WeeChat

WeeChat is a light, extensible, actively maintained, well documented, highly featured IRC client. WeeChat natively runs through ncurses in a text mode interface, however for user convenience many remote interfaces (GUIs) are available to relay WeeChat data to more accessible locations (Android phones, Web interfaces, and more).

Emerge
In order to successfully install WeeChat Portage will need permission to install an unstable version of the package:

Now that Portage has permission to use unstable versions of WeeChat, emerge it:

Configuration
An excellent quick start guide can be found on WeeChat's website. The official guide should be followed for the most up to date configuration instructions. Head over there and read the guide. When finished return here if necessary for further instructions.

Auto-join channels
After making it through step 7 in the WeeChat quick start guide Freenode should be added as the server. Custom channels can be automatically joined each time WeeChat is opened by running the following command inside the WeeChat client:

This should add the and  channels to the auto-join list each time weechat starts. Add or subtract more more channels to the comma separated list as desired. Everyone has their own channels interests!

Adding a relay
In order to use remote interfaces, WeeChat needs to be configured as a relay.

Next set the password for the relay:

Remote interfaces
The following remote interfaces are available:


 * Glowing Bear - A web frontend for WeeChat. See the Glowing Bear Guide for hosting Glowing Bear on Gentoo.
 * QWeeChat - A Qt interface for WeeChat.
 * WeeChat Android - Only works on Android phones. Simply download the application from the Google Play Store and get started!
 * Emacs - A weird emacs thing.
 * WeeCloud - A WeeChat client written in javascript.

Each remote interface has a unique setup. Not all of the clients available in the list above may be operational. Glowing Bear is probably the most tested of the bunch. When in doubt try Glowing Bear first.

Usage
It is common for many text-mode IRC client users to run the clients on a system that is always on always connected to the internet. This make it possible to never miss a mention or a message. Like most command-line programs, weechat will run all the time if opened in a screen or a tmux session which is then detached. This is currently the ideal method for staying connected to IRC networks continuously.

screen
Open screen using the following command:

After weechat is configured press + to enter Command Mode and then to detach from the screen session. It can be re-attached to later by running:

To list the currently running sessions and then entering:

Where  is a weird, crazy string.

For additional information on how to use screen</tt> visit the screen</tt> article.

tmux
Simply open tmux</tt> using the following command:

By default a green status stripe should be visible near the bottom of the terminal. This is an indicator that tmux</tt> is running. Start weechat</tt>:

After weechat</tt> has been configured, disconnect from the session by using + and then press to detach.

In order to reconnect to the tmux</tt> session that is running (which was titled "weechat</tt>") issue:

For additional information on how to use tmux</tt> visit the tmux</tt> article.

External resources

 * FAQ (official) - A list of Frequently Asked Questions concerning WeeChat.
 * Quick Start guide (official) - WeeChat's excellent little Quick Start guide. It covers all the steps needed in order to connect to an IRC server, set up a nick name, etc. It's well worth the 5 minute read time.
 * User's guide (official) - An in-depth user guide. Helpful for those who desired to become deeply familiar with WeeChat. It is also helpful as reference material.
 * Tester's guide (official)
 * Scripting guide (official)
 * Plugin API reference (official) - Want to write a remote interface (front end) for WeeChat? This is one of the articles for that.
 * Relay protocol (official) - This is another article that will need to be covered in order to write a remote interface (front end) for WeeChat.
 * Developer's guide (official) - Want to develop WeeChat itself? Reading this guide will help with that goal.