed 's,.*/,,'`.gmo \
  && rm -f $file && PATH=../src:$PATH no -o $file ca.po
/bin/sh: no: command not found
make[2]: *** [ca.gmo] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ZachThibeau/PChat/files/PChat-1.1/po'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ZachThibeau/PChat/files/PChat-11'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2

It means you don’t have GNU gettext installed. There are two solutions:

Install GNU gettext and try again.
Use ./configure --disable-nls. This will disable foreign
language support and all menus and GUI will be in English only.

2. How do I compile PChat on my Sun OS system?

PChat uses GNU gettext which in turn requires gmake, either install that
and or use ./configure --disable-nls with Sun’s own make.

2. Section Two: Using PChat.

1. How do I enable identd in PChat?

UNIX:

Identd isn’t actually apart of PChat. You will need to download and install
your own ident server. Most distributions, including Fedora, come with an
ident server program called oidentd. Make sure it is enabled in
/etc/xinetd.conf or read you distribution’s documentation.

As an alternative, you can try this experimental identd server: PChat_auth

WINDOWS:

The win32 version of PChat comes with a built-in identd server. It is
enabled by default, but can be disabled with /set identd 0.

2. How do I auto join more than one channel with keys?

In the Server list’s channel column enter multiple channels and separate
them by commas, eg: “#linux,#warez,#chat“. Do not put spaces between the
channels. If the channels also have keys (passwords), then the syntax is:
“#channel1,#channel2,#channel3 key1,key2,key3”

Example: If you want to join #abc and #talk without keys, but #linux with
a key of “secret”, you would enter: “#linux,#abc,#talk secret“.

3. How do I autoconnect and join a channel when PChat loads?

In the Server list, select the Network you want to auto-connect to, click Edit
and turn ON the “Auto connect to this network at startup” checkbox.

4. How do I cut and paste in PChat?

It’s exactly the same as any other X application. You simply mark the text
you want, and then press middle mouse button to paste (if you only have a
2 button mouse, press left and right buttons at once).

5. How do I connect through a proxy?

Go to the menus, Settings -> Preferences -> Network Setup and fill in the requested
information there. Authentication (using a username and password) is
only supported for HTTP and Socks5.

6. How do I show @ and + in front of nicknames that are Op and Voice when they talk?

To display @ and + characters next to nicknames as they talk, do the following:

In the menus, open up Settings -> Advanced -> Text Events. Find the
Channel Message event in the list. The $3 code can be inserted to
print the user’s mode-character (e.g. @ or +). For example, you might want
to change the default:

%C18%H<%H$4$1%H>%H%O$t$2

To:

%C18%H<%H$4$3$1%H>%H%O$t$2

Don’t forget to press Enter, so the changes take effect in the
list at the top of the window.

7. How do I change the Op and Voice userlist icons and Tree View icons?

Unix/Linux

The default icons are hard coded (compiled) in. You can override them by creating
some PNG files in ${PREFIX}/share/PChat. ${PREFIX} is usually /usr, so that
would translate to /usr/share/PChat. If you compiled from source tarball without
specifying a prefix, it will be /usr/local instead.

Windows

Your own custom icons can be placed in C:\Program Files\PChat\Icons. Image format
may be PNG or ICO. PNG support on Windows 2000 may require installing GDI+, but it’s
standard on XP or newer.

Name	Description
op.png	Userlist: Op
hop.png	Userlist: Half-Op
voice.png	Userlist: Voice
red.png	Userlist: Owner
purple.png	Userlist: Founder

server.png	Tree: Server
channel.png	Tree: Channel
dialog.png	Tree: Dialog/Query
util.png	Tree: Utility (Channel List, DCC etc)

message.png	Tray: Message
highlight.png	Tray: Highlighted Message
fileoffer.png	Tray: DCC

PChat.png	Main PChat icon

Tree View icons: Type /set tab_icons 1 to enable them and then restart PChat.

8. How do I set different ban types?

Three ways:

Right click the nickname in the userlist, and choose a ban type from the
“Kick/Ban” submenu.
You can also do it manually:
```
/ban <nick> <ban type>
```
where the <ban type> is a number from 0 to 3.
/set irc_ban_type <ban type>
sets the default ban type to use for all bans. The different types are:
- 0 *!*@*.host
- 1 *!*@domain
- 2 *!*user@*.host
- 3 *!*user@domain

9. Why can’t I see accented-letters/umlauts/upper-ascii-chars in PChat?

Refer to http://pchat-irc.com/encoding/.

