Alacritty

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Alacritty [[Article description::is a terminal emulator focused on simplicity and performance.]] The performance goal means it should be faster than any other terminal emulators available. The simplicity goal means it does not have features such as tabs or splits (which can be better provided by a window manager)[1].

Alacritty is written in Rust and GPU-accelerated using OpenGL.

USE flags

USE flags for x11-terms/alacritty GPU-accelerated terminal emulator

X Add support for X11
debug Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
wayland Enable dev-libs/wayland backend
Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2021-02-23 19:37 More information about USE flags

Installation

Emerge

Install x11-terms/alacritty package:

root #emerge --ask x11-terms/alacritty

Configuration

Files

Alacritty does not create the configuration file, but it looks for one in the following locations:

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alacritty/alacritty.yml
  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/alacritty.yml
  • $HOME/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml
  • $HOME/.alacritty.yml
Warning
The configuration file is YAML -formatted. Preserving the indentation is critical.

Alacritty reloads the configuration automatically, which can be disabled via CLI:

user $alacritty --no-live-config-reload

This can also be disabled via the configuration file:

FILE ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.ymldisable live reload
<syntaxhighlight lang="yaml"># Live config reload (changes require restart)
live_config_reload: false</syntaxhighlight>

The configuration file should be downloaded and edited from the repository's release page. Explanations are provided in the configuration file.

Important
Make sure, that the adapted configuration file is compatible with the current installation of Alacritty. It might be, that version differences cause compatibility issues.

Font configuration

One can run the following command and copy the desired font name:

user $fc-list -f '%{family}\n' | awk '!x[$0]++'

Changing the default font by editing the config file.

FILE ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.ymlfont configure
<syntaxhighlight lang="yaml"># Font configuration (changes require restart)
font:
  # The normal (roman) font face to use.
  normal:
    family: Hack
    # Style can be specified to pick a specific face.
    style: Regular

  # The bold font face
  bold:
    family: Hack
    # Style can be specified to pick a specific face.
    # style: Bold

  # The italic font face
  italic:
    family: Hack
    # Style can be specified to pick a specific face.
    # style: Italic
  size: 11.0</syntaxhighlight>

This will change the font to Hack

Note
This method uses defaults for all other settings.

Colors configuration

FILE ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.ymlcolor schemes
<syntaxhighlight lang="yaml">schemes:
  solarized_light: &light
    primary:
      #...
    normal:
      #...
    bright:
      #...
  solarized_dark: &dark
    primary:
      #...
    normal:
      #...
    bright:
      #...

colors: *light</syntaxhighlight>

With this config, Alacritty will use Solarized Light. To switch to the dark version, change colors: *light to colors: *dark.

More schemes can be found from this page: alacritty Wiki of Color schemes.

Transparent background

FILE ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.ymltransparent background configure
<syntaxhighlight lang="yaml">background_opacity: 0.8  # value range is 0 ~ 1</syntaxhighlight>

Configuration with tabbed

Since Alacritty does not support tabs intentionally[2], one can use x11-misc/tabbed:

user $tabbed -r 2 alacritty --embed ""

See also:

user $man 1 tabbed
user $man 1 alacritty

Troubleshooting

Using fcitx

This needs app-i18n/fcitx and x11-wm/i3 installed. The initialization file should look like this:

FILE ~/.xprofile or ~/.xinitrc.xinitrc
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx"
eval "$(dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session)"

exec i3</syntaxhighlight>

The most important thing is to start i3 last.

Colorless

FILE /etc/DIR_COLORSAdd this line in order to enable colorful prompt, ls, etc
TERM alacritty

See related GitHub issue.

Alternative solution

Alacritty did not set $PS1 or $LS_COLORS, these can be set in the ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile or other rc file.

For example:

FILE ~/.bashrcbash color configure
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># prompt
export PS1="\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ "</syntaxhighlight>

There is a simple way to set colorful file:

FILE ~/.bashrcls color configure
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># use alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'</syntaxhighlight>

Window title

The default title is: Alacritty.

Bash

In Bash, one can set the window title by manipulating the environment variable PROMT_COMMAND.

The following will set the window title to: username@hostname:cwd.

FILE ~/.bashrcwindow title bar
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># set PROMPT_COMMAND
PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/\~}"'</syntaxhighlight>

Zsh

In Zsh, one can set the window title by using the functions precmd() and preexec():

The following will set the window title to: username@hostname: zsh[shell_level] cwd_or_current command

For example:

larry@gentoo.local: zsh[4] /etc/conf.d

While executing tail -f /var/log/*:

larry@gentoo.local: zsh[4] tail -f /var/log/*

{{FileBox|filename=~/.zshrc|title=window title bar|lang=zsh|1= if [[ "${TERM}" != "" && "${TERM}" == "alacritty" ]] then

   precmd()
   {
       # output on which level (%L) this shell is running on.
       # append the current directory (%~), substitute home directories with a tilde.
       # "\a" bell (man 1 echo)
       # "print" must be used here; echo cannot handle prompt expansions (%L)
       print -Pn "\e]0;$(id --user --name)@$(hostname): zsh[%L] %~\a"
   }
   preexec()
   {
       # output current executed command with parameters
       echo -en "\e]0;$(id --user --name)@$(hostname): ${1}\a"
   }

fi }}

See also

  • Terminal emulator — emulates a video terminal within another display architecture (usually X).

External resources

References

  1. ↑ Joe Wilm, Announcing Alacritty, a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator, jwilm.io. Retrieved on December 6, 2018
  2. ↑ https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/tree/v0.5.0#faq
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