Tips

This page contains some useful hints for using Licq.

1. Stale Lockfiles
2. DCOP Interface
3. Customized Away Message
4. OnEvent Scripting
5. Remote Licq
6. Adium's emoticons in Licq

Stale Lockfiles

Note: As of Licq 1.3.4 this is no longer needed.

If you are using session management, for example by using KDE, it might happen, that Licq leaves a stale lockfile upon logout. This will not happen if Licq is closed correctly, but the KDE session manager does not always wait for programs to shut down. If for some reason there is another process with the same process ID during the next logon, Licq will not start because it thinks it is already running. You can avoid this by using the script below. Just copy it to a file named 'licq.sh', make it executable with 'chmod +x licq.sh' and put it somewhere in your search path. Then run Licq by running licq.sh. The script will automatically detect if the current user is already running Licq, and print a line to standard output (xterm or maybe ~/.xsession-errors) if Licq is running.

#!/bin/bash

LICQ_PID=$(pidof `which licq`)
LICQ_DIR="~/.licq/"
if [ "$LICQ_PID" == "" ]
then
    rm -f "$LICQ_DIR"/licq.pid 2>&1 > /dev/null
    licq
else
    USERS=$(ps u --no-headers -p $LICQ_PID | awk '{print $1}' | grep `whoami`)
    if [ "$USERS" == "" ]
    then
	rm -f "$LICQ_DIR"/licq.pid 2>&1 > /dev/null
        licq
    else
	LICQ_PID=$(ps u --no-headers -p $LICQ_PID | grep `whoami` | awk '{print $2}')
	echo "Licq is already running as $USERS with pid $LICQ_PID."
    fi
fi

DCOP Interface

If you are using the KDE plugin, there is a built in DCOP Interface.

TODO

Customized Away Message

You can customize you away messages in quite a number of ways. There are several parameters and also the possibility to execute a special program, e.g. for querying your mp3 player to show what you are listening to.

Parameters

• %a - Username Alias)
• %e - EMail address
• %f - First name
• %h - Phone number
• %i - IP-address
• %l - Last name
• %m - Number of pending messages
• %n - Full name
• %o - Last seen online
• %O - Online since
• %p - Port number
• %s - Complete status
• %S - Short status
• %u - UIN
• %w - Homepage

Executing Other Programs

TODO

OnEvent Scripting

TODO

Extended Notification

ExtendedNotification can be used to make scripts that do things that would be out of the scope of Licq doing. In this example, the user has certain messages being sent to his phone and spoken to him.

Remote Licq

There are currently a few ways to use Licq remotely. The ConsolePlugin and the RmsPlugin are the most convienient ways to remotely control your Licq. The LicqFifo can also be used to do some basic control that can come in handy when you need to quickly do something on the command line.

Adium's emoticons in Licq

See this step-by-step guide for instructions on how to use Adium's emoticons in Licq.