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Previously Alacritty would always initialize only a single terminal emulator window feeding into the winit event loop, however some platforms like macOS expect all windows to be spawned by the same process and this "daemon-mode" can also come with the advantage of increased memory efficiency. The event loop has been restructured to handle all window-specific events only by the event processing context with the associated window id. This makes it possible to add new terminal windows at any time using the WindowContext::new function call. Some preliminary tests have shown that for empty terminals, this reduces the cost of additional terminal emulators from ~100M to ~6M. However at this point the robustness of the daemon against issues with individual terminals has not been refined, making the reliability of this system questionable. New windows can be created either by using the new `CreateNewWindow` action, or with the `alacritty msg create-window` subcommand. The subcommand sends a message to an IPC socket which Alacritty listens on, its location can be found in the `ALACRITTY_SOCKET` environment variable. Fixes #607.
86 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
# Features
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This document gives an overview over Alacritty's features beyond its terminal
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emulation capabilities. To get a list with supported control sequences take a
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look at [Alacritty's escape sequence support](./escape_support.md).
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## Vi Mode
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The vi mode allows moving around Alacritty's viewport and scrollback using the
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keyboard. It also serves as a jump-off point for other features like search and
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opening URLs with the keyboard. By default you can launch it using
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<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>Space</kbd>.
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### Motion
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The cursor motions are setup by default to mimic vi, however they are fully
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configurable. If you don't like vi's bindings, take a look at the [configuration
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file] to change the various movements.
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### Selection
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One useful feature of vi mode is the ability to make selections and copy text to
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the clipboard. By default you can start a selection using <kbd>v</kbd> and copy
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it using <kbd>y</kbd>. All selection modes that are available with the mouse can
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be accessed from vi mode, including the semantic (<kbd>Alt</kbd> <kbd>v</kbd>),
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line (<kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>v</kbd>) and block selection (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd>
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<kbd>v</kbd>). You can also toggle between them while the selection is still
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active.
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## Search
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Search allows you to find anything in Alacritty's scrollback buffer. You can
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search forward using <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>f</kbd> and
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backward using <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> <kbd>Shift</kbd> <kbd>b</kbd>.
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### Vi Search
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In vi mode the search is bound to <kbd>/</kbd> for forward and <kbd>?</kbd> for
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backward search. This allows you to move around quickly and help with selecting
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content. The `SearchStart` and `SearchEnd` keybinding actions can be bound if
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you're looking for a way to jump to the start or the end of a match.
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### Normal Search
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During normal search you don't have the opportunity to move around freely, but
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you can still jump between matches using <kbd>Enter</kbd> and <kbd>Shift</kbd>
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<kbd>Enter</kbd>. After leaving search with <kbd>Escape</kbd> your active match
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stays selected, allowing you to easily copy it.
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## Hints
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Terminal hints allow easily interacting with visible text without having to
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start vi mode. They consist of a regex that detects these text elements and then
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either feeds them to an external application or triggers one of Alacritty's
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built-in actions.
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Hints can also be triggered using the mouse or vi mode cursor. If a hint is
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enabled for mouse interaction and recognized as such, it will be underlined when
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the mouse or vi mode cursor is on top of it. Using the left mouse button or
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<kbd>Enter</kbd> key in vi mode will then trigger the hint.
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Hints can be configured in the `hints` and `colors.hints` sections in the
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Alacritty configuration file.
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## Selection expansion
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After making a selection, you can use the right mouse button to expand it.
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Double-clicking will expand the selection semantically, while triple-clicking
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will perform line selection. If you hold <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> while expanding the
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selection, it will switch to the block selection mode.
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## Opening URLs with the mouse
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You can open URLs with your mouse by clicking on them. The modifiers required to
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be held and program which should open the URL can be setup in the configuration
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file. If an application captures your mouse clicks, which is indicated by a
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change in mouse cursor shape, you're required to hold <kbd>Shift</kbd> to bypass
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that.
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[configuration file]: ../alacritty.yml
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## Multi-Window
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Alacritty supports running multiple terminal emulators from the same Alacritty
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instance. New windows can be created either by using the `CreateNewWindow`
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keybinding action, or by executing the `alacritty msg create-window` subcommand.
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