Provided by: catgirl_2.2a-1_amd64 
NAME
catgirl — IRC client
SYNOPSIS
catgirl [-Relqv] [-C copy] [-H hash] [-I highlight] [-N notify] [-O open] [-S bind] [-T[timestamp]]
[-a plain] [-c cert] [-h host] [-i ignore] [-j join] [-k priv] [-m mode] [-n nick] [-p port]
[-r real] [-s save] [-t trust] [-u user] [-w pass] [config ...]
catgirl -o [-S bind] [-h host] [-p port] [config ...]
catgirl -g cert
DESCRIPTION
The catgirl IRC client provides a curses interface for TLS-only Internet Relay Chat. The only required
option is -h, the host name to connect to. See “EXAMPLES” for managing further configuration. Type
/help in catgirl to view the list of “COMMANDS” and “KEY BINDINGS”.
Options can be loaded from files listed on the command line. Files are searched for in
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/catgirl (usually ~/.config/catgirl) unless the path starts with ‘/’, ‘./’ or ‘../’.
Files and flags listed later on the command line take precedence over those listed earlier.
Each option is placed on a line, and lines beginning with ‘#’ are ignored. The options are listed below
following their corresponding flags.
-C util | copy = util
Set the utility used by /copy. Subsequent copy options append arguments to util. The URL to
copy is provided to util on standard input. The default is the first available of pbcopy(1),
wl-copy(1), xclip(1), xsel(1).
-H seed,bound | hash = seed,bound
Set the initial seed of the nick and channel color hash function and the maximum IRC color value
produced by the function. The default is 0,75. To use only colors from the 16-color terminal
set, use 0,15. To disable nick and channel colors, use 0,0.
-I pattern | highlight = pattern
Add a case-insensitive message highlight pattern, which may contain ‘*’, ‘?’ and ‘[]’ wildcards
as in glob(7). The format of the pattern is as follows:
nick[!user@host [command [channel [message]]]]
The commands which can be matched are: INVITE, JOIN, NICK, NOTICE, PART, PRIVMSG, QUIT, SETNAME.
-N util | notify = util
Send notifications using a utility. Subsequent notify options append arguments to util. The
window name and message are provided to util as two additional arguments, appropriate for
notify-send(1).
-O util | open = util
Set the utility used by /open. Subsequent open options append arguments to util. The URL to
open is provided to util as an argument. The default is the first available of open(1),
xdg-open(1).
-R | restrict
Disable the /copy, /exec and /open commands, the notify option, and viewing this manual with
/help.
-S host | bind = host
Bind to source address host when connecting to the server. To connect from any address over IPv4
only, use 0.0.0.0. To connect from any address over IPv6 only, use ::.
-T[format] | timestamp [= format]
Show timestamps by default, in the specified strftime(3) format. The format string may contain
raw IRC formatting codes. The default format is "%X".
-a user:pass | sasl-plain = user:pass
Authenticate as user with pass using SASL PLAIN. Leave pass blank to prompt for the password.
-c path | cert = path
Load the TLS client certificate from path. The path is searched for in the same manner as
configuration files. If the private key is in a separate file, it is loaded with priv. With
sasl-external, authenticate using SASL EXTERNAL. Certificates can be generated with -g.
-e | sasl-external
Authenticate using SASL EXTERNAL, also known as CertFP. The TLS client certificate is loaded
with cert. See “Configuring CertFP”.
-g path
Generate a TLS client certificate using openssl(1) and write it to path.
-h host | host = host
Connect to host.
-i pattern | ignore = pattern
Add a case-insensitive message ignore pattern, which may contain ‘*’, ‘?’ and ‘[]’ wildcards as
in glob(7). The format of the pattern is as follows:
nick[!user@host [command [channel [message]]]]
The commands which can be matched are: INVITE, JOIN, NICK, NOTICE, PART, PRIVMSG, QUIT, SETNAME.
-j channels [keys] | join = channels [keys]
Join the comma-separated list of channels with the optional comma-separated list of channel keys.
-k path | priv = priv
Load the TLS client private key from path. The path is searched for in the same manner as
configuration files.
-l | log
Log chat events to files in paths $XDG_DATA_HOME/catgirl/log/network/channel/YYYY-MM-DD.log.
-m mode | mode = mode
Set the user mode.
