Alacritty ========= [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/jwilm/alacritty.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/jwilm/alacritty) Alacritty is the fastest terminal emulator in existence. Using the GPU for rendering enables optimizations that simply aren't possible in other emulators. Alacritty currently supports macOS and Linux, and Windows support is planned before the 1.0 release.

Alacritty running vim inside tmux

## About Alacritty is focused on simplicity and performance. The performance goal means it should be faster than any other terminal emulator available. The simplicity goal means that it doesn't have features such as tabs or splits (which can be better provided by a window manager or [terminal multiplexer][tmux]) nor niceties like a GUI config editor. The software is considered to be at an **alpha** level of readiness--there are missing features and bugs to be fixed, but it is already used by many as a daily driver. Precompiled binaries will eventually be made available on supported platforms. This is minimally blocked on a stable config format. For now, Alacritty must be built from source. ## Further information - [Announcing Alacritty, a GPU-Accelerated Terminal Emulator](http://blog.jwilm.io/announcing-alacritty/) January 6, 2017 - [A short talk about Alacritty at the Rust Meetup January 2017](https://air.mozilla.org/rust-meetup-january-2017/) (starts at 57:00) ## Installation Instructions are provided for macOS and many Linux variants to compile Alacritty from source. With the exception of Arch (which has a package in the AUR), Void Linux (in main repository) and [NixOS](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/applications/misc/alacritty/default.nix) (at the moment in unstable, will be part of 17.09), please first read the [prerequisites](#prerequisites) section, then find the section for your OS, and finally go to [building](#building) and [configuration](#configuration). ### Arch Linux ```sh git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/alacritty-git.git cd alacritty-git makepkg -isr ``` ### Void Linux ```sh xbps-install alacritty ``` ## Manual Installation ### Prerequisites 1. Alacritty requires the most recent stable Rust compiler; it can be installed with `rustup`. #### Installing Rust compiler with `rustup` 1. Install [`rustup.rs`](https://rustup.rs/). 2. Clone the source code: ```sh git clone https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty.git cd alacritty ``` 3. Make sure you have the right Rust compiler installed. Run ```sh rustup override set stable rustup update stable ``` #### Ubuntu On Ubuntu, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's an `apt` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh apt-get install cmake libfreetype6-dev libfontconfig1-dev xclip ``` #### Arch Linux On Arch Linux, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `pacman` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh pacman -S cmake freetype2 fontconfig pkg-config make xclip ``` #### Fedora On Fedora, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `dnf` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh dnf install cmake freetype-devel fontconfig-devel xclip ``` #### CentOS/RHEL 7 On CentOS/RHEL 7, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `yum` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh yum install cmake freetype-devel fontconfig-devel xclip ``` #### openSUSE On openSUSE, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `zypper` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh zypper install cmake freetype-devel fontconfig-devel xclip ``` #### Slackware Compiles out of the box for 14.2 For copy & paste support (middle mouse button) you need to install xclip https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/misc/xclip/?search=xclip #### Void Linux On [Void Linux](https://voidlinux.eu), install following packages before compiling Alacritty: ```sh xbps-install cmake freetype-devel freetype expat-devel fontconfig xclip ``` #### FreeBSD On FreeBSD, you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `pkg` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh pkg install cmake freetype2 fontconfig xclip pkgconf ``` #### Solus On [Solus](https://solus-project.com/), you need a few extra libraries to build Alacritty. Here's a `eopkg` command that should install all of them. If something is still found to be missing, please open an issue. ```sh sudo eopkg install fontconfig-devel ``` #### NixOS/Nixpkgs The following command can be used to get a shell with all development dependencies on [NixOS](https://nixos.org). ```sh nix-shell -A alacritty '' ``` #### Gentoo On Gentoo, there's a portage overlay available. Make sure `layman` is installed and run: ```sh sudo layman -a slyfox ``` Then, add `x11-terms/alacritty **` to `/etc/portage/package.accept_keywords` and emerge alacritty: ```sh sudo emerge alacritty ``` It might be handy to mask all other packages provided in the `slyfox` overlay by adding `*/*::slyfox` to `/etc/portage/package.mask` and adding `x11-terms/alacritty::slyfox` to `/etc/portage/package.unmask`. ### Cargo If you have a rust toolchain setup you can install Alacritty via cargo: ```sh cargo install --git https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty ``` Note that you still need to download system build dependencies via your package manager as mentioned above. The binary `alacritty` will be placed into `$HOME/.cargo/bin`. Make sure it is in your path (default if you use `rustup`). #### Other If you build Alacritty on another distribution, we would love some help filling in this section of the README. ### Building Once all the prerequisites are installed, compiling Alacritty should be easy: ```sh cargo build --release ``` If all goes well, this should place a binary at `target/release/alacritty`. **BEFORE YOU RUN IT:** Install the config file as described below; otherwise, many things (such as arrow keys) will not work. ### Desktop Entry Many linux distributions support desktop entries for adding applications to system menus. To install the desktop entry for Alacritty, run ```sh sudo cp target/release/alacritty /usr/local/bin # or anywhere else in $PATH cp Alacritty.desktop ~/.local/share/applications ``` To build an application for macOS, run ```sh make app cp -r target/release/osx/Alacritty.app /Applications/ ``` ## Configuration Although it's possible the default configuration would work on your system, you'll probably end up wanting to customize it anyhow. There is a default `alacritty.yml` and `alacritty_macos.yml` at the git repository root for Linux and macOS repsectively. Alacritty looks for the configuration file at the following paths: 1. `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alacritty/alacritty.yml` 2. `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alacritty.yml` 3. `$HOME/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml` 4. `$HOME/.alacritty.yml` If none of these paths are found then `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alacritty/alacritty.yml` is created once alacritty is first run. On most systems this often defaults to `$HOME/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml`. Many configuration options will take effect immediately upon saving changes to the config file. The only exception is the `font` and `dimensions` sections which requires Alacritty to be restarted. For further explanation of the config file, please consult the comments in the default config file. ## Issues (known, unknown, feature requests, etc.) If you run into a problem with Alacritty, please file an issue. If you've got a feature request, feel free to ask about it. Keep in mind that Alacritty is very much not looking to be a feature-rich terminal emulator with all sorts of bells and widgets. It's primarily a cross-platform, blazing fast `tmux` renderer that Just Works. ## FAQ - _Is it really the fastest terminal emulator?_ In the terminals I've benchmarked against, alacritty is either faster, WAY faster, or at least neutral. There are no benchmarks in which I've found Alacritty to be slower. - _macOS + tmux + vim is slow! I thought this was supposed to be fast!_ This appears to be an issue outside of terminal emulators; either macOS has an IPC performance issue, or either tmux or vim (or both) have a bug. This same issue can be seen in `iTerm2` and `Terminal.app`. I've found that if tmux is running on another machine which is connected to Alacritty via SSH, this issue disappears. Actual throughput and rendering performance are still better in Alacritty. - _When will Windows support be available?_ When someone has time to work on it. Contributors would be welcomed :). - _My arrow keys don't work_. It sounds like you deleted some key bindings from your config file. Please reference the default config file to restore them. - _Why doesn't it support scrollback?_ Alacritty's original purpose was to provide a better experience when using [tmux] which already handled scrollback. The scope of this project has since expanded, and [scrollback will eventually be added](https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues/124). ## IRC Alacritty discussion can be found in `#alacritty` on freenode. ## Wayland Wayland support is available, but not everything works as expected. Many people have found a better experience using XWayland which can be achieved launching Alacritty with the `WAYLAND_DISPLAY` environment variable cleared: ```sh env WAYLAND_DISPLAY= alacritty ``` If you're interested in seeing our Wayland support improve, please head over to the [Wayland meta issue] on the _winit_ project to see how you may contribute. ## License Alacritty is released under the [Apache License, Version 2.0]. [Apache License, Version 2.0]: https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/blob/master/LICENSE-APACHE [faq]: https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty#faq [tmux]: https://github.com/tmux/tmux [Wayland meta issue]: https://github.com/tomaka/winit/issues/306