WeeChat FAQ, 2009-01-31 ======================= Intended audience: Users of WeeChat >= 0.2.7. Before reading the following: The following Q/A list is *not* exhaustive. It is also possible that you won't find any Q/A that matches your problem. Please read them anyway, they may provide you help in fixing your problem anyway. And even if your problem is listed below, it is possible that the answers don't help you anymore to solve it. Then, please contact us, we will try to help you finding a solution. 1 - Compiling 2 - Using WeeChat 3 - Development 1.1 ================================================================================ Q: I heard about many GUI for WeeChat. How can I compile/use them? A: Today only Curses GUI is available. Other GUI will be available as remote client (currently udner development). 1.2 ================================================================================ Q: I can't compile WeeChat after cloning git repository. A: If you're compiling with autotools (and not cmake), check that you have latest version of autoconf and automake. WeeChat has been developed with autoconf version 2.61 and automake version 1.10. You should have at least these versions in order to compile WeeChat. If you can't or don't want to install these versions, you can download and install "devel package", a package built almost every day using git repository. Note that this package may not correspond exactly to git base. 2.1 ================================================================================ Q: Why using WeeChat ? X-Chat and Irssi are so good... A: Because WeeChat is very light and has new features. Some new features: * multi-protocols support via plugins (IRC, Jabber) * many deported GUI in addition to Curses (coming soon) * available in many languages * extensible with plugins (C, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl) * buffers with free content * display filtering by tags and regular expressions * horizontal and vertical window split * customizable and extensible bars * nicklist available in all GUI * infobar highlight * incremental text search in buffers, jump to highlights * FIFO pipe for remote control * aspell support * double charset (encoding/decoding) * developed from scratch (not based on any other client) * multi-platform * 100% GPL and free More info on this page: http://weechat.flashtux.org/features.php 2.2 ================================================================================ Q: I've launched WeeChat, but I'm lost, what can I do? A: For help you can type /help. For help about a command, type /help command. Keys and commands are listed in documentation. If you're new to WeeChat, it's recommended to read quickstart guide (see doc page on website). 2.3 ================================================================================ Q: I heard about "buffers" and "windows", what's the difference? A: A window is used when you split screen vertically or horizontally. A buffer is a "view" for a window. Each window displays a buffer, and many windows may display same buffer. Examples of buffers: server messages, channel, xfer control, .. 2.4 ================================================================================ Q: I don't see some chars with accents, what can I do? A: For versions < 0.2.3, please upgrade to last stable version. For versions >= 0.2.3 : - check that weechat-curses is linked to libncursesw (warning: needed on most distributions but not all) : ldd /path/to/weechat-curses - check that "Charset" plugin is loaded with /plugin command (if it is not, then you probably need "weechat-plugins" package) - check charset line (on server buffer), you should see ISO-XXXXXX or UTF-8 for terminal charset. If you see ANSI_X3.4-1968 or other values, probably your locale is wrong. - setup global decode value, for example: with WeeChat <= 0.2.6: /setp charset.global.decode = ISO-8859-15 with WeeChat >= 0.2.7: /set charset.default.decode "ISO-8859-15" - if you are using UTF-8 locale, check that your terminal is UTF-8 ready. Terminal recommended for UTF-8 is rxvt-unicode. 2.5 ================================================================================ Q: Bars like title and status are not filled, background color stops after text, why? A: This may be caused by bad value of TERM variable (look at echo $TERM). Depending on where you launch WeeChat, you should have: - if WeeChat runs locally or on a remote machine without screen, it depends on terminal used: "xterm", "rxvt", .. - if WeeChat runs under screen, you should have "screen". If needed, fix your TERM variable (export TERM="xxx"). 2.6 ================================================================================ Q: When I'm using weechat under screen, I have weird chars, when I switch window for example, how to fix that? A: This may be caused by bad value of TERM variable (look at echo $TERM). For example, "xterm-color" displays such weird chars, use "xterm" which is ok (like many other values). If needed, fix your TERM variable (export TERM="xxx"). 2.7 ================================================================================ Q: How can I customize key bindings? A: Key bindings are customizable with /key command. Default key Meta-k (usually Alt-k) lets you grab key code and insert it in input zone. 2.8 ================================================================================ Q: How can I load Perl/Python/Ruby/Lua/Tcl scripts? Are scripts compatible with other IRC clients ? A: You can use commands /perl, /python, /ruby, /lua and /tcl to load scripts (default path for scripts is ~/.weechat//). Note that scripts in ~/.weechat//autoload are automatically loaded when WeeChat is starting up. Scripts are not compatible with other IRC clients. 2.9 ================================================================================ Q: I want to change language used by WeeChat for messages, but without exiting WeeChat, is it possible? A: Yes, you have to use python script shell.py (available on WeeChat website) and issue these commands when script is loaded: /shell setenv LANG=en_US.UTF-8 /upgrade (to have english messages with UTF-8 encoding for terminal, for ISO users, you can issue: /shell setenv LANG=en_US) 2.10 ================================================================================ Q: With Curses GUI, how can I copy/paste text without pasting nicklist ? A: You can use a terminal with rectangular selection (like rxvt-unicode, konsole, ...). Other solution is to move nicklist to top or bottom, for example: with WeeChat <= 0.2.6: /set look_nicklist_position = top with WeeChat >= 0.2.7: /bar set nicklist position top 2.11 ================================================================================ Q: How to be warned when someone highlights me on a channel ? A: You can use sound.pl script (available on scripts page), and then setup a system command (to play sound, display message, ..) with this command : with WeeChat <= 0.2.6: /setp perl.sound.cmd_highlight = "/path/command arguments" with WeeChat >= 0.2.7: /set plugins.var.perl.sound.cmd_highlight "/path/command arguments" 3.1 ================================================================================ Q: How should I report bugs? A: There is 3 ways to report bugs: 1. you can join us on IRC: irc.freenode.net, channel #weechat 2. you can submit your bug at this URL: http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?func=addbug&group=weechat 3. you can mail your problem, look at support page for developer's mails: http://weechat.flashtux.org/support.php (you can subscribe and send to "support" mailing list) 3.2 ================================================================================ Q: How should I submit patches? A: There is 3 ways to submit patches: 1. you can join us on IRC: irc.freenode.net, channel #weechat 2. you can submit your patch at this URL: http://savannah.nongnu.org/patch/?func=addpatch&group=weechat 3. you can mail your patch, look at support page for developer's mails: http://weechat.flashtux.org/support.php (you can subscribe and send to "support" mailing list) 3.3 ================================================================================ Q: How should I submit new feature request? A: There is 2 ways to submit your feature request: 1. you can join us on IRC: irc.freenode.net, channel #weechat 2. you can mail your feature request, look at support page for developer's mails: http://weechat.flashtux.org/support.php (you can subscribe and send to "support" mailing list) 3.4 ================================================================================ Q: What is the list of supported platforms for WeeChat? Will WeeChat be ported to other operating systems? A: Full list is on this page: http://weechat.flashtux.org/download.php?view=supported_os We do our best to run on as many platforms as possible. Help is welcome for some OS we don't have, to test WeeChat. 3.5 ================================================================================ Q: I want to help WeeChat developers. What can I do? A: There's many tasks to do (code, documentation, ...) Please contact us with IRC or mail, look at support page: http://weechat.flashtux.org/support.php 3.6 ================================================================================ Q: Can I give money or other things to WeeChat developers? A: You can give us money to help development. Details on http://weechat.flashtux.org/donate.php