Here are some of the most frequently asked questions and hopefully answers to those questions.
How do I install Zinc?
How do I install Zinc manually?
How do I change the comment truncation length?
How do I disable auto-ignore annoying name feature?
How do I disable directed comment highlighting feature?
I hear that Zinc is in violation of GPL and it's a stolen code. Is this true?
How do I change colors?
What does it mean when I whitelist someone?
How do I use regular expression based features?
What is "unbuddy" feature and how does it work?
How do I enable transparent background?
Why does Zinc seem to disconnect and reconnect every so often?
When I leave Zinc running unattended, it drops connection after a while. Why is this happening?
How can I scroll up and down on my Mac OS X?
How can I contribute to improving Zinc?
Na'Tosha has written a step by step guide on how to install Zinc and get it up and running. Please refer to this page.
For whatever reason you don't want to use included install.sh and do the installation by hand, here is how.
If you want to do a system wide installation:
su - wget http://larvalstage.com/zinc/files/zinc-1.1.11.tar.gz tar xzf zinc-1.1.11.tar.gz cd zinc-1.1.11 mkdir /usr/lib/zinc cp src/* /usr/lib/zinc/ ln -s /usr/lib/zinc/zinc /usr/bin/zinc /usr/bin/zinc --install cd .. rm -rf zinc-1.1.11/ exit
If you don't have access to root or you just want to install it in your home directory:
cd ~ wget http://larvalstage.com/zinc/files/zinc-1.1.11.tar.gz tar xzf zinc-1.1.11.tar.gz cd zinc-1.1.11 mkdir ~/zinc/ cp src/* ~/zinc/ ~/zinc/zinc --install cd .. rm -rf zinc-1.1.11/
If you are already running Zinc, you can issue these two commands where X is the maximum number of lines:
/set rc comment-incoming-max X /set rc comment-outgoing-max X
You can also change those values by editing ~/.zinc/zincrc file:
comment-incoming-max=X comment-outgoing-max=X
NOTE: Setting the value to 0 will disable the feature altogether. Whitelisted chatters are excluded from auto-truncation.
If you are already running Zinc, you can issue this command:
/set rc ignore-annoying-name N
You can also disable this feature by editing ~/.zinc/zincrc file:
ignore-annoying-name=N
You can later turn the feature back on by setting it to Y.
If you are already running Zinc, you can issue this command:
/set rc hl-directed-comment N
You can also disable this feature by editing ~/.zinc/zincrc file:
hl-directed-comment=N
You can later turn the feature back on by setting it to Y.
This is absolutely not true. There has been some trolls and net.kooks making some FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) comments about Zinc. These accusations are simply fabricated. Zinc does not contain any Curphoo or Curfloo code. Zinc is GPL'd code. Even Curphoo developers have seen Zinc source code and they have no problems with Zinc. If you see someone making such accusations, ask them to provide evidence to their claim. I'm sure you won't get any proof or evidence to back up their claim but only repeat of their rantings over and over again but louder. Doesn't this remind you of anyone? SCO perhaps? :)
One particular guy named Jory A. Pratt has been one of the most prolific source of this FUD and documented account of his bizarre behavior is here.
You can change the color settings by editing ~/.zinc/color file. There is no need to exit and restart Zinc for new color settings to become active. It will be automatic. There will be more documentation on this soon.
When you whitelist someone by /wl name command, that person will not be subjected to line truncation, auto-ignore or regex based ignores.
First of all, if you do not know the basics of regular expression, do not attempt to use this feature. You can very easily mess things up. Don't say I didn't warn you because I just did.
There are six kinds of regular expression based features in Zinc.
| Command | File | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| filter (comment) | /rfc regex | ~/.zinc/regex.filter.comment | match against the comment and if match is found, simply filter out that particular comment from being seen to you |
| filter (url) | /rfu regex | ~/.zinc/regex.filter.url | match against the extracted url and if match is found, simply filter out that urls from being added to url list |
| ignore (comment) | /ric regex | ~/.zinc/regex.ignore.comment | match against the comment and if match is found, add name to ignore |
| ignore (name) | /rin regex | ~/.zinc/regex.ignore.name | match against the name and if match is found, add name to ignore |
| mute (comment) | /rmc regex | ~/.zinc/regex.mute.comment | match against the comment and if match is found, mute the chatter for the duration of the chat session |
| mute (name) | /rmn regex | ~/.zinc/regex.mute.name | match against the name and if match is found, mute the chatter for the duration of the chat session |
Unbuddy feature allows you to remove your name off of someone else's buddy list. For example if you know someone by the name creepystalker has your name on his buddy list and you wish to remove it, do:
/unbuddy creepystalker
To understand how the unbuddy feature works, an explanation on how the buddy system works on Yahoo! is necessary. The system as it exists is flawed because when someone adds you to their buddy list, the system does not really ask you for permission to do so. The system merely notifies you of such action has already taken place. It is up to your client to send back "please remove me from their buddy list" packet in response to this notice. Since there is no time limit, unbuddying feature is merely this buddying rejection packet to the server. This is really an Opt Out system rather than Opt In. What makes matters worse, server sometimes just doesn't notify you that someone has added you to their buddy list. There is also no way to get a list of names that has you on their buddy list. Also there is no way to query if a specific person has you on his buddy list.
Transparent background only works for Python 2.4 or with patched Python 2.3. The code to enable background transparency is already in Zinc however Python 2.1 through 2.3 by default does not have the ability to do transparent background.
Yahoo! server tends to drop connections once in a while and Zinc has a auto-reconnect feature to reestablish the connection when this happens. If so chooses, you can turn this feature off by doing the following.
If you are already running Zinc, you can issue this command:
/set rc reconnect 0
You can also disable this feature by editing ~/.zinc/zincrc file:
reconnect=0
You can turn the feature back on by setting it to a value greater than 0. Default value is 3.
Zinc has a feature called idle-exit. When Zinc is left running without any activity, it will by default disconnect in one hour. If you would like to change this default behavior and not drop connection you can issue this command:
/set rc idle-exit 0
You can also disable this feature by editing ~/.zinc/zincrc file:
idle-exit=0
You can turn the feature back on by setting it to a value greater than 0. Default value is 3600. The value is in seconds.
Mac OS X's Terminal maps Page Up and Down key to scroll the session but doesn't pass that key to the application. Also Apple's laptops don't even have a Page Up and Down keys at all. To get around this problem Zinc maps Control-W and Q keys as Page Up and Page Down respectively.
You can contribute by submitting bug reports and feature ideas to zincdev@gmail.com. See if you have anything in ~/.zinc/error file. If you see something in that file, please email it to that email address.
Please submit questions that should be on this list to zincdev@gmail.com.