![]() ![]() Install the alacritty package or alacritty-git AUR for the development version.Īlacritty searches for a configuration file at the following places in this order: It supports scrollback, 24-bit colors ( w:Color depth#True color (24-bit), copy/paste, clicking on URLs, and custom key bindings. E.g.Alacritty is a simple, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust. This only sets the bare minimum configuration properties that I like for work. window : padding : x : 10 y : 10 font : normal : family : BlexMono Nerd Font bold : family : BlexMono Nerd Font italic : family : BlexMono Nerd Font bold_italic : family : BlexMono Nerd Font size : 16.0 bell : duration : 500 # visual bell for alerts cursor : style : blinking : On # blinking block style cursor shell : program : /opt/homebrew/bin/zsh # Use the Brew installation of ZSH args : -login alt_send_esc : false # important for OPT + x commands on macOS key_bindings :. # Configuration for Alacritty, the GPU-enhanced terminal emulator. For macOS, a Brew cask is available (other installation options are listed on the home page): If you’re curious enough to give it a go, Alacritty is pretty easy to install. (Font) rendering is very crisp and the overall impression is very modern, minimalist, and elegant. I don’t have a benchmark at hand, but from my experience performance is excellent (definitely up there with other fast terminal emulators like iTerm2 or Kitty 1). Alacritty is not only written in Rust, but it also uses OpenGL for rendering, making it perfectly suited to run complex terminal applications-like Tmux or Vim-on large screens without performance problems. Lastly, the main selling point and central motivation for Alacritty-as cited by its creator Joe Wilm-is performance. you don’t have to restart the program to see the effect of configuration changes. if you set up a new computer or virtual machine, it comes in handy that you can just pull your configuration and have everything configured as you’re used to in a heartbeat.) Alacritty also applies your configuration changes immediately after saving the configuration file. If this seems like a niche feature to you, think about how difficult it usually is to share your terminal configuration with someone else, or, how hard it is to upload it to a remote repository for backup and versioning. One of them is that you can write the configuration in YAML format. Responsiveness (due to the lack of garbage collection cycles), andįast start-up (compiles to machine code, there is no virtual machine as in Java, Python, or JavaScript).Īlacritty, besides being written in Rust, also has some other nice features. Low memory profile (memory is automatically freed up if its owner has completed), (I’m sure that there is a lot of terrible Rust code as well as in any other language.)īut, if you write a program in Rust (and pass the compiler ), it comes with a lot of properties that are effectively cost-free (i.e. are there because the language guarantees it). Now, don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean that if you write code in Rust, it’s automatically good. First of all, although this has become somewhat of a meme at this point, being (re)written in Rust is a good thing in my book. ![]() In terms of terminal emulators, my current weapon of choice is Alacritty, a modern and minimalistic but highly configurable terminal emulator written in Rust that is available for most platforms.Īlacritty has a few things going for it. If you are, like me, worried about portability (or lack thereof), there are, of course, other solutions available. However, if you want to switch to a Linux machine, then you better be prepared to spend a couple of days setting up a new terminal emulator, window manager, and so forth, since iTerm2 is only available on macOS. This is not a big deal-great even-if you can be sure that you will spend the rest of your days developing on a Mac. In particular, I think that it-much like some IDEs (looking at you IntelliJ )-tries to do too much: window management, session management, password management - you name it, iTerm2 has it. Configurability, performance, and documentation are all excellent. It’s, all in all, a very good piece of software. To be fair, iTerm2 is a great choice as well. So, here’s a quick guide on how to use my new weapon of choice, Alacritty. While ZSH has-for me-stood the test of time (and I don’t feel the need to try out another shell yet), there is, in my opinion, always room for improvement on the terminal emulator side. In my neverending quest for the perfect development set-up, I’ve recently tried a couple of improvements for my hitherto standard command line tooling ( ZSH + iTerm2) over the holidays.
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