Transfer Logs

[Paul Aurich]

I apologize, someone responded earlier but did not CC you. I have  
included that reply below (with my own comments below that).

On Sep 9, 2009, at 11:34, Michael Wolf wrote:
> How do I transfer logs from Windows to Linux?  Where are logs stored  
> on Linux?  Note, the FAQ lists the location of configuration data  
> and logs for Windows, but not for Linux, except for saying that they  
> are located at ~./purple.  It's as if Pidgin software writers/ 
> support gurus assume Windows users are ignorant of environment  
> variables but if you're on Linux you must know the filesystem.  This  
> is a gross mistake, especially if the Linux community wants to  
> welcome new users. I don't know the Linux file system, and thus I  
> don't know where ~./ refers to.  I tried searching for "purple" and  
> ".purple" but could not find a folder containing logs.  It is my  
> assumption that I can simply port my logs from Windows to Linux.  If  
> this is not the case, then I cannot transition to Pidgin and I would  
> have to renew my request for a .DEB of Gaim 1.5

===================

<snip>

In a Unix environment '~' commonly refers to a users home directory. So
'~' and '/home/<user_id>' means essentially the same, where <user_id> is
your Linux login.
Most likely you see a prompt like this in

If there's a leading dot in the directory name, like '.purple', that
means the directory is hidden. I.e. it is not listed when doing a simple
'ls -l' in a terminal for the home directory.
In order to also list hidden directories, a 'ls -la' will do. There
should be a corresponding configuration option for the file manger to
display hidden items. At least there is one for Nautilus when using  
Gnome.

Usually all configuration information is stored in a users home
directory. In case of Pidgin it's in '~/.purple'.
Note, '~./purple' is not the same as '~/.purple'.
The Pidgin logs are under '~/.purple/logs'. The log files are just plain
text, so it should be no problem to use them with Linux also.

Just curious, how did you search for '.purple'?
On a shell prompt you can try this:
> find ~ -name .purple

-- 
Christian

===================
My (Paul)'s comments below:

> Please note that I am trying to transfer from Gaim 1.3.1 on Linux to  
> the latest Pidgin.  Windows is running on a VM.

Gaim logs are located in roughly the same place as Pidgin's, except it  
would be in ~/.gaim (.gaim in your home directory) or in a folder  
called .gaim in the Application Data folder on Windows XP.


> Also, how do I make it so that email notifications come up as pop-up  
> windows, like they did with Gaim, rather than in the buddy list?

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to do this within Pidgin  
itself. You could use Guifications, a Pidgin plugin which provides  
"toaster" popups and I believe can be configured to notify on new  
mail. See http://plugins.guifications.org/trac/wiki/Gf2Screenshots for  
some screenshots of what it looks like; Guifications should be in most  
distributions.

> Thank you,
>
> Michael Wolf

~Paul