Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, WeeChat is an open-source, multi-platform lightweight and extensible chat client, having a text user interface only. Having support for scripts and plugins that can be loaded either at startup or dynamically, the app has support for IRC.

The latest version available is WeeChat 1.0, which has been released a while ago, coming with the below changes:
- core: check bar conditions in root bars and on each update of a bar item
- core: fully evaluate commands bound to keys in cursor and mouse contexts
- core: add option weechat.completion.command_inline
- core: add bar item “mouse_status”, new options weechat.look.item_mouse_status and weechat.color.status_mouse
- core: add signals “mouse_enabled” and “mouse_disabled”
- core: add hide of chars in string in evaluation of expressions
- core: add arraylists, improve speed of completions (about 50x faster)
- core: move bar item “scroll” between buffer name and lag in default bar items of status bar
- core: allow incomplete commands if unambiguous, new option weechat.look.command_incomplete
- api: send value returned by command callback in function command(), remove WeeChat error after command callback if return code is WEECHAT_RC_ERROR
- api: add regex replace feature in function string_eval_expression()
- api: use microseconds instead of milliseconds in functions util_timeval_diff() and util_timeval_add()
- irc: add option “reorder” in command /server
- irc: open channel buffers before the JOIN is received from server (autojoin and manual joins), new options irc.look.buffer_open_before_{autojoin|join}
- irc: add server option “sasl_fail” (continue/reconnect/disconnect if SASL fails)
- irc: add support for color codes 16-99 in IRC messages, add infolist “irc_color_weechat”
- irc: disable SSLv3 by default in server option “ssl_priorities”
- irc: add support of “extended-join” capability
- irc: automatically add current channel in command /samode
- irc: display own nick changes in server buffer
- irc: disable creation of temporary servers by default with command /connect, new option irc.look.temporary_servers
- relay: add options “stop” and “restart” in command /relay
- relay: add option relay.network.ssl_priorities
- relay: add host in sender for IRC backlog PRIVMSG messages sent to clients
- script: add option script.scripts.url_force_https
- trigger: evaluate and replace regex groups at same time, new format for regex option in triggers (incompatible with version 1.0)
- trigger: add ${tg_displayed} in conditions of default trigger “beep”
- trigger: add option “restore” in command /trigger
In this article I will show you how to install WeeChat 1.1 on Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet, Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca, Linux Mint 17 Qiana, Linux Mint 13 Maya, Pinguy OS 14.04, Elementary OS 0.3 Freya, Elementary OS 0.2 Luna, Deepin 2014, Peppermint Five, LXLE 14.04, Linux Lite 2.0 and other Ubuntu derivative systems.
Because it is available via PPA, installing WeeChat 1.1 on Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivative systems is easy. All you have to do is add the ppa to your system, update the local repository index and install the weechat package. Like this:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nesthib/weechat-stable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install weechat
Optional, to remove weechat, do:
$ sudo apt-get remove weechat