TERMINOLOGY(1)

📦
version 1.14.0 · 3 versions
, in arch rolling, debian trixie, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🌸 TERMINOLOGY(1) 🌸

okay bestie, gather round, because this is the manual page for terminology — that's section 1 of the manual, the user commands zone 💅 — and she's a whole personality. Let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

Terminology — a Terminal Emulator written with EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries). 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

terminology [options]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So this is an EFL terminal emulator with some extra bells and whistles, and I mean that literally, she has SO many features. Split terminal support? yes. Support for tabs? obviously. Preview icons for files? she ate. and so on and so on, the list is giving main character energy 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -e, --exec <cmnd> — tell her which command to execute. Defaults to $SHELL (or the passwd shell, or /bin/sh). When you use this along with -S/--split, each argument gets used as a command for a split, leaving away the extra arguments. Say you've got 3 splits — one vertical, a command on the right, and an horizontal split on the left with only a command on the bottom — then the arguments you want go like this:
--split v-h-- -e command1 $SHELL command2
  • -d=CURRENT-DIRECTORY, --current-directory=CURRENT-DIRECTORY — change to this directory for execution of the terminal command. Type: STR.
  • -t=THEME, --theme=THEME — use the named edje theme, or a path to a theme file. Type: STR.
  • -b=BACKGROUND, --background=BACKGROUND — use the named file as a background wallpaper for terminology. Type: STR.
  • -g=GEOMETRY, --geometry=GEOMETRY — the terminal geometry to use (like 80x24 or 80x24+50+20 etc.). Type: STR.
  • -n=NAME, --name=NAME — set the window name. Type: STR.
  • -r=ROLE, --role=ROLE — set the window role. Type: STR.
  • -S=vh-, --split=vh- — terminology can start with splits opened, as described below. The arguments are a string with these characters in it:
    • -S v splits terminal vertically
    • -S h splits horizontally
    • - defines a placeholder for a shell or a command when used with --exec/-e
    • Examples:
                                    ______
                                    |  |  |
               $ terminology -S v   |__|__|

                                    ______
                                    |_____|
               $ terminology -S h   |_____|

                                     ______
                                     |__|  |
               $ terminology -S vh   |__|__|

                                     ______
                                     |  |__|
               $ terminology -S v-h  |__|__|

                                       ______
               $ terminology -S vh--h  |__|__|
                                hv--v  |__|__|
  • Type: STR.
  • -T=TITLE, --title=TITLE — set the window title. Type: STR.
  • -i=ICON-NAME, --icon-name=ICON-NAME — set the icon name. Type: STR.
  • -f=FONT, --font=FONT — set the font (NAME/SIZE for scalable, NAME for bitmap). Type: STR.
  • -l=LOGIN, --login=LOGIN — run the shell as a login shell. Type: BOOL.
  • -m=VIDEO-MUTE, --video-mute=VIDEO-MUTE — set mute mode for video playback. Type: BOOL.
  • -c=CURSOR-BLINK, --cursor-blink=CURSOR-BLINK — set cursor blink mode. Type: BOOL.
  • -G=VISUAL-BELL, --visual-bell=VISUAL-BELL — set visual bell mode. Type: BOOL.
  • -F, --fullscreen — go into fullscreen mode from the start.
  • -I, --iconic — go into an iconic state from the start.
  • -B, --borderless — become a borderless managed window.
  • -O, --override — become an override-redirect window.
  • -M, --maximized — become maximized from the start.
  • -W, --nowm — run terminology without a wm.
  • -H, --hold — don't exit when the command process exits.
  • -s, --single — force single executable if multi-instance is enabled..
  • -2, --256color — set TERM to xterm-256color instead of xterm.
  • --active-links=ACTIVATE-LINKS — whether to highlight links. Type: BOOL.
  • --no-wizard — do not display the wizard on start up. Type: BOOL.
  • --scale=SCALE — scaling factor to use on the UI. Type: DOUBLE.
  • --colorscheme=COLORSCHEME — use the named color scheme. Type: STR.
  • -V, --version — show program version.
  • -C, --copyright — show copyright.
  • -L, --license — show license.
  • -h, --help — show this message.

