A Simple, Solarized, Weechat Setup - v2.0
Update 2023-07-18 I’m now using a client called senpai1. I’ll keep this article up but I can’t answer emails on it. Sorry!
Intro
Back in 2014 I rehosted a weechat guide that was very useful to me2 when setting up the client.
Since then there have been a few changes to weechat3 - most notably with how the buffer list is handled - which made the guide incompatible with modern versions of the client. Due to this, I have been getting a fairly steady stream of emails through asking for an update.
The original article has been getting a little dog-eared with the constant updates I was making - so here we are with a brand new post.
Please note: this is for a fresh install of weechat version 1.9, it will not work with older versions. Please refer to the original post linked above for that..
I removed all my config files, keeping only my old sec.conf and the [server] lines in irc.conf, for ease of use. Then I ran the commands listed in this article. Read it carefully, because you may not want my exact config.
Background
I am running weechat in urxvt with the solarized dark theme set in Xresources4.
Your mileage may vary if your setup is different to mine.
The Config
Scripts
First we install the scripts we will be using:
/script install perlexec.pl buffer_autoclose.py go.py colorize_nicks.py autosort.py zerotab.py urlserver.py
-
perlexec.plwill be explained later -
buffer_autoclose.pyauto-closes inactive PMs -
go.pylets you jump between channels (v. important in this new setup) -
colorize_nicks.py- no prizes for guessing what this does -
autosort.py- helps with organising the buflist -
zerotab.py- selects the last person to speak as the auto-filled nick when you hit tab -
urlserver.py- runs a little webserver so you can easily click links in a web browser by accessing a web page
Cosmetic changes
Set the status and title bar colors:
/set weechat.bar.status.color_bg 0
/set weechat.bar.title.color_bg 0
Set the nick colors:
/set weechat.color.chat_nick_colors 1,2,3,4,5,6
Set the highlighted nick text color to white (most readable on pink background):
/set weechat.color.chat_highlight 7
Set the buflist colors (this is my setup, change these until you are happy):
/set buflist.format.hotlist_message "${color:7}"
/set buflist.format.buffer_current "${color:,7}${format_buffer}"
Set the buflist position:
/set weechat.bar.buflist.position top
/set weechat.bar.buflist.items "buflist"
Set sorting rules. Each channel gets ‘grouped’ under its respective server buffer (look at the screenshot). Bit of a change from the old config, but you can just ignore it if you don’t like it:
/autosort rules add irc.server.*.&* = 0
/autosort rules add irc.server.*.#* = 1
/autosort rules add irc.server.*.\*status = 2
/set irc.look.server_buffer independent
/set weechat.look.hotlist_add_conditions "${away} || ${buffer} != ${window.buffer}"
Update 2018-11-09 This line is no longer needed since weechat 2.0:
/autosort replacements add ## #
Use these nice-ass characters instead of the defaults:
/set weechat.look.prefix_same_nick "⤷"
/set weechat.look.prefix_error "⚠"
/set weechat.look.prefix_network "ℹ "
/set weechat.look.prefix_action "⚡"
/set weechat.look.bar_more_down "▼▼"
/set weechat.look.bar_more_left "◀◀"
/set weechat.look.bar_more_right "▶▶"
/set weechat.look.bar_more_up "▲▲"
/set weechat.look.prefix_suffix "╡"
Set nicks to 15 chars max (I have a small screen!):
/set weechat.look.prefix_align_max 15
Set time format to 24h, HHMM, so 2034, for example (again, small screen):
/set weechat.look.buffer_time_format "${color:253}%H${color:245}%M"
Triggers
This is what perlexec.pl is for.
This hides buffers when they have been idle for 90 seconds. You can still use /go to jump back into them. More info here5:
/trigger addreplace windowswitch signal window_switch "" "" "/perlexec weechat::buffer_set(weechat::window_get_pointer('${tg_signal_data}','buffer'), 'hotlist', -1);"
/trigger add bufferswitch signal "buffer_switch" "" "" "/perlexec weechat::buffer_set(weechat::hdata_get_list(weechat::hdata_get('buffer'),'gui_buffer_last_displayed'), 'unread', 0)\;"
/trigger add force_redraw signal "window_switch;buffer_switch" "" "" "/wait 1ms /redraw"
/trigger addreplace detach timer 10000;0;0 "" "" "/allchan /eval /perlexec weechat::command('', '/command -buffer irc.\${server}.\${channel} core /buffer hide') if ((${date:%s} - \${buffer[\${info:irc_buffer,\${server},\${channel}}].lines.last_line.data.date}) > 100 && '\${window.buffer.full_name}' !~ 'irc.\${server}.\${channel}' && '\${buffer[\${info:irc_buffer,\${server},\${channel}}].hotlist}' eq '0x0')"
/trigger addreplace reattach print "" "${buffer.hidden} == 1 && ${tg_tag_notify} == message" "" "/command -buffer irc.$server.$channel core /buffer unhide"
/trigger addreplace reattach_on_switch signal buffer_switch "${buffer[${tg_signal_data}].hidden} == 1" "" "/command -buffer ${buffer[${tg_signal_data}].full_name} core /buffer unhide"
You may notice that now when you hit alt+right or alt+left it only jumps between buffers in the hotlist. It used to jump between all buffers, even the hidden ones. I am happy with this, I just use /go when I want to switch to an idle buffer, but just FYI. This is probably the biggest change from the ‘old’ config.
Filters
I like to filter out join/quit messages for users that have not been active.
/set weechat.look.buffer_notify_default message
/set irc.look.smart_filter on
/filter add irc_smart * irc_smart_filter *
/filter add irc_join_names * irc_366,irc_332,irc_333,irc_329,irc_324 *
The default is about 5 minutes I think, so if someone you have been talking to quits, you see it, but if idlers come and go you don’t get bothered.
go.py
Pretty simple, we want to bind alt+g to ‘go’:
/key bind meta-g /go
You can also type /go when you want
Toggle nicklist
This makes alt+n toggle the nicklist.
/key bind meta-n /bar toggle nicklist
URL server
By default the url server is available on a random port each time it starts. I like to have it on http://localhost:60211 so I can save it in my bookmarks. You can of course choose your own port:
/set plugins.var.python.urlserver.http_port "60211"
Disable logging
I don’t like logging, so I turn it off:
/set logger.file.auto_log off
Conclusion
That’s it! Feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions etc.
Check out the weechat github wiki6 - it has some really cool information now about how to get nicer buffer lists etc. It was all a bit overkill for me and I wanted to stick as close as I could to the 2014 original config, but some of the stuff on there looks really nice.