Note: Log files are always written in UTF-8/Unicode.

10. Why does the timestamp overlap some nicknames?

Some networks allow very long nicknames (up to 32 letters). It can be annoying to have
the separator bar move too far to the right, just for one long nick. Therefore, it has
a set limit for the distance it will move to the right. If you use a large font, you
may need to adjust this distance. It is set in pixels, for example:

      /set text_max_indent 320

Once you adjust this setting high enough, overlapping timestamps and nicknames should
not occur. The adjustment will not take effect immediately, a restart may be needed.

11. How do I turn on Conference mode where I will not see join or part messages?

Right-click on the tab you want to change. In the submenu of the channel
name, there’s a toggle-item “Show join/part messages”, simply turn this off.

If you want to turn this option on globally, type:

/set irc_conf_mode 1

Then all channels you join after setting this will start with “Show join/part messages” turned off.

12. How can I run the /dccserver command?

In short you can not do this (easily). This is a mIRC only proprietary feature
that is quite nonstandard. There is no code for doing this, mainly because
/dccserver runs on port 59 which in turn would require running PChat as
root. Why do you need this anyway? Just use normal DCC.

Unofficial unix patches are available here.

Update: DCC Server feature has been added in the official Windows release 2.4.1b.

13. Why doesn’t DCC send work behind a router (IPNat/ADSL)?

If you are behind a IP-NAT or ADSL router, you will most likely have
an address like 192.168.0.1. This address is not usable on the Internet, and
must be translated.

When offering a DCC file, PChat will tell the receiver your address. If it says
192.168.0.1, the receiver will not be able to connect. One way to make it send
your “real” address is to enable the “Get my IP from IRC Server” option in PChat.
This option is available in Preferences -> File Transfers. When you turn it
ON, you will have to re-login to the server before it’ll take effect.

You will also need to forward some ports for use in DCC send. You may pick almost
any port range you wish, for example, in PChat set:

		First DCC send port: 4990
		 Last DCC send port: 5000

This will allow you to send up to ten files at the same time, which should be plenty
for most people. Lastly, configure your router/modem to forward ports 4990-5000 to
your PC’s address. You’ll have to consult your router/modem’s manual on how to do this.

14. How do I execute multiple commands in one line?

There are three ways to do this:

/LOAD -e <textfile>, where <textfile> is a full pathname to a file containing commands on each line.
Separate your commands with CTRL-SHIFT-u-a (CTRL-SHIFT-a on older GTK+ and Windows). This will appear as a little box with numbers on it.
You can create two UserCommands, with the same name, and then execute
the UserCommand. It will be executed in the same order as it’s written
in the UserCommands GUI.

15. How do I enable Emacs key bindings in PChat?

The standard Emacs key bindings, such as CTRL-w, CTRL-u etc, are supported by GTK+ 2.0, but normally disabled. If you run Gnome 2, you can re-enable them in your Gnome menu under: Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

Note: This doesn’t work in the latest Gnome (2.8 and newer). In this case, you need to run “gconf-editor”, and directly change the key /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_key_theme from “Default” to “Emacs”. Then you need to re-start PChat.

If you don’t use Gnome 2, but still want Emacs key bindings, it’s beyond the scope of this document. You might find some hints here: GTK+ 2.4.0 release notes.

16. I get this error: “Unknown file type abc.yz. Maybe you need to install the Perl or Python plugin?”

If you get this error when trying to load a Perl or Python script, it means the plugin for running those scripts isn’t loaded.

The Perl, Python and TCL plugins come with PChat in the same archive.
During ./configure, it will check for Perl, Python and TCL libs and headers, you should check if it failed there.
The plugins directory can be found by issuing the shell command
```
PChat -p
```
All *.so files are auto-loaded at startup (*.dll on Windows).
If you downloaded a binary package, maybe the packager decided to exclude the Perl or Python plugins.

17. How do I play sound files on certain events?

In the menus, go to: Settings > Preferences > Sound. Select the event you want to make a sound on, then type in a sound filename (or use the Browse button).

