How to install HexChat on Debian 8.3

How to install HexChat on Debian 8.3

HexChat is an IRC client. It is based on XChat, but works on both Windows and Linux / Unix. It is translated in multiple languages and supports spellcheck, proxies, SASL, DCC and more. This article will explain on how to install HexChat on Debian 8.3.

Installation procedure

Before starting the installation procedure, execute the nano command to open the source.list file.

root@linuxhelp:~# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

The sources.list file has been opened. Now add these lines at end of the file. Save and exit from the file.

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian jessie main

Next execute the apt-get update command to update the apt sources-list.

root@linuxhelp:~# apt-get update
Ign http://ftp.de.debian.org jessie InRelease
Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org jessie Release.gpg [2,373 B]
Get:2 http://ftp.de.debian.org jessie Release [148 kB]               
Get:3 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates InRelease [145 kB] 
Get:4 http://ftp.de.debian.org jessie/main amd64 Packages [6,776 kB]     
Ign http://ftp.debian.org stable InRelease              
Get:5 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main Sources [15.5 kB]
Get:6 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/contrib Sources [32 B]          
Get:7 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main amd64 Packages/DiffIndex [7,408 B]
Get:8 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/contrib amd64 Packages [32 B]
Get:9 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/contrib Translation-en [14 B]
Get:10 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main Translation-en/DiffIndex [2,704 B] 
Get:11 http://ftp.debian.org stable Release.gpg [2,373 B]                
Get:12 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main amd64 2017-03-14-2025.02.pdiff [526 B]
Get:13 http://ftp.debian.org jessie-updates/main amd64 2017-03-14-2025.02.pdiff [526 B]
Get:14 http://ftp.debian.org stable Release [148 kB]
.
.
Get:21 http://ftp.de.debian.org jessie/main Translation-en [4,582 kB]                       
Fetched 23.4 MB in 3min 39s (107 kB/s)                                                      
Reading package lists... Done

Install the HexChat package by running the following command.

root@linuxhelp:~# apt-get install hexchat
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  hexchat-common
Suggested packages:
  unifont
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  hexchat hexchat-common
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 264 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,082 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,913 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
.
.
Setting up hexchat-common (2.10.1-1+deb8u1) ...
Setting up hexchat (2.10.1-1+deb8u1) ...

Once the package has been installed, click the Activities window and type the Hexchat package name in the search bar and run the application.

Wasn' t that an easy installation procedure? Hexchat is an IRC client that is written using highly scriptable languages like Python and Perl.