jabber.el
jabber.el is a Jabber (XMPP) client for Emacs.
Get it from MELPA
If you're using Emacs 24 or later, the easiest way to install
jabber.el is through MELPA. Add MELPA as a package archive if you
haven't already done so, type M-x list-packages
and install the
jabber
package.
Download it
The latest release is 0.8.92 (8-May-2013). Unpack it and run
./configure && make && make install
, or see the README
file.
Clone it
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/emacs-jabber/git emacs-jabber
You can also browse the repository with your web browser.
Resources
- Full list of releases, including lists of features and changes
External resources:
- Sourceforge project page, containing:
- trackers for bugs, feature requests, patches and support requests, open for anonymous posters
- forums, open for anonymous posters
- the JabberEl page of EmacsWiki
- Mailing lists (also available at Gmane):
- emacs-jabber-general, for posts by humans (also gmane.emacs.jabber.general)
- emacs-jabber-commit, read-only mailing list of CVS commits (also gmane.emacs.jabber.scm)
- emacs-jabber-bugs, read-only mailing list of bug tracker activity (also gmane.emacs.jabber.bugs)
- the Jabber chat room
- the manual for jabber.el 0.8.0 (also included in the release files)
What is Jabber?
Jabber is an open instant messaging (IM) system, also known as XMPP. It is described in RFCs 3920-3923 and a series of XEPs (XMPP Extension Proposals). That is, unlike legacy IM systems (such as ICQ or MSN Messenger), the protocol is published in the open, free for anyone to implement. Therefore you shouldn't be surprised that there is a Jabber client for Emacs, too. (If you are not of the Emacs persuasion, see this list of XMPP/Jabber clients.)
Jabber is, like e-mail, a decentralised system. A Jabber identifier
(JID) is of the form username@server
, just like an e-mail address, and
every Jabber user whose server is open to Internet connections can
communicate with any other user. This is in stark contrast to the
legacy "walled-garden" IM systems, where you need a separate account
for each system to be able to communicate with its users. Note that
the Google Talk service is an XMPP service, so if you have a GMail
account, you already have a JID ending with @gmail.com
.
In Jabber, you have a "roster", a list of contacts. You can see which of them are online at the moment, and chat with them. (You can also send messages to an offline contact, and the message will be stored on the server for later delivery.) Jabber also supports IRC-style chat rooms.
What is jabber.el?
jabber.el is a Jabber client for Emacs. It may seem strange to have a chat client in an editor, but consider that chatting is, after all, just a special case of text editing.
Downloading and installing
Prepackaged
Note that jabber.el is available as emacs-jabber in Debian, and in Ubuntu's "universe" section.
Dependencies
jabber.el requires either GNU Emacs 22, or GNU Emacs 21 combined with Gnus 5.10. You should get these from your distribution, or from the Emacs and Gnus web sites.
However, if you want to connect to servers that use SRV records (e.g. Google Talk), it is recommended to use either No Gnus or Gnus 5.13.
If you want encrypted connections (some servers, e.g. Google Talk, require it), you need GnuTLS installed.
Downloading
Download the latest release and unpack it in a suitable location. Add
something like the following to your .emacs
file:
;; adjust this path: (add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/emacs-jabber") ;; For 0.7.1 and below: (require 'jabber) ;; For 0.7.90 and above: (require 'jabber-autoloads)
Either evaluate those lines, or restart Emacs.
Using
See the Basic Operation in the manual.
Reporting bugs
Bug reports can be sent either to the mailing list emacs-jabber-general or to the bug tracker.
Latest source
jabber.el releases are, unfortunately, less frequent than they would be in an ideal world. You can get the latest development version using git.
On Sourceforge
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/emacs-jabber/git emacs-jabber
You can also browse the repository with your web browser.
catap's repository
git clone git://catap.ru/emacs-jabber/emacs-jabber.git
List of releases
The list of releases has been moved to a separate page.