NAME

       scim — smart common input method

SYNOPSIS

       scim -l
       scim [-c config] [-e|-ne engine] [-f frontend] [--no-socket] [-d]
       scim -h

DESCRIPTION

       Smart  common  input  method  (SCIM)  is  a platform for input methods.  Input methods are
       useful for users who need to input characters that can't be represented by the keys or key
       combinations on the keyboard, and it's essential for languages that use ideograms, such as
       Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK), as their alphabets contain hundreds  or  thousands  of
       characters.

       This  is  the main program of SCIM platform.  It can be used to invoke the input method as
       well as list available input method modules.

OPTIONS

       Most options have both a short version  and  a  long  version,  and  they  take  the  same
       arguments.

       -c | --config module
              Use specified Config module.

       -d | --daemon
              Run  as  a  daemon.   The program will exit and leave a daemon in the background if
              invoked with this option.

       -e | --engines module[,module]...
              Use specified IMEngine modules.  Only the named module(s) will be loaded,  separate
              module names with comma.

       -ne | --no-engines module[,module]...
              Use  all  IMEngine  modules  except  specified  ones.  All modules except the named
              one(s) will be loaded, separate module names with comma.

       -f | --frontend module
              Use specified FrontEnd module.

       -h | --help
              Show summary of options.

       -l | --list
              Print the version number and list all the available modules, categorized  in  three
              groups — FrontEnd, Config and IMEngine.

       --no-socket
              Do not start a socket FrondEnd module.

ENVIRONMENT

       XMODIFIERS
              Should be set to "@im=SCIM".  Note that XMODIFIERS is case sensitive, and scim need
              uppercase.  If you set it to lowercase, there will be no  error  message  but  scim
              won't work.

       GTK_IM_MODULE
              GTK+ applications can use many different modules to connect with input methods, and
              SCIM can work in two different modes to provide input  methods  to  GTK+  with  two
              different  modules.   One  is  XIM  mode,  using  the "xim" GTK IM module from GTK+
              itself.  The other is GTK IM mode, using the "scim" GTK IM module provided by  SCIM
              platform.   The environment variable GTK_IM_MODULE is used by GTK+ to specify which
              GTK  IM  module  the  application  should  use,  to  use  SCIM's  two  modes,   set
              GTK_IM_MODULE to "xim" or "scim" accordingly.

EXAMPLES

       To  use scim in XIM mode, execute the following commands in an X terminal (assuming Bourne
       style shell):
              XMODIFIERS="@im=SCIM"
              export XMODIFIERS
              GTK_IM_MODULE="xim"
              export GTK_IM_MODULE
              scim -d
              <program>
       Now you can press Ctrl-space to activate scim in the  program  you  just  started  from  X
       terminal.  To avoid the inconvenience of having to start the program from X terminal, make
       sure you set XMODIFIERS and GTK_IM_MODULE before starting your X session.

       To use scim in GTK IM mode, just start any GTK+  application,  then  right  click  in  the
       application,  choose  "Input  Methods  ->  SCIM Input Method" in the pop-up menu, and scim
       should automatically start.  Alternatively, you can use the following commands to set scim
       as the default GTK IM module (again assuming Bourne style shell):
              GTK_IM_MODULE="scim"
              export GTK_IM_MODULE
              <gtk-program>
       Here  scim  will also automatically start when you start your GTK+ program.  However, it's
       still a good idea to start scim explicitly even if you use GTK IM mode,  because  if  only
       one  application  is  using  GTK  IM mode, scim will automatically stop when you quit this
       application.  Then when you start a new application, scim will start again, this can cause
       quite  long  delay  for  application  start  and  quit,  giving  people  the impression of
       "everything slows down when using scim".

       The following command starts scim in daemon  mode,  using  the  simple  configure  module,
       Pinyin IM engine module, X11 frontend module:
              scim -c simple -e pinyin -f x11 --no-socket -d

FILES

       /etc/scim/global, /etc/scim/config
              Configuration file for system wide settings

       ~/.scim/global, ~/.scim/config
              User specific settings

SEE ALSO

       There  is  a  brief English README giving some introduction and tips about SCIM, in Debian
       system it's installed in /usr/share/doc/scim/ and gzipped.

       Debian  users  should   also   read   the   NEWS.Debian   and   README.Debian   files   in
       /usr/share/doc/scim/.  There are also other README files in the same directory about using
       SCIM on a Debian system.

AUTHOR

       SCIM platform is written by James Su and many other contributors.

       This manual page is written by Osamu  Aoki  and  Ming  Hua  for  the  Debian  system,  but
       hopefully  it's  also useful for other users.  This document is distributed under the same
       license as the scim software package.