-n nick [...] | nick = nick [...]
Set nickname to nick. The default nickname is the value of the environment variable USER.
Additional space-separated nicks will be tried in order if the first is not available, and all
nicks are treated as highlight words.
-o Print the server certificate chain to standard output in PEM format and exit.
-p port | port = port
Connect to port. The default port is 6697.
-q | quiet
Raise the default message visibility threshold for new windows, hiding general events (joins,
quits, etc.).
-r real | real = real
Set realname to real. The default realname is the same as the nickname.
-s name | save = name
Save and load the contents of windows from name in $XDG_DATA_DIRS/catgirl, or an absolute or
relative path if name starts with ‘/’, ‘./’, or ‘../’.
-t path | trust = path
Trust the self-signed certificate loaded from path and disable server name verification. The
path is searched for in the same manner as configuration files. See “Connecting to Servers with
Self-signed Certificates”.
-u user | user = user
Set username to user. The default username is the same as the nickname.
-v | debug
Log raw IRC messages to the <debug> window as well as standard error if it is not a terminal.
-w pass | pass = pass
Log in with the server password pass. Leave pass blank to prompt for the password.
Configuring CertFP
1. Generate a new TLS client certificate:
$ catgirl -g ~/.config/catgirl/example.pem
2. Connect to the server using the certificate:
cert = example.pem
# or: $ catgirl -c example.pem
3. Identify with services or use sasl-plain, then add the certificate fingerprint to your account:
/ns CERT ADD
4. Enable SASL EXTERNAL to require successful authentication when connecting (not possible on all
networks):
cert = example.pem
sasl-external
# or: $ catgirl -e -c example.pem
Connecting to Servers with Self-signed Certificates
1. Connect to the server and write its certificate to a file:
$ catgirl -o -h irc.example.org > ~/.config/catgirl/example.pem
2. Configure catgirl to trust the certificate:
trust = example.pem
# or: $ catgirl -t example.pem
INTERFACE
The catgirl interface is split into three areas.
Status Line
The top line of the terminal shows window statuses. Only the currently active window and windows with
activity are listed. The status line for a window might look like this:
1+ #ascii.town +3 ~7 @
The number on the left is the window number. Following it may be one of ‘-’, ‘+’, ‘++’, as well as ‘=’.
These indicate the message visibility threshold and mute status of the window.
On the right side, the number following ‘+’ indicates the number of unread messages. The number
following ‘~’ indicates how many lines are below the scroll position. An ‘@’ indicates that there is
unsent input in the window's “Input Line”.
catgirl will also set the terminal title, if possible, to the name of the network and active window,
followed by the unread count for that window, and the unread count for all other windows in parentheses.
Chat Area
The chat area shows messages and events. Regular messages are shown with the nick between ‘<>’ angle
brackets. Actions are shown with the nick preceded by ‘*’. Notices are shown with the nick between ‘-’
hyphens.
Blank lines are inserted into the chat as unread markers.
While scrolling, the most recent 5 lines of chat are kept visible below a marker line.
Input Line
The bottom line of the terminal is where messages and commands are entered. When entering a message,
action or notice, your nick appears on the left, as it would in the “Chat Area”. When entering a
command, no nick is shown.
Formatting codes are shown in the input line as reverse-video uppercase letters. These will not appear
in the sent message.
Input that is too long to send as a single message will have a red background starting at the point where
it will be split into a second message.
COMMANDS
Any unique prefix can be used to abbreviate a command. For example, /join can be typed /j.
Chat Commands
/away [message]
Set or clear your away status.
/cs command
Send a command to ChanServ.
/invite nick
Invite a user to the channel.
/join [channel [key]]
Join the named channel, the current channel, or the channel you've been invited to.
/list [channel]
List channels.
/me [action]
Send an action message.
/msg nick message
Send a private message.
/names List users in the channel.
/nick nick
Change nicknames.
/notice message
Send a notice.
/ns command
Send a command to NickServ.
/ops List channel operators.
/part [message]
Leave the channel.
/query nick
Start a private conversation.
/quit [message]
Quit IRC.
/quote command
Send a raw IRC command. Use M-- to show unknown replies.
/say message
Send a regular message.
/setname name
Update realname if supported by the server.
/topic [topic]
Show or set the topic of the channel. Press Tab twice to copy the current topic.
