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xtermjs / xterm.js

A terminal for the web
https://xtermjs.org/
MIT License
16.99k stars 1.59k forks source link
console development javascript pty ssh terminal terminal-emulators tty typescript vt100 webgl xterm

readme

xterm.js logo

Xterm.js is a front-end component written in TypeScript that lets applications bring fully-featured terminals to their users in the browser. It's used by popular projects such as VS Code, Hyper and Theia.

Features

What xterm.js is not

Getting Started

First, you need to install the module, we ship exclusively through npm, so you need that installed and then add xterm.js as a dependency by running:

npm install @xterm/xterm

To start using xterm.js on your browser, add the xterm.js and xterm.css to the head of your HTML page. Then create a <div id="terminal"></div> onto which xterm can attach itself. Finally, instantiate the Terminal object and then call the open function with the DOM object of the div.

<!doctype html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/blob/master/node_modules/@xterm/xterm/css/xterm.css" />
      <script src="https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/raw/master/node_modules/@xterm/xterm/lib/xterm.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <div id="terminal"></div>
      <script>
        var term = new Terminal();
        term.open(document.getElementById('terminal'));
        term.write('Hello from \x1B[1;3;31mxterm.js\x1B[0m $ ')
      </script>
    </body>
  </html>

Importing

The recommended way to load xterm.js is via the ES6 module syntax:

import { Terminal } from '@xterm/xterm';

Addons

⚠️ This section describes the new addon format introduced in v3.14.0, see here for the instructions on the old format

Addons are separate modules that extend the Terminal by building on the xterm.js API. To use an addon, you first need to install it in your project:

npm i -S @xterm/addon-web-links

Then import the addon, instantiate it and call Terminal.loadAddon:

import { Terminal } from '@xterm/xterm';
import { WebLinksAddon } from '@xterm/addon-web-links';

const terminal = new Terminal();
// Load WebLinksAddon on terminal, this is all that's needed to get web links
// working in the terminal.
terminal.loadAddon(new WebLinksAddon());

The xterm.js team maintains the following addons, but anyone can build them:

Browser Support

Since xterm.js is typically implemented as a developer tool, only modern browsers are supported officially. Specifically the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.

Xterm.js works seamlessly in Electron apps and may even work on earlier versions of the browsers. These are the versions we strive to keep working.

Node.js Support

We also publish xterm-headless which is a stripped down version of xterm.js that runs in Node.js. An example use case for this is to keep track of a terminal's state where the process is running and using the serialize addon so it can get all state restored upon reconnection.

API

The full API for xterm.js is contained within the TypeScript declaration file, use the branch/tag picker in GitHub (w) to navigate to the correct version of the API.

Note that some APIs are marked experimental, these are added to enable experimentation with new ideas without committing to support it like a normal semver API. Note that these APIs can change radically between versions, so be sure to read release notes if you plan on using experimental APIs.

Releases

Xterm.js follows a monthly release cycle roughly.

All current and past releases are available on this repo's Releases page, you can view the high-level roadmap on the wiki and see what we're working on now by looking through Milestones.

Beta builds

Our CI releases beta builds to npm for every change that goes into master. Install the latest beta build with:

npm install -S @xterm/xterm@beta

These should generally be stable, but some bugs may slip in. We recommend using the beta build primarily to test out new features and to verify bug fixes.

Contributing

You can read the guide on the wiki to learn how to contribute and set up xterm.js for development.

Real-world uses

Xterm.js is used in several world-class applications to provide great terminal experiences.

Do you use xterm.js in your application as well? Please open a Pull Request to include it here. We would love to have it on our list. Note: Please add any new contributions to the end of the list only.

License Agreement

If you contribute code to this project, you implicitly allow your code to be distributed under the MIT license. You are also implicitly verifying that all code is your original work.

Copyright (c) 2017-2022, The xterm.js authors (MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2014-2017, SourceLair, Private Company (www.sourcelair.com) (MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2012-2013, Christopher Jeffrey (MIT License)