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TermCap

% TERMCAP(1) % rexwzh % February 2025

SYNOPSIS

termcap record [output_path] [-c COMMAND] [-g GEOMETRY] [-h]

termcap render input_file [output_path] [-D DELAY] [-m MIN_DURATION] [-M MAX_DURATION] [-s] [-t TEMPLATE] [--help]

termcap [output_path] [-c COMMAND] [-D DELAY] [-g GEOMETRY] [-m MIN_DURATION] [-M MAX_DURATION] [-s] [-t TEMPLATE] [--help]

DESCRIPTION

termcap makes recordings of terminal sessions in animated SVG format.

COMMANDS

The default behavior of termcap is to render an SVG animation of a shell session. If no output filename is provided, a random temporary filename will be automatically generated.

termcap record

Record a terminal session in asciicast v2 format. The recording is a text file which contains timing information as well as what was displayed on the screen during the terminal session. It may be edited to alter the timing of the recording or the information displayed on the screen of the terminal.

termcap render

Render an animated SVG from a recording in asciicast v1 or v2 format. This allows rendering in SVG format of any recording made with asciinema. Rendering of still frames is also possible.

OPTIONS

-c, --command=COMMAND

Specify the program to record with optional arguments. COMMAND must be a string listing the program to execute together will all arguments to be made available to the program. For example --command='python -h' would make termcap record the usage of the Python interpreter. If this option is not set, termcap will record the program specified by the $SHELL environment variable or /bin/sh.

-D, --loop-delay=DELAY

Duration of the delay between two consecutive loops of the animation in milliseconds.

-g, --screen-geometry=GEOMETRY

Geometry of the terminal screen used for rendering the animation. The geometry must be given as the number of columns and the number of rows on the screen separated by the character "x". For example "82x19" for an 82 columns by 19 rows screen.

-h, --help

Print usage and exit

-m, --min-frame-duration=MIN_DURATION

Set the minimum duration of a frame in milliseconds. Frames lasting less than MIN_DURATION milliseconds will be merged with consecutive frames. The default behavior of termcap is to produce a frame for each update of the terminal screen, but when recording commands that update the screen very frequently this can cause animations filesize to blow up. Enforcing a minimum frame duration helps reduces the number of frame of the animations, and thus helps control the size of animation. MIN_DURATION defaults to 1 millisecond.

-M, --max-frame-duration=MAX_DURATION

Set the maximum duration of a frame to MAX_DURATION milliseconds. Frames lasting longer than MAX_DURATION milliseconds will simply see their duration reduced to MAX_DURATION.

-t, --template=TEMPLATE

Set the SVG template used for rendering the SVG animation. TEMPLATE may either be one of the default templates (base16_default_dark, dracula, gjm8_play, gjm8_single_loop, gjm8, powershell, progress_bar, putty, solarized_dark, solarized_light, terminal_app, ubuntu, window_frame_js, window_frame_powershell, window_frame, xterm) or a path to a valid template.

-s, --still-frames

Output still frames in SVG format instead of an animated SVG. If this option is specified, output_path refers to the destination directory for the frames.

SVG TEMPLATES

Templates make it possible to customize the SVG animation produced by termcap in a number of ways including, but not limited to:

  • Specifying the color theme and font used for rendering the terminal session
  • Adding a custom terminal window frame to the animation to make it look like a real terminal
  • Adding JavaScript code to pause the animation, seek to a specific frame, etc

See the dedicated manual page for more details.

ENVIRONMENT

In case the --command option is not specified, termcap will spawn the shell specified by the SHELL environment variable, or /bin/sh if the variable is not set.

EXAMPLES

Record a terminal session and produce an SVG animation named animation.svg: 

termcap animation.svg

Record a terminal session and render it using a specific template: 

termcap -t ~/templates/my_template.svg

Record a specific program such as IPython with the pretty printing option: 

termcap -c 'ipython --pprint'

Record a terminal session with a specific screen geometry: 

termcap -g 80x24 animation.svg

Record a terminal session in asciicast v2 format: 

termcap record recording.cast

Render an SVG animation from a recording in asciicast format 

termcap render recording.cast animation.svg

Enforce both minimal and maximal frame durations 

termcap -m 17 -M 2000

Specify a 2 seconds delay between animation loops 

termcap -D 2000

Render still frames instead of an animated SVG using a specific template 

termcap -s -t gjm8_play