--- /dev/null
+ <h2>Startup HOWTO</h2>
+
+ <h3>To new Irssi users (not to new IRC users ..)</h3>
+
+ <p>Copyright (c) 2000-2001 by Timo Sirainen</p>
+
+
+<p>Index with some FAQ questions that are answered in the chapter:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li><a href="#c1">For all the lazy people</a></li>
+<li><a href="#c2">Basic user interface usage</a></li>
+<li><a href="#c3">Server and channel automation</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li>how do I automatically connect to servers at startup?</li>
+ <li>how do I automatically join to channels at startup?</li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><a href="#c4">Setting up windows and automatically restoring them
+ at startup</a></li>
+<li><a href="#c5">Status and msgs windows & message levels</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li>I want /WHOIS to print reply to current window</li>
+ <li>I want all messages to go to one window, not create new windows</li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><a href="#c6">How support for multiple servers works in irssi</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li>I connected to some server that doesn't respond and now irssi
+ keeps trying to reconnect to it again and again, how can I stop
+ it??</li>
+ <li>I want to have own status and/or msgs window for each servers</li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><a href="#c7">/LASTLOG and jumping around in scrollback</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li>How can I save all texts in a window to file?</li>
+ </ul></li>
+<li><a href="#c8">Logging</a></li>
+<li><a href="#c9">Irssi's settings</a></li>
+</ol>
+
+<h3><a id="c1">1. For all the lazy people</a></h3>
+
+<p>These settings should give you pretty good defaults (the ones I use):</p>
+
+<p>I don't like automatic query windows, I don't like status window, I do
+like msgs window where all messages go:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autocreate_own_query OFF
+ /SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS
+ /SET use_status_window OFF
+ /SET use_msgs_window ON
+</pre>
+
+<p>Disable automatic window closing when /PARTing channel or /UNQUERYing
+query:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autoclose_windows OFF
+ /SET reuse_unused_windows ON
+</pre>
+
+<p>And example how to add servers:</p>
+
+<p>(openprojects network, identify with nickserv and wait for 2 seconds before
+joining channels)</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /IRCNET ADD -autosendcmd "/^msg nickserv ident pass;wait -opn 2000" opn
+</pre>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /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
+</pre>
+
+<p>Automatically join to channels after connected to server, send op request
+to bot after joined to efnet/#irssi:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /CHANNEL ADD -auto #irssi ircnet
+ /CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*@bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
+ #irssi efnet
+</pre>
+
+<h3><a id="c2">2. Basic user interface usage</a></h3>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ Meta-1, Meta-2, .. Meta-0 - Jump directly between windows 1-10
+ Meta-q .. Meta-p - Jump directly between windows 11-20
+ /WINDOW <number> - Jump to any window with specified number
+ Ctrl-P, Ctrl-N - Jump to previous / next window
+</pre>
+
+<p>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):</p>
+
+<pre>
+ XTerm*eightBitInput: false
+ XTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
+</pre>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ rxvt*modifier: alt
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Many windows SSH clients also don't allow usage of ALT. One excellent
+client that does allow is putty, you can download it from
+<a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/">
+http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/</a>.</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /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
+</pre>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ 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
+</pre>
+
+<p>When you are in win#1 and press ALT-6, irssi jumps to split window
+#3 and moves the efnet/#channel2 the active window.</p>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autostick_split_windows OFF
+</pre>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autocreate_windows OFF
+</pre>
+
+<p>If you want to group only some channels or queries in one window,
+use</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /JOIN -window #channel
+ /QUERY -window nick
+</pre>
+
+<h3><a id="c3">3. Server and channel automation</a></h3>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>After that you need to add your servers. For example:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet ircnet irc.kpnqwest.fi 6667
+ /SERVER ADD -auto -ircnet worknet irc.mycompany.com 6667 password
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>And finally channels:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /CHANNEL ADD -auto -bots *!*@bot@host.org -botcmd "/^msg $0 op pass"
+ #irssi efnet
+ /CHANNEL ADD -auto #secret ircnet password
+</pre>
+
+<p>-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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a id="c4">4. Setting up windows and automatically restoring them at startup</a></h3>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /WINDOW MOVE LEFT/RIGHT/number - move window elsewhere
