vtm

Text-based desktop environment inside your terminal*

* Terminal Requirements

Tested Terminals

Demo

Video

Supported Platforms

POSIX-oriented
- Linux
- macOS
- FreeBSD
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
- ...
Windows
- Windows 10 or later
- Windows Server 2019 or later

Building from Source

POSIX-oriented

Build-time dependencies

git
cmake
C++20 compiler
Minimal requirements to compile
- Using GCC — 3GB of RAM
- Using Clang — 8GB of RAM

git clone https://github.com/netxs-group/vtm.git && cd ./vtm
cmake ./src -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .
cmake --install .

Windows

Build-time dependencies

git
cmake
Visual Studio 2019 or later
UTF-8 for worldwide language support, https://github.com/netxs-group/vtm/issues/175#issuecomment-1034734346

Use Developer Command Prompt as a build environment

git clone https://github.com/netxs-group/vtm.git && cd ./vtm
cmake ./src -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release "-GVisual Studio 16 2019"
cmake --build . --config Release
cd ./Release
powershell ../src/install/install.ps1

Binaries

Command Line Options `vtm(.exe)`

Option	Description
No arguments	Run client (auto start server)
`-d`	Run server in background
`-s`	Run server in interactive mode
`-r [<app>]`	Run the specified `<app>` in offline mode `Term` Terminal emulator (default) `Calc` (Demo) Spreadsheet calculator `Text` (Demo) Text editor `Gems` (Demo) Desktopio application manager

User Interface

	Sidebar			App window				Desktop
	App group	Running app	User list	≡ Menu	Menu bar	Interior	Resize grips	Navigation strings	Free space
Ctrl + PgUp/Dn	Switch between running apps and assign exclusive keyboard focus
LeftClick	Run app	Go to app		Maximize/restore	Assign exclusive keyboard focus			Go to app	Clear keyboard focus
Ctrl + LeftClick				Assign/clear group keyboard focus
double LeftClick					Maximize/restore app window
triple Left+RightClick	Show/hide sysstat overlay
RightClick	Set default app	Center app window		Toggle menu height			Center app window
Left+RightClick				Clear clipboard
LeftDrag	Adjust sidebar width			Move window or Select text					Panoramic workspace scrolling
RightDrag						Panoramic content scrolling			Run default app
MiddleDrag	Run default app
Left+RightDrag				Move window / Restore maximized window				Panoramic workspace scrolling
Ctrl+LeftDrag	Modify selection
Alt+LeftDrag	Switch boxed/linear selection mode
Ctrl+RightDrag or Ctrl+MiddleDrag	Copy selected area to clipboard, OSC 52
Wheel	Vertical scrolling
Shift+Wheel or Ctrl+Wheel	Horizontal scrolling

Main Menu Configuration

The main menu can be configured in the ~/.config/vtm/settings.xml file in xml format.

The top-level element <config selected=_selected_id_> contains a list of

menu items <menuitem ... />
splitters <splitter ... />
default attribute definitions <defaults ... />.

The value of the selected= attribute specifies which menu item will be selected by default at startup.

The list of main menu items can be extended using the VTM_CONFIG=... environment variable. This variable should contain a list of items as inside the <config selected=_selected_id_> ... </config> block.

Arguments can be specified without quotes if there are no spaces.

Character escapes

\e ASCII 0x1B ESC
\t ASCII 0x09 TAB
\a ASCII 0x07 BEL
\n ASCII 0x0A LF
\\ ASCII 0x5C Backslash
\" ASCII 0x22 Quotes
\' ASCII 0x27 Single quote
$0 Current module full path

Menu item attributes

Attribute	Description	Value type	Mandatory	Default value
`id`	Menu item textual identifier	`string`	required
`index`	Menu item zero-based index	`index`
`alias`	Use existing menu item specified by `id` as template	`string`
`hidden`	Menu item visibility	`boolean`		`no`
`label`	Menu item label text	`string`		=`id`
`notes`	Menu item tooltip text	`string`		empty
`title`	App window title	`string`		empty
`footer`	App window footer	`string`		empty
`bgcolor`	App window background color	`RGBA`
`fgcolor`	App window foreground color	`RGBA`
`winsize`	App window 2D size	`x;y`
`slimmenu`	App window menu vertical size	`boolean`		`no`
`cwd`	Current working directory	`string`
`type`	App type	`string`		`SHELL`
`param`	App constructor arguments	`string`		empty

