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This article mainly explains "compiling a new terminal multiplexer with Rust". Interested friends may wish to have a look at it. The method introduced in this paper is simple, fast and practical. Let's let the editor take you to learn "write a new terminal multiplexer with Rust".

Zellij is a new terminal workspace and multiplexer (such as tmux and screen) written in Rust that can be used with macOS and Linux. One of its most important functions is the layout system and plug-ins written in any language that can be compiled into WebAssembly.

Although the tool is ready for daily use, it is important to mention that it is now in the beta state, so you may occasionally crash. It currently lacks some features (for more information, please read on).

Unlike other terminal multiplexers such as tmux or screen, Zellij has a user-friendly interface out of the box, displays a status bar at the bottom of the screen, and provides available keyboard shortcuts and tips for using the tool. The status bar (and tab bar) is implemented as a plug-in that can be easily disabled when you are used to its keyboard shortcuts.

When you start Zellij, you will notice that it displays available keyboard shortcuts, allowing you to lock layout, access pane options, tabs, resize, scroll, and exit (see screenshot above in this article). When you use one of these shortcuts, such as panel shortcuts (Ctrl + p), the prompt bar becomes a keyboard shortcut available to the panel, such as creating new panes, moving between panes, closing active panes, and so on:

From: https://www.linuxmi.com/zellij-rust-terminal.html

In addition to being easy to use, Zellij also tries to innovate in arranging and resizing panes. If you want to create a vertical or horizontal split, you don't have to figure it out for yourself. Instead, the application looks for the best place to open the new pane. There is no limit when resizing the pane.

You can configure keyboard shortcuts and the initial layout used when Zellij starts. You can view the default keyboard shortcuts here, which is the default layout. The next version of Zellij will also provide a built-in tmux mode, and a key binding feature like screen is under development.

In addition to the status bar and tab bar, Zellij comes with a plug-in called Strider, a Ranger (console File Manager) clone, but this doesn't work for me-it doesn't load at all on one machine, and it doesn't load files on another. Therefore, this is the GIF for this feature obtained from the Zellij website:

Lack of functionality / roadmap

Because it is a new version, the first alpha version was released in January 2021 (while the first beta version is only a week old), so the tool lacks some functionality. The most important point must be the lack of the ability to separate active sessions and restore them later. Our plan is to do this through the client-server architecture, where the client is the front end of the interaction with the user and the server is the back end of all miracles. Now there is work to implement this feature-you can track its progress through this pull request.

The plan also allows you to connect to Zellij through a browser instead of opening a terminal window, whether on a local or remote computer.

Other features of the Zellij roadmap are the ability to share sessions with others, support for multiple terminal windows across screens (allowing for different windows and screen transfer panes by making them all belong to the same session), and smart layout (intelligently rearranging the layout when adding new panes or resizing windows).

At the time of this writing (but should be implemented in the future), other missing features include color scheme support, mouse support, the ability to create layout files from current layouts, and the ability to open new tabs with specific layouts. Windows support may also be implemented in the future, making Zellij the first terminal multiplexer with native Windows support.

It is also worth noting that Zellij is currently running very slowly on WSL2.

Download Zellij

To install the Zellij binaries on Linux, simply extract the downloaded files, cd them to the unzipped folder, and then install the binaries into / usr/local/bin using the following command:

Linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com/zellij-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl$ sudo install zellij / usr/local/bin so far, I believe you have a deeper understanding of "writing a new terminal multiplexer with Rust". You might as well do it in practice. Here is the website, more related content can enter the relevant channels to inquire, follow us, continue to learn!

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