3 To new Irssi users (not to new IRC users ..)
5 Copyright (c) 2000-2001 by Timo Sirainen
7 Index with some FAQ questions that are answered in the chapter:
8 1. For all the lazy people
9 2. Basic user interface usage
10 3. Server and channel automation
11 + how do I automatically connect to servers at startup?
12 + how do I automatically join to channels at startup?
13 4. Setting up windows and automatically restoring them at startup
14 5. Status and msgs windows & message levels
15 + I want /WHOIS to print reply to current window
16 + I want all messages to go to one window, not create new
18 6. How support for multiple servers works in irssi
19 + I connected to some server that doesn't respond and now irssi
20 keeps trying to reconnect to it again and again, how can I
22 + I want to have own status and/or msgs window for each servers
23 7. /LASTLOG and jumping around in scrollback
24 + How can I save all texts in a window to file?
26 9. Proxies and IRC bouncers
29 1. For all the lazy people
31 These settings should give you pretty good defaults (the ones I use):
33 I don't like automatic query windows, I don't like status window, I do
34 like msgs window where all messages go:
35 /SET autocreate_own_query OFF
36 /SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS
37 /SET use_status_window OFF
38 /SET use_msgs_window ON
40 Disable automatic window closing when /PARTing channel or /UNQUERYing
42 /SET autoclose_windows OFF
43 /SET reuse_unused_windows ON
45 And example how to add servers:
47 (openprojects network, identify with nickserv and wait for 2 seconds
48 before joining channels)
49 /IRCNET ADD -autosendcmd "/^msg nickserv ident pass;wait -opn 2000" opn
51 Then add some servers to different networks (ircnet is already set up
52 for them), irc.kpnqwest.fi is used by default for IRCNet but if it
53 fails, irc.funet.fi is tried next:
54 /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet irc.kpnqwest.fi 6667
55 /SERVER ADD -ircnet ircnet irc.funet.fi 6667
56 /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet efnet efnet.cs.hut.fi 6667
58 Automatically join to channels after connected to server, send op
59 request to bot after joined to efnet/#irssi:
60 /CHANNEL ADD -auto #irssi ircnet
61 /CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
64 If you want lines containing your nick to hilight:
67 2. Basic user interface usage
69 Windows can be scrolled up/down with PgUp and PgDown keys. If they
70 don't work for you, use Meta-p and Meta-n keys. For jumping to
71 beginning or end of the buffer, use /SB HOME and /SB END commands.
73 By default, irssi uses "hidden windows" for everything. Hidden window
74 is created every time you /JOIN a channel or /QUERY someone. There's
75 several ways you can change between these windows:
76 Meta-1, Meta-2, .. Meta-0 - Jump directly between windows 1-10
77 Meta-q .. Meta-o - Jump directly between windows 11-19
78 /WINDOW <number> - Jump to any window with specified number
79 Ctrl-P, Ctrl-N - Jump to previous / next window
81 Clearly the easiest way is to use Meta-number keys. And what is the
82 Meta key? For some terminals, it's the same as ALT. If you have
83 Windows keyboard, it's probably the left Windows key. If they don't
84 work directly, you'll need to set a few X resources (NOTE: these work
85 with both xterm and rxvt):
86 XTerm*eightBitInput: false
87 XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
89 With rxvt, you can also specify which key acts as Meta key. So if you
90 want to use ALT instead of Windows key for it, use:
93 You could do this by changing the X key mappings:
94 xmodmap -e "keysym Alt_L = Meta_L Alt_L"
96 And how exactly do you set these X resources? For Debian, there's
97 /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm file where you can put them and it's read
98 automatically when X starts. ~/.Xresources and ~/.Xdefaults files
99 might also work. If you can't get anything else to work, just
100 copy&paste those lines to ~/.Xresources and directly call "xrdb -merge
101 ~/.Xresources" in some xterm. The resources affect only the new xterms
102 you start, not existing ones.
104 Many windows SSH clients also don't allow usage of ALT. One excellent
105 client that does allow is putty, you can download it from
106 http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.
