Console IRC client.

Console IRC client

glirc is a console IRC client with an emphasis on providing dynamic views into the model of your IRC connections.

Documentation Wiki

GLIRC - Advanced Console IRC Client

• glirc
• irc-core
• hookup

Client Features

• Support for a wide variety of IRCv3 capabilities.
• Joins, parts, and quits fold into one line to save space without sacrificing context. Detailed view (F2) shows additional info, such as part/quit messages.
• Ignore support that folds ignored messages into the joins and parts. Detailed view shows the messages.
• Searchable channel list, who and names list, and list modes (beqI) views separate from chat messages.
• Dynamic, in-place message and list view searching using /grep.
• View and open long URLs with /url.
• Context-sensitive tab completion and command hints.
• WYSIWYG mIRC formatting input.
• Multi-line editing; Enter sends one line at a time.
• Atheme-flavored-ChanServ integration.
• Nicknames in chat messages are colored to match messages from that nickname.
• Correct handling of STATUSMSG, including CTCP ACTIONs.
• Command macros.
• Support for a wide variety of SASL authentication mechanisms, including ECDSA-NIST256P-CHALLENGE.
• Split-screen view.
• Configurable color palette.
• Desktop notifications on important messages while unfocused. Can run arbitrary commands instead (or turn them off).
• Extensions, a Lua plugin system, and trivial piping of IRC messages to arbitrary commands with /exec.
• Plenty more, but this list is getting a bit long.

Building

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

$ cabal update

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

Startup

glirc [FLAGS] INITIAL_NETWORKS...
  -c PATH  --config=PATH    Configuration file path
  -!       --noconnect      Disable autoconnecting
  -h       --help           Show help
           --config-format  Show configuration file format
  -v       --version        Show version
           --full-version   Show version and versions of all linked Haskell libraries

Environment variables

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

Configuration file

Most of glirc's settings are specified using a configuration file. The file format is config-value, an indentation-sensitive format that resembles YAML. It has macros which are documented here.

The default configuration file path is ~/.config/glirc/config. Relative paths are relative to the home directory.

To view the full list of configuration variables, run glirc --config-format | less. If any variable is unspecified, a default value will be used instead.

-- vim: filetype=config-value
-- Grab the Vim syntax highlighting file from the config-value package

-- Defaults used when not specified on command line
defaults:
  nick:            "yournick"
  username:        "yourusername"
  realname:        "Your real name"
  tls:             yes -- or: no, or: starttls
                       -- enabling tls automatically uses port 6697

-- Override the defaults when connecting to specific servers
servers:
  * name: "libera"
    hostname:   "irc.libera.chat"
    sasl:
      username: "someuser"
      password: "somepass"
    log-dir:    "/home/myuser/ircLogs"
    connect-cmds:
      * "join #glirc,#someotherchannel"

  * name: "znc"
    hostname:        "znc.example.com"
    port:            7000 -- Override the default port
    password:        "IRC server password"
    tls-verify:      no
    message-hooks:   ["buffextras"] -- Use this when using ZNC's "buffextra" module to get correct playback
    flood-penalty:   -1 -- Disable flood controls
    flood-threshold: -1

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

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

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

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

nick-padding:
   side: left -- Try "right" if you don't like left padding
   width: 13

url-opener: "open" -- This works on macOS; use "xdg-open" for most Linuxes

key-bindings:
  * bind: "C-M-b"
    command: "masks b"

palette:
  line-marker: yellow
  time:
    fg: [10,10,10] -- RGB values for color for timestamps
    bg: blue
  identifier-colors: -- Used for nicknames and channel names
    [ 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
    ]

notifications: terminal-notifier -- Use terminal-notifier for nicer notifications (macOS only)

Commands

glirc has built-in documentation for all of its commands. To view the full list of commands and what they do, use /help. To view help on a specific command, use /help <command>.

Unlike some other clients, glirc does not send unknown commands to the server. Use /quote to send arbitrary IRC commands.

The following is a curated list of commands for basic use:

• /help [command] - Show in-client help
• /exit - Terminate the client
• /reload [path] - Load a new configuration file (optional path)
• /palette - Show the client palette
• /url [n] - Execute url-opener on the nth URL in the current window (defaults to first)
• /toggle-activity-bar - toggle channel names in activity bar
• /toggle-detail - toggle full detail view of messages
• /toggle-metadata - toggle visibility of channel metadata (joins, parts, quits, nick changes, etc)

Connection

• /connect <name> - Connect to the given server
• /quit [message] - Gracefully terminate connection to the current server
• /reconnect - Reconnect to the current server
• /nick <nick> - Change nickname
• /away [message] - Set away status; no message removes away status

Window management

• /windows [filter] - List all open windows (filters: networks, channels, users)
• /setname [letter] - Assign a one-letter name to the given window.
• /channel <channel> - Change focus to channel/user on current network (alias: /c)
• /channel <network>:[channel] - Change focus to channel/user on the specified network (alias: /c)
• /clear [network] [channel] - Clear contents of current or specified window
• /splits [focuses...] - Enable split-screen view. Focuses should be space delimited list of NETWORK:CHANNEL
• /splits+ [focuses...] - Incremental addition to splits
• /splits- [focuses...] - Incremental removal from splits
• /toggle-layout - toggle split-screen layout between 1 and 2 column view

Chat commands

• /join <channel> - Join a channel (alias: /j)
• /part [msg] - Part from current channel
• /query <target> [msg] - Switch focus to target window on current server, optionally send message (alias: /q)
• /msg <target> <msg> - Send a message on the current server to target
• /me <msg> - Send action message to channel
• /say <msg> - Send normal message to channel; useful for macros and messages starting with a slash
• /ignore <mask>... - Toggle ignore status on a list of masks
• /topic [msg] - Display or set the current topic of a channel

Views

• /channelinfo - Show channel topic, creation, url
• /grep [flags] <regex> - Filter using a regular expression
• /ignore - Show all ignore masks
• /list - View the list of public channels on the network
• /masks <mode> - Show channel bans(b), quiets(q), exempts(e), or invex(I)
• /mentions - Show all the highlighted lines across all windows
• /names - Show the user list for the current channel
• /who [channel] [options] - Perform WHO query, sending options to the server, or show the results of the previous query.

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

Miscellaneous

• /dump <filename> - Dump current window to file
• /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.
• /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.

To view the full list of keybindings and what they do, use /keymap from within glirc.

The following is a curated list of default keybinds for basic use:

Navigation

• Page Up scroll up
• Page Down scroll down
• C-n next window
• C-p previous window
• C-x next network window
• M-<name> jump to window with the given one-letter name
• M-a jump to activity
• M-s jump to previous window
• ESC return to messages view (from userlist, masklist, help, etc)

Editing

• C-b bold

• C-c color

• C-v invert foreground/background

• C-_ underline

• C-] italic

• C-o reset formatting

• Tab autocompletion

• M-k replace 2 characters before the cursor with a character specified in /digraphs

• 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

Client settings

• F2 toggle detailed view
• F3 toggle detailed activity bar
• F4 toggle metadata visibility
• F7 toggle Enter key lock

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.

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