Right-aligned nicks

To create a “tabular” effect of the chat view, or to align nick names in a column, you can use Irssi’s theme/format system. The basic commands are the following:

/format own_msg {ownmsgnick $2 {ownnick $[-9]0}}$1
/format own_msg_channel {ownmsgnick $3 {ownnick $[-9]0}{msgchannel $1}}$2
/format pubmsg_me {pubmsgmenick $2 {menick $[-9]0}}$1
/format pubmsg_me_channel {pubmsgmenick $3 {menick $[-9]0}{msgchannel $1}}$2
/format pubmsg_hilight {pubmsghinick $0 $3 $[-9]1}$2
/format pubmsg_hilight_channel {pubmsghinick $0 $4 $[-9]1{msgchannel $2}}$3
/format pubmsg {pubmsgnick $2 {pubnick $[-9]0}}$1
/format pubmsg_channel {pubmsgnick $3 {pubnick $[-9]0}{msgchannel $1}}$2

These are copied from the default theme’s default values, which are responsible for displaying your own messages sent to a channel (own_msg) as well as received messages (pubmsg) and the two basic highlightings (me and hilight).

Then, in front of the argument that contains the nick name ($0 in most cases, but $1 in pubmsg_hilight), an alignment modifier (see Appendix B: Special Variables and Expandos) has been added: [-9]. This means that the nicks will be right-aligned and truncated to 9 characters.

Note: Modifiers only work in the /format section of a theme (this may change in the future)

There are also some scripts that try to do the alignment for you, like: nm, nm2.

There are also some nice themes that extend the alignment to further formats, like: weed.

Automatic log-in to NickServ

Please check here => Automatic log-in to NickServ

CertFP Log-in

CertFP, short for Certificate Finger Print, is another method to log you in to NickServ. Instead of a password, it uses a Client Certificate.

In order to use it, you

• first need a certificate,

• then configure Irssi to use this certificate,

• and finally register the certificate with NickServ.

Irssi does not have built-in certificate management commands, so you need to use an external tool like openssl to create the certificate.

A step-by-step guide for the Libera Chat network can be found here => https://github.com/shabble/irssi-docs/wiki/liberachat_certfp

It is necessary that the certificate be available as a file; PKCS#11 is not supported.

Tor (The Onion Router)

Tor is an overlay network for anonymous communication. It operates a local SOCKS proxy for applications to use.

Unfortunately, Irssi currently does not support SOCKS proxies natively. As a workaround, you can install the ProxyChains-NG program (note, it must be the NG version).

Afterwards, you can launch Irssi like this:

proxychains4 irssi

Now your connections will go through the Proxy configured in ProxyChains-NG (Tor by default).

IRC networks may have different requirements to be able to connect via Tor. For the Libera Chat network, you will first need to set up CertFP Log-in using a clearnet connection, and then connect to their Onion Service palladium.libera.chat. More detailed instructions can be found here => https://github.com/shabble/irssi-docs/wiki/liberator

The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG

If you see such a message

Err:4 home:/ailin_nemui:/irssi-an  InRelease
  The following signatures were invalid: EXPKEYSIG EDB7AED941EEDB57 home:ailin_nemui OBS Project <home:ailin_nemui@build.opensuse.org>

this means that the automatic signing key used by the Open Build Service expired. OBS renews the key periodically, but Debian does not support this.