/whois [nick]
Query information about a user or yourself.
/whowas nick
Query past information about a user.
UI Commands
/close [name | num]
Close the named, numbered or current window.
/copy [nick | substring]
Copy the most recent URL from nick or matching substring.
/debug Toggle logging in the <debug> window.
/exec command
Run command with SHELL and interpret its output as input to the current window, including as
commands.
/help View this manual. Type q to return to catgirl.
/help topic
List the server help for a topic. Try /help index for a list of topics.
/highlight [pattern]
List message highlight patterns or temporarily add a pattern. To permanently add a pattern, use
the highlight option.
/ignore [pattern]
List message ignore patterns or temporarily add a pattern. To permanently add a pattern, use the
ignore option.
/move [name] num
Move the named or current window to number.
/o ... Alias of /open.
/open [count]
Open each of count most recent URLs.
/open nick | substring
Open the most recent URL from nick or matching substring.
/unhighlight pattern
Temporarily remove a message highlight pattern.
/unignore pattern
Temporarily remove a message ignore pattern.
/window
List all windows.
/window name | substring
Switch to window by name or matching substring.
/window num | /num
Switch to window by number.
Operator Commands
/ban [mask ...]
List or ban masks from the channel.
/deop [nick ...]
Revoke channel operator status from users or yourself.
/devoice [nick ...]
Revoke voice from users or yourself in the channel.
/except [mask ...]
List or add masks to the channel ban exception list.
/invex [mask ...]
List or add masks to the channel invite list.
/kick nick [message]
Kick a user from the channel.
/mode [modes] [param ...]
Show or set channel modes. In the <network> window, show or set user modes.
/op [nick ...]
Grant users or yourself channel operator status.
/unban mask ...
Unban masks from the channel.
/unexcept mask ...
Remove masks from the channel ban exception list.
/uninvex mask ...
Remove masks from the channel invite list.
/voice [nick ...]
Grant users or yourself voice in the channel.
KEY BINDINGS
The catgirl interface provides emacs(1)-like line editing as well as keys for IRC formatting. The
prefixes C- and M- represent the control and meta (alt) modifiers, respectively.
Line Editing
C-a Move to beginning of line.
C-b Move left.
C-d Delete next character.
C-e Move to end of line.
C-f Move right.
C-k Delete to end of line.
C-t Transpose characters.
C-u Delete to beginning of line.
C-w Delete previous word.
C-x Expand a text macro beginning with ‘\’.
C-y Paste previously deleted text.
M-Enter
Insert a newline without sending a command.
M-b Move to previous word.
M-d Delete next word.
M-f Move to next word.
M-q Collapse all whitespace.
Tab Complete nick, channel, command or macro.
Arrow and navigation keys also work as expected.
Window Keys
C-l Redraw the UI.
C-n Switch to next window.
C-p Switch to previous window.
C-r Scroll to previous line matching input.
C-s Scroll to next line matching input.
C-v Scroll down a page.
M-+ Raise message visibility threshold, hiding ignored messages, general events (joins, quits, etc.),
or non-highlighted messages.
M-- Lower message visibility threshold, showing ignored messages and unknown replies.
M-= Toggle mute. Muted windows do not appear in the status line unless you are mentioned.
M-/ Switch to previously selected window.
M-< Scroll to top.
M-> Scroll to bottom.
M-n Switch to window by number 0–9.
M-a Cycle through unread windows.
M-l List the contents of the window without word-wrapping and with timestamps. Press Enter to return
to catgirl.
M-m Insert a blank line in the window.
M-n Scroll to next highlight.
M-p Scroll to previous highlight.
M-s Reveal spoiler text.
M-t Toggle timestamps.
M-u Scroll to first unread line.
M-v Scroll up a page.
IRC Formatting
C-z C-v Insert the next input character literally.
C-z b Toggle bold.
C-z c Set or reset color.
C-z i Toggle italics.
C-z o Reset formatting.
C-z p Manually toggle paste mode.
C-z r Toggle reverse color.
C-z s Set spoiler text (black on black).
C-z u Toggle underline.
