Copyright (c) 2000-2001 by Timo Sirainen
Index with some FAQ questions that are answered in the chapter:
These settings should give you pretty good defaults (the ones I use):
I don't like automatic query windows, I don't like status window, I do like msgs window where all messages go:
/SET autocreate_own_query OFF
/SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS
/SET use_status_window OFF
/SET use_msgs_window ON
Disable automatic window closing when /PARTing channel or /UNQUERYing query:
/SET autoclose_windows OFF
/SET reuse_unused_windows ON
And example how to add servers:
(openprojects network, identify with nickserv and wait for 2 seconds before joining channels)
/IRCNET ADD -autosendcmd "/^msg nickserv ident pass;wait -opn 2000" opn
Then add some servers to different networks (ircnet is already set up for them), irc.kpnqwest.fi is used by default for IRCNet but if it fails, irc.funet.fi is tried next:
/SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet irc.kpnqwest.fi 6667
/SERVER ADD -ircnet ircnet irc.funet.fi 6667
/SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet efnet efnet.cs.hut.fi 6667
Automatically join to channels after connected to server, send op request to bot after joined to efnet/#irssi:
/CHANNEL ADD -auto #irssi ircnet
/CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*@bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
#irssi efnet
If you want lines containing your nick to hilight:
/HILIGHT nick
Windows can be scrolled up/down with PgUp and PgDown keys. If they don't work for you, use Meta-p and Meta-n keys. For jumping to beginning or end of the buffer, use /SB HOME and /SB END commands.
By default, irssi uses "hidden windows" for everything. Hidden window is created every time you /JOIN a channel or /QUERY someone. There's several ways you can change between these windows:
Meta-1, Meta-2, .. Meta-0 - Jump directly between windows 1-10
Meta-q .. Meta-o - Jump directly between windows 11-19
/WINDOW <number> - Jump to any window with specified number
Ctrl-P, Ctrl-N - Jump to previous / next window
Clearly the easiest way is to use Meta-number keys. And what is the Meta key? For some terminals, it's the same as ALT. If you have Windows keyboard, it's probably the left Windows key. If they don't work directly, you'll need to set a few X resources (NOTE: these work with both xterm and rxvt):
XTerm*eightBitInput: false
XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
With rxvt, you can also specify which key acts as Meta key. So if you want to use ALT instead of Windows key for it, use:
rxvt*modifier: alt
And how exactly do you set these X resources? For Debian, there's /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm file where you can put them and it's read automatically when X starts. ~/.Xresources and ~/.Xdefaults files might also work. If you can't get anything else to work, just copy&paste those lines to ~/.Xresources and directly call "xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources" in some xterm. The resources affect only the new xterms you start, not existing ones.
Many windows SSH clients also don't allow usage of ALT. One excellent client that does allow is putty, you can download it from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.
Irssi also supports split windows, they've had some problems in past but I think they should work pretty well now :) Here's some commands related to them:
/WINDOW NEW - Create new split window
/WINDOW NEW HIDE - Create new hidden window
/WINDOW CLOSE - Close split or hidden window
/WINDOW HIDE [<number>|<name>] - Make the split window hidden window
/WINDOW SHOW <number>|<name> - Make the hidden window a split window
/WINDOW SHRINK [<lines>] - Shrink the split window
/WINDOW GROW [<lines>] - Grow the split window
/WINDOW BALANCE - Balance the sizes of all split windows
By default, irssi uses "sticky windowing" for split windows. This means that windows created inside one split window cannot be moved to another split window without some effort. For example you could have following window layout:
Split window 1: win#1 - Status window, win#2 - Messages window
Split window 2: win#3 - ircnet/#channel1, win#4 - ircnet/#channel2
Split window 3: win#5 - efnet/#channel1, win#6 - efnet/#channel2
When you are in win#1 and press ALT-6, irssi jumps to split window #3 and moves the efnet/#channel2 the active window.
