Configuration Files

On GNU/Linux, the configuration directory is: "${HOME}/.purple", which is generally /home/USERNAME/.purple

On Windows, the configuration directory is: "%APPDATA%\.purple". More details are discussed here.

The configuration directory contains the following subdirectories:

• icons - Buddy icons received from other users. Icons are named by forty hexadecimal characters followed by a file extension (png, gif, bmp) and referenced by blist.xml.
• icons(old) - Old buddy icons, migrated from an old Gaim installation. Icons are named by eight hexadecimal characters and referenced by blist.xml.
• logs - Stores the logs of prior IM's/chats (if this feature is enabled). The logs are stored in the format .purple/logs/${Protocol}/${ScreenName}/${RemoteScreenName}/${YYYY-MM-DD.HHmmSS-UTCOffsetTimeZone}.html" In the case of chat rooms/channels, ${RemoteScreenName} is "ChannelName.chat". In the case of logged availability information, ${RemoteScreenName} is ".system". If the plain text logging format is used, files will have a .txt extension instead of .html.
• plugins (Optional) - Plugins available only to an instance of Pidgin, Finch, or another libpurple client using this configuration directory.
• smileys (Optional) - Smiley themes. You should not be directly handling this directory unless you are writing a smiley theme.
• certificates - Currently used only for SSL/TLS host certificate caching

The configuration directory contains the following files:

• accels - Any menu shortcuts you may have modified in pidgin. This file is an automated accelerator map dump. Default Keyboard Shortcuts
• accounts.xml - Information about your accounts, including passwords.
• blist.xml - A local copy of your buddy lists, for use in keeping locally applied aliases and group and buddy ordering between accounts. This file can not be used to recover lost buddies in an automated fashion.
• pounces.xml - Your Buddy Pounce settings (Optional)
• prefs.xml - Your preference settings
• status.xml - Your status messages
• gtkrc-2.0 - ​FAQ-Entry ​Sample File