108 Irssi also supports split windows, they've had some problems in past
109 but I think they should work pretty well now :) Here's some commands
111 /WINDOW NEW - Create new split window
112 /WINDOW NEW HIDE - Create new hidden window
113 /WINDOW CLOSE - Close split or hidden window
115 /WINDOW HIDE [<number>|<name>] - Make the split window hidden window
116 /WINDOW SHOW <number>|<name> - Make the hidden window a split window
118 /WINDOW SHRINK [<lines>] - Shrink the split window
119 /WINDOW GROW [<lines>] - Grow the split window
120 /WINDOW BALANCE - Balance the sizes of all split windows
122 By default, irssi uses "sticky windowing" for split windows. This
123 means that windows created inside one split window cannot be moved to
124 another split window without some effort. For example you could have
125 following window layout:
126 Split window 1: win#1 - Status window, win#2 - Messages window
127 Split window 2: win#3 - ircnet/#channel1, win#4 - ircnet/#channel2
128 Split window 3: win#5 - efnet/#channel1, win#6 - efnet/#channel2
130 When you are in win#1 and press ALT-6, irssi jumps to split window #3
131 and moves the efnet/#channel2 the active window.
133 With non-sticky windowing the windows don't have any relationship with
134 split windows, pressing ALT-6 in win#1 moves win#6 to split window 1
135 and sets it active, except if win#6 was already visible in some other
136 split window irssi just changes to that split window. This it the way
137 windows work with ircii, if you prefer it you can set it with
138 /SET autostick_split_windows OFF
140 Each window can have multiple channels, queries and other "window
141 items" inside them. If you don't like windows at all, you disable
142 automatic creating of them with
143 /SET autocreate_windows OFF
145 If you want to group only some channels or queries in one window, use
146 /JOIN -window #channel
149 3. Server and channel automation
151 Irssi's multiple IRC network support is IMHO very good - at least
152 compared to other clients :) Even if you're only in one IRC network
153 you should group all your servers to be in the same IRC network as
154 this helps with reconnecting if your primary server breaks and is
155 probably useful in some other ways too :) For information how to
156 actually use irssi correctly with multiple servers see the chapter 6.
158 First you need to have your IRC network set, use /IRCNET command to
159 see if it's already there. If it isn't, use /IRCNET ADD yourircnet. To
160 make Irssi work properly with different IRC networks, you might need
161 to give some special settings to /IRCNET ADD, see manual.txt for more
162 information about them. Irssi defaults to IRCNet's behaviour.
164 After that you need to add your servers. For example:
165 /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet irc.kpnqwest.fi 6667
166 /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet worknet irc.mycompany.com 6667 password
168 The -auto option specifies that this server is automatically connected
169 at startup. You don't need to make more than one server with -auto
170 option to one IRC network, other servers are automatically connected
171 in same network if the -auto server fails.
173 And finally channels:
174 /CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
176 /CHANNEL ADD -auto #secret ircnet password
178 -bots and -botcmd should be the only ones needing a bit of explaining.
179 They're used to send commands automatically to bot when channel is
180 joined, usually to get ops automatically. You can specify multiple bot
181 masks with -bots option separated with spaces (and remember to quote
182 the string then). The $0 in -botcmd specifies the first found bot in
183 the list. If you don't need the bot masks (ie. the bot is always with
184 the same nick, like chanserv) you can give only the -botcmd option and
185 the command is always sent.
187 4. Setting up windows and automatically restoring them at startup
189 First connect to all the servers, join the channels and create the
190 queries you want. If you want to move the windows or channels around
192 /WINDOW MOVE LEFT/RIGHT/number - move window elsewhere
193 /WINDOW ITEM MOVE <number>|<name> - move channel/query to another window
195 When everything looks the way you like, use /LAYOUT SAVE command (and
196 /SAVE, if you don't have autosaving enabled) and when you start irssi
197 next time, irssi remembers the positions of the channels, queries and
198 everything. This "remembering" doesn't mean that simply using /LAYOUT
199 SAVE would automatically make irssi reconnect to all servers and join
200 all channels, you'll need the /SERVER ADD -auto and /CHANNEL ADD -auto
203 If you want to change the layout, you just rearrange the layout like
204 you want it and use /LAYOUT SAVE again. If you want to remove the
205 layout for some reason, use /LAYOUT RESET.
207 5. Status and msgs windows & message levels
209 By default, all the "extra messages" go to status window. This means
210 pretty much all messages that don't clearly belong to some channel or
211 query. Some people like it, some don't. If you want to remove it, use
212 /SET use_status_window OFF
214 This doesn't have any effect until you restart irssi. If you want to
215 remove it immediately, just /WINDOW CLOSE it.
