tym

tym is a Lua-configurable terminal emulator base on VTE.

Installation

Arch Linux

$ yay -S tym

NixOS

Add unstable channel (if you don't have it already)

$ sudo nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable nixos-unstable
$ sudo nix-channel --update nixos-unstable

Install

$ nix-env -iA nixos-unstable.tym

Other distros

Download the latest release from Releases, extract it and run as below

$ ./configure
$ sudo make install

Build dependencies (click to open)

Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S vte3 lua53

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libvte-2.91-dev liblua5.3-dev libpcre2-dev

Void Linux

$ sudo xbps-install -S vte3-devel lua-devel

Other distros / macOS / Windows

We did not check which packages are needed to build on other distros or OS. We are waiting for your contribution ;)

Configuration

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tym/config.lua exists, it is executed when the app starts. You can change the path by --use/-u option.

-- At first, you need to require tym module
local tym = require('tym')

-- set individually
tym.set('width', 100)

tym.set('font', 'DejaVu Sans Mono 11')

-- set by table
tym.set_config({
  shell = '/usr/bin/fish',
  cursor_shape = 'underline',
  autohide = true,
  color_foreground = 'red',
})

All available config values are shown below.

field name	type	default value	description
shell	string	$SHELL → vte_get_user_shell() → '/bin/sh'	Shell to execute.
term	string	'xterm-256color'	Value of $TERM.
title	string	'tym'	Initial window title.
font	string	''	You can specify font with 'FAMILY-LIST [SIZE]', for example 'Ubuntu Mono 12'. The value is parsed by pango_font_description_from_string(). If empty string is set, the system default fixed width font will be used.
icon	string	'utilities-terminal'	Name of icon. cf. Icon Naming Specification
role	string	''	Unique identifier for the window. If empty string is set, no value set. (cf. gtk_window_set_role())
cursor_shape	string	'block'	'block', 'ibeam' or 'underline' can be used.
cursor_blink_mode	string	'system'	'system', 'on' or 'off' can be used.
cjk_width	string	'narrow'	'narrow' or 'wide' can be used.
background_image	string	''	Path to background image file.
uri_schemes	string	'http https file mailto'	Space-separated list of URI schemes to be highlighted and clickable. Specify empty string to disable highlighting. Specify '*' to accept any strings valid as schemes (according to RFC 3986).
width	integer	80	Initial columns.
height	integer	22	Initial rows.
scale	integer	100	Font scale in percent(%)
cell_width	integer	100	Cell width scale in percent(%).
cell_height	integer	100	Cell height scale in percent(%).
padding_horizontal	integer	0	Horizontal padding.
padding_vertical	integer	0	Vertical padding.
scrollback_length	integer	512	Length of the scrollback buffer.
ignore_default_keymap	boolean	false	Whether to use default keymap.
autohide	boolean	false	Whether to hide mouse cursor when the user presses a key.
silent	boolean	false	Whether to beep when bell sequence is sent.
bold_is_bright	boolean	false	Whether to make bold texts bright.
isolated	boolean	false	If true, the app instance will be insolated from D-Bus and no longer have ability to handle D-Bus signals/method calls.
color_window_background	string	''	Color of the terminal window. It is seen when 'padding_horizontal' 'padding_vertical' is not 0. If you set 'NONE', the window background will not be drawn.
color_foreground, color_background, color_cursor, color_cursor_foreground, color_highlight, color_highlight_foreground, color_bold, color_0 ... color_15	string	See next section	You can specify standard color string such as '#f00', '#ff0000', 'rgba(22, 24, 33, 0.7)' or 'red'. It will be parsed by gdk_rgba_parse(). If empty string is set, the VTE default color will be used. If you set 'NONE' for color_background, the terminal background will not be drawn.