Value type

Type	Format
`RGBA`	`#rrggbbaa` \| `0xaabbggrr` \| `rrr,ggg,bbb,aaa` \| 256-color index
`boolean`	`true` \| `false` \| `yes` \| `no` \| `1` \| `0`
`index`	0 .. N
`string`	UTF-8 text string
`x;y`	integer <any_delimeter> integer

App type

Type	Parameter
`DirectVT`	`_command line_`
`SHELL` (default)	`_command line_`
`ANSIVT`	`_command line_`
`Group`	[ v[`n:m:w`] \| h[`n:m:w`] ] ( id_1 \| nested_block , id_2 \| nested_block )]
`Region`	`param` attribute is not used, use attribute `title=_view_title_` to set region name

Example of `~/.config/vtm/settings.xml`

<config selected=Term>
    <splitter label="apps"/>
    <defaults index=-1 hidden=no slimmenu=false type=SHELL fgcolor=#00000000 bgcolor=#00000000 winsize=0x0 wincoor=0x0 />
    <menuitem id=Term index=1 label="Term" bgcolor=#0a0a0a fgcolor=15 slimmenu notes="$0 -r Term:\nTerminal emulator" type=DirectVT param="vtm -r term bash"/>
    <menuitem id=mc label="mc" title="mc" notes="Midnight Commander" type=SHELL param="mc"/>
    <menuitem id=Settings index=2 label="Settings \e[45mLink\e[m" title="Settings title" footer="\e[11:2psettings status" fgcolor=15 bgcolor=0xFF562401 notes="$0\n\tRun settings" type=DirectVT param="vtm -r settings"/>
    <menuitem id=View label=View notes="Set desktop region" type=Region title="\e[11:3pView: Region"/>"
    <splitter label="groups"/>
    <menuitem id=Tile1 label="Tile" notes="Tiling window manager" type=Group param="h(Term, v(mc, Term))"/>
    <menuitem id=Tile2 label="Second TWM"
                       notes="Tooltip for Tiling window manager"
                       type=Group
                       param="h(v(Term, Tile1), v(mc, Term))"/>
</config>

Example of `VTM_CONFIG=` envar

VTM_CONFIG='<splitter label="envars" notes=" Menu items configured using envar VTM_CONFIG=... "/>
            <menuitem id=Term2 notes="Run terminal" type=DirectVT label="Virtual \e[41mTerminal\e[m Emulator" param="$0 -r term"/>
            <menuitem id=View2 label=View notes="Desktop region" type=Region title="Region 1"/>
            <menuitem id=htop2 label=htop hidden=yes notes="htop app" type=ANSIVT param="htop"/>
            <menuitem id=mc2 label=mc hidden=1 notes="mc app" type=SHELL param="mc"/>
            <menuitem id=Tile2 label=Tile notes="Tiling Window Manager" type=Group title="Tiling Window Manager" param="h1:2( v1:1(htop2, mc2), Term2)"/>'

Built-in Applications

▀▄ Term Terminal emulator
▀▄ Logs Debug output console
▀▄ View Workspace navigation helper
▀▄ Tile Tiling window manager
▀▄ Gems Application manager (Demo)

show details...

▀▄ Term

UTF-8 Everywhere
Unicode clustering
TrueColor/256-color support
Auto-wrap mode DECAWM (with horizontal scrolling)
Focus tracking DECSET 1004
Bracketed paste mode DECSET 2004
SGR attributes: overline, double underline, strikethrough, and others
Save/restore terminal window title XTWINOPS 22/23
Mouse tracking DECSET 1000/1002/1003/1006 SGR mode
Mouse tracking DECSET 10060 Extended SGR mode, mouse reporting outside of the terminal viewport (outside + negative arguments) #62
Text selection by mouse #149