🎀 CONTROLS / SHORTCUTS 🎀

  • Shift+PgUp — scroll terminology one page up.
  • Shift+PgDn — scroll terminology one page down.
  • Shift+Up — scroll terminology one line up.
  • Shift+Down — scroll terminology one line down.
  • Shift+Home — scroll terminology to the top of the backlog.
  • Shift+End — reset scroll in terminology.
  • Shift+Left — switch focus to the previous terminal inside a window when using splits, or the previous tab.
  • Shift+Right — switch focus to the next terminal inside a window when using splits, or the next tab.
  • Shift+Insert — paste Clipboard (ctrl+v/c) selection.
  • Shift+Ctrl+Insert — paste Primary (highlight) selection.
  • Shift+Keypad-Plus — font size up by one unit.
  • Shift+Keypad-Minus — font size down by one unit.
  • Shift+Keypad-Multiply — reset font size.
  • Shift+Keypad-Divide — copy highlight to Clipboard (same as ctrl+c in gui apps).
  • Ctrl+PgUp — switch focus to the previous terminal inside a window when using splits, or the previous tab.
  • Ctrl+PgDn — switch focus to the next terminal inside a window when using splits, or the next tab.
  • Ctrl+Shift+h — toggle displaying the miniview of the history.
  • Ctrl+Alt+t — set tab's title.
  • Ctrl+Shift+t — create a new terminal on top of current inside window (tabs).
  • Ctrl+Shift+n — launch new terminology.
  • Ctrl+Shift+End — close the current terminal.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Home — bring up the "tab" switcher.
  • Ctrl+Shift+PgUp — split terminal horizontally (one terminal above the other).
  • Ctrl+Shift+PgDn — split terminal vertically (one terminal to the left of the other).
  • Alt+Home — enter command mode (enter commands to control terminology itself).
  • Alt+Return — paste primary selection.
  • Alt+g — Group input: send input to all visible terminals in the window.
  • Alt+Shift+g — Group input: send input to all terminals in the window.
  • Alt+w — Copy selection to primary.
  • Alt+Up — Focus the terminal above.
  • Alt+Down — Focus the terminal down.
  • Alt+Left — Focus the terminal on the left.
  • Alt+Right — Focus the terminal on the right.
  • Ctrl+Shift+c — copy current selection to clipboard.
  • Ctrl+Shift+v — paste current clipboard selection.
  • Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+0 — switch to terminal tab 1 through 10.
  • Ctrl+Alt+Equal — increase font size. Note that it works on scalable fonts only.
  • Ctrl+Alt+Minus — decrease font size. Note that it works on scalable fonts only.
  • Ctrl+Alt+0 — reset font to default setting saved in config.
  • Ctrl+Alt+9 — display big font size (10x20 bitmap, or size 20 with scalable).

🖱️ MOUSE CONTROLS 🖱️

  • Right mouse click — bring up controls menus.
  • Middle mouse click — paste highlight selection.
  • Left mouse click/drag — make a selection highlight.
  • Ctrl + Left mouse click/drag — make a block selection.
  • Wheel — scroll up or down in history.
  • Ctrl + Wheel — zoom font size up/down.

👑 COMMAND MODE COMMANDS 👑

To enter command mode in terminology, press Alt+Home. Currently command mode understands the following commands:

  • f — reset font to default setting saved in config.
  • f+ — increase font size. Note that it works on scalable fonts only.
  • f- — decrease font size. Note that it works on scalable fonts only.
  • fb — display big font size (10x20 bitmap, or size 20 with scalable).
  • gNxM — make terminal NxM chars in size (if possible). e.g. g80x48 g40x20. If just one number is provided, it will use the following shortcuts: g0=80x24; g1=80x40; g2=80x60; g3=80x80; g4=120x24; g5=120x40; g6=120x60; g7=120x80; g8=120x120
  • b — reset the background (no media).
  • bPATH — set the background media to an absolute file PATH.

🌈 THEMES: 🌈

Apart from the ones shipped with Terminology, themes can be stored in ~/.config/terminology/themes/.