217 Another common window is "messages window", where all private messages
218 go. By default it's disabled and query windows are created instead. To
219 make all private messages go to msgs window, say:
220 /SET use_msgs_window ON
221 /SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS (or if you don't want queries to
222 dcc chats either, say NONE)
224 use_msgs_window either doesn't have any effect until restarting irssi.
225 To create it immediately say:
226 /WINDOW NEW HIDE - create the window
227 /WINDOW NAME (msgs) - name it to "(msgs)"
228 /WINDOW LEVEL MSGS - make all private messages go to this window
229 /WINDOW MOVE 1 - move it to first window
231 Note that neither use_msgs_window nor use_status_window have any
232 effect at all if /LAYOUT SAVE has been used.
234 This brings us to message levels.. What are they? All messages that
235 irssi prints have one or more "message levels". Most common are PUBLIC
236 for public messages in channels, MSGS for private messages and CRAP
237 for all sorts of messages with no real classification. You can get a
238 whole list of levels with
241 Status window has message level "ALL -MSGS", meaning that all
242 messages, except private messages, without more specific place go to
243 status window. The -MSGS is there so it doesn't conflict with messages
246 6. How support for multiple servers works in irssi
248 ircii and several other clients support multiple servers by placing
249 the connection into some window. IRSSI DOES NOT. There is no required
250 relationship between window and server. You can connect to 10 servers
251 and manage them all in just one window, or join channel in each one of
252 them to one sigle window if you really want to. That being said,
253 here's how you do connect to new server without closing the old
255 /CONNECT irc.server.org
257 Instead of the /SERVER which disconnects the existing connection. To
258 see list of all active connections, use /SERVER without any
259 parameters. You should see a list of something like:
260 -!- IRCNet: irc.telia.fi:6667 (IRCNet)
261 -!- OPN: tolkien.openprojects.net:6667 (OPN)
262 -!- RECON-1: 192.168.0.1:6667 () (02:59 left before reconnecting)
264 Here you see that we're connected to IRCNet and OPN networks. The the
265 IRCNet at the beginning is called the "server tag" while the (IRCnet)
266 at the end shows the IRC network. Server tag specifies unique tag to
267 refer to the server, usually it's the same as the IRC network. When
268 the IRC network isn't known it's some part of the server name. When
269 there's multiple connections to same IRC network or server, irssi adds
270 a number after the tag so there could be ircnet, ircnet2, ircnet3 etc.
272 Server tags beginning with RECON- mean server reconnections. Above we
273 see that connection to server at 192.168.0.1 wasn't successful and
274 irssi will try to connect it again in 3 minutes.
276 To disconnect one of the servers, or to stop irssi from reconnecting,
278 /DISCONNECT ircnet - disconnect server with tag "ircnet"
279 /DISCONNECT recon-1 - stop trying to reconnect to RECON-1 server
280 /RMRECONNS - stop all server reconnections
282 /RECONNECT recon-1 - immediately try reconnecting back to RECON-1
283 /RECONNECT ALL - immediately try reconnecting back to all
284 servers in reconnection queue
286 Now that you're connected to all your servers, you'll have to know how
287 to specify which one of them you want to use. One way is to have an
288 empty window, like status or msgs window. In it, you can specify which
289 server to set active with
290 /WINDOW SERVER tag - set server "tag" active
291 Ctrl-X - set the next server in list active
293 When the server is active, you can use it normally. When there's
294 multiple connected servers, irssi adds [servertag] prefix to all
295 messages in non-channel/query messages so you'll know where it came
298 Several commands also accept -servertag option to specify which server
300 /MSG -tag nick message
304 /MSG tab completion also automatically adds the -tag option when nick
305 isn't in active server.
307 Window's server can be made sticky. When sticky, it will never
308 automatically change to anything else, and if server gets
309 disconnected, the window won't have any active server. When the server
310 gets connected again, it is automatically set active in the window. To
311 set the window's server sticky use
312 /WINDOW SERVER -sticky tag
314 This is useful if you wish to have multiple status or msgs windows,
315 one for each server. Here's how to do them (repeat for each server)
317 /WINDOW NAME (status)
318 /WINDOW LEVEL ALL -MSGS
319 /WINDOW SERVER -sticky ircnet
324 /WINDOW SERVER -sticky ircnet
326 7. /LASTLOG and jumping around in scrollback
328 /LASTLOG command can be used for searching texts in scrollback buffer.
