WeeChat - ArchWiki

# WeeChat

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WeeChat is a highly extendable and feature rich IRC Client currently under heavy development.

## Installing

Install the weechat package, or weechat-gitAUR for the development version.

## Running WeeChat

WeeChat is going to have multiple interfaces at some point, run weechat-[interface] to start WeeChat.

The current implementation only comes with `weechat-ncurses`. Therefore, the following commands are interchangeable until other interfaces are implemented:

    $ weechat
    $ weechat-ncurses

## Configuration

You can configure WeeChat in 3 ways: using WeeChat's internal commands; using iset; or by editing the .conf files directly. WeeChat will automatically save settings on exit or when you run `/save`, so if you are editing a .conf file in an editor, be sure to run `/reload` from the console before exiting, otherwise your changes will be lost.

### Internal commands

The `/set` command follows this structure: `/set [file.name].[section].[directive]`

You can get a list of all configurable options by typing `/set` in the weechat buffer window. Since there are nearly 600 default configurable options, you can search through them with a wildcard syntax: `/set irc.server.*` or `/set *server*` as an example. You can get help on each option with the `/help` command:

    /help irc.server.freenode.autoconnect

### Internal menu-based

For a more convenient method, install the iset script. If you have weechat 0.3.9 or newer, run:

    /script install iset.pl

In older versions, use `/weeget install iset`, or download iset.pl into your `~/.weechat/perl/autoload` directory manually.

Afterwards, run

    /iset

to get a buffer with all configuration options.

### Configuration Files

The .conf files for WeeChat are saved to `~/.weechat`. These files are not commented. Detailed information can be found within the program itself (see Internally above), or WeeChat's user guide.

Tip: in case you want to move `.weechat` directory somewhere else (like in your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME), use this option: `$weechat -d $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/weechat` or set the environment variable `WEECHAT_HOME`.

## Connecting to a server

Note: Using /connect to connect to a temporary server is disabled by default if you're using 1.1+ Release Note

Enable by /set irc.look.temporary_servers on

You can connect to a IRC server by using /connect.

    /connect chat.freenode.net

Or if there is already a Server setup you can use:

    /connect freenode

## Creating a Server profile

If you plan on connecting to a server more than once it may be beneficial to create a Server.

    /server add example irc.example.net/6667

Would create the server example which would connect to irc.example.net on port 6667

See the WeeChat documentation and /help server for more information.

## Configuring SSL

Many IRC servers, including freenode where #archlinux is, support SSL.

If you're making a server with /server, add the SSL port (usually 6697) and -ssl to the end of the line. For example:

    /server add freenode chat.freenode.net/6697 -ssl

You can do the same thing if using /connect.

    /connect chat.freenode.net/6697 -ssl

Warning: Some servers need the ssl_dhkey_size value changed to something lower. For example, if you're using freenode you'll need to set /set irc.server.freenode.ssl_dhkey_size 1024 or /set irc.server.chat.freenode.net.ssl_dhkey_size 1024 (see the server log)
Note: Different servers may have a different port than 6697 - this is server specific.

You may also want to change the location where WeeChat looks for trusted authorities (the default value is `%h/ssl/CAs.pem` which translates to `~/.weechat/ssl/CAs.pem)`:

    /set weechat.network.gnutls_ca_file "/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt"

## Tips and Tricks

### Upgrading

WeeChat can be upgraded without disconnecting from the IRC servers (non-SSL connections only):

    /upgrade

This will load the new WeeChat binary and reload the current configuration.

### Aliases

Aliases can be created to simplify commonly executed commands. A nice example is Wraithan's smart filter alias:

Smart Filter

First, we need to enable smart filters:

    /set irc.look.smart_filter "on"

Next, we will create the sfilter alias:

    /alias add sfilter filter add irc_smart_$server_$channel irc.$server.$channel irc_smart_filter *

We can now type

    /sfilter

in any buffer, and the smart filter will only be enabled for that buffer.

The following alias will remove a previously enabled smart filter in the current buffer. Add the alias:

    /alias add rmsfilter filter del irc_smart_$server_$channel

and execute it by

    /rmsfilter

### Exec command

A new plugin called "exec" has been added, with command `/exec`. It will execute external command and can display output to the current buffer with the -o option or locally (default).

### Key Bindings

See `/help key`.

### SSH connection lost when idle

If you're connecting to your WeeChat through a remote shell using SSH, for example running it in screen or tmux you might experience getting disconnected after a while when idle. There are multiple factors in play why this might happen, but the easiest way to change this is to force the connection to be kept alive by appending this to your SSH-configuration on the remote shell.

This has nothing to do with WeeChat itself, but losing connection when idle won't happen with it's alternative irssi by default, and thus is a common situation for those converting to WeeChat.