+ /WINDOW ITEM MOVE <number>|<name> - move channel/query to another window
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a id="c5">5. Status and msgs windows & message levels</a></h3>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET use_status_window OFF
+</pre>
+
+<p>This doesn't have any effect until you restart irssi. If you want to
+remove it immediately, just /WINDOW CLOSE it.</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET use_msgs_window ON
+ /SET autocreate_query_level DCCMSGS (or if you don't want queries to
+ dcc chats either, say NONE)
+</pre>
+
+<p>use_msgs_window either doesn't have any effect until restarting
+irssi. To create it immediately say:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /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
+</pre>
+
+<p>Note that neither use_msgs_window nor use_status_window have any
+effect at all if /LAYOUT SAVE has been used.</p>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /HELP levels
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a id="c6">6. How support for multiple servers works in irssi</a></h3>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /CONNECT irc.server.org
+</pre>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ -!- IRCNet: irc.telia.fi:6667 (IRCNet)
+ -!- OPN: tolkien.openprojects.net:6667 (OPN)
+ -!- RECON-1: 192.168.0.1:6667 () (02:59 left before reconnecting)
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>To disconnect one of the servers, or to stop irssi from
+reconnecting, use</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /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
+</pre>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /WINDOW SERVER tag - set server "tag" active
+ Ctrl-X - set the next server in list active
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Several commands also accept -servertag option to specify which server
+it should use:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /MSG -tag nick message
+ /JOIN -tag #channel
+ /QUERY -tag nick
+</pre>
+
+<p>/MSG tab completion also automatically adds the -tag option when
+nick isn't in active server.</p>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /WINDOW SERVER -sticky tag
+</pre>
+
+<p>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)</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /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
+</pre>
+
+<h3><a id="c7">7. /LASTLOG and jumping around in scrollback</a></h3>
+
+<p>/LASTLOG command can be used for searching texts in scrollback
+buffer. Simplest usages are</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /LASTLOG word - print all lines with "word" in them
+ /LASTLOG word 10 - print last 10 occurances of "word"
+ /LASTLOG -topics - print all topic changes
+</pre>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /LASTLOG -file ~/irc.log
+</pre>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a id="c8">8. Logging</a></h3>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET awaylog_level MSGS HILIGHT - Specifies what messages to log
+ /SET awaylog_file ~/.irssi/away.log - Specifies the file to use
+</pre>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autolog ON
+</pre>
+
+<p>By default it logs pretty much everything execept CTCPS or CRAP
+(/WHOIS requests, etc). You can specify the logging level yourself with</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autolog_level ALL -CRAP -CLIENTCRAP -CTCPS (this is the default)
+</pre>
+
+<p>By default irssi logs to ~/irclogs/<servertag>/<target>.log.
+You can change this with</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autolog_path ~/irclogs/$tag/$0.log (this is the default)
+</pre>
+
+<p>The path is automatically created if it doesn't exist. $0 specifies
+the target (channel/nick). You can make irssi automatically rotate the
+logs by adding date/time formats to the file name. The formats are in
+"man strftime" format. For example</p>
+
+<pre>
+ /SET autolog_path = ~/irclogs/%Y/$tag/$0.%m-%d.log
+</pre>
+
+<p>For logging only some specific channels or nicks, see /HELP log</p>
+
+
+<h3><a id="c9">9. Irssi's settings</a></h3>
+
+<p>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):</p>
+
+<p><strong>Queries</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET autocreate_own_query ON</dt>
+ <dd>Should new query window be created when you send message to someone
+ (with /msg).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET autocreate_query_level MSGS</dt>
+ <dd>New query window should be created when receiving messages with
+ this level. MSGS, DCCMSGS and NOTICES levels work currently. You can
+ disable this with /SET -clear autocrate_query_level.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET autoclose_query 0</dt>
+ <dd>Query windows can be automatically closed after certain time of
+ inactivity. Queries with unread messages aren't closed and active
+ window is neither never closed. The value is given in seconds.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p><strong>Windows</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET use_msgs_window OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Create messages window at startup. All private messages go to this
+ window. This only makes sense if you've disabled automatic query
+ windows. Message window can also be created manually with /WINDOW LEVEL
+ MSGS, /WINDOW NAME (msgs).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET use_status_window ON</dt>
+ <dd>Create status window at startup. All messages that don't really
