-!- IRCNet: irc.song.fi:6667 (IRCNet)
     -!- OPN: tolkien.openprojects.net:6667 (OPN)
     -!- RECON-1: 192.168.0.1:6667 () (02:59 left before reconnecting)

Here you see that we're connected to IRCNet and OPN networks. The the IRCNet at the beginning is called the "server tag" while the (IRCnet) at the end shows the IRC network. Server tag specifies unique tag to refer to the server, usually it's the same as the IRC network. When the IRC network isn't known it's some part of the server name. When there's multiple connections to same IRC network or server, irssi adds a number after the tag so there could be ircnet, ircnet2, ircnet3 etc.

Server tags beginning with RECON- mean server reconnections. Above we see that connection to server at 192.168.0.1 wasn't successful and irssi will try to connect it again in 3 minutes.

To disconnect one of the servers, or to stop irssi from reconnecting, use

     /DISCONNECT ircnet   - disconnect server with tag "ircnet"
     /DISCONNECT recon-1  - stop trying to reconnect to RECON-1 server
     /RMRECONNS           - stop all server reconnections

     /RECONNECT recon-1   - immediately try reconnecting back to RECON-1
     /RECONNECT ALL       - immediately try reconnecting back to all
			    servers in reconnection queue

Now that you're connected to all your servers, you'll have to know how to specify which one of them you want to use. One way is to have an empty window, like status or msgs window. In it, you can specify which server to set active with

     /WINDOW SERVER tag    - set server "tag" active
     Ctrl-X                - set the next server in list active

When the server is active, you can use it normally. When there's multiple connected servers, irssi adds [servertag] prefix to all messages in non-channel/query messages so you'll know where it came from.

Several commands also accept -servertag option to specify which server it should use:

     /MSG -tag nick message
     /JOIN -tag #channel
     /QUERY -tag nick

/MSG tab completion also automatically adds the -tag option when nick isn't in active server.

Window's server can be made sticky. When sticky, it will never automatically change to anything else, and if server gets disconnected, the window won't have any active server. When the server gets connected again, it is automatically set active in the window. To set the window's server sticky use

     /WINDOW SERVER -sticky tag

This is useful if you wish to have multiple status or msgs windows, one for each server. Here's how to do them (repeat for each server)

     /WINDOW NEW HIDE
     /WINDOW NAME (status)
     /WINDOW LEVEL ALL -MSGS
     /WINDOW SERVER -sticky ircnet

     /WINDOW NEW HIDE
     /WINDOW NAME (msgs)
     /WINDOW LEVEL MSGS
     /WINDOW SERVER -sticky ircnet

7. /LASTLOG and jumping around in scrollback

/LASTLOG command can be used for searching texts in scrollback buffer. Simplest usages are

     /LASTLOG word     - print all lines with "word" in them
     /LASTLOG word 10  - print last 10 occurances of "word"
     /LASTLOG -topics  - print all topic changes

If there's more than 1000 lines to be printed, irssi thinks that you probably made some mistake and won't print them without -force option. If you want to save the full lastlog to file, use

     /LASTLOG -file ~/irc.log

With -file option you don't need -force even if there's more than 1000 lines. /LASTLOG has a lot of other options too, see /HELP lastlog for details.

Once you've found the lines you were interested in, you might want to check the discussion around them. Irssi has /SCROLLBACK (or alias /SB) command for jumping around in scrollback buffer. Since /LASTLOG prints the timestamp when the message was originally printed, you can use /SB GOTO hh:mm to jump directly there. To get back to the bottom of scrollback, use /SB END command.

8. Logging

Irssi can automatically log important messages when you're set away (/AWAY reason). When you set yourself unaway (/AWAY), the new messages in away log are printed to screen. You can configure it with:

     /SET awaylog_level MSGS HILIGHT     - Specifies what messages to log
     /SET awaylog_file ~/.irssi/away.log - Specifies the file to use

Easiest way to start logging with Irssi is to use autologging. With it Irssi logs all channels and private messages to specified directory. You can turn it on with

     /SET autolog ON

By default it logs pretty much everything execept CTCPS or CRAP (/WHOIS requests, etc). You can specify the logging level yourself with

     /SET autolog_level ALL -CRAP -CLIENTCRAP -CTCPS (this is the default)

By default irssi logs to ~/irclogs/<servertag>/<target>.log. You can change this with

     /SET autolog_path ~/irclogs/$tag/$0.log (this is the default)

The path is automatically created if it doesn't exist. $0 specifies the target (channel/nick). You can make irssi automatically rotate the logs by adding date/time formats to the file name. The formats are in "man strftime" format. For example

     /SET autolog_path ~/irclogs/%Y/$tag/$0.%m-%d.log

For logging only some specific channels or nicks, see /HELP log

9. Changing keyboard bindings

You can change any keyboard binding that terminal lets irssi know about. It doesn't let irssi know everything, so for example shift-backspace can't be bound unless you modify xterm resources somehow.

