Terminals

Terminals on Linux

Gnome Terminal

The default terminal on Ubuntu.

Configure cursor type

Use gconftool to configure once for all

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/cursor_shape <VALUE>

Or use escape sequence for changing it from application [1]:

echo -ne '\e[0 q'    # reset to profile's setting
echo -ne '\e[1 q'    # blinking block
echo -ne '\e[2 q'    # steady block
echo -ne '\e[3 q'    # blinking underline
echo -ne '\e[4 q'    # steady underline
echo -ne '\e[5 q'    # blinking I-beam
echo -ne '\e[6 q'    # steady I-beam

Gnome Terminator

See Gnome Terminator.

Xterm

Xterm is the legacy terminal emulator under X. See Xterm.

RXVT / uRXVT

The fastest terminal using the following test:

time yes | dd count=10k

rxvt            0.971s
urxvt           0.998s
terminator      2.104s
st              2.227s
gnome-terminal  2.567s
rxvt+screen     3.030s
rxvt+tmux      25.845s

Alacritty

Alacritty is a new GPU-accelerated terminal, touted to be the fastest terminal ever.

• See Announcing Alacritty, a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator
• Available on GitHub

Troubleshoot

• Fixed — Slower than Gnome Terminal / Terminator on Ubuntu with Intel MESA driver (i915). On Vim, jitter in the scrolling.

See Issue #225. Now fixed.

st (simple terminal)

st, aka simple terminal from suckless.org, is a simple terminal implementation for X, that sucks less.

On Ubuntu, install either from package

sudo apt install stterm

Or download the git repository and compile from source.

git clone git://git.suckless.org/st
cd st
make clean install

To configure st, edit config.h and build again. Check also the excellent ArchLinux page on st.

Notty

From Notty project page: notty is a virtual terminal like xterm, gnome-vte, sh, or rxvt. Unlike these programs, notty is not intended to emulate a DEC VT-series physical video terminal, or any other physical device. Instead, notty is an experimental project to bring new features to the command-line which would not have been possible for the physical terminals other terminals emulate.

Terminal features

True-color support

Reference:

• morhetz / gruvbox — Terminal specific
• XVilka / TrueColour.md — Colours in terminal

Cursor type

• Block vs Caret
• Blinking vs steady