Irssi quickstart guide
A quick guide to the basic features of irssi, a powerfull consolebased irc client.
- What is irssi?
- Installation
- The command shortcuts
- Make your own /aliases
- Tell users who /msg you that you are away:
- Window management
- Paste the output of programs to a channel
- Stats based on irssi logs
- Links to more information about irssi
1. What is irssi?
irssi is a very good text-based irc client. It can be used in any terminal.
2. Installation
Irssi follows the general Linux installation steps (./configure, make, make install).
Gentoo Linux: emerge irssi
3. The command shortcuts
Use the shortcuts for commonly used commands.
| /j kde,gnome | (/join #kde,#gnome) | Join a channel |
|---|---|---|
| /c | (/clear) | Clear the window |
| /c -all | (/clear -all) | Clear all windows |
| /wi nickname | (/whois) | View information about nickname |
| /pa | (/part) | Leave a channel |
| /m | (/msg) | Send a private message |
| /al | (/alias) | View available aliases/shortcuts |
| /al X | (/alias X) | Aliases/shortcuts beginning with X |
4. Make your own /aliases
You can easy make your own aliases for commonly used commands and remarks:
/alias linuxfriends /me has a few good friends. man, info, /usr/doc, tlpd & google.
The command
/linuxfriends
will now tell the channel that
jonny has a few good friends. man, info, /usr/doc, tlpd, & google.
To make the alias use text (variables) used together with the alias, use $X:
/alias hipeople /me waves to $0 $1 $2 **
/hipeople jon mary jane
jonny waves to jon mary jane
To tell the channel what Gentoo Linux package contains program X:
/alias whatpackage /exec -o qpkg -f -nc ``which $0 2>/dev/null | awk '{print "$*="$$1}';``
/whatpackage epsxe
epsxe=app-emulation/epsxe
Some aliases are important
/alias help! say This will probably help you with your problem, $0: http://www.kyra.ath.cx/~meow/clue.txt
/help! roger
//jonny This will probably help you with your problem, roger: http://www.kyra.ath.cx/~meow/clue.txt //
To view very good examples of useful aliases, type:
/al uptime
UPTIME eval exec - expr date +%s - \$F | awk '{print "Irssi uptime:"int(\\\$1/3600/24)"d "int(\\\$1/3600%24)"h "int(\\\$1/60%60)"m"int(\\\$1%60)"s" }'
/al calc
CALC exec - if which bc &>/dev/null\; then echo '$*' | bc | awk '{print "$*="$$1}'\; else echo bc was not found\; fi
Add -o to exec to tell the world about the output.
/alias cao exec -o echo '$*' | bc | awk '{print "$*="$$1}'\
Do remember to
/save
your aliases..
Bonus : The /set variables are tab-completable
5. Tell users who /msg you that you are away:
/set show_away_once ON
This setting makes Irssi /msg your away message set by
/away sleeping
to people who /msg you while you are away.
-!- yournick is away: sleeping
is what users who /msg you while away get.
Do not forget to
/save
your settings!
6. Window management
Window management is easy and done with the keyboard.
Alt+# to switch between windows (Alt+1 for Window 1, Alt+2 for Windows 2 etc). Use qwerty for window numbers higher than 10 (and 0 for 10). The modifier key may differ depending on your shell/terminal. If Alt+# does not work, try Esc+# (openbsd).
Alt+left/right move between the channels in a window. This works in KDEs konsole and aterm, but not in xterm.
Alt+up/down moves between the window tabs. This works in KDEs konsole and aterm, but not in xterm.
Use alt+a to change to the next active window (where someone has uttered a word)
To make a new window:
/window new
Use the shortcut:
/win new
You can move the current channel with:
/win m u (/window move up)
/win m d (/window move down)
You can resize a window with:
/win gr 5 (/window grow #)
/win shr 5 (/window shrink #)
Use /win # where # is the window number to jump directly to a window:
/win 11
To close a window:
/win c (/window close)
This actually parts the channel but only closes the window if you have no other channels open in it. So usually it will the same as /part:
/pa (/part)
To get some nice information about the current window, just type:
/win
You can save your window settings so your windows are restored the next time you start irssi:
/layout save
7. Paste the output of programs to a channel
To execute a command in link:irssi, just do:
/exec program
Add -o to paste the output to the current channel:
/exec -o ls /pub/
8. Stats based on irssi logs
irssistats is a that tool that generates IRC stats based on irssi logs.
- irssistats-0.51.tar.gz (40K)
There are also two stat programs based on irssistats available:
pisg (Perl IRC Statistics Generator) can also make nice stats based on irssi (and most other) logs.
9. Links to more information about irssi
- Irssi Homepage
- The top reasons why you should use irssi
- Irssi Documentation Wiki
- irssi scripts archive
- David Leadbeaters Irssi Script Archive
- perl irssiscripts
- more perl irssiscripts
- Juerds Irssi page
- Debian cvs-irssi for unstable Debian
- Penguin Breeder Perl-Scripts for the Irssi IRC Client
- ninja RedHat stable RPMs
- http://irssi.atn.pl some irssi stuff like scripts and slackware packages
- Jean-Yves Lefort irssi's page
- debian irssi-scripts
- Polish page with scripts
- http://ratings.irssi.de Irssi scripts rated
- Irssi Themes Rating Page
- wouter.coekaerts.be a nice page about irssi
- jamesoffs irssipages
Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Øyvind Sæther. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
- Page source: irssi.t2t.tar.bz2
