GLIRC - Advanced Console IRC Client

Wiki Documentation

Building

Note that glirc currently requires GHC 8.0.1

glirc uses recent versions of packages, make sure you package databases are up-to-date:

$ cabal update # if you're using cabal
$ stack update # if you're using stack

To install the latest version from Hackage using cabal-install:

$ cabal install glirc

Building with cabal-install from source checkout

$ cabal install --dep
$ cabal build

Building with stack using ghc-8 resolver (lts-7 resolvers can work using --solver)

$ stack init --resolver=ghc-8
$ stack build

Client Features

• All views and transformation are dynamic and don't change the underlying model.
• Subsequent joins and parts fold into one line and do not scroll chat messages off the screen
• Ignore support that folds ignored messages into the joins and parts. Toggle it off to see previously hidden messages
• Detailed view to see all the messages in a channel in full detail with hostmask and timestamp (F2)
• Context sensitive tab completion
• Searchable ban, quiet, invex, and exception view separate from chat messages
• Searchable user list, detailed view shows full hostmasks
• WYSIWYG mIRC formatting input
• Multi-line editing
• Dynamic, in-place message searching
• Chanserv integration
• Nicknames in chat messages are colored to match messages from that nickname
• Support for /STATUSMSG/ messages (messages only voice or op users can see)
• Run commands upon connection
• Command macros
• CERTFP and SASL authentication
• Split-screen view
• Configurable color palette

Startup

glirc [FLAGS] INITIAL_NETWORKS...
  -c PATH  --config=PATH  Configuration file path
  -!       --noconnect    Disable autoconnecting
  -h       --help         Show help
  -v       --version      Show version

Environment variables

USER=<default nickname and username>
IRCPASSWORD=<your irc password>

Configuration file

A configuration file can currently be used to provide some default values instead of using command line arguments. If any value is missing the default will be used.

The default configuration file path is ~/.config/glirc/config

Relative paths are relative to the home directory.

Learn more about this file format at config-value

-- Defaults used when not specified on command line
defaults:
  nick:            "yournick"
  username:        "yourusername"
  realname:        "Your real name"
  password:        "IRC server password"
  tls:             yes -- or: yes-insecure or no
                       -- enabling tls automatically uses port 6697
  tls-client-cert: "/path/to/cert.pem"
  tls-client-key:  "/path/to/cert.key"

-- Override the defaults when connecting to specific servers
servers:
  * name: "fn"
    hostname:      "chat.freenode.net"
    sasl-username: "someuser"
    sasl-password: "somepass"
    socks-host:    "socks5.example.com"
    socks-port:    8080 -- defaults to 1080

  * name: "example"
    hostname:      "example.com"
    port:          7000 -- override the default port
    connect-cmds:
      * "join #favoritechannel,#otherchannel"
      * "msg mybot another command"

    -- Specify additional certificates beyond the system CAs
    -- relative to home directory
    server-certificates:
      * "extra/certificate.pem"

macros:
  * name: "wipe"
    commands:
      * "clear"
      * "znc *status clearbuffer $channel"

  * name: "mysplits"
    commands:
      * "splits fn:#haskell fn:#haskell-offtopic"

  -- Example use of macro in combination with an extension
  * name: "extra"
    commands:
      * "extension Lua some-parameter $network $channel"

extra-highlights: ["glirc", "lens"]

palette:
  time:
    fg: [10,10,10] -- RGB values for color for timestamps
    bg: blue
  nick-colors:
    [ cyan, magenta, green, yellow, blue
    , bright-cyan, bright-magenta, bright-green, bright-blue
    , 218,  88,  89, 124, 160, 205, 212, 224 -- reds
    ,  94, 130, 166, 172, 208, 214, 216, 180 -- oranges
    ,  58, 226, 229, 184, 187, 100, 142, 220 -- yellows
    ,  22,  34,  40,  82,  70,  64,  48,  85 -- greens
    ,  25,  27,  33,  39,  51,  80,  81,  75 -- blues
    ,  69,  61,  56,  54, 129,  93,  99, 147 -- purples
    ]

Configuration sections:

Server Settings

Palette

Text Attributes

Text attributes can be specified either as a single foreground color or section of attributes.

• <number> - Maps to a terminal color
• <name> - Direct selection of standard 16 terminal colors
• [red-number, blue-number, green-number] - List of 3 numbers in range 0-255 map to an approximation of the RGB color.