+ have better place go here, like all /WHOIS replies etc. Status window
+ can also be created manually with /WINDOW LEVEL ALL -MSGS, /WINDOW NAME
+ (status).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET autocreate_windows ON</dt>
+ <dd>Should we create new windows for new window items or just place
+ everything in one window</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET autoclose_windows ON</dt>
+ <dd>Should window be automatically closed when the last item in them is
+ removed (ie. /PART, /UNQUERY).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET reuse_unused_windows OFF</dt>
+ <dd>When finding where to place new window item (channel, query) Irssi
+ first tries to use already existing empty windows. If this is set ON,
+ new window will always be created for all window items. This setting is
+ ignored if autoclose_windows is set ON.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET window_auto_change OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Should Irssi automatically change to automatically created windows
+ - usually queries when someone sends you a message. To prevent
+ accidentally sending text meant to some other channel/nick, Irssi
+ clears the input buffer when changing the window. The text is still in
+ scrollback buffer, you can get it back with pressing arrow up key.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET print_active_channel OFF</dt>
+ <dd>When you keep more than one channel in same window, Irssi prints
+ the messages coming to active channel as "<nick> text"
+ and other channels as "<nick:channel> text". If this
+ setting is set ON, the messages to active channels are also printed in
+ the latter way.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET window_history OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Should command history be kept separate for each window.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+
+<p><strong>User information</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET nick</dt>
+ <dd>Your nick name</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET alternate_nick</dt>
+ <dd>Your alternate nick.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET user_name</dt>
+ <dd>Your username, if you have ident enabled this doesn't affect
+ anything</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET real_name</dt>
+ <dd>Your real name.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+
+<p><strong>Server information</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET skip_motd OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Should we hide server's MOTD (Message Of The Day).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET server_reconnect_time 300</dt>
+ <dd>Seconds to wait before connecting to same server again. Don't set
+ this too low since it usually doesn't help at all - if the host is
+ down, the few extra minutes of waiting won't hurt much.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET lag_max_before_disconnect 300</dt>
+ <dd>Maximum server lag in seconds before disconnecting and trying to
+ reconnect. This happens mostly only when network breaks between you and
+ IRC server.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+
+<p><strong>Appearance</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET timestamps ON</dt>
+ <dd>Show timestamps before each message.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET hide_text_style OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Hide all bolds, underlines, MIRC colors, etc.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET show_nickmode ON</dt>
+ <dd>Show the nick's mode before nick in channels, ie. ops have
+ <@nick>, voices <+nick> and others < nick></dd>
+
+<dt>/SET show_quit_once OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Show quit message only once in some of the channel windows the
+ nick was in instead of in all windows.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET topicbar ON</dt>
+ <dd>Show the channel's topic in top of screen.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET lag_min_show 100</dt>
+ <dd>Show the server lag in status bar if it's bigger than this, the
+ unit is 1/100 of seconds (ie. the default value of 100 = 1 second).</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET indent 10</dt>
+ <dd>When lines are longer than screen width they have to be split to
+ multiple lines. This specifies how much space to put at the beginning
+ of the line before the text begins. This can be overridden in text
+ formats with %| format.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET activity_hide_targets</dt>
+ <dd>If you don't want to see window activity in some certain channels
+ or queries, list them here. For example "#boringchannel =bot1 =bot2".
+ If any highlighted text or message for you appears in that window, this
+ setting is ignored and the activity is shown.</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET mail_counter ON</dt>
+ <dd>Show the number of mails in your mbox in status
+ bar. The mbox file is taken from $MAIL environment setting. Only mbox
+ format works for now.</dd>
+
+
+<p><strong>Nick completion</strong></p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>/SET completion_auto OFF</dt>
+ <dd>Automatically complete the nick if line begins with start of nick
+ and the completion character. Learn to use the tab-completion instead,
+ it's a lot better ;)</dd>
+
+<dt>/SET completion_char :</dt>
+ <dd>Completion character to use.</dd>
+</dl>
projects / silc.git / blobdiff