TELEPATHY-GABBLE(8)

📦
version 0.18.4 · 2 versions
, in arch rolling, ubuntu jammy

💅 TELEPATHY-GABBLE(8) — the glow-up

okay so this is the manual page for telepathy-gabble, bestie. it's a section 8 (system/daemon) page, it lives in the D-Bus services corner of the universe, and honestly? it's giving very "quietly essential infrastructure" energy. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

telepathy-gabble — the Telepathy connection manager for XMPP (Jabber). that's the whole name. that's the whole vibe. no notes 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-gabble

that's it. that's the invocation. she runs and she slays 🌸

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so Gabble implements the Telepathy D-Bus specification for XMPP (Jabber) — which means it's the little legend that lets Telepathy clients (hi empathy(1) 👋) connect to XMPP accounts, including Google Talk. yes, Google Talk is literally named in the manpage. we respect the classics 💜

it's a D-Bus service, and it runs on the session bus, and normally it should just be started automatically by D-Bus activation — like, she doesn't need you to micromanage her, she's a main character with a scheduler 😌

that said — and this is the fun part — it might be useful to start it manually for debugging. that's it. that's the whole reason you'd ever launch her by hand. debugging queen behavior only 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

um. so. there are no command-line options.

i know. i know 😭 she simply does not take requests. no flags, no --help, no nothing. literally zero options. we love a minimalist icon 👑

💖 ENVIRONMENT 💖

okay THIS is where she gets chatty. the environment variables are where the real personality lives — every single one, bestie, no skipping:

  • GABBLE_LOGFILE=filename — if you set this, debug output goes to the file you named instead of to stderr. and here's the cute part: if you prepend a + to the filename (like GABBLE_LOGFILE=+gabble.log), the debug output gets appended to the file. if you don't prepend the +, any existing file gets replaced. so like... the + is the difference between "keep the receipts" and "burn the receipts" 🙈
  • GABBLE_DEBUG=type — set it to "all" for full debug output 🔍 or set it to various undocumented options to filter the output. and those undocumented options? they may change from release to release. so don't get attached 💀
  • WOCKY_DEBUG=type — same deal but for Wocky, the XMPP library that Gabble uses under the hood. "all" = full debug output from Wocky ✨ (again, undocumented filter options exist and may change from release to release). and for general Gabble debugging? "net" is recommended. write that down, bestie 🧚
  • GABBLE_PERSIST=1 — if this is set (to any value, mind you, not just 1), Gabble keeps running until she's killed, instead of timing out after having no open connections for a few seconds. stubborn queen. she stays. 👑
  • GABBLE_PLUGIN_DIR=directory — if set, and Gabble was compiled with plugin support, plugins load from directory instead of from the default directory. note the "if compiled with plugin support" — that's a real condition, not decoration 🎀
⚠️ real talk: GABBLE_DEBUG and WOCKY_DEBUG's filter options are straight-up undocumented and can shift between releases. don't build your whole personality on them 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go touch grass with these:

and that's the page, bestie 🎀 mwah 💋

this absolute classic was brought to you by Telepathy, dated October 2007, and filed under TELEPATHY-GABBLE(8) — periodt. 👑✨

📦 where this page comes from