Attributes

• fg - foreground color
• bg - background color
• style - single style or list of styles

Styles

• blink
• bold
• dim
• standout
• reverse-video
• underline

Commands

Client commands

• /help [command] - Show in-client help
• /exit - Terminate the client
• /quit - Gracefully terminate connection to the current server
• /connect <name> - Connect to the given server
• /disconnect - Forcefully terminate connection to the current server
• /reconnect - Reconnect to the current server
• /reload [path] - Load a new configuration file (optional path)
• /windows [filter] - List all open windows (filters: networks, channels, users)
• /palette - Show the client palette
• /digraphs - Show the table of digraphs
• /mentions - Show all the highlighted lines across all windows
• /extension <extension name> <params...> - Send the given params to the named extension
• /exec [-n network] [-c channel] <command> <arguments...> - Execute a command, If no network or channel are provided send output to client window, if network and channel are provided send output as messages, if network is provided send output as raw IRC messages.
• /url [n] - Execute url-opener on the nth URL in the current window (defaults to first)
• /splits [focuses...] - Enable split-screen view. Focuses should be space delimited list of NETWORK:CHANNEL

Connection commands

• /nick <nick> - Change nickname
• /away <message> - Set away status

Window management

• /focus <server> - Change focus to server window
• /focus <server> <channel> - Change focus to channel window
• /clear [network] [channel] - Clear contents of current or specified window
• /ignore <nick> - Toggle ignore of a user
• /channel <channel> - Change focus to channel on current network (alias: /c)

Channel membership

• /join <channel> - Join a channel (alias: /j)
• /part - Part from current channel

Chat commands

• /msg <target> <msg> - Send a message on the current server to target
• /notice <target> <msg> - Send a notice message on the current server to target
• /ctcp <target> <command> <args> - Send a ctcp command on the current server to target
• /me <msg> - Send action message to channel
• /say <msg> - Send normal message to channel

Channel management

• /mode <mode> <params> - Change modes on the current channel (advanced tab completion)
• /kick <nick> - Kick a user
• /kickban <nick> - Kick and ban a user
• /remove - Gracefully kick a user
• /topic <topic> - Change the topic (tab completion for topic)
• /invite <nick> - Invite a user to the current channel

Queries

• /who <query> - Perform WHO query (use detailed view to see output)
• /whois <nick> - Perform WHOIS query
• /whowas <nick> - Perform WHOWAS query
• /ison <nick> - Perform ISON query
• /userhost <nick> - Perform USERHOST query
• /links <server> - Perform LINKS query
• /time - Perform TIME query
• /stats <query> - Perform STATS query

Channel information

• /users - Show channel user list
• /masks <mode> - Show channel bans(b), quiets(q), exempts(e), or invex(I)
• /channelinfo - Show channel topic, creation, url

Window filters

• /grep - Filter chat messages using a regular expression
• /grepi - Filter chat messages using a case-insensitive regular expression on the message

ZNC-specific

• /znc <module> <parameters> - send command to ZNC module without echoing to all clients
• /znc-playback - ZNC playback module - play everything
• /znc-playback <time> - ZNC playback module - play everything start at the given time today
• /znc-playback <date> <time> - ZNC playback module - play everything start at the given time

Low-level

• /quote <raw command> - Send a raw IRC command to the server

Keyboard Shortcuts

Note that these keybindings are using Emacs syntax. C-a means "hold control and press A". M-a means "hold meta key and press A". On most modern keyboards the Meta key is labeled Alt or Option.

Window navigation

• C-n next window
• C-p previous window
• C-x next network
• M-# jump to window - 1234567890qwertyuiop!@#$%^&*()QWERTYUIOP
• M-a jump to activity
• M-s jump to previous window
• ESC return to messages view (from userlist, masklist, help, etc)

Editing

• C-a beginning of line

• C-e end of line

• C-k delete to end

• C-u delete to beginning

• C-d delete at cursor

• C-w delete word backwards

• C-y paste from yank buffer

• C-t swap characters at cursor

• M-f forward word

• M-b backward word

• M-Right forward word

• M-Left backward word

• M-Backspace delete word backwards

• M-d delete word forwards

• M-Enter insert newline

• M-k insert digraph (2-characters before cursor)

• Tab nickname completion

Client settings

• F2 toggle detailed view
• F3 toggle detailed activity bar
• F4 toggle metadata visibility

Scrolling

• Page Up scroll up
• Page Down scroll down

Formatting

• C-b bold
• C-c color
• C-v reverse video
• C-_ underline
• C-] italic
• C-o reset formatting

Macros

The macros configuration section allows you to define sequences of commands. These commands can contain expansions.

Configuration

• name - text - name of macro
• arguments - text - space separated list of argument names (suffix name with ? when optional)
• commands - list of text - commands to send after expansion

Macro Expansions

Variable names and integer indexes can be used when defining commands. Variables are specified with a leading $. For disambiguation a variable name can be surrounded by {}. $channel and ${channel} are equivalent. Default values can be provided following a pipe: ${var|default}.

• channel - current channel
• network - current network name
• nick - current nickname

The arguments to a command will be mapped to integer indexes. The command itself is at index zero.

• 0 - command
• 1 - first argument
• 2 - second argument (etc.)

Hooks

buffextras

Enable this hook when using ZNC and the buffextra module in order to reinterpret this module's messages natively in the client.