GitHub - ismail-yilmaz/Bobcat: A powerful yet user-friendly cross-platform terminal emulator. (original) (raw)

Bobcat is a modern, feature-rich terminal emulator that works across all major operating systems. It's built using the U++ framework and TerminalCtrl widget to create a powerful yet user-friendly command-line experience.

Table of Contents

1. Features
2. Requirements
3. Installation
4. ToDo
5. Screenshots
6. Videos
7. Acknowledgements
8. License

Features

For complete VT feature details, see TerminalCtrl's features list and technical specs document.

Core Features

• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Runs seamlessly on Linux, Windows, MacOS, and BSD, supporting multiple terminal backends with high VT (DEC/ANSI) and xterm compatibility.
• Inline Image Support: Displays images directly in the terminal with both Sixel and modern formats (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF), supporting multiple protocols such as iTerm2, Jexer and Kitty.
• Advanced Clipboard & Hyperlinks: Clickable links, OSC-based clipboard integration, and extended (rich-)text annotations for a modern workflow.
• Smart Shell Integration: Tracks working directories and allows opening them in the system's default file manager via shortcuts or menus.
• Versatile Text Selection: Selector mode with keyboard-driven selection, customizable regex-based patterns, and support for rectangular, word, and line selections.
• Full Mouse & Keyboard Support: Works across all major protocols, with customizable key bindings for a tailored experience.

Powerful Tools

• Finder Search Engine: A robust text search tool with case-sensitive/insensitive modes, regex search, and CSV extraction via Harvester Mode, preserving structured data integrity.
• Linkifier: Instantly turns text into clickable hyperlinks using custom regex patterns, adaptable per terminal profile.
• QuickText: Maintain a list of frequently used commands and snippets for fast insertion with a keyboard shortcut.

Customization & Interface

• Multiple Profiles: Configure different terminal settings and color schemes for various tasks.
• Split screen: You can spit the screen to 2 terminal panes side by side (vertical or horizontal).
• Minimal vs. Full UI: Choose between a lightweight or fully-featured interface with a stacked terminal manager for easy navigation.
• Simple Configuration: JSON-based configuration with real-time updates, or use a GUI settings panel—no manual file editing required.

Windows-Specific Features

• Multiple Pty Backends: Supports both ConPty and WinPty, with runtime switching for maximum flexibility.
• Standalone Compatibility: Works without external dependencies like msys2 or cygwin, but remains compatible with them.

Experimental Features

• Web Terminal Access: Run the terminal in a modern web browser via HTML5 Canvas, enabling remote access.
• Headless Mode: Operates on minimal setups via an SDL2-GL backend, eliminating GUI dependencies.

And yes—it can run Doom! 🎮

Build Requirements

Bobcat has minimal build requirements. You'll need:

• CLANG/GCC (C++17 or later)
• U++ framework
• TerminalCtrl
• MessageCtrl

Installation

You can install Bobcat in several ways:

1. Via UppHub (Recommended)

• Available through UppHub, U++'s package manager
• Requires TheIDE (U++'s development environment)
  • Windows: Included in U++ installer
  • Linux: Available via Flathub or manual build

2. Using Make (Linux)

• Uses pre-compiled umk (U++ make) for faster builds:
  1. make download
  2. make build or make build-web or make build-headless
  3. make run

3. Manual Setup

• Clone or download the repository and set up as a U++ assembly/nest. See the U++ documentation for details.

4. AUR package (ArchLinux):

• Two versions of Bobcat is available via AUR. Use your favorite AUR installer, to download, compile and install it. E.g:
  1. You can install the standard version of Bobcat (ideal for desktop systems)

# yay -S bobcat-terminal-git  

1. You can install the headless version of Bobcat (ideal for desktopless systems)

# yay -S bobcat-terminal-headless-git  

5. Debian packages (Ubuntu):

• Release page contains an up-to-date link to the compiled Ubuntu binaries of Bobcat. Download the archive file, unpack it, install it with your package manager.

6. Binary installation (Windows)

• Release page always contains an up-to-date link to the compiled Windows binaries of Bobcat. Download the archive file, unpack it and enjoy!

ToDo

• Macro infrastructure, based on Upp::Esc scripting language.
• A "lite" plugin framework.

Screenshots

Below you can find a handful of screenshots of Bobcat, running on Linux & Windows.

Bobcat on Linux

Bobcat on Windows

Bobcat, running zellij, with a background image of well..., a bobcat!

Bobcat, running yazi, in borderless mode on Linux.

Bobcat, running yazi with image preview feature on Windows

Bobcat, running Neovim on Windows

Split screen support (linux, zellij/neovim, btop)

Rich-text annotations (linux)

Multiple terminal profile support (linux, btop)

Inline images support (linux, jexer)

Navigator (linux)

Finder, in regex-based search mode (linux)

Harvester, harvesting 124660 URLs from the buffer, and mapping them into a csv file (linux)

Settings windows (linux)

Far manager running on Bobcat (Windows 10)

Bobcat deployed as a simple web server with access from web browsers (Linux)

Bobcat deployed as a simple web server with access from web browsers (Windows)

Bobcat running "headless" on SDL2 (GL) backend (Linux)

Doom, running on Bobcat, via mochadoom (Linux)

Videos

A short video demonstrating the drag-and-drop image feature of Bobcat. This feature allows you to simply grab any inline image directly from the terminal and drop it into your favorite image editor. Plus, even if the image appears clipped or damaged on the terminal display, you'll still get the full, undamaged version!

bobcat-image-dnd.mp4

A short video demonstrating the headless build of Bobcat, running on SDL2-GL backend. This build does not require a desktop to run, making it ideal for servers and hobby boards. It has its own "virtual GUI". So you'll get all the bells and whistles of the desktop version!

Bobcat.-.Headless.mp4

A short video demonstrating Bobcat's experimental headless web GUI build. This version lets you access and control a remote machine from any modern web browser, using WebSockets and HTML5 Canvas. Like the SDL2-GL build, it does not require a desktop environment on the host machine. It comes with its own "virtual GUI". Under the hood, communication is handled by Turtle, a custom wire protocol developed in U++.

Bobcat.-.WebGui.mp4

A short screencast of @mmulet's amazing term.everything, running KDE Neon (a whole linux distro) in gnome-boxes on Bobcat!

term-everything-boxes-neon-on-bobcat.mp4

A very short demonstration of Bobcat, running DOOM!

A very short demonstration of finder/harvester and unicode character (emoji) input.

Acknowledgements

To be written...

License

Copyright (c) 2023-2026, İsmail Yılmaz

Bobcat is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Bobcat is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Bobcat. If not, see gnu licenses