2

How can I set/change my status (like Available/Busy/Away) in Pidgin instant messenger from the command line? I needed this to make sure that my status changes to 'Away' whenever I lock my screen. I installed the 'awayonlock' plugin, but it doesn't seem to work with MATE desktop environment.

Jerry George
  • 21
  • 5
  • Something like: `$pidgin-client --state "dont_disturb" --text-state "Meeting from 11:00 to 12:00 at B55 room"` – Goran.it Sep 15 '17 at 12:14
  • @Goran.it : I don't have any program called 'pidgin-client' in my Debian 8 machine. The ones I have are 'pidgin' and 'pidgin.orig'. I tried your command with both these and it doesn't seem to work. – Jerry George Sep 15 '17 at 12:22
  • 2
    Maybe you could try `purple-remote "setstatus?status=away&message=AFK"` .. I'm not sure which programs gets installed with pidgin on ubuntu .. From what I've read purple-remote should do the trick, you can read more about that here : http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/4554/change-pidgin-status – Goran.it Sep 15 '17 at 16:18

1 Answers1

0

I was able to create a simple python script to do this:

set_im_status.py

#!/usr/local/bin/python

import sys
import dbus, gobject
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop

dbus_loop = DBusGMainLoop()

bus = dbus.SessionBus(mainloop=dbus_loop)
dbus_obj = bus.get_object("im.pidgin.purple.PurpleService", "/im/pidgin/purple/PurpleObject")
purple = dbus.Interface(dbus_obj, "im.pidgin.purple.PurpleInterface")

status = sys.argv[1]

# Available
if status == "a":
    status_id = dbus.String(u'available')

# Busy
elif status == "b":
    status_id = dbus.String(u'unavailable')

# Away
elif status == "w":    
    status_id = dbus.String(u'away')

# Invisible
elif status == "i":
    status_id = dbus.String(u'invisible')

# Offline
elif status == "f":
    status_id = dbus.String(u'offline')

else:
    status_id = dbus.String(u'available')

status_type = purple.PurplePrimitiveGetTypeFromId(status_id)
saved = purple.PurpleSavedstatusNew("", status_type)
purple.PurpleSavedstatusActivate(saved)

Now to set the status to 'Busy', run: % python set_im_status.py b

Jerry George
  • 21
  • 5