=> ↩ Home | ⬆ Gemlog

Command line computing part 3: IRC tutorial with WeeChat

1847 words, 58 paragraphs, about 6 minutes to read (300 wpm).

First published on 2022-02-04.

This article has been loaded 1278 times.

A note about formatting in this page:

/query cadence

## History of IRC

It may be interesting to briefly discuss some history.

IRC was created in the late 1980s. It grew throughout 1990 and peaked in the early 2000s. IRC has become a lot less popular in recent times, probably due to people moving to the chat features implemented on many social media platforms.

The available interfaces for IRC are fairly complex to get running at first, which is something I hope to partially ameliorate by writing this page. Despite IRC's loss in popularity, it is still used by enthusiasts, dedicated groups, and people who like old technology. Since you're reading this article about command-line computing, you'll likely be in good company with the people currently on there!

IRC is a great fit for text-mode computing because it is entirely text-based and designed to be operated without a graphical interface. It was created before HTTP and HTML, and has no built-in file uploads.

=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat#History Wikipedia has more information about IRC's history.

## IRC jargon

* channel: a channel is a space for sending messages. people can join channels in order to read and send messages there. channels are managed by people known as channel operators, "chanops".
* nick: a nick is the nickname that a person connects with and is known by.
* network: a network is what you connect to with your client. each network is operated by a set of people, and contains channels. you can join multiple networks.
* server: a server is more of a technical concern. large networks have many servers to distribute load. connecting to the network will typically assign you a random server, and you can see messages from everyone on the network no matter their server.

## IRC features

IRC is text chat.

You get text messages, nicknames, multiple channels, private messages, and basic moderation.

Modern chat applications often include message history, file uploads, user avatars, typing notifications, message formatting, message editing, and voice chat. None of these features are available in IRC.

## About clients

IRC is not a proprietary protocol, so many clients have been developed for it for a variety of operating systems and time periods.

It is worth noting that several graphical clients for IRC exist, some more easier to use than others. Kiwi IRC (a webapp) and HexChat (a GTK 2 application) are popular choices.

Some more modern IRC clients try to "fill in the gaps" by working around what they consider to be missing features. For example, IRCCloud makes a persistent connection to the IRC network even after you disconnect, allowing you to access message history when you return. Some clients allow you to upload images to another website, and then post a link to them in the chat. Some clients might automatically render these images in the timeline.

This article is about command-line computing, so I'll be explaining how to connect with the command-line client WeeChat. There are also other command-line clients that some people swear by, including irssi and ircII. Connecting with those is left as an exercise for the reader.

## Connecting with WeeChat

=> https://weechat.org/files/doc/devel/weechat_quickstart.en.html This information is summarised from the WeeChat quick start guide.

I'll assume you want to connect to the largest network, Libera Chat. If you want to connect to a different network in addition or instead, you should visit that network's website. It will contain the parameters you need in order to connect. The procedure should be very similar no matter the network.

After first opening WeeChat, you will be in the system buffer, where you can run commands. To add the network Libera Chat, use this command:

/server add liberachat irc.libera.chat/6697 -ssl

In this command, `liberachat` is a local alias for the network, `irc.libera.chat` is the network's address, and `6697` is the port. `-ssl` specifies to connect with SSL - you will always want to do this.

Now you can set connection options like your nickname. Use this command to set options:

/fset server_default