🧚 COMPANION TOOLS: 🧚

  • tyls — list directory contents with bells and whistles
  • tyalpha — set transparency level of the background
  • tybg — change the background image
  • tycat — display inline a media file or a URI
  • typop — display in a popup a media file or a URI
  • tyq — queue media files or URI to be popped up
  • tysend — send files to the terminal (useful through ssh)

and that's literally just part one of this page bestie, there's more coming 👀

✨ EXTENDED ESCAPES FOR TERMINOLOGY: ✨

okay bestie, so these are the extended escapes that Terminology understands. They let you do some seriously iconic stuff from your terminal. The format is:

[\033][}][COMMAND][\000]

which breaks down like this:

  1. ESC char (\033 or 0x1b)
  2. } char
  3. sequence of UTF8 chars other than nul (\000 or 0x00).
  4. \000 char (nul byte or 0x00 to indicate end of sequence)

e.g.

echo -n '\033}Hello world\000'

Commands:

any values inside square brackets [] are to be replaced by some content (numbers, strings, paths, url's etc.). example:

aa[PATH-OF-FILE] should become something like: aa/tmp/file.png or aa[true/false] should become something like: aatrue or aafalse

  • pn[FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — popup the given media file/url now.
  • pq[FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — queue a popup for the given media file/url.
  • bt[FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — set the terminal background media file/url temporarily.
  • bp[FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — set the terminal background media file/url permanently.
  • at[on/true/yes/off/false/no] — set the terminal alpha state to be on, or off temporarily.
  • ap[on/true/yes/off/false/no] — set the terminal alpha state to be on, or off permanently.
  • qs — query grid and font size. stdin will have written to it:
W;H;FW;FH

where W is the width of the terminal grid in characters where H is the height of the terminal grid in characters where FW is the width of 1 character cell in pixels where FH is the height of 1 character cell in pixels

  • is[CW;H;FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — insert STRETCHED media (where image will stretch to fill the cell area) and define expected cell area to be W cells wide and H cells high, with the image/media/url.

where C is the replace character to be identified in later text where W is the width in character cells (up to 511). where H is the height in character cells (up to 511).

note that this escape alone has no effect. It indicates a future intention of inserting media into the terminal. the terminal will EXPECT a grid of WxH "replace characters" to follow, with each sequence of such replace characters bebung with a ib escape command and ending with an ie escape command.

the FULL-PATH-OR-URL for all the i commands (is, ic, if, it) may be of the form:

/full/path/to/file.png

OR

/full/path/to/link0full/path/to/file.png

where a newline character separates a URI for a link and a full path to a file to display in the region. the link is the destination URI when a user may click on the given media image.

example:

printf("\ 33}is#5;3;%s 00"
       "\ 33}ib#####\ 33}ie\0
       "\ 33}ib#####\ 33}ie\0
       "\ 33}ib#####\ 33}ie\0, "/tmp/icon.png");
note that # is the replace character, and later # chars if inside begin/end escapes, will be replaced by the given media indicated in the insert media escape.
  • ic[CW;H;FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — insert CENTERED media (centered in cell area). Otherwise parameters are identical to the is command, but retains aspect and is padded by blank space.
  • if[CW;H;FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — insert FILLED media (fill in cell area). Otherwise parameters are identical to the is command but ensures the entire area is filled like a background even if media goes beyond cell bounds and is clipped.
  • it[CW;H;FULL-PATH-OR-URL] — insert THUMB media (thumbnail cell area). Otherwise parameters are identical to the is command, but uses thumbnail generation to make a fast to load but low resolution version (cached) of the media.
  • it[CW;H;LINK\nFULL-PATH-OR-URL] — insert THUMB media with link (thumbnail cell area). Otherwise parameters are identical to the is command, but uses thumbnail generation to make a fast to load but low resolution version (cached) of the media. LINK is a path (or url) to open _when_ the thumb is clicked on by the user.
  • ij[CW;H;FULL-PATH\nGROUP][\n][cmd1][\r\n][cmd2]... — insert EDJE object with file path given, and the group name given.

The command list (and the \n whitespace delimiter before the list) is optional, but is executed/parsed before display of the actual object to do things like initialize its initial state. See iC command for more details on the command list.