Theme customization

When $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tym/theme.lua exists, it is loaded before loading config. You can change the path by --theme/-t option. The following is an example, whose color values are built-in default. They were ported from iceberg.

local bg = '#161821'
local fg = '#c6c8d1'
return {
  color_background = bg,
  color_foreground = fg,
  color_bold = fg,
  color_cursor = fg,
  color_cursor_foreground = bg,
  color_highlight = fg,
  color_highlight_foreground = bg,
  color_0  = bg,
  color_1  = '#e27878',
  color_2  = '#b4be82',
  color_3  = '#e2a478',
  color_4  = '#84a0c6',
  color_5  = '#a093c7',
  color_6  = '#89b8c2',
  color_7  = fg,
  color_8  = '#6b7089',
  color_9  = '#e98989',
  color_10 = '#c0ca8e',
  color_11 = '#e9b189',
  color_12 = '#91acd1',
  color_13 = '#ada0d3',
  color_14 = '#95c4ce',
  color_15 = '#d2d4de',
}

You need to return the color map as table.

Color correspondence (click to open)

color_0  : black (background)
color_1  : red
color_2  : green
color_3  : brown
color_4  : blue
color_5  : purple
color_6  : cyan
color_7  : light gray (foreground)
color_8  : gray
color_9  : light red
color_10 : light green
color_11 : yellow
color_12 : light blue
color_13 : pink
color_14 : light cyan
color_15 : white

Keymap

Default keymap

Key	Action
Ctrl Shift c	Copy selection to clipboard.
Ctrl Shift v	Paste from clipboard.
Ctrl Shift r	Reload config file.

Customizing keymap

You can register keymap(s) using tym.set_keymap(accelerator, func) or tym.set_keymaps(table). accelerator must be in a format parsable by gtk_accelerator_parse(). If turethy value is returned, the event propagation will not be stopped.

-- also can set keymap
tym.set_keymap('<Ctrl><Shift>o', function()
  local h = tym.get('height')
  tym.set('height', h + 1)
  tym.notify('Set window height :' .. h)
end)

-- set by table
tym.set_keymaps({
  ['<Ctrl><Shift>t'] = function()
    tym.reload()
    tym.notify('reload config')
  end,
  ['<Ctrl><Shift>v'] = function()
    -- reload and notify
    tym.send_key('<Ctrl><Shift>t')
  end,

  ['<Shift>y'] = function()
    tym.notify('Y has been pressed')
    return true -- notification is shown and `Y` will be inserted
  end,
  ['<Shift>w'] = function()
    tym.notify('W has been pressed')
    -- notification is shown but `W` is not inserted
  end,
})

Lua API

Name	Return value	Description
tym.get(key)	any	Get config value.
tym.set(key, value)	void	Set config value.
tym.get_default_value(key)	any	Get default config value.
tym.get_config()	table	Get whole config.
tym.set_config(table)	void	Set config by table.
tym.reset_config()	void	Reset all config.
tym.set_keymap(accelerator, func)	void	Set keymap.
tym.unset_keymap(accelerator)	void	Unset keymap.
tym.set_keymaps(table)	void	Set keymaps by table.
tym.reset_keymaps()	void	Reset all keymaps.
tym.set_hook(hook_name, func)	void	Set a hook.
tym.set_hooks(table)	void	Set hooks.
tym.reload()	void	Reload config file.
tym.reload_theme()	void	Reload theme file.
tym.send_key()	void	Send key press event.
tym.set_timeout(func, interval=0)	int(tag)	Set timeout. return true in func to execute again.
tym.clear_timeout(tag)	void	Clear the timeout.
tym.put(text)	void	Feed text.
tym.bell()	void	Sound bell.
tym.open(uri)	void	Open URI via your system default app like xdg-open(1).
tym.notify(message, title='tym')	void	Show desktop notification.
tym.copy(text, target='clipboard')	void	Copy text to clipboard. As target, 'clipboard', 'primary' or secondary can be used.
tym.copy_selection(target='clipboard')	void	Copy current selection.
tym.paste(target='clipboard')	void	Paste clipboard.
tym.check_mod_state(accelerator)	bool	Check if the mod key(such as '<Ctrl>' or <Shift>) is being pressed.
tym.color_to_rgba(color)	r, g, b, a	Convert color string to RGB bytes and alpha float using gdk_rgba_parse().
tym.rgba_to_color(r, g, b, a)	string	Convert RGB bytes and alpha float to color string like rgba(255, 128, 0, 0.5) can be used in color option such as color_background.
tym.rgb_to_hex(r, g, b)	string	Convert RGB bytes to 24bit HEX like #ABCDEF.
tym.hex_to_rgb(hex)	r, g, b	Convert 24bit HEX like #ABCDEF to RGB bytes.
tym.get_monitor_model()	string	Get monitor model on which the window is shown.
tym.get_cursor_position()	int, int	Get where column and row the cursor is.
tym.get_clipboard(target='clipboard')	string	Get content in the clipboard.
tym.get_selection()	string	Get selected text.
tym.get_text(start_row, start_col, end_row, end_col)	string	Get text on the terminal screen. If you set -1 to end_row and end_col, the target area will be the size of termianl.
tym.get_config_path()	string	Get full path to config file.
tym.get_theme_path()	string	Get full path to theme file.
tym.get_pid()	integer	Get pid.
tym.get_version()	string	Get version string.