With non-sticky windowing the windows don't have any relationship with split windows, pressing ALT-6 in win#1 moves win#6 to split window 1 and sets it active, except if win#6 was already visible in some other split window irssi just changes to that split window. This it the way windows work with ircii, if you prefer it you can set it with
/SET autostick_split_windows OFF
Each window can have multiple channels, queries and other "window items" inside them. If you don't like windows at all, you disable automatic creating of them with
/SET autocreate_windows OFF
If you want to group only some channels or queries in one window, use
/JOIN -window #channel
/QUERY -window nick
Irssi's multiple IRC network support is IMHO very good - at least compared to other clients :) Even if you're only in one IRC network you should group all your servers to be in the same IRC network as this helps with reconnecting if your primary server breaks and is probably useful in some other ways too :) For information how to actually use irssi correctly with multiple servers see the chapter 6.
First you need to have your IRC network set, use /IRCNET command to see if it's already there. If it isn't, use /IRCNET ADD yourircnet. To make Irssi work properly with different IRC networks, you might need to give some special settings to /IRCNET ADD, see manual.txt for more information about them. Irssi defaults to IRCNet's behaviour.
After that you need to add your servers. For example:
/SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet irc.kpnqwest.fi 6667
/SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet worknet irc.mycompany.com 6667 password
The -auto option specifies that this server is automatically connected at startup. You don't need to make more than one server with -auto option to one IRC network, other servers are automatically connected in same network if the -auto server fails.
And finally channels:
/CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*@bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
#irssi efnet
/CHANNEL ADD -auto #secret ircnet password
-bots and -botcmd should be the only ones needing a bit of explaining. They're used to send commands automatically to bot when channel is joined, usually to get ops automatically. You can specify multiple bot masks with -bots option separated with spaces (and remember to quote the string then). The $0 in -botcmd specifies the first found bot in the list. If you don't need the bot masks (ie. the bot is always with the same nick, like chanserv) you can give only the -botcmd option and the command is always sent.
First connect to all the servers, join the channels and create the queries you want. If you want to move the windows or channels around use commands:
/WINDOW MOVE LEFT/RIGHT/number - move window elsewhere
/WINDOW ITEM MOVE <number>|<name> - move channel/query to another window
When everything looks the way you like, use /LAYOUT SAVE command (and /SAVE, if you don't have autosaving enabled) and when you start irssi next time, irssi remembers the positions of the channels, queries and everything. This "remembering" doesn't mean that simply using /LAYOUT SAVE would automatically make irssi reconnect to all servers and join all channels, you'll need the /SERVER ADD -auto and /CHANNEL ADD -auto commands to do that.
If you want to change the layout, you just rearrange the layout like you want it and use /LAYOUT SAVE again. If you want to remove the layout for some reason, use /LAYOUT RESET.
By default, all the "extra messages" go to status window. This means pretty much all messages that don't clearly belong to some channel or query. Some people like it, some don't. If you want to remove it, use
/SET use_status_window OFF
This doesn't have any effect until you restart irssi. If you want to remove it immediately, just /WINDOW CLOSE it.
Another common window is "messages window", where all private messages go. By default it's disabled and query windows are created instead. To make all private messages go to msgs window, say:
/SET use_msgs_window ON
/SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS (or if you don't want queries to
dcc chats either, say NONE)
use_msgs_window either doesn't have any effect until restarting irssi. To create it immediately say:
/WINDOW NEW HIDE - create the window
/WINDOW NAME (msgs) - name it to "(msgs)"
/WINDOW LEVEL MSGS - make all private messages go to this window
/WINDOW MOVE 1 - move it to first window
Note that neither use_msgs_window nor use_status_window have any effect at all if /LAYOUT SAVE has been used.
This brings us to message levels.. What are they? All messages that irssi prints have one or more "message levels". Most common are PUBLIC for public messages in channels, MSGS for private messages and CRAP for all sorts of messages with no real classification. You can get a whole list of levels with
/HELP levels
Status window has message level "ALL -MSGS", meaning that all messages, except private messages, without more specific place go to status window. The -MSGS is there so it doesn't conflict with messages window.
ircii and several other clients support multiple servers by placing the connection into some window. IRSSI DOES NOT. There is no required relationship between window and server. You can connect to 10 servers and manage them all in just one window, or join channel in each one of them to one sigle window if you really want to. That being said, here's how you do connect to new server without closing the old connection:
/CONNECT irc.server.org
Instead of the /SERVER which disconnects the existing connection. To see list of all active connections, use /SERVER without any parameters. You should see a list of something like:
-!- IRCNet: irc.telia.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
/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 lines to be printed than 1000, irssi doesn't 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.
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
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
Windows
User information
Server information
Appearance
Nick completion