18. How do I auto-load scripts at startup?

You just have to place the scripts into PChat’s data directory. PChat will auto-load scripts if they have the right extension .e.g If a filename ends in .pl, it will be loaded as a Perl script. This data directory is different on each platform:

Windows

It depends on your version of Windows and where it stores the Application Data folder. On Windows XP it is usually:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\PChat\

or simply:

C:\Program Files\PChat\Plugins\

UNIX

~/.PChat/

Where “~” represents your home directory i.e.: $HOME/.PChat/

19. How do I minimize PChat to the System Tray (Notification Area)?

There are two plugins available that allow this:

Unix: SysTray Plugin

Windows: xTray also please note a modified version of XTray is included with PChat on the win32 platform download

Note that PChat has its own tray feature, but you can disable it
in Settings > Preferences > Alerts and still run these plugins, if you prefer. (on Win32 the tray feature is buggy so x-tray is included, however on the Win64 platform it isn’t buggy, works as it should actually)

20. Can I select and copy text with the time stamps?

Yes, but this requires at the latest stable release of PChat. Simply hold down SHIFT while marking
the text and the time stamps will be included.

21. What’s the deal with opening URLs in PChat on Unix/Linux?

Right-clicking on a URL and selecting Open Link in Browser will open the link
in your “preferred browser”. In Gnome, your preferred browser can be changed in System > Preferences > More Preferences > Preferred Applications.

Notes for the latest release:

Everything should just work automatically without any changes from you. Here’s how the current
logic works:

First, it tries to run xdg-open, which is a universal URL handler from freedesktop.org. Most modern Linux desktops will have this now, or in the near future.
If xdg-open doesn’t exist, it will try to detect a running Gnome or KDE desktop. This is done via the environment variables GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID and KDE_FULL_SESSION.
If Gnome is detected, it will execute: gnome-open <url>
If KDE is detected, it will execute: kfmclient exec <url>

More details

While holding down CTRL you can single left-click a URL to open it in your preferred browser. If you really want to change this to plain left-click you can type: /set gui_url_mod 0, provided you have the latest copy of PChat.

You can also add more items to the right-click menu in PChat: Settings > Advanced > URL Handlers.

For example, you could add an entry like !firefox -a firefox -remote ‘openURL(%s,new-tab)’

But this kind of messing around shouldn’t be necessary, it just works automatically in Gnome, KDE and Windows with 2.8.0+!

22. Where are the log files saved to?

UNIX

~/.PChat/pchatlogs/

where ~ represents your home directory.

Windows

Windows XP/2000: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\PChat\PChatlogs

Windows Vista/7: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\PChat\pchatlogs

23. How do I rotate log files every so often?

Requires: 2.6.1+

By default settings, no rotation occurs, your log files will just keep getting larger.

Go to Settings > Preferences > Logging and change the log filename to any one of these:

Setting	Example filename that would be written
%Y-%m-%d/%n-%c.log	2006-12-30/FreeNode-#channel.log
%n/%Y-%m-%d/%c.log	FreeNode/2006-12-30/#channel.log
%n/%c.log	FreeNode/#channel.log (no rotation)

%Y, %m and %d represents the current year, month and day respectively. %n is the
network name, e.g. “FreeNode” or “UnderNet”, and finally, %c is the channel. In these
examples, a new log filename and folder would be created after midnight.

You can find more possibilities at this link.

24. How do I enable graphical smilies (emoticons)?

This feature is only available in the official Windows PChat release. You have to
TICK this feature during installation. If you didn’t do this, you can simply run
the installer again, and TICK the “Eye Candy Theme” when given the option.

If you want to use the graphical theme, but disable it just for smilies (i.e leave
it ON for things like Join/Part, Modes etc only), type this command and restart:

~~/set text_emoticons off~~

FAQ

PChat 2.8 Frequently Asked Questions

1. Section One: Compiling and Installing.

2. Section Two: Using PChat.

3. Section Three: Contributions, Development and Bugs.

1. Section One: Compiling and Installing.

2. Section Two: Using PChat.

UNIX:

WINDOWS:

Unix/Linux

Windows

Windows

UNIX

3. Section Three: Contributions, Development and Bugs.

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