Hooks

Name	Param	Default action	Description
title	title	changes title	If string is returned, it will be used as the new title.
bell	nil	makes the window urgent when it is inactive.	If true is returned, the window will not be urgent.
clicked	button, uri	If URI exists under cursor, opens it	Triggered when mouse button is pressed.
scroll	delta_x, delta_x, mouse_x, mouse_y	scroll buffer	Triggered when mouse wheel is scrolled.
drag	filepath	feed filepath to the console	Triggered when files are dragged to the screen.
activated	nil	nothing	Triggered when the window is activated.
deactivated	nil	nothing	Triggered when the window is deactivated.
selected	string	nothing	Triggered when the text in the terminal screen is selected.
unselected	nil	nothing	Triggered when the selection is unselected.
signal	string	nothing	Triggered when me.endaaman.tym.hook signal is received.

If turethy value is returned in a callback function, the default action is will be canceled.

tym.set_hooks({
  title = function(t)
    tym.set('title', 'tym - ' .. t)
    return true -- this is needed to cancenl default title application
  end,
})

--- NOTE:
-- If you set the hook to 'clicked' handler, you need to open URI manually like below,
tym.set_hook('clicked', function(button, uri)
  print('you pressed button:', button) -- 1:left, 2:middle, 3:right

  -- open URI only by middle click
  if button == 2 then
    if uri then
      print('you clicked URI: ', uri)
      tym.open(uri)
      -- disable the default action 'put clipboard' when open URI
      return true
    end
  end
end)

Interprocess communication using D-Bus

Each tym window has an unique ID, which can be checked by tym.get_id() or $TYM_ID, and also listen to D-Bus signal/method call on the path /me/endaaman/tym<ID> and the interface name me.endaaman.tym.

Signals

Name	Input(D-Bus signature)	Description
hook	s	Triggers signal hook.

For example, when you prepare the following config and command,

local tym = require('tym')
tym.set_hook('signal', function (p)
  print('Hello from DBus signal')
  print('param:', p)
end)

$ dbus-send /me/endaaman/tym0 me.endaaman.tym.hook string:'THIS IS PARAM'

you will get an output like below.

Hello from DBus signal
param:  THIS IS PARAM

Alternatively, you can use tym command to send signal.

$ tym --signal hook --dest 0 --param 'THIS IS PARAM'

If the target window is its own one, it will the value of $TYM_ID and --dest can be omitted. So it is enough like below.

$ tym --signal hook --param 'THIS IS PARAM'

Methods

Name	Input (D-Bus signature)	Output (D-Bus signature)	Description
get_ids	None	ai	Get all tym instance IDs.
echo	s	s	Echo output the same as input.
eval	s	s	Evaluate one line lua script. return is needed.
eval_file	s	s	Evaluate a script file. return is needed.
exec	s	None	Execute one line lua script without outputs.
eval_file	s	None	Execute a script filt without outputs.

For example, when you exec the command,

$ dbus-send --print-reply --type=method_call --dest=me.endaaman.tym /me/endaaman/tym0 me.endaaman.tym.eval string:'return "title is " .. tym.get("title")'

then you will get like below.

method return time=1646287109.007168 sender=:1.3633 -> destination=:1.3648 serial=39 reply_serial=2
   string "title is tym"

As same as signals, you can use tym command to execute method calling.