Some color codes can be inserted with the following:
C-z A gray C-z N brown (dark red)
C-z B blue C-z O orange (dark yellow)
C-z C cyan C-z P pink (light magenta)
C-z G green C-z R red
C-z K black C-z W white
C-z M magenta C-z Y yellow
To set other colors, follow C-z c by one or two digits for the foreground color, optionally followed by a
comma and one or two digits for the background color. To reset color, follow C-z c by a non-digit.
The color numbers are as follows:
0 white 8 yellow
1 black 9 light green
2 blue 10 cyan
3 green 11 light cyan
4 red 12 light blue
5 brown (dark red) 13 pink (light magenta)
6 magenta 14 gray
7 orange (dark yellow) 15 light gray
99 default
ENVIRONMENT
SHELL The shell used by /exec. The default is /bin/sh.
USER The default nickname.
FILES
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/catgirl
Configuration files are searched for first in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, usually ~/.config, followed by
the colon-separated list of paths $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, usually /etc/xdg.
~/.config/catgirl
The most likely location of configuration files.
$XDG_DATA_DIRS/catgirl
Save files are searched for first in $XDG_DATA_HOME, usually ~/.local/share, followed by the
colon-separated list of paths $XDG_DATA_DIRS, usually /usr/local/share:/usr/share.
~/.local/share/catgirl
The most likely location of save files.
EXIT STATUS
The catgirl client exits 0 if requested by the user, EX_UNAVAILABLE (69) if the connection is lost, and
>0 if any other error occurs.
EXAMPLES
Join #ascii.town from the command line:
$ catgirl -h irc.tilde.chat -j '#ascii.town'
Create a configuration file in ~/.config/catgirl/tilde:
host = irc.tilde.chat
join = #ascii.town
Load the configuration file:
$ catgirl tilde
STANDARDS
Adam and Attila Molnar, invite-notify Extension, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/invite-notify.
Jack Allnutt, Val Lorentz, and Daniel Oaks, Modern IRC Client Protocol, ircdocs,
https://modern.ircdocs.horse/index.html.
Kiyoshi Aman, Kyle Fuller, Stéphan Kochen, Alexey Sokolov, and James Wheare, Message Tags, IRCv3 Working
Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/message-tags.
Kiyoshi Aman, extended-join Extension, IRCv3 Working Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/extended-
join.
Waldo Bastian, Ryan Lortie, and Lennart Poettering, XDG Base Directory Specification,
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html, November 24, 2010.
Christine Dodrill, Ryan, and James Wheare, chghost Extension, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/chghost.
Kyle Fuller, Stéphan Kochen, Alexey Sokolov, and James Wheare, server-time Extension, IRCv3 Working
Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/server-time.
Lee Hardy, Perry Lorier, Kevin L. Mitchell, Attila Molnar, Daniel Oakley, William Pitcock, and James
Wheare, Client Capability Negotiation, IRCv3 Working Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/core/capability-
negotiation.
S. Josefsson, The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings, IETF, RFC 4648,
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648, October 2006.
C. Kalt, Internet Relay Chat: Client Protocol, IETF, RFC 2812, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2812, April
2000.
Janne Mareike Koschinski, setname Extension, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/setname.
Mantas Mikulėnas, userhost-in-names Extension, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/userhost-in-names.
Daniel Oaks, IRC Formatting, ircdocs, https://modern.ircdocs.horse/formatting.html.
Daniel Oaks, Standard Replies Extension, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/standard-replies.
J. Oikarinen and D. Reed, Internet Relay Chat Protocol, IETF, RFC 1459,
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459, May 1993.
William Pitcock and Jilles Tjoelker, IRCv3.1 SASL Authentication, IRCv3 Working Group,
https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/sasl-3.1.
William Pitcock, multi-prefix Extension, IRCv3 Working Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/multi-
prefix.
James Wheare, Message IDs, IRCv3 Working Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/message-ids.
James Wheare, reply Client Tag, IRCv3 Working Group, https://ircv3.net/specs/client-tags/reply.
K. Zeilenga, Ed., The PLAIN Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism, IETF, RFC 4616,
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4616, August 2006.
Extensions
The catgirl client implements the causal.agency/consumer vendor-specific IRCv3 capability offered by
pounce(1). The consumer position is stored in the save file.
AUTHORS
June McEnroe <june@causal.agency>
BUGS
Send mail to ⟨list+catgirl@causal.agency⟩ or join #ascii.town on irc.tilde.chat.
Debian October 11, 2023 CATGIRL(1)