Configurable using VT-sequences

Name	Sequence	Description
`CCC_SBS`	`CSI` 24 : n : m `p`	Set scrollback buffer size, `int32_t` `n` Initial buffer size in lines; 0 — grow step is used for initial size; default (if omitted) is 20.000 `m` Grow step for unlimited buffer; default (if omitted) is 0 — for fixed size buffer
`CCC_SGR`	`CSI` 28 : Pm `p`	Set terminal background using SGR parameters (one attribute at once) `Pm` Colon-separated list of attribute parameters, 0 — reset all attributes, default is 0
`CCC_SEL`	`CSI` 29 : n `p`	Set selection mode, default is 0 `n = 0` Selection is off `n = 1`Select and copy as plaintext `n = 2` Select and copy as ANSI-text
`CCC_PAD`	`CSI` 30 : n `p`	Set scrollbuffer side padding `n` Width in cells, max = 255, default is 0
`CCC_RST`	`CSI` 1 `p`	Reset all parameters to default
`CCC_TBS`	`CSI` 5 : n `p`	Set tabulation length `n` Length in cells, max = 256, default is 8
`CCC_JET`	`CSI` 11 : n `p`	Set text alignment, default is Left `n = 0` default `n = 1` Left `n = 2` Right `n = 3` Center
`CCC_WRP`	`CSI` 12 : n `p`	Set text autowrap mode, default is On `n = 0` default `n = 1` On `n = 2` Off (enable horizontal scrolling)
`CCC_RTL`	`CSI` 13 : n `p`	Set text right-to-left mode, default is Off `n = 0` default `n = 1` On `n = 2` Off

Note: It is possible to combine multiple command into a single sequence using a semicolon. For example, the following sequence disables wrapping, enables text selection, and sets the background to blue: CSI 12 : 2 ; 29 : 1 ; 28 : 44 p or CSI 12 : 2 ; 29 : 1 ; 28 : 48 : 2 : 0 : 0 : 255 p.

▀▄ Logs
- Debug output console.
▀▄ View
- Serves for quick navigation through the workspace using cyclic selection (left click on group title) in the View group on the taskbar. Right click to set clipboard data as region title (swap clipboard text and title).

▀▄ Tile

Supports Drag and Drop for panes (like tabs in a browser).
Use any modifier (Ctrl or Alt) while pane dragging to disable drag&drop mode.
List of panes (outside the right side of the window)
- LeftClick -- Set exclusive focus
- Ctrl+LeftClick/RightClick -- Set/Unset group focus
- double LeftClick -- Maxixmize/restore

Configurable via environment variable VTM_CONFIG*

# Configuration example:

VTM_CONFIG='<menuitem id=Term notes="Run terminal" type=DirectVT label="Virtual \e[41mTerminal\e[m] Emulator" param="$0 -r term"/>
            <menuitem id=View label=View notes="Desktop region" type=Region title="Region 1"/>
            <menuitem id=htop label=htop hidden=yes notes="htop app" type=ANSIVT param="htop"/>
            <menuitem id=mc label=mc hidden=1 notes="mc app" type=SHELL param="mc"/>
            <menuitem id=Tile label=Tile notes="Tiling Window Manager" type=Group title="Tiling Window Manager" param="h1:2( v1:1(htop, mc), Term)"/>'

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Metadata

vtm

* Terminal Requirements

Tested Terminals

Demo

Video

Supported Platforms

Building from Source

POSIX-oriented

Windows

Binaries

Command Line Options `vtm(.exe)`

User Interface

Main Menu Configuration

Character escapes

Menu item attributes

Value type

App type

Example of `~/.config/vtm/settings.xml`

Example of `VTM_CONFIG=` envar

Built-in Applications

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vtm

* Terminal Requirements

Tested Terminals

Demo

Video

Supported Platforms

Building from Source

POSIX-oriented

Windows

Binaries

Command Line Options vtm(.exe)

User Interface

Main Menu Configuration

Character escapes

Menu item attributes

Value type

App type

Example of ~/.config/vtm/settings.xml

Example of VTM_CONFIG= envar

Built-in Applications

Related Repositories

← Metadata

Owner

Metadata

vtm
vtm copied to clipboard

Command Line Options `vtm(.exe)`

Example of `~/.config/vtm/settings.xml`

Example of `VTM_CONFIG=` envar