$ tym --call eval --dest 0 --param 'return "title is " .. tym.get("title")'

Of course, --dest can be omitted as well.

Options

--help -h

$ tym -h

--use=<path> -u <path>

$ tym --use=/path/to/config.lua

If NONE is provided, all config will be default (user-defined config file will not be loaded).

$ tym -u NONE

--theme=<path> -t <path>

$ tym --use=/path/to/theme.lua

If NONE is provided, default theme will be used.

$ tym -t NONE

--signal=<signal name> -s <signal name>

$ tym --signal hook

Sends a D-Bus signal to the current instance (determined by $TYM_ID environment value). To send to another instance, use --dest (or -d) option.

--call=<method name> -c <method name>

Calls D-Bus method of the current instance (determined by $TYM_ID environment value). To call it of another instance, provide --dest (or -d) option.

$ tym --call eval --param 'return 1 + 2'

--<config option>

You can set config value via command line option.

$ tym --shell=/bin/zsh --color_background=red --width=40 --ignore_default_keymap

Development

Clone this repo and run as below

$ autoreconf -fvi
$ ./configure --enable-debug
$ make && ./src/tym -u ./path/to/config.lua   # for debug
$ make check; cat src/tym-test.log            # for unit tests

Run tests in docker container

$ docker build -t tym .
$ docker run tym

Pro tips

Enable sixel support(for Arch Linux users)

Build latest VTE with sixel support enabled

Install latest VTE.

$ yay -S vte3-git --editmenu

Edit PKGBUILD to add -D sixel=true option in prepare() function like the following.

prepare() {
  arch-meson vte build \
      -D sixel=true -D b_lto=false
}

And you should install tym-git package, since new features about sixel might be always on HEAD.

Scroll mouse wheel to set window transparency/font scale

You can increase/decrease window transparency by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Down / Ctrl + Shift + Up or Shift + mouse wheel and increase/decrease font scale by Ctrl + mouse wheel.

local tym = require('tym')

function update_alpha(delta)
  r, g, b, a = tym.color_to_rgba(tym.get('color_background'))
  a = math.max(math.min(1.0, a + delta), 0.0)
  bg = tym.rgba_to_color(r, g, b, a)
  tym.set('color_background', bg)
  tym.notify(string.format('%s alpha to %f', (delta > 0 and 'Inc' or 'Dec'), a))
end

tym.set_keymaps({
  ['<Ctrl><Shift>Up'] = function()
    update_alpha(0.05)
  end,
  ['<Ctrl><Shift>Down'] = function()
    update_alpha(-0.05)
  end,
})

tym.set_hook('scroll', function(dx, dy, x, y)
  if tym.check_mod_state('<Ctrl>') then
    if dy > 0 then
      s = tym.get('scale') - 10
    else
      s = tym.get('scale') + 10
    end
    tym.set('scale', s)
    tym.notify('set scale: ' .. s .. '%')
    return true
  end
  if tym.check_mod_state('<Shift>') then
    update_alpha(dy < 0 and 0.05 or -0.05)
    return true
  end
end)

Automated

local tym = require('tym')

tym.set_config({
  shell = '/bin/bash',
})

tym.set_timeout(coroutine.wrap(function()
  local i = 0
  local message = 'echo "hello World!"'
  while i < #message do
    i = i + 1
    tym.put(message:sub(i, i))
    coroutine.yield(true)
  end
  coroutine.yield(true)
  tym.send_key('<Ctrl>m')
  coroutine.yield(false)
end), 100)

Prevent tmux's key inputs delay

Key inputs alt-h,j,k,l for switching tmux's pane is often delayed when tmux is busy. This is the fix for it.

local tym = require('tym')

local remap = function (a, b)
  tym.set_keymap(a, function()
    tym.send_key(b)
  end)
end
remap('<Alt>h', '<Alt>Left') -- remap as meta key inputs
remap('<Alt>l', '<Alt>Right')
remap('<Alt><Shift>h', '<Alt><Shift>Left')
remap('<Alt><Shift>l', '<Alt><Shift>Right')

License

MIT