Drop down terminal inspired by Tilda.

(GTK4 flavor: hkoosha/zoha4)

$ zoha -h
A drop down terminal inspired by Tilda

Usage: zoha [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -c, --cfg-file CFG_FILE      Override location of config file
  -k, --keypress-grabber       Disable listening on dbus for keypress
      --list-key-grabber-keys  List keys accepted by keypress grabber
  -s, --signal                 Signal Zoha to toggle visibility and exit
      --list-monitors          List monitors and exit
  -q, --quiet                  Do not print hints
      --dry-run                Sanitize configuration, print any errors and exit
  -h, --help                   Print help
  -V, --version                Print version

What is Zoha?

Zoha is a terminal emulator based on GTK's VTE. Unlike others however, it can be pulled down from top of the screen with a click of a button.

Hotkey to Toggle Visibility

Zoha connects to dbus, and listens for signals to toggle its visibility. A dbus signal can be broadcast by issuing the following command:

zoha -s

Assign this command to a keyboard shortcut through your window manager, and you're all set!

Hack to Use Zoha Without DBus

Zoha also comes with a hack, that listens to key presses of the keyboard and toggles visibility if the configured shortcuts are pressed. This is a hack though, and more info can be found by launching zoha with the hack:

zoha -k

Installing

Generate and launch the binary by following commands, you need to have Rust installed:

cargo build -r
./target/release/zoha

# And to send the DBus signal:
./target/release/zoha -s

You can install to /usr/bin/ by:

sudo make install

Don't forget to assign zoha -s to your desired shortcut in your window manager's shortcuts config.

Configuration

Zoha has a set of configuration all with default values. The default value can be overridden in the config file at $HOME/.zoha.toml or by launching zoha and naming an alternative config file:

zoha -c 'alt/path/to/config/file.toml'

If the configuration file fails to parse, zoha falls back to default values so that you can launch the terminal anyway and inspect the config file.

The configuration format is TOML and looks like this:

[process]
# nothing here yet.

[keys]
quit = "Shift-Ctrl-Alt-q"
tab_add = "Shift-Ctrl-t"
tab_close = "Shift-Ctrl-w"

[display]
# start_hidden = true
tab_mode = "Auto"

[color]
pallet = "SolarizedDark"
bg = "rgba(0,0,0,0.8)"

Configuration Values

[process]

[font]

[color]

[display]

[key]

[terminal]

[behavior]

[hack]

Note: Run Zoha with --list-key-grabber-keys to print a list of keys accepted by the toggle config above. Please note: the key sequence specification IS DIFFERENT from shortcut specification above. The shortcuts take GTK accelerator specification, but toggle takes Rust's device_query crate specific keys.

Example value for toggle:

toggle = ["LControl", "LShift", "F1"]

TODO

• Test multi monitor setup.
• Config TUI.
• Steal borrow a proper key-grabber from Tomboy Notes (and Tilda).
• (Maybe) direct config modification of supported window manager / supported version for adding toggle shortcut.
• Show a dialog on config error.
• Custom gtk CSS.
• Extra config: New tab's add position.
• Extra config: Show scrollbar on mouse.
• Config: terminal_exit_behavior.
• Config: prompt_on_exit.
• Config: working_dir.
• Update VTE in the original crate (vte-rs) and deprecate ours (zoha-vte-rs).
• Fix regex in vte-rs (or zoha-vte-rs).

Troubleshooting

Zoha immediately hides after toggling visibility, or doesn't show at all

Did you run Zoha as zoha -k and also configured a window manager shortcut? This will cause Zoha to receive 2 signals and immediately hides after showing up.

My config does not take effect

Launch Zoha in dry-run mode and observe the output. Is there any configuration errors?

zoha --dry-run
# OR
zoha --dry-run -k