330 /LASTLOG word - print all lines with "word" in them
331 /LASTLOG word 10 - print last 10 occurances of "word"
332 /LASTLOG -topics - print all topic changes
334 If there's more lines to be printed than 1000, irssi doesn't thinks
335 that you probably made some mistake and won't print them without
336 -force option. If you want to save the full lastlog to file, use
337 /LASTLOG -file ~/irc.log
339 With -file option you don't need -force even if there's more than 1000
340 lines. /LASTLOG has a lot of other options too, see /HELP lastlog for
343 Once you've found the lines you were interested in, you might want to
344 check the discussion around them. Irssi has /SCROLLBACK (or alias /SB)
345 command for jumping around in scrollback buffer. Since /LASTLOG prints
346 the timestamp when the message was originally printed, you can use /SB
347 GOTO hh:mm to jump directly there. To get back to the bottom of
348 scrollback, use /SB END command.
352 Irssi can automatically log important messages when you're set away
353 (/AWAY reason). When you set yourself unaway (/AWAY), the new messages
354 in away log are printed to screen. You can configure it with:
355 /SET awaylog_level MSGS HILIGHT - Specifies what messages to log
356 /SET awaylog_file ~/.irssi/away.log - Specifies the file to use
358 Easiest way to start logging with Irssi is to use autologging. With it
359 Irssi logs all channels and private messages to specified directory.
360 You can turn it on with
363 By default it logs pretty much everything execept CTCPS or CRAP
364 (/WHOIS requests, etc). You can specify the logging level yourself
366 /SET autolog_level ALL -CRAP -CLIENTCRAP -CTCPS (this is the default)
368 By default irssi logs to ~/irclogs/<servertag>/<target>.log. You can
370 /SET autolog_path ~/irclogs/$tag/$0.log (this is the default)
372 The path is automatically created if it doesn't exist. $0 specifies
373 the target (channel/nick). You can make irssi automatically rotate the
374 logs by adding date/time formats to the file name. The formats are in
375 "man strftime" format. For example
376 /SET autolog_path ~/irclogs/%Y/$tag/$0.%m-%d.log
378 For logging only some specific channels or nicks, see /HELP log
380 9. Proxies and IRC bouncers
382 Irssi supports connecting to IRC servers via a proxy. All proxies have
383 these settings in common:
385 /SET proxy_address <Proxy host address>
386 /SET proxy_port <Proxy port>
390 Use these settings with HTTP proxies:
391 /SET -clear proxy_password
392 /EVAL SET proxy_string CONNECT %s:%d\n\n
396 Irssi contains it's own proxy which you can build giving --with-proxy
397 option to configure. You'll still need to run irssi in a screen to use
400 Irssi proxy is a bit different than most proxies, normally proxies
401 create a new connection to IRC server when you connect to it, but with
402 irssi proxy all the clients use the same IRC server connection (a bit
403 like how screen -x works).
405 Irssi proxy supports sharing multiple server connections in different
406 ports, like you can share ircnet in port 2777 and efnet in port 2778.
409 /LOAD irc_proxy (/LOAD proxy in irssi 0.7.98.3 and older)
410 /SET irssiproxy_password <password>
411 /SET irssiproxy_ports <ircnet>=<port> ... (eg. ircnet=2777 efnet=2778)
413 NOTE: you MUST add all the servers you are using to server and ircnet
414 lists with /SERVER ADD and /IRCNET ADD. ..Except if you really don't
415 want to for some reason, and you only use one server connection, you
417 /SET irssiproxy_ports *=2777 (irssi 0.7.99 and later only)
419 Usage in client side:
421 Just connect to the irssi proxy like it is a normal server with
422 password specified in /SET irssiproxy_password. For example:
423 /SERVER ADD -ircnet ircnet my.irssi-proxy.org 2777 secret
424 /SERVER ADD -ircnet efnet my.irssi-proxy.org 2778 secret
426 Irssi proxy works fine with other IRC clients as well.
429 Irssi can be compiled with socks support (--with-socks option to
430 configure), but I don't really know how it works, if at all. /SET
431 proxy settings don't have anything to do with socks however.
435 IRC bouncers usually work like IRC servers, and want a password. You
437 /SET proxy_password <password>
439 Irssi's default for connect string is
440 /SET proxy_string CONNECT %s %d
442 which you can modify according to your bouncer's needs.
