---
name: "telepathy-idle"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "telepathy-idle"
version: "0.2.2-4"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/telepathy-idle"
---

# telepathy-idle(8)

Telepathy connection manager for IRC

## NAME

telepathy-idle - Telepathy connection manager for IRC

## SYNOPSIS

**/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-idle**

## DESCRIPTION

Idle implements the Telepathy D-Bus specification for Internet Relay Chat, allowing Telepathy clients like [**empathy**(1)](/empathy/1.md) to connect to IRC servers.

It is a D-Bus service which runs on the session bus, and should usually be started automatically by D-Bus activation. However, it might be useful to start it manually for debugging.

## OPTIONS

There are no command-line options.

## ENVIRONMENT

- **IDLE\_LOGFILE**=*filename*

  If set, debug output will go to the given file rather than to stderr. If **+** is prepended to the *filename* (e.g. **IDLE\_LOGFILE=+idle.log**), debug output will be appended to the file; otherwise, any existing file will be replaced.

-

  - **IDLE\_DEBUG**=*type*

  May be set to "all" for full debug output, or various undocumented options (which may change from release to release) to filter the output.

## SEE ALSO

*http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/*, [**empathy**(1)](/empathy/1.md)