WeeChat tips

2021-01-19 00:00

Here are some handy things I learned from using WeeChat that might be valuable to some people.

Page overview

• Adding an IRC network securely
  • Registering your nickname
  • Adding servers and credentials
  • Changing your password
• Adding an IRC network insecurely
  • Registering your nickname
  • Adding servers and credentials
  • Changing your password
• Tweaks and tricks

Adding an IRC network securely

The tips in this section won’t leave plaintext passwords in ~/.weechat/irc.conf.

Registering your nickname

/msg nickserv register <your-password> <your-email@example.com>

Adding servers and credentials

/secure passphrase <your-password-to-unlock-all-passwords>
/secure set libera.chat_password <your-password>
/server add libera.chat libera.chat/6697 -ssl
/set irc.server.libera.chat.sasl_username "<username>"
/set irc.server.libera.chat.sasl_password "${sec.data.libera.chat_password}"
/set irc.server.libera.chat.autoconnect on
/set irc.server.libera.chat.autojoin "#coolchannel,#anothercoolchannel"

Changing your password

/secure set libera.chat_password <new-password>
/save

Adding an IRC network insecurely

The tips in this section will leave plaintext passwords in ~/.weechat/irc.conf.

Registering your nickname

/msg nickserv register <your-password> <your-email@example.com>

Adding servers and credentials

/secure set libera.chat_password <your-password>
/server add libera.chat libera.chat/6697 -ssl
/set irc.server.libera.chat.username "<username>"
/set irc.server.libera.chat.password <your-password>
/set irc.server.libera.chat.autoconnect on
/set irc.server.libera.chat.autojoin "#coolchannel,#anothercoolchannel"

Changing your password

/set irc.server.libera.chat.password <your-new-password>
/save

Tweaks and tricks

• Marking all buffers as read: alt-h
• Changing to an unread buffer: alt-a
• Scrolling up and down a buffer: page up/page down
• Scrolling through your mentions: alt-n/alt-p
• Redraw WeeChat: ctrl-l
• Click a link in the terminal: ctrl click
• Make long, wrapped links clickable: alt-l (Press alt-l again to return to the normal view)
• Changing from buffers 1-9: alt-<number>
• Changing from buffers 10-99: alt-j <number>
• Changing to a buffer by name (allows tab-completion for names):
  • /buffer #friends-hangout
  • /buffer friends-hangout
• Setting an alias for /buffer: /alias add b /buffer
• Shortening timestamps: /set weechat.look.buffer_time_format "%H:%M"
• Disabling notifications for users who join and part a channel: /set weechat.look.buffer_notify_default message
• Limiting username length: /set weechat.look.prefix_align_max 12
• Limiting buffer name length: /set weechat.bar.buflist.size_max 15
• Limiting nickname length in the nickname list: /set weechat.bar.nicklist.size_max 12
• Turn off chat logging: /set logger.level.irc 0 (Great if you run WeeChat on a server with limited storage)
• Show/hide the buffer list: /bar toggle buflist
• Show/hide the nickname list: /bar toggle nicklist