vincentbernat/vbeterm

Custom terminal based on VTE

vbeterm

Custom terminal based on VTE. There are many terminals available. Many of them are based on VTE, a library implementing a terminal emulator widget for GTK+. Some are highly configurable, some are small but none of them match exactly my expectations.

Here is a short survey:

• ROXterm
• Sakura
• Termit
• evilvte
• gnome-terminal
• lilyterm
• st
• xfce-terminal
• sterm

vbeterm is really tailored to my need. You are unlikely to find it useful. sterm is a derivative with a bit more flexibility. Another close alternative with a ability to configure before compiling is evilvte.

If you plan to write your own, have a look at the exsting one. It is likely that evilvte will support what you want. If it is too "bloated" for your taste, you can start from the minimal demo from the same author. If this demo is too simplistic, you can also have a look at VTE's own demo, written in Vala.

Also, a bold notice about VTE: this is a library whose sole purpose is to support Gnome Terminal. If a feature is needed for Gnome Terminal, it will be added. If a feature is not needed anymore, it will be deprecated and removed quickly. For example, Gnome Terminal removed the ability to set an image background. Shortly after, the corresponding function in VTE was also removed.

For more information, see this blog post.

Features

• No tab support
• Use of VTE 2.90 (GTK3)
• Single instance managing several terminals.
• dabbrev-expand (mapped on Alt-/)

Installation

Execute the following commands:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

You need VTE 0.40.x which is not yet widely available. You can look at commit d98dad for a version working with a more ancient version. On Debian, the appropriate package is libvte-dev.

vbeterm's Issues

libSegFaults.so removing from glibc update leads to compilation error.

Temporary fix is removing -lSegFaults from generated Makefile (line 292).

quick question about ax_ld_check_flag.m4

Hey
just a quick question:
I found this macro in your repo via a google search: ax_ld_check_flag.m4
I really like it but I can't seem to find it anywhere else. Is it yours or is it deprecated?

Thank you!

Shortcut to copy selected text.

Hi, it's me again, I'm playing with this terminal right now, I found something off about this terminal, how do I copy text from this terminal? I dig into src/term.c and assign shortcut but it doesn't work. Is This a good reference ? Thanks

License ?

Hello, I made an APKBUILD script of vbeterm for alpine linux. I'm still not sure about the vbeterm's license. If that's wrong I can change it, Thanks.

Does this require vte-ng?

Hey I really like what you have done here, I am hoping to fork this and make it my own, but step one is to get this up and running locally.

I am running Ubuntu 16.10 and when I try to run ./configure I get the following:

checking for VTE... no
configure: error: Package requirements (vte-2.91) were not met:

No package 'vte-2.91' found

Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.

Alternatively, you may set the environment variables VTE_CFLAGS
and VTE_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.

I found these two issues [1] [2] both of which are related to Termite (which I have used in the past) and which requires vte-ng.

I did try updating my PKG_CONFIG_PATH to point to /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig but no dice.

So I was wondering is this required in order to compile? I also wondered what additions from vte-ng you are using?

About my derived project

Hi,
Thank you for your guiding article and project about VTE firstly. They are enlightening.
I wanted to let you know that I've started a project (here) about a custom terminal and probably I'm going to use some parts of your code base to develop it. I saw that you're still working on this project so I hope that this situation is not a problem for you. If it is, please let me know.
Either way I thought that you'd wanna know. Good day!

Can't kill vbeterm through close button and window manager command, only possible with ctrl+d or "exit" command.

Hello, I notice I can't kill / close vbeterm using close button and window manager command (e.g swaymsg kill on sway). I can kill the terminal using ctrl+d or exit's bash command. I'm using commit 92969f9 . Is it common ? Thanks.

[Question] Stock scrolling feature.

I found that in term.c, there is some lines about scroll, are those intended for scrolling feature? I try to change it so I can scroll with touchpad but no luck. Any clue ?

Option to set font.

Hi, nice terminal, by the way, I'm curious about how to set the font of this terminal. Thanks.

Transparency Issue

Hi.
I've been working on my terminal project (#4) (source) and right now I'm trying to make it transparent.
So I saw the alpha value on your code and tried that.
It didn't worked on my terminal with the compton or xcompmgr but it works with your terminal.
After that I realized you're initializing the terminal using GTK (gtk_application_new) and other GUI stuff.
Why do you think my code is not working? Is it about the lack of GTK Application?
(And is it that important to start the terminal like that?)