Be aware that once you have an object with an assigned channel id, it can send back signals and messages via escapes on stdin. These escapes will follow terminology extended escape format (ESC + } ... 00), and the content will be one of:
;CHID\ndrag\nPART NAME\nVAL1\nVAL2
;CHID\ndrag,start\nPART NAME\nVAL1\nVAL2
;CHID\ndrag,stop\nPART NAME\nVAL1\nVAL2
;CHID\ndrag,step\nPART NAME\nVAL1\nVAL2
;CHID\drag,set\nPART NAME\nVAL1\nVAL2
signal;CHID\nSIGNAL STRING\nSOURCE STRING
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring\nSTRING1
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nint\nINT1
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nfloat\nFLOAT1
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring_set\nSTRING1\nSTRING2\nSTRING3...
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nint_set\nINT1\nINT2\nINT3...
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nfloat_set\nFLOAT1\nFLOAT2\nFLOAT3...
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring_int\nSTRING1\nINT1
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring_float\nSTRING1\nFLOAT1
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring_int_set\nSTRING1\nINT1\nINT2\nINT3...
message;CHID\nOPCODE ID\nstring_float_set\nSTRING1\nFLOAT1\nFLOAT2\nFLOAT3...
  • iC[CHID]\n[cmd1][\r\n][cmd2][\r\n][cmd3]... — send a COMMAND (cmd1, cmd2, cmd3 etc.) to an existing named channel id CHID. this can be a list of 1 or more command strings, with each string broken by a continuous sequence of 1 or more \r and/or \n characters. e.g. "\n", "\r", "\r\n", "\n\r", "\n\r\n\n\n", etc.

commands understood are:

  • text\nPART NAME\nTEXT STRING
    • set the text of PART NAME to string TEXT STRING
  • emit\nSIGNAL STRING\nSOURCE STRING
    • emit signal SIGNAL STRING SOURCE STRING
  • drag\nPART NAME\n[value|size|step|page]\nVAL1\nVAL2
    • manipulate dragable of name PART NAME and either set value, size, step or page properties to VAL1 and VAL2 for x and y, where VAL1 and VAL2 are floating point values
  • chid\nCHANNEL ID
    • set the channel id of a given edje object (only valid in setup commands for the inline edje object) to CHANNEL ID so it can be addressed later.
  • message\nOPCODE ID\n[string|int|float|string_set|int_set|...
    • the full syntax is:
message\nOPCODE ID\n[string|int|float|string_set|int_set|...
float_set|string|int|string_float|string_int_set|...
string_float_set]\n[message data]
  • send a message with opcode (integer) id OPCODE ID of one of the given types supported (string, int, float, etc.) and then with the given message data at the end. message data format depends on message type:
string:           STRING1
int:              INT1
float:            FLOAT1
string_set:       STRING1\nSTRING2\nSTRING3...
int_set:          INT1\nINT2\nINT3...
float_set:        FLOAT1\nFLOAT2\nFLOAT3...
string_int:       STRING1\nINT1
string_float:     STRING1\nFLOAT1
string_int_set:   STRING1\nINT1\nINT2\nINT3...
string_float_set: STRING1\nFLOAT1\nFLOAT2\nFLOAT3...
  • ib — begin media replace sequence run.
  • ie — end media replace sequence run.
  • fr[PATH/FILE] — begin file send for a file named PATH / FILE
  • fs[SIZE_BYTES] — set the size in bytes of a file send started with the above fr escape
  • fd[CHECKSUM DATA] — block of data for the current file transfer with checksum as a string decimal which is the sum of every byte when taken as an unsigned char per byte. the checksum is a signed 32bit integer. the checksum is the sum of the data after escaping. 4 bits at a time per data byte, encoded with high bits in one byte then low bits, with the bits encoded as 4 bit value being 0x40 + 4 bit value per byte. (@ == 0x0, A == 0x1, B == 0x2, ... N == 0xe, O == 0xf). so to rebuild a byte will be (((bytes[0] - 0x40) & 0xf) << 4) | ((bytes[1] - 0x40) & 0xf) per byte pair in the data block.
  • fx — exit file send mode (normally at the end of the file or when it's complete)

🐛 BUGS 🐛

If you find a bug or for known issues/bugs/feature requests please email enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net or visit the place where all the hard work is done http://phab.enlightenment.org/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Terminology was written by Carsten Haitzler <raster@rasterman.com> and others. It is maintained by Boris Faure <boris@fau.re> and others. See AUTHORS file for other contributors.

💖 That's a wrap bestie! This was Terminology version 1.14.0, dated Mar 23, 2025. Now go forth and slay those escapes! 💅✨

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