Primitivus¶

Primitivus is the TUI (Terminal User Interface) frontend of Libervia

Overview¶

Primitivus is a text based frontend. It is specially adapted for systems without graphical environments (e.g. servers), for low bandwidth remote shells (e.g. ssh) or for people who like straightforward interfaces without distracting images or animations.

For the moment, Primitivus implements one 2 one chat, group chat (also called MUC for Multi-Users Chat), and some related features (end 2 end encryption, bookmarks, gateways interaction, file sending, etc.).

Usage¶

Primitivus is modal (vi-like), one can switch from one mode to another in the same way as in vi/vim:

From any mode, press [Esc] to switch to normal mode.
From normal mode, press : to switch to command mode.
From normal mode, press i to switch to insert mode – the one you use to write messages to your contacts.

Primitivus can be handled either with the mouse, in a very intuitive way, or with the keyboard. Below, the keyboard shortcuts are explained.

Keyboard handling¶

+ means that 2 keys must be pressed at the same time. Example: CTRL + N means that
you must press Control key and N at the same time
, means that a key must be pressed after the previous combination. Example: CTRL + F, M means that you must press control key and F at the same time, release them, then press M
keys with SHIFT also work without SHIFT if [CapsLock] is set.

Main keys¶

[Tab] and/or CTRL + up/down arrows: change focus
CTRL + X: quit Primitivus
CTRL + F, 1 or CTRL + F, M: focus on the menu
CTRL + F, 2 or CTRL + F, B: focus on the roster or the chat window
CTRL + F, 3 or CTRL + F, E: focus on the edition line
ALT + M: display/hide the menu
CTRL + N: show the next notification
CTRL + S: hide/redisplay a pop-up window temporarily
CTRL + D: enter debug mode (development versions only)
F2: hide/display the roster
CTRL + L: refresh the screen

Chat rooms¶

To use those keyboard shortcuts, your cursor must be in a chat room.

ALT + J

join a chat room

ALT + P

hide/display the list of participants

ALT + T

hide/display timestamps

ALT + N

use/don’t use short nicks

ALT + L

hide/display frame decorations

ALT + S

change the room’s topic appearance by switching between:

one single line (the topic is cut if it’s too long)
the full topic
topic hidden

SHIFT + G

go to the end (bottom) of your history (note that this is UPPERCASE G)

Edition line¶

CTRL + A or [Home]: move the cursor at the beginning of the line
CTRL + E or [End]: move the cursor at the end of the line
CTRL + K: erase the line, starting at the cursor’s position
CTRL + W: erase the last word
S + [Tab]: invoke completion (dependent on the context)
up/down arrows: browse sent messages history

Contacts¶

ALT + D: hide/display offline contacts
ALT + S: hide/display contacts’ status messages

Card game¶

[space]: select a card

Commands¶

The following commands must be typed in command mode (type [Esc] to switch to normal mode, then the : at the beginning of the command will switch to command mode).

:quit: quit Primitivus
:messages: display log messages (see also the logging configuration)

:history <size>: set the number of lines of history to display in the chat window (:history 0 to clear the window)
:search <filter>: do a full text search in this conversation/room. The room will be cleared an only messages corresponding to <filter> will be show. Use :history <size> to restore normal history