.. description: A way to patch weechat notifications through your system's libnotify over ssh.
.. type: text
I have been on IRC for as long as I have been using *Linux* and that is a long time. Throughout the years, I have moved between *terminal IRC* clients. In this current iteration, I am using `Weechat <https://weechat.org/>`_.
There are many ways one can use *weechat* and the one I chose is to run it in *tmux* on a *cloud server*. In other words, I have a *Linux* server running on one of the many cloud providers on which I have *tmux* and *weechat* installed and configured the way I like them. If you run a setup like mine, then you might face the same issue I have with IRC notifications.
.. TEASER_END
Why?
====
*Weechat* can cause a terminal bell which will show on some *terminals* and *window managers* as a notification. But you only know that *weechat* pinged. Furthermore, if this is happening on a server that you are *ssh*'ing to, and with various shell configurations, this system might not even work. I wanted something more useful than that so I went on the hunt for the plugins available to see if any one of them could offer me a solution. I found many official plugins that did things in a similar fashion and each in a different and interesting way but none the way I want them to work.
Solution
========
After trying multiple solutions offered online which included various plugins, I decided to write my own. That's when *weenotify* was born. If you know my background then you know, already, that I am big on open source so *weenotify* was first released on `Gitlab <https://gitlab.com/elazkani/weenotify>`_. After a few changes, requested by a weechat developer (**FlashCode** in **#weechat** on `Freenode <https://freenode.net/>`_), *weenotify* became as an `official weechat plugin <https://weechat.org/scripts/source/weenotify.py.html/>`_.
Weenotify
=========
Without getting into too many details, *weenotify* acts as both a weechat plugin and a server. The main function is to intercept weechat notifications and patch them through the system's notification system. In simple terms, if someone mentions your name, you will get a pop-up notification on your system with information about that. The script can be configured to work locally, if you run weechat on your own machine, or to open a socket and send the notification to *weenotify* running as a server. In the latter configuration, *weenotify* will display the notification on the system the server is is running on.
Configuration
=============
Let's look at the configuration to accomplish this... As mentioned in the beginning of the post, I run weechat in *tmux* on a server. So I *ssh* to the server before attaching *tmux*. The safest way to do this is to **port forward over ssh** and this can be done easily by *ssh*'ing using the following example.
At this point, you should have port **5431** forwarded between the server and your machine.
Once the previous step is done, you can test if it works by trying to run the *weenotify* script in server mode on your machine using the following command.
You can install the plugin with **Alt + i** and make sure it autoloads with **Alt + A**. You can get more information about working with weechat scripts by reading the help menu. You can get the scripts help menu by running the following in weechat.
The *weenotify* plugin is installed at this stage and only needs to be configured. The plugin has a list of values that can be configured. My configuration looks like the following.
Make sure that the plugin **enable** value is **on** and that the **mode** is **remote**, if you're following this post and using ssh with port forwarding. Otherwise, If you want the plugin to work locally, make sure you set the **mode** to **local**.
If you followed this post so far, then whenever someone highlights you on weechat you should get a pop-up on your system notifying you about it.
