WeeChat is an open-source, multi-platform lightweight and extensible chat client, having a text user interface only. Having support for scripts and plugins that can be loaded either at startup or dynamically, the app has support for IRC.
Also, it permits multiple connections to multiple servers, has support for UTF-8 and can use multiple character sets for encoding/decoding messages.
The latest version available is WeeChat 1.2, which brings the below new features:
- core: add signals “signal_sigterm” and “signal_sigquit”
- core: use environment variable WEECHAT_HOME on startup
- core: remove WeeChat version from config files
- core: add options weechat.look.quote_{nick_prefix|nick_suffix|time_format} to customize quoted messages in cursor mode
- core: add a welcome message on first WeeChat run
- core: add options weechat.look.word_chars_{highlight|input}
- core: display a warning on startup if the locale can not be set
- core: allow “*” as plugin name in command /plugin reload to reload all plugins with options
- core: add option “-s” in command /eval to split expression before evaluating it (no more split by default)
- core: add priority in plugins to initialize them in order
- api: add support of environment variables in function string_eval_expression() and command /eval
- api: add support of full color option name in functions color() and string_eval_expression() and in command /eval
- api: add “_chat_line” (line pointer) in hashtable of hook_focus
- irc: display a warning when the option irc.look.display_away is set to “channel”
- irc: optimize search of a nick in nicklist (up to 3x faster)
- irc: add support of SHA-256 and SHA-512 algorithms in server option “ssl_fingerprint”
- irc: add option “-noswitch” in command /query
- irc: format message 008 (RPL_SNOMASK)
- irc: add support of “account-notify” capability
- irc: remove server “freenode” from default config file
- irc: add support of “ecdsa-nist256p-challenge” SASL mechanism
- doc: add Russian man page
- javascript: new script plugin for javascript
Also, bug-fixes have been implemented. For more information, see the changelog for yourself.
Installation instructions:
WeeChat is available via PPA, so the Ubuntu users can get the latest versions of the app on their systems easily. Just add the ppa to the system, refresh the repository index and install the weechat package.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nesthib/weechat-stable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install weechat
If you are unhappy with weechat, you can remove it:
$ sudo apt-get remove weechat
The instructions should work on all the supported Ubuntu systems and derivatives: Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet, Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca, Linux Mint 17 Qiana, Linux Mint 13 Maya, Pinguy OS 14.04, Elementary OS 0.3 Freya, Elementary OS 0.2 Luna, Deepin 2014, Peppermint Five, LXLE 14.04 and Linux Lite 2.