irssi

Created Sunday 12 February 2017

irssi is a CLI Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
My irssi configuration (Github) requires a lot of the Scripts included in this article. Download all the scripts and symlink to autorun (as explained later Scripts). Irssi will be run inside a Tmux instance (better than Screen for this purpose) - an Alias is included in my configuration files, and below you'll find a Desktop file for quickly running irssi from dmenu.

Installation

# The Client
$ pacman -S irssi

Desktop Notifications

# This requires notify-listener is running in the background (xinitrc)
$ yaourt -S irssi-libnotify-git

# Create the scripts/autorun folder, if it doesn't already exist; ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun
# And create a Symlink from the Script to that folder
$ ln -s /usr/share/irssi/scripts/notify.pl /home/stick/.irssi/scripts/autorun/

Tmux

# Tmux will be used for better Nicklist and Channel list
$ pacman -S tmux

# Configuration (Github) is read from ~/.tmux.conf

# Then create a file at /etc/systemd/system/tmux@.service with the following;

[Unit]
Description=Start tmux in detached session

[Service]
Type=forking
User=%I
ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -s %u -d
ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux kill-session -t %u

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# And enable the service file - change username (stick) accordingly
$ systemctl enable tmux@stick.service

Configuration

# Configuration at Github - read from ~/.irssi/config
# Once you've find configurations you like, use the /set command
# Ex, for timestamp format (hour : min : sec)

# Then save it to the configuration file (persistent)

# You are also able to save the layout (window arrangement, split windows etc)

Themes

# Theme library at https://irssi-import.github.io/themes/
# Themes can be stored in ~/.irssi
# Then load them with

# Don't forget to save if you want it be persistent

SSL Connection (Freenode)

# Freenode uses a different port for SSL, open irssi and specify it

# Then create a certificate that is valid for 730 days
# This will take you through a few steps - you don't have to fill em out.
$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 730 -x509 -keyout irssi.key -out irssi.crt -nodes
$ cat irssi.crt irssi.key > ~/.irssi/irssi.pem
$ chmod 600 ~/.irssi/irssi.pem
$ rm irssi.crt irssi.key

# To get your fingerprint (used in next step)
$ openssl x509 -sha1 -fingerprint -noout -in ~/.irssi/irssi.pem | sed -e 's/^.*=//;s/://g;y/ABCDEF/abcdef/'

# In irssi, disconnect and add the certificate

# and connect back to Freenode again

Scripts

# Scripts can be added to ~/.irssi/scripts
# Then loaded with

# To autostart a script upon starting irssi, symlink from the ~/.irssi/scripts/ to ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/
# Ex, to autostart the ASCII script, download it to ~/.irssi/scripts/ascii.pl
# And the symlink it to the autorun folder (create if needed)
$ ln -s /home/stick/.irssi/scripts/ascii.pl /home/stick/.irssi/scripts/autorun/

# Scripts can be found at https://scripts.irssi.org/ - here are some of the favourites^

ASCII art

# Based on figlet
# Use with; /ascii [-c1234] <TEXT>
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/ascii.pl

Unicode Emoticons

# Outputs various Unicode emoticons
# Use with; /emo
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/emo.pl

Autostuff

# Quickly save Channels, Servers and Windows for auto connect/arrange
# Save with; /autostuff
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/autostuff.pl

Highlight Window

# Monitors in all channels and highlight things that concerns you
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/hilightwin.pl
# Create a split window with the name of hilight

Nicklist

# To get a nickname list.
# Run irssi inside a Tmux terminal-window.
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/tmux-nicklist-portable.pl

Assign Colors to Nicknames

# Different colors for Nicks
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/nickcolor.pl

Channel list

# For a channel list on the left side (run irssi from inside Tmux)
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/adv_windowlist.pl

Prompt bar

# Animated prompt bar
# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/twprompt.pl
# Replace the default prompt bar with;

ROT13 encode/decode

# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/rot13.pl
# Use with;

Print System info

# https://github.com/irssi/scripts.irssi.org/blob/master/scripts/sysinfo_dg.pl
# Print info with; /sysinfo

Usage

# Some of the basic usage in irssi
# Channel Operators;

Servers and Channels

# Some predefined servers are available, list them with

# To add a new network

# To join a server (ex for Freenode)

# To join a channel on the connected server (ex archlinux)

# To leave a Channel

# Get information about a Channel

Perform auto actions

# To automatically join Channel when you connect to a Network.

# To automatically identify (and wait 2sec before joining channels)

Windows

# You are able to split a window and define what to have in both windows
# Ex, you could have;

# Hitting Alt+6 would take you to the win#6 - efnet/#channel2 window

# To create a new split window

# To create a new hidden window

# To close a split or hidden window

# Make the split window a hidden window
# Define what hidden window number to place it on

# Place a hidden window in the split window
# Those the numeric value of a window

# Shrink, Grow and Balance the Split window

Search text

# Search for all lines with booty

# Only search 10 occurrences

# Print all Topic changes

# If you'd like to get the conversation around a searched word (lines)
# irssi shows the timestamp when you search for words,
# you can then use the scrollback to go back to that period

# To get back to the bottom of the scrollback

Auto Completion/Correction

# irssi has a really sweet feature, where you can tell it to auto complete/correct words
# Say, we want to correct anywyas to anyways - let's say it's a mistake we often do^

# We can also make <tab> completions
# Say we wanna be able to write sio and than <tab> to replace it with http://irssi.org/scripts f.ex.

Profile/nickname

# To set your nickname

# Alternative nickname (if first choice is taken)

Account

# Freenode (deletes inactive users)
# To register as a user

# Then wait for the confirmation mail and follow instructions

# Login to a registered profile (user)

Register Channel

# Instead of bots, you can register a channel with ChanServ

# Give OP to user (including yourself)

# To grant other people full (founder) rights

# To grant other people the Voice rights

# Lock, so that the Topic cant be changed (on/off)

# Use ChanServ as a bot - only leaves when updates, crashes etc from the ChanServ service

# Secure OP - so that only admins will be get the OP status

# Set Email of a Channel

# Set URL of a Channel

Desktop Entry

# To run irssi from your dmenu/rofi, copy the following into ~/.local/share/applications/irssi.desktop

[Desktop Entry]

# Can be; Application, Link (web-link), Directory
Type=Application

# The name of the application
Name=irssi

# A comment which can/will be used as a tooltip
Comment=IRC Client

# The executable of the application, possibly with arguments.
Exec=urxvt -hold -name irc -e zsh -c 'tmux new-session irssi' 

# The name of the icon that will be used to display this entry
Icon=irc