WEECHAT-HEADLESS(1)

📦
version 4.10.2 · 13 versions
, in arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

✨ WEECHAT-HEADLESS — the weechat-headless manual page, bestie edition ✨

Okay so like, this is the manual page for weechat-headless from the WeeChat Manual, and I'm gonna walk you through every single bit of it because you deserve to know 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

weechat-headless — the extensible chat client, but make it the headless version 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

Like, here's the vibe of how you actually call it:

weechat-headless [-a|--no-connect] [--daemon] [--stdout] [-d|--dir <path>] [-t|--temp-dir] [-p|--no-plugin] [-P|--plugins <plugins>] [-r|--run-command <command>] [-s|--no-script] [--upgrade] [debug-option...] [plugin:option...]
weechat-headless [-c|--colors]
weechat-headless [-h|--help]
weechat-headless [-l|--license]
weechat-headless [-v|--version]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

WeeChat — which stands for Wee Enhanced Environment for Chat, iconic name, no notes — is a free chat client, fast and light, designed for many operating systems. It's highly customizable and extensible with scripts. It's giving main character energy, fr fr ✨

The command weechat-headless runs WeeChat in a headless mode — meaning no interface at all, literally just vibes and background processes 😌 It can be used for tests, or to daemonize WeeChat with the option --daemon.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Here's the whole roster, bestie, every last one:

  • -a, --no-connect — turns off auto-connect to servers when WeeChat is starting. Like, it just doesn't reach out first, you know? 🙈
  • -c, --colors — displays the default colors in your terminal. Aesthetic check 🌈
  • --daemon — runs WeeChat in the background, as a daemon. Heads up: this only works with the command weechat-headless.
  • --stdout — displays log messages on standard output instead of writing them into the log file. Also only works with weechat-headless, and not compatible with the option --daemon. Pick a lane, honestly 💀
  • -d, --dir <path> — forces a single directory for all WeeChat files (the directory gets created if it's not found). You can give four directories separated by colons — in this exact order: config, data, cache, runtime. If you don't pass this option, the environment variable WEECHAT_HOME is used (as long as it's not empty).
  • -t, --temp-dir — creates a temporary WeeChat home directory and deletes it on exit. This one's incompatible with option -d, sorry babe. The directory name is automatically built by WeeChat using this template: weechat_temp_XXXXXX (where XXXXXX is random). It's created in the first available directory from this list: environment variable TMPDIR, /tmp (may be different depending on your operating system), environment variable HOME, then the current directory. Oh and the temporary home directory has permissions 0700 — only the owner can read, write and execute. Privacy queen 🔒
  • -h, --help — displays help. The classic.
  • -i, --build-info — displays build information and exits. One and done ✌️
  • -l, --license — displays the WeeChat license.
  • -p, --no-plugin — disables plugins auto-load. Let them sleep in 😴
  • -P, --plugins <plugins> — loads only these plugins at startup (see /help weechat.plugin.autoload). If you pass this option, the option weechat.plugin.autoload is not used. It's this or that, no cap.
  • -r, --run-command <command> — runs command(s) after startup; many commands can be separated by semicolons, and this option can be given multiple times. Stack 'em up 🫶
  • -s, --no-script — disables scripts auto-load.
  • --upgrade — upgrades WeeChat using session files generated with the command /upgrade -quit.
  • -v, --version — displays the WeeChat version. Basic but necessary 💖
  • plugin:option — an option for a plugin. That's it, that's the description.

💀 DEBUG OPTIONS 💀

WARNING: these options are for debug purposes only. DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION! Like seriously bestie, I'm begging you 😭
  • --no-dlclose — does not call the function dlclose after plugins are unloaded. This is useful with tools like Valgrind to display the stack for unloaded plugins.
  • --no-gnutls — does not call the init and deinit functions of the GnuTLS library. This is useful with tools like Valgrind and electric-fence, to prevent GnuTLS memory errors.
  • --no-gcrypt — does not call the init and deinit functions of the Gcrypt library. This is useful with tools like Valgrind, to prevent Gcrypt memory errors.

🧚 PLUGIN OPTIONS 🧚

Okay for the complete doc on plugin options, please go look at the plugins documentation in the WeeChat user's guide at https://weechat.org/doc/. It's all there, iykyk.

With the irc plugin, you can connect to a server with an URL like this:

irc[6][s]://[[nickname][:password]@]server[:port][/#channel1[,#channel2...]]

To join the WeeChat IRC channel support with the nick mynick:

irc://mynick@irc.libera.chat/#weechat

And an IPv6 address can be enclosed in brackets so you can add a port after the address, for example:

irc://mynick@[2001:db8:0:85a3::ac1f:8001]:6668/#test

Look at that bracket action. Iconic 🔥

🍓 FILES 🍓

Every single one of these lives in your config life, bestie:

  • $HOME/.config/weechat/weechat.conf — main WeeChat configuration file
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/plugins.conf — plugins configuration file
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/sec.conf — configuration file with secured data 🔐
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/alias.conf — configuration file for alias plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/buflist.conf — configuration file for buflist plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/charset.conf — configuration file for charset plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/exec.conf — configuration file for exec plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/fifo.conf — configuration file for fifo plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/fset.conf — configuration file for fset plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/guile.conf — configuration file for guile plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/irc.conf — configuration file for irc plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/javascript.conf — configuration file for javascript plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/logger.conf — configuration file for logger plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/lua.conf — configuration file for lua plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/perl.conf — configuration file for perl plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/php.conf — configuration file for php plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/python.conf — configuration file for python plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/relay.conf — configuration file for relay plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/ruby.conf — configuration file for ruby plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/script.conf — configuration file for script plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/spell.conf — configuration file for spell plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/tcl.conf — configuration file for tcl plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/trigger.conf — configuration file for trigger plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/typing.conf — configuration file for typing plugin
  • $HOME/.config/weechat/xfer.conf — configuration file for xfer plugin
  • $HOME/.local/share/weechat/weechat.log — WeeChat log file

That's a lot of conf files and honestly? Slay 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

weechat(1) — yes, the non-headless one, go check it out too 🫶

👑 AUTHORS 👑

This manpage was written by Sébastien Helleu.

WeeChat is written by Sébastien Helleu and contributors (the complete list is in the AUTHORS.md file).

Copyright © 2003-2026 Sébastien Helleu

WeeChat is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Please read the COPYING file for more information.

Web: https://weechat.org/

🦋 SUPPORT / REPORTING BUGS 🦋

For help or a bug report: https://weechat.org/about/support/ — they got you, bestie 💜

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Sébastien Helleu

And that's the whole page, periodt 🎀 Signed off from WeeChat 4.10.2 — this manual page was WEECHAT-HEADLESS(1) in the original footer, and now it's yours, fully understood, no cap 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from