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]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
application_id	io.koosha.zoha	string	The GTK application id, not much point in changing this.
command	varies	string	The shell to use inside the terminal. Must be path of an executable, defaults to which ever is found first: bash, zsh, fish.

[font]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
font	font	string	Name of font to use, must be a Pango parsable value.
size	16	u8	Font size.

[color]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
bg	rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)	RGBA string	Background color, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
fg	rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.1)	RGBA string	Foreground color, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
cursor	rgba(0, 0 ,0, 0.1)	RGBA string	Cursor color, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
pallet	Tango	enum	Default color pallet; possible values: Tango, Zenburn, Linux, XTerm, RXVT, SolarizedLight, SolarizedDark, Snazzy.
color_00	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 0 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_01	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 1 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_02	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 2 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_03	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 3 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_04	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 4 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_05	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 5 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_06	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 6 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_07	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 7 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_08	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 8 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_09	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 9 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_10	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 10 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_11	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 11 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_12	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 12 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_13	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 13 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_14	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 14 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.
color_15	Empty	RGBA string	Override of color 15 in the pallet, must be parsable as GTK RGBA.

[display]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
monitor	Empty	string	Monitor to display Zoha on, you can get a list of available monitors by zoha --list-monitors.
title	Zoha	string	Application's title.
width	Empty	u32	Height of Zoha's window in pixels.
height	Empty	u32	Height of Zoha's window in pixels.
width_percentage	100	u8	Percentage of monitors width to use as Zoha's window width. Overrides width property if specified.
width_percentage	100	u8	Percentage of monitors height to use as Zoha's window width. Overrides height property if specified.
start_hidden	false	bool	Hide Zoha on initial startup.
skip_taskbar	true	bool	Do not show Zoha in taskbar.
always_on_top	true	bool	Always on top of other windows.
sticky	true	bool	Always on all desktops.
fullscreen	true	bool	Fullscreen.
tab_scroll_wrap	true	bool	When scrolling tabs with the configured shortcut, wrap when reaching the end / beginning.
tab_mode	Auto	enum	When to show tabs. "Auto" will show tabs if there are more than one tab; possible values: Auto, Never, Always.
tab_position	Top	enum	Where to show tabs; possible values: Left, Right, Top, Bottom.
tab_expand	false	bool	Expand the tab bar to full window's width.
tab_title_num_characters	25	i8	Number of characters to show in tab. Negative values trims the title from right, positive values trims from left.
scrollbar_position	Hidden	enum	Possible values: Left, Right, Hidden.

[key]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
copy	Ctrl-Shift-C	string	Copy shortcut; valid GTK accelerator specification.
paste	Ctrl-Shift-V	string	Paste shortcut; valid GTK accelerator specification.
quit	Ctrl-Shift-Alt-q	string	App exit shortcut; valid GTK accelerator specification.
transparency_toggle	F12	string	Temporarily toggle transparency; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_add	Ctrl-Shift-T	string	Add a new tab next to current tab; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_close	Ctrl-Shift-W	string	Close current tab; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_move_backward	Ctrl-Shift-Page_Up	string	Move the active tab forward among all tabs; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_move_forward	Ctrl-Shift-Page_Down	string	Move the active tab backward among all tabs; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_next	Ctrl-Page_Down	string	Goto next tab; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_move_previous	Ctrl-Page_Down	string	Goto previous tab; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_last	Ctrl-Alt-9	string	Goto last tab; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_01	Ctrl-Alt-1	string	Goto tab number 1; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_02	Ctrl-Alt-2	string	Goto tab number 2; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_03	Ctrl-Alt-3	string	Goto tab number 3; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_04	Ctrl-Alt-4	string	Goto tab number 4; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_05	Ctrl-Alt-5	string	Goto tab number 5; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_06	Ctrl-Alt-6	string	Goto tab number 6; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_07	Ctrl-Alt-7	string	Goto tab number 7; valid GTK accelerator specification.
tab_goto_08	Ctrl-Alt-8	string	Goto tab number 8; valid GTK accelerator specification.
font_size_inc	Ctrl-Alt-Equal	string	Temporarily increase font size on all tabs; valid GTK accelerator specification.
font_size_dec	Ctrl-Alt-Equal	string	Temporarily decrease font size on all tabs; valid GTK accelerator specification.
font_size_reset	Ctrl-Alt-Equal	string	Reset font size on all tabs to the initial value; valid GTK accelerator specification.

[terminal]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
allow_hyperlink	true	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
allow_bold	true	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
audible_bell	false	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
cursor_blink	false	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
cursor_shape	Block	enum	Refer to GTK VTE for more information; possible values: Block, IBeam, Underline.
scroll_on_output	false	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
scroll_on_keystroke	true	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
mouse_auto_hide	false	bool	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
scrollback_lines	-1	i64	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.
backspace_binding	Auto	enum	Refer to GTK VTE for more information; possible values: Auto, AsciiBackspace, AsciiDelete, DeleteSequence, Tty.
delete_binding	Auto	enum	Refer to GTK VTE for more information; possible values: Auto, AsciiBackspace, AsciiDelete, DeleteSequence, Tty.
word_char_exceptions	-A-Za-z0-9,./?%&#:_	string	Refer to GTK VTE for more information.

[behavior]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
terminal_exit_behavior	ExitTerminal	enum	What happens when a VTE terminal exits; possible values: ExitTerminal; TODO: RestartCommand, DropToDefaultShell.
last_tab_exit_behavior	RestartTerminal	enum	What happens when last tab exits or is closed; possible values: RestartTerminal, RestartTerminalAndHide, Exit.

[hack]

Config	Default	Type	Notes
toggle	F1	string list (of key-codes)	Key-code sequence to toggle visibility. Zoha must run with -k flag to take effect.

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