This is a more detailed explanation of the commands provided in the client.
A brief list is available at runtime with the 'help' command.
Note that the runtime help gets updated more frequently than this one.
status [mode]
Shows the current status, or changes it to "mode", which can be one of:
online, away, busy, brb, phone, lunch, invisible or idle.
q
Quits the program.
w
Prints your entire contact list.
Contacts connected are highlighted in bold.
ww
Prints your entire contact list, including email addresses.
e
Prints your online contacts.
ee
Prints your online contacts, including email addresses.
eg
Prints your online contacts with the groups
wr
Prints your reverse contact list.
(see the FAQ for more details)
h
Shows your incoming message history
This is a list of the last N messages that you received. The amount is
configurable with the directive "input history size" in the msnrc
file, which defaults to 10.
add email nick
Adds the user "email" with the nick "nick".
del nick
Deletes the user with nick "nick".
info [nick]
Shows the user information and pending messages (if any), or our
personal info. It also includes some advanced information (like the
server socket or tid).
lignore [nick]
Locally ignores the user, or display the locally ignored users list.
This makes the messages coming from the user not to be displayed, but
they are still logged so you can see them later.
lunignore nick
Removes a user from the locally ignored users list.
block nick
Blocks a user
unblock nick
Unblocks a blocked user
g
Shows the group list
gadd gname
Adds the group "gname"
gdel gname
Deletes the group "gname". Note that all the users in the group will
be deleted too.
gren old new
Renames the group "old" with the name "new"
color [theme]
Shows the available color themes, or set the color theme to "theme".
close nick
Closes the switchboard connection with "nick". There is no need to use
this command and is included just for advanced users and debugging.
config
Shows the configuration, in the internal representation, along with
other special automatic variables. This means that many commands and
values won't have the same format; for instance, instead of 'yes' you
will often see a 1. This command is mostly exclusively included for
bug reporting.
nick newnick
Changes your nick to "newnick".
privacy p a
Sets whether accept messages from people not on your list (p) and
require authorization (a).
(see the FAQ for more details)
m nick text
Sends a message to "nick" with the "text". The standard and most
practical way of sending a message. Tab completion expands to this.
a text
Sends a message with "text" to the last person you sent a message to.
r text
Sends a message with "text" to the last person that sent you a
message.
invite u1 to u2
Invites u1 into the chat with u2
In most cases, where you are asked for a nick, you can alternatively enter the email.
This makes it easier to handle people with weird or long nicks.