/HELP bind tells pretty much everything there is to know about keyboard bindings. However, there's the problem of how to bind some non-standard keys. They might differ a bit with each terminal, so you'll need to find out what exactly the keypress produces. Easiest way to check that would be to see what it prints in cat. Here's an example for pressing F1 key:

     [cras@hurina] ~% cat
     ^[OP

So in irssi you would use /BIND ^[OP /ECHO F1 pressed. If you use multiple terminals which have different bindings for the key, it would be better to use eg.:

     /BIND ^[OP key F1
     /BIND ^[11~ key F1
     /BIND F1 /ECHO F1 pressed.

10. Proxies and IRC bouncers

Irssi supports connecting to IRC servers via a proxy. All server connections are then made through it, and if you've set up everything properly, you don't need to do any /QUOTE SERVER commands manually.

Here's an example: You have your bouncer (lets say, BNC or BNC-like) listening in irc.bouncer.org port 5000. You want to use it to connect to servers irc.dalnet and irc.efnet.org. First you'd need to setup the bouncer:

     /SET use_proxy ON
     /SET proxy_address irc.bouncer.org
     /SET proxy_port 5000

     /SET proxy_password YOUR_BNC_PASSWORD_HERE
     /SET -clear proxy_string
     /SET proxy_string_after conn %s %d

Then you'll need to add the server connections. These are done exactly as if you'd want to connect directly to them. Nothing special about them:

     /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet dalnet irc.dal.net
     /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet efnet irc.efnet.org

With the proxy /SETs however, irssi now connects to those servers through your BNC. All server connections are made through them so you can just forget that your bouncer even exists.

If you don't want to use the proxy for some reason, there's -noproxy option which you can give to /SERVER and /SERVER ADD commands.

Proxy specific settings:

All proxies have these settings in common:

     /SET use_proxy ON
     /SET proxy_address <Proxy host address>
     /SET proxy_port <Proxy port>

HTTP proxy

Use these settings with HTTP proxies:

     /SET -clear proxy_password
     /EVAL SET proxy_string CONNECT %s:%d\n\n

BNC

     /SET proxy_password your_pass
     /SET -clear proxy_string
     /SET proxy_string_after conn %s %d

dircproxy

dircproxy separates the server connections by passwords. So, if you for example have ircnet connection with password ircpass and openprojects connection with opnpass, you would do something like this:

     /SET -clear proxy_password
     /SET -clear proxy_string

     /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet fake.ircnet 6667 ircpass
     /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet opn fake.opn 6667 opnpass

The server name and port you give isn't used anywhere, so you can put anything you want in there.

psyBNC

psyBNC has internal support for multiple servers. However, it could be a bit annoying to use, and some people just use different users for connecting to different servers. You can manage this in a bit same way as with dircproxy, by creating fake connections:

    /SET -clear proxy_password
    /SET -clear proxy_string

    /IRCNET ADD -user ircnetuser ircnet
    /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet fake.ircnet 6667 ircpass
    /IRCNET ADD -user opnuser opn
    /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet opn fake.opn 6667 opnpass

So, you'll specify the usernames with /IRCNET ADD command, and the user's password with /SERVER ADD.

Irssi proxy

Irssi contains it's own proxy which you can build giving --with-proxy option to configure. You'll still need to run irssi in a screen to use it though.

Irssi proxy is a bit different than most proxies, normally proxies create a new connection to IRC server when you connect to it, but irssi proxy shares your existing IRC connection(s) to multiple clients. And even more clearly: You can use only one IRC server connection to IRC with as many clients as you want. Can anyone figure out even more easier ways to say this, so I wouldn't need to try to explain this thing for minutes every time? :)

Irssi proxy supports sharing multiple server connections in different ports, like you can share ircnet in port 2777 and efnet in port 2778.

Usage in proxy side:

     /LOAD proxy
     /SET irssiproxy_password <password>
     /SET irssiproxy_ports <ircnet>=<port> ... (eg. ircnet=2777 efnet=2778)

NOTE: you MUST add all the servers you are using to server and ircnet lists with /SERVER ADD and /IRCNET ADD. ..Except if you really don't want to for some reason, and you only use one server connection, you may simply set:

     /SET irssiproxy_ports *=2777

Usage in client side:

Just connect to the irssi proxy like it is a normal server with password specified in /SET irssiproxy_password. For example:

     /SERVER ADD -ircnet ircnet my.irssi-proxy.org 2777 secret
     /SERVER ADD -ircnet efnet my.irssi-proxy.org 2778 secret

Irssi proxy works fine with other IRC clients as well.

SOCKS

Others

IRC bouncers usually work like IRC servers, and want a password. You can give it with:

     /SET proxy_password <password>

Irssi's defaults for connect strings are

     /SET proxy_string CONNECT %s %d
     /SET proxy_string_after

The proxy_string is sent before NICK/USER commands, the proxy_string_after is sent after them. %s and %d can be used with both of them.

11. Irssi's settings

You probably don't like Irssi's default settings. I don't like them. But I'm still convinced that they're pretty good defaults. Here's some of them you might want to change (the default value is shown):

Queries

/SET autocreate_own_query ON

Should new query window be created when you send message to someone (with /MSG).

/SET autocreate_query_level MSGS

New query window should be created when receiving messages with this level. MSGS, DCCMSGS and NOTICES levels work currently. You can disable this with /SET -clear autocrate_query_level.

