[mirror_xterm.js.git] / README.md

# xterm.js

[![xterm.js build status](https://api.travis-ci.org/sourcelair/xterm.js.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/sourcelair/xterm.js) [![Gitter](https://badges.gitter.im/sourcelair/xterm.js.svg)](https://gitter.im/sourcelair/xterm.js?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge)

Xterm.js is a terminal front-end component written in JavaScript that works in the browser.

It enables applications to provide fully featured terminals to their users and create great development experiences.

## Features
- **Text-based application support**: Use xterm.js to work with applications like `bash`, `git` etc.
- **Curses-based application support**: Use xterm.js to work with applications like `vim`, `tmux` etc.
- **Mouse events support**: Xterm.js captures mouse events like click and scroll and passes them to the terminal's back-end controlling process
- **CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) character support**: Xterm.js renders CJK characters seamlessly
- **IME support**: Insert international (including CJK) characters using IME input with your keyboard
- **Self-contained library**: Xterm.js works on its own. It does not require any external libraries like jQuery or React to work
- **Modular, event-based API**: Lets you build addons and themes with ease

## What xterm.js is not
- Xterm.js is not a terminal application that you can download and use on your computer
- Xterm.js is not `bash`. Xterm.js can be connected to processes like `bash` and let you interact with them (provide input, receive output)

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

- [**SourceLair**](https://www.sourcelair.com/): In-browser IDE that provides its users with fully-featured Linux terminals based on xterm.js
- [**Microsoft Visual Studio Code**](http://code.visualstudio.com/): Modern, versatile and powerful open source code editor that provides an integrated terminal based on xterm.js
- [**ttyd**](https://github.com/tsl0922/ttyd): A command-line tool for sharing terminal over the web, with fully-featured terminal emulation based on xterm.js
- [**Katacoda**](https://www.katacoda.com/): Katacoda is an Interactive Learning Platform for software developers, covering the latest Cloud Native technologies.


Do you use xterm.js in your application as well? Please [open a Pull Request](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/pulls) to include it here. We would love to have it in our list.

## Browser Support

Since xterm.js is typically implemented as a developer tool, only modern browsers are supported officially. Here is a list of the versions we aim to support:

- Chrome 48+
- Edge 13+
- Firefox 44+
- Internet Explorer 11+
- Opera 35+
- Safari 8+

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

## Demo

To launch the demo simply run:

```
npm install
npm start
```

Then open http://0.0.0.0:3000 in a web browser (use http://127.0.0.1:3000 if running under Windows).

## Getting Started

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.
```html
<!doctype html>
  <html>
    <head>
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.css" />
      <script src="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <div id="terminal"></div>
      <script>
      	var term = new Terminal();
        term.open(document.getElementById('#terminal'));
        term.write('Hello from \033[1;3;31mxterm.js\033[0m $ ')
      </script>
    </body>
  </html>
```
Finally instantiate the `Terminal` object and then call the `open` function with the DOM object of the `div`.  

## Addons

Addons are JavaScript modules that attach functions to the `Terminal` prototype to extend its functionality. There are a handful available in the main repository in the `dist/addons` directory, you can even write your own (though they may break when the internals of xterm.js change across versions).

To use an addon, just include the JavaScript file after xterm.js and before the `Terminal` object has been instantiated. The function should then be exposed on the `Terminal` object:

```html
<script src="node_modules/dist/xterm.js"></script>
<script src="node_modules/dist/addons/fit/fit.js"></script>
```

```js
var xterm = new Terminal();
// init code...
xterm.fit();
```

## Releases

Xterm.js follows a monthly release cycle roughly.

The existing releases are available at this GitHub repo's [Releases](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/releases), while the roadmap is available as [Milestones](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/milestones).

## Development and Contribution

Xterm.js is maintained by [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com/) and a few external contributors, but we would love to receive contributions from everyone!

To contribute either code, documentation or issues to xterm.js please read the [Contributing document](CONTRIBUTING.md) before.

The development of xterm.js does not require any special tool. All you need is an editor that supports JavaScript and a browser (if you would like to run the demo you will need Node.js to get all features).

It is recommended though to use a development tool that uses xterm.js internally, to develop for xterm.js. [Eating our own dogfood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food) has been proved extremely beneficial for this project. Known tools that use xterm.js internally are:

#### [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com)

Visit https://lair.io/sourcelair/xterm and follow the instructions. All development will happen in your browser.

#### [Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/)

[Download Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/Download), clone xterm.js and you are all set.