    # /etc/ssh/sshd_config

    ClientAliveInterval 300

Or have a look at Mosh.

### Slack

Slack is a platform for team communication; an IRC on steroids. Thanks to its open API, it is possible to connect to your slack team using weechat.

#### IRC gateway

Once weechat is running, all you have to is add a new server this way:

`/server add NAME HOST/6667 -autoconnect -ssl -ssl_dhkey_size=512 -password=PASSWORD -username=USERNAME -nicks=NICK`

where:

- NAME is the name you want to give to the server
- HOST is the the Host as provided on the Gateways page of your slack team
- PASSWORD is the Pass as provided on the Gateways page of your slack team
- USERNAME is the User as provided on the Gateways page of your slack team
- NICK is your Slack username.

##### Upload file

To upload a file, run this following command from your shell :

`curl -F file=@/path/to/file -F channels=CHAN -F token=XXX https://slack.com/api/files.upload`

where:

- CHAN is the channel ID as provided on the Gateways page of your slack team
- XXX is the team token as provided on the Gateways page of your slack team

#### Native client

There is a native client for slack: wee-slack

### Desktop notifications

To receive desktop notifications for mentions or private messages, the weechat-notify-send script by Petr Zemek can be used.

To install, use:

    cd ~/.weechat/python
    curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/s3rvac/weechat-notify-send/master/notify_send.py
    ln -s ../notify_send.py autoload/

The script uses libnotify and is known to work with both KDE and Gnome.

Another alternative with the built-in `trigger` plugin is to set a value for `trigger.trigger.beep.command`.

     /set trigger.trigger.beep.command "/print -beep;/exec -bg notify-send -i '/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/weechat.png' 'IRC Notification' "${tg_tag_nick}: ${tg_message_nocolor}""

### Mobile device notifications

To receive notifications for mentions or private messages to an Android mobile device, you can use the IrssiNotifier port to WeeChat from here. This script requires a Google Account, and a registration step with the service provider to obtain an API key. Then, install the plugin

    cd ~/.weechat/python
    curl -O https://www.weechat.org/files/scripts/irssinotifier.py
    ln -s ../irssinotifier.py autoload/

and intialize the API token and end-to-end encryption password in WeeChat

    /set plugins.var.python.irssinotifier.api_token your-api-token-from-website
    /set plugins.var.python.irssinotifier.encryption_password your-password-same-as-in-andoid-app
    /save

An alternative that does not require a Google Account is a Ruby script for NotifyMyAndroid.com from here, with a similar installation procedure to the above, but into `~/.weechat/ruby`.

## Troubleshooting

### Errors loading plugins

You may see output like the following in the main window after starting weechat:

    13:26:10 =!= | Error: unable to load plugin "/usr/lib/weechat/plugins/ruby.so": libruby.so.2.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    13:26:10 =!= | If you're trying to load a script and not a C plugin, try command to load scripts (/perl, /python, ...)
    13:26:10 =!= | Error: unable to load plugin "/usr/lib/weechat/plugins/lua.so": liblua.so.5.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    13:26:10 =!= | If you're trying to load a script and not a C plugin, try command to load scripts (/perl, /python, ...)
    13:26:10 =!= | Error: unable to load plugin "/usr/lib/weechat/plugins/aspell.so": libaspell.so.15: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    13:26:10 =!= | If you're trying to load a script and not a C plugin, try command to load scripts (/perl, /python, ...)
    13:26:10 =!= | Error: unable to load plugin "/usr/lib/weechat/plugins/tcl.so": libtcl8.6.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    13:26:10 =!= | If you're trying to load a script and not a C plugin, try command to load scripts (/perl, /python, ...)

The default configuration for weechat attempts to load all plugins found in /usr/lib/weechat/plugins which in this case includes ruby, lua, aspell and tcl. These packages are not required by the weechat package and may not be installed on your machine. There are two options if these errors bother you:

1. Install ruby, lua, aspell and/or tcl from the official repositories.
2. Or, run `/set weechat.plugin.autoload "*,!ruby,!lua,!aspell,!tcl"` which will prevent loading those plugins with a bang (!) prefix.

## Getting Help

To access WeeChat's built-in help, simply type

    /help

and the help will be displayed in the main buffer (usually buffer 1).

## See also

- Home Page
- WeeChat Documentation
- WeeChat Scripts
- WeeChat Development Blog

### Guides

- Official WeeChat quick start guide - a good place to start
- FiXato's guide to WeeChat - A Weechat Contributers Guide
- My always up-to-date WeeChat configuration - r3m (weechat-dev)
- Thoughtbot article on weechat and slack

Category:

- Internet Relay Chat

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