/SET autoclose_query 0

Query windows can be automatically closed after certain time of inactivity. Queries with unread messages aren't closed and active window is neither never closed. The value is given in seconds.

Windows

/SET use_msgs_window OFF

Create messages window at startup. All private messages go to this window. This only makes sense if you've disabled automatic query windows. Message window can also be created manually with /WINDOW LEVEL MSGS, /WINDOW NAME (msgs).

/SET use_status_window ON

Create status window at startup. All messages that don't really have better place go here, like all /WHOIS replies etc. Status window can also be created manually with /WINDOW LEVEL ALL -MSGS, /WINDOW NAME (status).

/SET autocreate_windows ON

Should we create new windows for new window items or just place everything in one window

/SET autoclose_windows ON

Should window be automatically closed when the last item in them is removed (ie. /PART, /UNQUERY).

/SET reuse_unused_windows OFF

When finding where to place new window item (channel, query) Irssi first tries to use already existing empty windows. If this is set ON, new window will always be created for all window items. This setting is ignored if autoclose_windows is set ON.

/SET window_auto_change OFF

Should Irssi automatically change to automatically created windows - usually queries when someone sends you a message. To prevent accidentally sending text meant to some other channel/nick, Irssi clears the input buffer when changing the window. The text is still in scrollback buffer, you can get it back with pressing arrow up key.

/SET print_active_channel OFF

When you keep more than one channel in same window, Irssi prints the messages coming to active channel as <nick> text and other channels as <nick:channel> text. If this setting is set ON, the messages to active channels are also printed in the latter way.

/SET window_history OFF

Should command history be kept separate for each window.

User information

/SET nick

Your nick name

/SET alternate_nick

Your alternate nick.

/SET user_name

Your username, if you have ident enabled this doesn't affect anything

/SET real_name

Your real name.

Server information

/SET skip_motd OFF

Should we hide server's MOTD (Message Of The Day).

/SET server_reconnect_time 300

Seconds to wait before connecting to same server again. Don't set this too low since it usually doesn't help at all - if the host is down, the few extra minutes of waiting won't hurt much.

/SET lag_max_before_disconnect 300

Maximum server lag in seconds before disconnecting and trying to reconnect. This happens mostly only when network breaks between you and IRC server.

Appearance

/SET timestamps ON

Show timestamps before each message.

/SET hide_text_style OFF

Hide all bolds, underlines, MIRC colors, etc.

/SET show_nickmode ON

Show the nick's mode before nick in channels, ie. ops have <@nick>, voices <+nick> and others < nick>

/SET show_nickmode_empty ON

If the nick doesn't have a mode, use one space. ie. ON: < nick>, OFF: <nick>

/SET show_quit_once OFF

Show quit message only once in some of the channel windows the nick was in instead of in all windows.

/SET lag_min_show 100

Show the server lag in status bar if it's bigger than this, the unit is 1/100 of seconds (ie. the default value of 100 = 1 second).

/SET indent 10

When lines are longer than screen width they have to be split to multiple lines. This specifies how much space to put at the beginning of the line before the text begins. This can be overridden in text formats with %| format.

/SET activity_hide_targets

If you don't want to see window activity in some certain channels or queries, list them here. For example #boringchannel =bot1 =bot2. If any highlighted text or message for you appears in that window, this setting is ignored and the activity is shown.

Nick completion

/SET completion_auto OFF

Automatically complete the nick if line begins with start of nick and the completion character. Learn to use the tab-completion instead, it's a lot better ;)

/SET completion_char :

Completion character to use.

12. Statusbar

/STATUSBAR displays a list of statusbars:

     Name                           Type   Placement Position Visible
     window                         window bottom    0        always
     window_inact                   window bottom    1        inactive
     prompt                         root   bottom    100      always
     topic                          root   top       1        always

/STATUSBAR <name> prints the statusbar settings and it's items. /STATUSBAR <name> ENABLE|DISABLE enables/disables the statusbar. /STATUSBAR <name> RESET resets the statusbar to it's default settings, or if the statusbar was created by you, it will be removed.

Type can be window or root, meaning if the statusbar should be created for each split window, or just once. Placement can be top or bottom. Position is a number, the higher the value the lower in screen it is. Visible can be always, active or inactive. Active/inactive is useful only with split windows, one split window is active and the rest are inactive. These settings can be changed with:

     STATUSBAR <name> TYPE window|root
     STATUSBAR <name> PLACEMENT top|bottom
     STATUSBAR <name> POSITION <num>
     STATUSBAR <name> VISIBLE always|active|inactive

When loading a new statusbar scripts, you'll need to also specify where you want to show it. Statusbar items can be modified with:

     STATUSBAR <name> ADD [-before | -after <item>] [-priority #] [-alignment left|right] <item>
     STATUSBAR <name> REMOVE <item>

The item name with statusbar scripts is usually same as the script's name. Script's documentation should tell if this isn't the case. So, to add mail.pl before the window activity item (see the list with /STATUSBAR window), use: /STATUSBAR window ADD -before act mail.