## License Agreement

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

Copyright (c) 2014-2016, SourceLair, Private Company ([www.sourcelair.com](https://www.sourcelair.com/home)) (MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2012-2013, Christopher Jeffrey (MIT License)
Commit	Line	Data
dd93e62a	1	# xterm.js
51946a73	2
5cbc2f0e	3	[![xterm.js build status](https://api.travis-ci.org/sourcelair/xterm.js.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/sourcelair/xterm.js) [![Gitter](https://badges.gitter.im/sourcelair/xterm.js.svg)](https://gitter.im/sourcelair/xterm.js?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge)
ab1526b0	4
7e905763	5	Xterm.js is a terminal front-end component written in JavaScript that works in the browser.
561fc59d	6
0a74b9aa	7	It enables applications to provide fully featured terminals to their users and create great development experiences.
561fc59d	8
7e905763 PK	9	## Features
	10	- Text-based application support: Use xterm.js to work with applications like `bash`, `git` etc.
	11	- Curses-based application support: Use xterm.js to work with applications like `vim`, `tmux` etc.
	12	- Mouse events support: Xterm.js captures mouse events like click and scroll and passes them to the terminal's back-end controlling process
	13	- CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) character support: Xterm.js renders CJK characters seamlessly
	14	- IME support: Insert international (including CJK) characters using IME input with your keyboard
	15	- Self-contained library: Xterm.js works on its own. It does not require any external libraries like jQuery or React to work
0a74b9aa	16	- Modular, event-based API: Lets you build addons and themes with ease
561fc59d	17
7e905763 PK	18	## What xterm.js is not
	19	- Xterm.js is not a terminal application that you can download and use on your computer
	20	- Xterm.js is not `bash`. Xterm.js can be connected to processes like `bash` and let you interact with them (provide input, receive output)
	21
	22	## Real-world uses
	23	Xterm.js is used in several world-class applications to provide great terminal experiences.
	24
	25	- [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com/): In-browser IDE that provides its users with fully-featured Linux terminals based on xterm.js
68b012ca	26	- [Microsoft Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/): Modern, versatile and powerful open source code editor that provides an integrated terminal based on xterm.js
771642d1	27	- [ttyd](https://github.com/tsl0922/ttyd): A command-line tool for sharing terminal over the web, with fully-featured terminal emulation based on xterm.js
cd44fe7b BH	28	- [Katacoda](https://www.katacoda.com/): Katacoda is an Interactive Learning Platform for software developers, covering the latest Cloud Native technologies.
cd44fe7b BH	29
7e905763 PK	30
7e905763 PK	31	Do you use xterm.js in your application as well? Please [open a Pull Request](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/pulls) to include it here. We would love to have it in our list.
74848936	32
f3db84de DI	33	## Browser Support
f3db84de DI	34
7e905763	35	Since xterm.js is typically implemented as a developer tool, only modern browsers are supported officially. Here is a list of the versions we aim to support:
2c810ce7	36
b61e81d5 DI	37	- Chrome 48+
	38	- Edge 13+
	39	- Firefox 44+
	40	- Internet Explorer 11+
	41	- Opera 35+
	42	- Safari 8+
f3db84de	43
7e905763	44	Xterm.js works seamlessly in Electron apps and may even work on earlier versions of the browsers but these are the browsers we strive to keep working.
2c810ce7	45
289ff809 DI	46	## Demo
	47
	48	To launch the demo simply run:
	49
	50	```
	51	npm install
	52	npm start
	53	```
	54
c2fccc03	55	Then open http://0.0.0.0:3000 in a web browser (use http://127.0.0.1:3000 if running under Windows).
289ff809	56
4ee1e008 SD	57	## Getting Started
4ee1e008 SD	58
d018a547	59	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.
4ee1e008	60	```html
d018a547 SD	61	<!doctype html>
	62	<html>
	63	<head>
	64	<link rel="stylesheet" href="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.css" />
	65	<script src="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.js"></script>
	66	</head>
	67	<body>
	68	<div id="terminal"></div>
	69	<script>
	70	var term = new Terminal();
	71	term.open(document.getElementById('#terminal'));
	72	term.write('Hello from \033[1;3;31mxterm.js\033[0m $ ')
	73	</script>
	74	</body>
	75	</html>
4ee1e008	76	```
d018a547	77	Finally instantiate the `Terminal` object and then call the `open` function with the DOM object of the `div`.
4ee1e008	78
dab80b58 DI	79	## Addons
dab80b58 DI	80
c9eaae6b	81	Addons are JavaScript modules that attach functions to the `Terminal` prototype to extend its functionality. There are a handful available in the main repository in the `dist/addons` directory, you can even write your own (though they may break when the internals of xterm.js change across versions).
dab80b58 DI	82
	83	To use an addon, just include the JavaScript file after xterm.js and before the `Terminal` object has been instantiated. The function should then be exposed on the `Terminal` object:
	84
	85	```html
c46e799d	86	<script src="node_modules/dist/xterm.js"></script>
c9eaae6b	87	<script src="node_modules/dist/addons/fit/fit.js"></script>
dab80b58 DI	88	```
	89
	90	```js
	91	var xterm = new Terminal();
	92	// init code...
9dd64dfb	93	xterm.fit();
dab80b58 DI	94	```
dab80b58 DI	95
7e905763 PK	96	## Releases
	97
	98	Xterm.js follows a monthly release cycle roughly.
	99
	100	The existing releases are available at this GitHub repo's [Releases](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/releases), while the roadmap is available as [Milestones](https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/milestones).
	101
7cd99d15	102	## Development and Contribution
8ac7a6eb	103
7e905763 PK	104	Xterm.js is maintained by [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com/) and a few external contributors, but we would love to receive contributions from everyone!
7e905763 PK	105
7cd99d15 PK	106	To contribute either code, documentation or issues to xterm.js please read the [Contributing document](CONTRIBUTING.md) before.
	107
	108	The development of xterm.js does not require any special tool. All you need is an editor that supports JavaScript and a browser (if you would like to run the demo you will need Node.js to get all features).
	109
	110	It is recommended though to use a development tool that uses xterm.js internally, to develop for xterm.js. [Eating our own dogfood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food) has been proved extremely beneficial for this project. Known tools that use xterm.js internally are:
	111
	112	#### [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com)
	113
	114	Visit https://lair.io/sourcelair/xterm and follow the instructions. All development will happen in your browser.
8ac7a6eb	115
7cd99d15 PK	116	#### [Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/)
	117
	118	[Download Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/Download), clone xterm.js and you are all set.
	119
	120	## License Agreement
	121
	122	If you contribute code to this project, you are implicitly allowing your code to be distributed under the MIT license. You are also implicitly verifying that all code is your original work.
51946a73	123
dd93e62a	124	Copyright (c) 2014-2016, SourceLair, Private Company ([www.sourcelair.com](https://www.sourcelair.com/home)) (MIT License)
d24e0055	125
51946a73	126	Copyright (c) 2012-2013, Christopher Jeffrey (MIT License)