[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.
- [**Eclipse Che**](http://www.eclipse.org/che): Developer workspace server, cloud IDE, and Eclipse next-generation IDE


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.

#### [Eclipse Che](http://www.eclipse.org/che)

You can start Eclipse Che with `docker run eclipse/che start`

## 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	28	- [Katacoda](https://www.katacoda.com/): Katacoda is an Interactive Learning Platform for software developers, covering the latest Cloud Native technologies.
520f2bc9	29	- [Eclipse Che](http://www.eclipse.org/che): Developer workspace server, cloud IDE, and Eclipse next-generation IDE
cd44fe7b	30
7e905763 PK	31
7e905763 PK	32	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	33
f3db84de DI	34	## Browser Support
f3db84de DI	35
7e905763	36	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	37
b61e81d5 DI	38	- Chrome 48+
	39	- Edge 13+
	40	- Firefox 44+
	41	- Internet Explorer 11+
	42	- Opera 35+
	43	- Safari 8+
f3db84de	44
7e905763	45	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	46
289ff809 DI	47	## Demo
	48
	49	To launch the demo simply run:
	50
	51	```
	52	npm install
	53	npm start
	54	```
	55
c2fccc03	56	Then open http://0.0.0.0:3000 in a web browser (use http://127.0.0.1:3000 if running under Windows).
289ff809	57
4ee1e008 SD	58	## Getting Started
4ee1e008 SD	59
d018a547	60	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	61	```html
d018a547 SD	62	<!doctype html>
	63	<html>
	64	<head>
	65	<link rel="stylesheet" href="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.css" />
	66	<script src="bower_components/xterm.js/dist/xterm.js"></script>
	67	</head>
	68	<body>
	69	<div id="terminal"></div>
	70	<script>
	71	var term = new Terminal();
	72	term.open(document.getElementById('#terminal'));
	73	term.write('Hello from \033[1;3;31mxterm.js\033[0m $ ')
	74	</script>
	75	</body>
	76	</html>
4ee1e008	77	```
d018a547	78	Finally instantiate the `Terminal` object and then call the `open` function with the DOM object of the `div`.
4ee1e008	79
dab80b58 DI	80	## Addons
dab80b58 DI	81
c9eaae6b	82	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	83
	84	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:
	85
	86	```html
c46e799d	87	<script src="node_modules/dist/xterm.js"></script>
c9eaae6b	88	<script src="node_modules/dist/addons/fit/fit.js"></script>
dab80b58 DI	89	```
	90
	91	```js
	92	var xterm = new Terminal();
	93	// init code...
9dd64dfb	94	xterm.fit();
dab80b58 DI	95	```
dab80b58 DI	96
7e905763 PK	97	## Releases
	98
	99	Xterm.js follows a monthly release cycle roughly.
	100
	101	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).
	102
7cd99d15	103	## Development and Contribution
8ac7a6eb	104
7e905763 PK	105	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	106
7cd99d15 PK	107	To contribute either code, documentation or issues to xterm.js please read the [Contributing document](CONTRIBUTING.md) before.
	108
	109	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).
	110
	111	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:
	112
	113	#### [SourceLair](https://www.sourcelair.com)
	114
	115	Visit https://lair.io/sourcelair/xterm and follow the instructions. All development will happen in your browser.
8ac7a6eb	116
7cd99d15 PK	117	#### [Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/)
	118
	119	[Download Visual Studio Code](http://code.visualstudio.com/Download), clone xterm.js and you are all set.
	120
520f2bc9 TJ	121	#### [Eclipse Che](http://www.eclipse.org/che)
	122
	123	You can start Eclipse Che with `docker run eclipse/che start`
	124
7cd99d15 PK	125	## License Agreement
	126
	127	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	128
dd93e62a	129	Copyright (c) 2014-2016, SourceLair, Private Company ([www.sourcelair.com](https://www.sourcelair.com/home)) (MIT License)
d24e0055	130
51946a73	131	Copyright (c) 2012-2013, Christopher Jeffrey (MIT License)