CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

irc_server_name

The name of the IRC server. Defaults to "twitter.irc". Every IRC server has a name. The IRC server included with "twirc" isn't intended to be accessed publicly. It is for your own personal use. So, the name is not significant.

irc_server_port

The port number the IRC server binds to. Defaults to 6667.

irc_server_bindaddr

The local address to bind to. Defaults to all 127.0.0.1 to prevent others from connecting to your "twirc" IRC server. If you run "twirc" on a different system than your IRC client, you will need to provide this configuration option with a suitable address.

irc_mask

The IRC user/host mask used to restrict connecting users. Defaults to "*@127.0.0.1". If you run "twirc" on a different system than your IRC client, you will need to provide this configuration option with a suitable mask.

irc_password

Password used to authenticate to the IRC server. If you don't provide this option, no password will be required. It adds a bit of security. You may want to set this option if other users have access to your system.

irc_botname

The name of the channel operator bot. Defaults to "tweeter". Select a name that does not conflict with friends, followers, or your own IRC nick.

When running "twirc", you interact with a bot in the channel. The bot carries out commands on your behalf and provides feedback, particularly when there are errors.

irc_botircname

Text to be used as the channel operator bot's IRC full name. Defaults to "Your Friendly Twitter Agent". This is the name that will appear in response to an IRC "/whois" command.

irc_channel

The name of the channel where your twitter friends' timelines appear. This is the channel where most of your interaction with "twirc" occurs. It defaults to &twitter. The IRC convention for channels names is channels local to a single server begin with "&". Network channels begin with "#". You can use either to name, however "&" is more appropriate.

twitter_alias

An alias to use for displaying incoming status updates from the owning user. This is necessary if the user's IRC nickname and Twitter screen name are the same. Defaults to "me".

With the default value "me", when "twirc" reads a status message in your timeline from your Twitter screen name, it will use "me" in place of your Twitter screen name in the channel.

selection_count

How many status messages to display for selection when favoriting, replying, or retweeting. Defaults to 3.

truncate_to

When displaying a list tweets for selection, for example, in response to the "favorite" command, they will be truncated to this length to avoid cluttering the screen with long messages that wrap. Defaults to 60.

log_channel

If specified, twirc will post log messages to this channel. If you set this option to &log, then you can join the &log channel and see the copious debug messages that "twirc" generates. This may be useful for trouble shooting or problem reporting.

log_level

Twirc supports "log_level" values OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, and TRACE. The default is WARN.

state_file

File used to store state information between sessions, including Twitter OAuth access tokens, friends, and followers_ids.

Ignoring

If you're following a particularly noisy friend, you can of course "unfollow" her. Alternatively, you can use your IRC client's features to ignore the user. In "irssi":

    /ignore LoudMouth ALL
    /ignore -except -pattern @YourName LoudMouth ALL

Now, you won't hear from LoudMouth unless she @replies you, and she won't know you're ignoring her (unless she reads this tip!).

Multiple accounts

Although "twirc" doesn't currently support multiple accounts, there's nothing stopping you from running multiple instances of "twirc", one for each account.

Here's how I do it for accounts "semifor" (my personal account) and "twirc" ("twirc"'s feed for update notices, etc.).

First, the pertinent sections of the configuration files (in YAML format).

    # File: semifor.yml
    irc_server_port: 6667
    irc_password: secret
    irc_channel: '&twitter'
    # File: twirc.yml
    irc_server_port: 6668
    irc_password: secret
    irc_channel: '&twirc'

Next, start an instance for each account:

    bin/twirc -c semifor.yml -b
    bin/twirc -c twirc.yml -b

In your IRC client, connect to both instances ("irssi" here):

    /connect localhost 6667 secret semifor
    /connect localhost 6668 secret twirc

Now you've got 2 channels, one for each account---in my case, &twitter for "semifor" and &twirc for "twirc".

PLUGINS

Plugins are modules that are optionally included by specifying them in user configuration file in the "plugins" section. Some of the plugins included in the distribution are:

SquashWhiteSpace

Squashes whitespace in tweets to a single space. See App::Twirc::Plugin::SquashWhiteSpace.

BangCommands

Commands are prefixed with a bang (i.e., exclamation point "!"). Text entered without a bang prefix is posted as a status update. See App::Twirc::Plugin::BangCommands.