WeeChat Quick Start Guide ========================= Sébastien Helleu [[start]] Start WeeChat ------------- A recommended terminal emulator for X (but not mandatory) is rxvt-unicode (it has good UTF-8 support, and no problem with default keyboard bindings). Run "weechat-curses" from your shell. [[help_options]] Online help / options --------------------- WeeChat has help for all commands, just issue /help To get help on a specific command, issue `/help command` To set options, use `/set config.section.option value` (where `config` is configuration name (`weechat` for core, or a plugin name), `section` the section of this configuration and `option` the option name). WeeChat immediately uses the new value (you *never* need to restart WeeChat after changes to configuration). You can use `/set` option with partial name and wildcard "*" at the beginning or end to display all options containing letters. For example: `/set`:: display all options (WeeChat and plugins) `/set weechat.*`:: display WeeChat options `/set irc.*`:: display IRC plugin options You can display help for an option with `/help`, for example: `/help weechat.look.highlight`. All settings are saved when WeeChat ends (or with `/save` command to force a write of the options). You can edit configuration files (*.conf) by hand and reload them by `/reload` command if you don't want to use `/set` command. [[core_vs_plugins]] Core vs plugins --------------- WeeChat "core" is only used to display data on screen and interact with the user, that means weechat core without plugins is useless (faithful users: IRC was part of core for versions ≤ 0.2.6). All network protocols like IRC are provided in separate plugins. Use the `/plugin` command to list loaded plugins, you should see "irc" and other plugins in the list. [[create_irc_server]] Create an IRC server -------------------- You can add an IRC server with `/server` command, for example: /server add oftc irc.oftc.net/6667 As usual, help is available if you're lost: `/help server` [[irc_server_options]] Set custom IRC server options ----------------------------- WeeChat uses default values for all servers ("fall backs"), if you don't specify a specific value for a server option. These default options are "irc.server_default.*". For each server option, WeeChat uses its value if it is defined (not "null"). Otherwise WeeChat uses default value ("irc.server_default.xxx"). For example there's default nicks (based on your un*x login), and you can override them for oftc server with following command: /set irc.server.oftc.nicks "mynick1,mynick2,mynick3,mynick4,mynick5" To set username and realname: /set irc.server.oftc.username "My user name" /set irc.server.oftc.realname "My real name" To enable auto-connect to server at startup: /set irc.server.oftc.autoconnect on To run a command after connection to server, for example to identify with nickserv: /set irc.server.oftc.command "/msg nickserv identify xxxxxx" Note: many commands can be separated by ';' (semi-colon) To auto-join some channels when connecting to server: /set irc.server.oftc.autojoin "#channel1,#channel2" To remove a value of a server option, and use the default value instead, for example to use default nicks (irc.server_default.nicks): /set irc.server.oftc.nicks null Other options: you can setup other options with following command ("xxx" is option name): /set irc.server.oftc.xxx value [[connect_to_irc_server]] Connect to IRC server and auto-join channels -------------------------------------------- /connect oftc [NOTE] This command can be used to create and connect to a new server without using `/server` command (should I repeat you can see help for this command with `/help connect` ?). By default, server buffers are merged with WeeChat 'core' buffer. To switch between 'core' buffer and server buffers, you can use ctrl-X. It is possible to disable auto merge of server buffers to have independent server buffers: /set irc.look.server_buffer independent [[join_part_irc_channels]] Join/part IRC channels ---------------------- `/join #channel`:: join a channel `/part [quit message]`:: part a channel (keeping buffer open) `/close [quit message]`:: close server or channel buffer (`/close` is an alias for `/buffer close`) [[buffer_window]] Buffer/window management ------------------------ A buffer is a component linked to a plugin with a number, a category, and a name. A buffer contains the data displayed on the screen. A window is a view on a buffer. By default there's only one window displaying one buffer. If you split screen, you will see many windows with many buffers at same time. Commands to manage buffers and windows: /buffer /window (I'll not repeat here that you can get help with /help on these commands) For example, to vertically split your screen into a small window (1/3 width), and a large window (2/3), use command: /window splitv 33 [[key_bindings]] Key bindings ------------ WeeChat uses many keys by default. All these keys are in the documentation, but you should know at least some vital keys: - 'alt + left/right arrows' (or 'F5'/'F6'): switch to previous/next buffer - 'F7'/'F8': switch to previous/next window (when screen is split) - 'F9'/'F10': scroll title bar - 'F11'/'F12': scroll nicklist - 'tab': complete text in input bar, like in your shell - 'page up/down': scroll text in current buffer - 'alt + A': jump to buffer with activity (in hotlist) According to your keyboard and/or your needs, you can rebind any key to a command with `/key` command. A useful key is meta-k (alt-k) to find key codes. For example, to bind meta-y (alt-y) to command `/buffer close`: /key bind (press meta-k) (press meta-y) /buffer close You'll have a command line like: /key bind meta-y /buffer close To remove key: /key unbind meta-y [[plugins_scripts]] Plugins/scripts --------------- On some distros like Debian, plugins are available via a separate package (like weechat-plugins). Plugins are automatically loaded when found (please look at the WeeChat documentation to load/unload plugins or scripts). Some plugins let you use scripts in WeeChat (in many languages like Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua and Tcl). These plugins must be loaded with the `/plugin` command and they provide commands like `/perl`, used to load scripts. Many external plugins/scripts (from contributors) are available for WeeChat: http://www.weechat.org/scripts Easiest way to install scripts is to use script 'weeget.py': . `mkdir -p ~/.weechat/python/autoload` . `cd ~/.weechat/python/autoload` . `wget http://weechat.org/files/scripts/weeget.py` . load script: `/python autoload` . scripts list: `/weeget list` (for help: `/help weeget`) [[more_doc]] More documentation ------------------ You can now use WeeChat and read FAQ/documentation for any other questions: http://www.weechat.org/doc Enjoy using WeeChat!