weechat

installing weechat in ubuntu

https://weechat.org/download/debian/

  • sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 11E9DE8848F2B65222AA75B8D1820DB22A11534E
  • echo "deb https://weechat.org/ubuntu focal main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/weechat.list
  • sudo apt-get install weechat-curses weechat-plugins weechat-python weechat-perl

initial weechat setup

https://weechat.org/files/doc/devel/weechat_quickstart.en.html

set up server alias and configuration

  • /server add freenode chat.freenode.net
  • /set irc.server.freenode.nicks "mynick"

enable ssl

  • /set irc.server.freenode.addresses "chat.freenode.net/7000"
  • /set irc.server.freenode.ssl on

enable auto-connect to the server at startup

  • /set irc.server.freenode.autoconnect on

If SASL is available on the server, you can use it for authentication (you will be identified before you join channels):

  • /set irc.server.freenode.sasl_username "mynick"
  • /set irc.server.freenode.sasl_password "xxxxxxx"

This password will get stored as plaintext in ${HOME}/.weechat/irc.conf

To run a command after connection to server, for example to authenticate with nickserv (only if you don’t use SASL for authentication):

  • /set irc.server.freenode.command "/msg nickserv identify xxxxxxx"

If you want to protect your password in configuration files, you can use secured data.

First setup a passphrase:

  • /secure passphrase this is my secret passphrase

Then add a secured data with your freenode password:

  • /secure set freenode_password xxxxxxx

Then you can use ${sec.data.freenode_password} instead of your password in the IRC options mentioned above, for example:

  • /set irc.server.freenode.sasl_password "${sec.data.freenode_password}"

This can be manually put into ${HOME}/.weechat/irc.conf for freenode.sasl_password.

Note also that weechat will pull your system username by default, and IRC servers might see this. One can change the username and nicks options under the [server_default] section of ${HOME}/.weechat/irc.conf.

channels, navigation, chatting

to autojoin channels

  • /set irc.server.freenode.autojoin "#channel1,channel2"

set filter for join/part/quit

see /help list for how to search for channels on a given server

general IRC

registering on freenode

https://freenode.net/kb/answer/registration

  • /nick YourNick
  • /msg NickServ REGISTER YourPassword youremail@example.com (enter the command from the email)
  • /msg NickServ IDENTIFY YourNick YourPassword

irc and privacy/security

coming soon

connecting via Tor

coming soon