446 You probably don't like Irssi's default settings. I don't like them.
447 But I'm still convinced that they're pretty good defaults. Here's some
448 of them you might want to change (the default value is shown):
452 /SET autocreate_own_query ON
453 Should new query window be created when you send message to
456 /SET autocreate_query_level MSGS
457 New query window should be created when receiving messages with
458 this level. MSGS, DCCMSGS and NOTICES levels work currently.
459 You can disable this with /SET -clear autocrate_query_level.
461 /SET autoclose_query 0
462 Query windows can be automatically closed after certain time of
463 inactivity. Queries with unread messages aren't closed and
464 active window is neither never closed. The value is given in
469 /SET use_msgs_window OFF
470 Create messages window at startup. All private messages go to
471 this window. This only makes sense if you've disabled automatic
472 query windows. Message window can also be created manually with
473 /WINDOW LEVEL MSGS, /WINDOW NAME (msgs).
475 /SET use_status_window ON
476 Create status window at startup. All messages that don't really
477 have better place go here, like all /WHOIS replies etc. Status
478 window can also be created manually with /WINDOW LEVEL ALL
479 -MSGS, /WINDOW NAME (status).
481 /SET autocreate_windows ON
482 Should we create new windows for new window items or just place
483 everything in one window
485 /SET autoclose_windows ON
486 Should window be automatically closed when the last item in
487 them is removed (ie. /PART, /UNQUERY).
489 /SET reuse_unused_windows OFF
490 When finding where to place new window item (channel, query)
491 Irssi first tries to use already existing empty windows. If
492 this is set ON, new window will always be created for all
493 window items. This setting is ignored if autoclose_windows is
496 /SET window_auto_change OFF
497 Should Irssi automatically change to automatically created
498 windows - usually queries when someone sends you a message. To
499 prevent accidentally sending text meant to some other
500 channel/nick, Irssi clears the input buffer when changing the
501 window. The text is still in scrollback buffer, you can get it
502 back with pressing arrow up key.
504 /SET print_active_channel OFF
505 When you keep more than one channel in same window, Irssi
506 prints the messages coming to active channel as "<nick> text"
507 and other channels as "<nick:channel> text". If this setting is
508 set ON, the messages to active channels are also printed in the
511 /SET window_history OFF
512 Should command history be kept separate for each window.
523 Your username, if you have ident enabled this doesn't affect
532 Should we hide server's MOTD (Message Of The Day).
534 /SET server_reconnect_time 300
535 Seconds to wait before connecting to same server again. Don't
536 set this too low since it usually doesn't help at all - if the
537 host is down, the few extra minutes of waiting won't hurt much.
539 /SET lag_max_before_disconnect 300
540 Maximum server lag in seconds before disconnecting and trying
541 to reconnect. This happens mostly only when network breaks
542 between you and IRC server.
547 Show timestamps before each message.
549 /SET hide_text_style OFF
550 Hide all bolds, underlines, MIRC colors, etc.
552 /SET show_nickmode ON
553 Show the nick's mode before nick in channels, ie. ops have
554 <@nick>, voices <+nick> and others < nick>
556 /SET show_nickmode_empty ON
557 If the nick doesn't have a mode, use one space. ie. ON:
560 /SET show_quit_once OFF
561 Show quit message only once in some of the channel windows the
562 nick was in instead of in all windows.
565 Show the channel's topic in top of screen.
567 /SET lag_min_show 100
568 Show the server lag in status bar if it's bigger than this, the
569 unit is 1/100 of seconds (ie. the default value of 100 = 1
573 When lines are longer than screen width they have to be split
574 to multiple lines. This specifies how much space to put at the
575 beginning of the line before the text begins. This can be
576 overridden in text formats with %| format.
578 /SET activity_hide_targets
579 If you don't want to see window activity in some certain
580 channels or queries, list them here. For example
581 "#boringchannel =bot1 =bot2". If any highlighted text or
582 message for you appears in that window, this setting is ignored
583 and the activity is shown.
586 Show the number of mails in your mbox in status bar. The mbox
587 file is taken from $MAIL environment setting. Only mbox format
592 /SET completion_auto OFF
593 Automatically complete the nick if line begins with start of
594 nick and the completion character. Learn to use the
595 tab-completion instead, it's a lot better ;)
597 /SET completion_char :
598 Completion character to use.