NAME

     catgirl — IRC client

DESCRIPTION

     catgirl(7) is a TLS-only terminal IRC client.

   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 edit.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.  Install it as follows:

           $ make scripts/sandman
           # make install-sandman

FILES

     chat.h      global state and declarations
     chat.c      startup and event loop
     irc.c       IRC connection and parsing
     ui.c        curses interface
     handle.c    IRC message handling
     command.c   input 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

     scripts/chat.tmux.conf    example tmux(1) configuration for multiple networks and automatic
                               reconnects
     scripts/sandman.m         sleep/wake wrapper for macOS
     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 ⟨list+catgirl@causal.agency⟩.  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.

SEE ALSO

     catgirl(1)

     IRC bouncer: pounce: https://git.causal.agency/pounce

     June Bug, IRC Suite, https://text.causal.agency/010-irc-suite.txt, June 19, 2020.