:author: Sébastien Helleu
:email: flashcode@flashtux.org
:lang: en


pass:[<p align="center">] image:https://weechat.org/media/images/weechat_logo_large.png[align="center"] pass:[</p>]

image:https://img.shields.io/badge/mastodon-follow-blue.svg["Mastodon", link="https://hostux.social/@weechat"]
image:https://img.shields.io/badge/diaspora*-follow-blue.svg["Diaspora*", link="https://diasp.eu/u/weechat"]
image:https://img.shields.io/badge/twitter-follow-blue.svg["Twitter", link="https://twitter.com/WeeChatClient"]
image:https://img.shields.io/badge/devel%20blog-follow-blue.svg["Devel blog", link="https://blog.weechat.org/"]
image:https://img.shields.io/badge/slant-recommend-28acad.svg["Slant", link="https://www.slant.co/topics/1323/~best-irc-clients-for-linux"]
image:https://img.shields.io/badge/help-donate%20%E2%9D%A4-ff69b4.svg["Donate", link="https://weechat.org/donate/"]

image:https://github.com/weechat/weechat/workflows/CI/badge.svg["CI", link="https://github.com/weechat/weechat/actions"]
image:https://codecov.io/gh/weechat/weechat/branch/master/graph/badge.svg["Code coverage", link="https://codecov.io/gh/weechat/weechat"]

*WeeChat* (Wee Enhanced Environment for Chat) is a free chat client, fast and
light, designed for many operating systems.
It is highly customizable and extensible with scripts.

Homepage: https://weechat.org/

== Features

* *Modular chat client*: WeeChat has a lightweight core and optional https://weechat.org/doc/weechat/user/#plugins[plugins]. All plugins (including https://weechat.org/doc/weechat/user/#irc[IRC]) are independent and can be unloaded.
* *Multi-platform*: WeeChat runs on GNU/Linux, *BSD, GNU/Hurd, Haiku, macOS and Windows (Bash/Ubuntu and Cygwin).
* *Multi-protocols*: WeeChat is designed to support multiple protocols by plugins, like IRC.
* *Standards-compliant*: the IRC plugin is compliant with RFCs https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1459[1459], https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2810[2810], https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2811[2811], https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2812[2812], https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2813[2813] and https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7194[7194].
* *Small, fast, and very light*: the core is and should stay as light and fast as possible.
* *Customizable and extensible*: there are a lot of options to customize WeeChat, and it is extensible with C plugins and https://weechat.org/scripts/[scripts] (https://weechat.org/scripts/language/perl/[Perl], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/python/[Python], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/ruby[Ruby], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/lua/[Lua], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/tcl/[Tcl], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/guile/[Scheme], https://weechat.org/scripts/language/javascript/[JavaScript] and https://weechat.org/scripts/language/php/[PHP]).
* *Fully documented*: there is comprehensive https://weechat.org/doc/weechat/[documentation], which is https://weechat.org/doc/weechat/dev/#translations[translated] into several languages.
* *Developed from scratch*: WeeChat was built from scratch and is not based on any other client.
* *Free software*: WeeChat is released under https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html[GPLv3].

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On WeeChat's website you can find https://weechat.org/about/screenshots/[more screenshots].

== Installation

WeeChat can be installed using your favorite package manager (recommended) or by compiling it yourself.

For detailed instructions, please check the https://weechat.org/doc/weechat/user/#install[WeeChat user's guide].

== Semantic versioning

WeeChat is following a "practical" semantic versioning, see file link:Contributing.adoc#semantic-versioning[Contributing.adoc].

== Copyright

Copyright (C) 2003-2024 Sébastien Helleu <flashcode@flashtux.org>

This file is part of WeeChat, the extensible chat client.

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.

WeeChat is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with WeeChat.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
