gregoa's blog

irssi in a screen session via ssh

objectives

• have irssi running permanently on a server in a screen session.
• auto-connect to this session from a client on X startup.
• set un/away when
  • the screen session is detached/re-attached.
  • xscreensaver is de/activated on the client.
• open URLs on the client (a graphical browser has its merits nowadays ...).

on the server

• obviously irssi & screen need to be installed & configured, xauth (from xbase-clients) is needed for the URL fun as well as ssh.
• irssi needs the screen_away.pl script loaded on startup & activated.
• the irssi-in-screen session is started or re-attached with the following script:

  $ cat ~/bin/irssi_screen 
  #!/bin/bash
  
  # Start a new screen session with irssi or attach to an already running one.
  
  if screen -list | grep "\.irssi" > /dev/null
  then # running
          screen -x irssi
  else # not running
          screen -S irssi -t irssi irssi
  fi
  
  exit 0
  $ 
  

• for the URL stuff I use the script url.pl with:

  /set browse_command ~/.irssi/irssi_browser %u
  

• irssi_browser is a little script for deciding which browser to use (I might run irssi on my client again one day & I'm syncing ~/.irssi/ between the client & the server):

  $ cat ~/.irssi/irssi_browser 
  #!/bin/sh
  
  URL=$1
  
  if [ "$SSH_CLIENT" ]; then
          RHOST=$(echo $SSH_CLIENT | cut -f1 -d" ")
          ssh $RHOST DISPLAY=:0 sensible-browser "$URL" > /dev/null
  else
          sensible-browser "$URL" >/dev/null &
  fi
  
  exit 0
  $
  

  note: this assumes that a connection to the client is possible with ssh key authentication.

on the client

• the following assumes that perl, xscreensaver, & some X stuff is installed, as well as a browser. & ssh of course.
• to start the irssi-in-screen session via ssh in an xterm at X startup:

  $ grep irssi ~/.Xsession 
  (/usr/bin/xterm -name irssi -e /usr/bin/ssh server -t ~/bin/irssi_screen & ) && (~/bin/irssi_screen_xscreensaver &)
  $
  

  note: this assumes that a connection to the server is possible with ssh key authentication.
• irssi_screen_xscreensaver is a "daemon" that checks the xscreensaver status on the client and puts irssi in un/away mode on the server.

  $ cat ~/bin/irssi_screen_xscreensaver 
  #!/usr/bin/perl
  
  my $blanked = 0;
  open (IN, "xscreensaver-command -watch |");
  while (<IN>) {
          if (m/^(BLANK|LOCK)/) {
                  if (!$blanked) {
                          system 'ssh server screen -p irssi -X stuff "/away\ -all\ not\ here\ ...^M"'
                          $blanked = 1;
                  }
          } elsif (m/^UNBLANK/) {
                  system 'ssh server screen -p irssi -X stuff "/away^M"';
                  $blanked = 0;
          }
  }
  $
  

  note: the "^M" should be a literal Ctrl-M character, i.e. a CR (carriage return, "return", \13) & any spaces in the irssi -X stuff command need to be escaped with a \ (backslash).

gregoa, 2006-11-24, 2006-11-25, 2007-01-23, 2007-05-24, 2009-04-17