catgirl(7)

NAME

catgirl – IRC client

DESCRIPTION

catgirl(7) is a terminal IRC client.

Screenshot: imagine, if you will, text on a screen, next to names in a selection of colours.

Notable Features

Tab complete: most recently seen or mentioned nicks are completed first. Commas are inserted between multiple nicks.
Prompt: the prompt clearly shows whether input will be interpreted as a command or sent as a message.
Split scroll: keeps the latest messages in view while scrolling.
URL detection: recent URLs from a particular user or matching a substring can be opened or copied.
Nick coloring: color generation based on usernames remains stable across nick changes. Mentions of users in messages are colored.
Topic diffing: the modified portion of a channel topic change is highlighted.
Ignore: visibility of filtered messages can be toggled.
Security: on FreeBSD and OpenBSD, the restrict option enables tight sandboxing. Sandboxing is always used on OpenBSD.

Non-features

Dynamic configuration: all configuration happens in a simple text file or on the command line.
Multi-network: a terminal multiplexer such as screen(1) or tmux(1) (or just your regular terminal emulator tabs) can be used to connect catgirl to multiple networks.
Reconnection: when the connection to the server is lost, catgirl exits. It can be run in a loop or connected to a bouncer, such as pounce: https://git.causal.agency/pounce.
CTCP: apart from ACTION, this protocol is useless at best and enables abuse at worst.
Protocol coverage: IRCv3 extensions are implemented only where they contribute to the intended user experience.
Cleartext IRC: TLS is now ubiquitous and certificates are easy to obtain.

INSTALLING

catgirl requires ncurses and libtls, provided by either LibreTLS: https://git.causal.agency/libretls/about (for OpenSSL) or by LibreSSL. It targets FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS and Linux. catgirl and libtls may be packaged for your system. Check the Repology pages for catgirl: https://repology.org/project/catgirl/versions and libretls: https://repology.org/project/libretls/versions.

$ ./configure
$ make all
# make install

Packagers are encouraged to patch in their own text macros in input.c.

If installing libtls manually to /usr/local, for example, make sure /usr/local/lib appears in /etc/ld.so.conf or /etc/ld.so.conf.d/* and be sure to run ldconfig(8) once the library is installed. Set PKG_CONFIG_PATH for ./configure to find it.

$ PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig ./configure

The sandman wrapper is provided for macOS to stop and start catgirl on system sleep and wake. To enable it, configure with:

$ ./configure --enable-sandman

FILES

chat.h: global state and declarations
chat.c: startup and event loop
irc.c: IRC connection and parsing
ui.c: curses interface
window.c: window management
input.c: input handling
handle.c: IRC message handling
command.c: command handling
buffer.c: line wrapping
edit.c: line editing
complete.c: tab complete
url.c: URL detection
filter.c: message filtering
log.c: chat logging
config.c: configuration parsing
xdg.c: XDG base directories
sandman.m: sleep/wake wrapper for macOS

scripts/chat.tmux.conf: example tmux(1) configuration for multiple networks and automatic reconnects
scripts/notify-send.scpt: notify-send(1) in AppleScript
scripts/build-chroot.sh: chroot builder for OpenBSD and FreeBSD
scripts/chroot-prompt.sh: name prompt wrapper for chroot
scripts/chroot-man.sh: man(1) implementation for chroot
scripts/sshd_config: sshd(8) configuration for public chroot

CONTRIBUTING

The upstream URL of this project is ⟨https://git.causal.agency/catgirl⟩. Contributions in any form can be sent to ⟨[email protected]⟩. For sending patches by email, see ⟨https://git-send-email.io⟩. Mailing list archives are available at ⟨https://causal.agency/list/catgirl.html⟩.

Monetary contributions can be donated via Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/june/donate.