Direct messaging windows in ZNC
===============================

Why ZNC
-------

I have always  used my IRC client running  in either GNU
Screen or Tmux. I have used a few different IRC clients,
and settled for  irssi, which I have been  using now for
at least 15 years.

In my quest to move many  things into Emacs, I wanted to
use ERC, which is a IRC client in Emacs.

One  of  the  leading  principles for  my  Old  Computer
Challenge 2023 edition was to  use my laptop for as much
as  possible. Which  meant  to use  my  shell server  as
little as possible.

This was my trigger to setup  ZNC, so I could use ERC on
my laptop, without losing any messages.


Problem with direct messages
----------------------------

In irssi I was used to have several windows with private
conversations. Sometimes a private conversation is quiet
for a few days. This is no problem in irssi, the windows
will stay up and you can always switch to them.

With ZNC and ERC this is different:

* Starting a private conversation
  You send a  /msg to someone, but this will  not open a
  new buffer for the conversation

* Getting a reply
  When you get a reply, a  new buffer is opened. This is
  now as it is in irssi.

* Disconnect from ZNC
  Just use C-c C-q to disconnect from ZNC.

* Reconnect to ZNC
  Use M-x znc-erc to reconect. Unfortunately, the buffer
  with the private conversation is  gone. So you have to
  send /msg to somewone, but will not get a buffer until
  that person replies


Solution
--------

Doing  the RTFM  thing  --read the  friendly manual--  I
discovered  "AutoClearQueryBuffer". It  looks promising,
setting this to  false should restore the  ERC buffer on
the reconnect.

It took some  time to discover how to  actually set that
value to false. This is the command for it:

 /msg *controlpanel set AutoClearQueryBuffer $me false

You can query the status of AutoClearQueryBuffer with:

 /msg *controlpanel get AutoClearQueryBuffer


So, I am going to use this and see how it goes :)

Happy IRC-ing!


Last edited: $Date: 2023/07/25 20:25:07 $