TERM39

A modern terminal multiplexer with classic MS-DOS aesthetic, built with Rust. Full-screen interface with window management and complete terminal emulation.

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Screenshots

Features

• Retro DOS Aesthetic: Classic blue-and-white color scheme with box-drawing characters, ~60fps rendering
• Multiple Terminal Windows: Create, drag, resize, minimize, and maximize windows with mouse or keyboard
• Window Management: Automatic tiling, snap to corners, focus management with ALT+TAB
• Clipboard Support: System clipboard integration with drag-to-select, Ctrl+Shift+C/V, right-click menu
• Customizable Themes: Classic, Dark, Monochrome, Green Phosphor, Amber (via --theme flag)
• Cross-Platform: Linux, macOS, Windows with full VT100/ANSI support and true color
• Linux Framebuffer Mode: Direct /dev/fb0 rendering with DOS text modes (40x25, 80x25, 80x43, 80x50), requires --features framebuffer-backend
• ASCII Compatibility: --ascii flag for maximum terminal compatibility

Installation

From crates.io

# Standard installation
cargo install term39

# Linux with framebuffer support
cargo install term39 --features framebuffer-backend

Requires Rust (Install)

Linux Packages

Download from Releases:

• Fedora/RHEL:

  sudo rpm -i term39-*-1.x86_64.rpm
  # or: sudo dnf install term39-*-1.x86_64.rpm
  

• Arch (AUR): yay -S term39-bin or yay -S term39
• Tarball:

  tar xzf term39-v*-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
  sudo mv term39 /usr/local/bin/
  

macOS

# Intel (x86_64)
tar xzf term39-v*-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv term39 /usr/local/bin/

# Apple Silicon (ARM64)
tar xzf term39-v*-macos-arm64.tar.gz
sudo mv term39 /usr/local/bin/

Windows

Download from Releases:

# Option 1: Run the installer (x86_64)
.\term39-v*-windows-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc-installer.exe

# Option 2: Portable - Extract ZIP
Expand-Archive term39-v*-windows-x86_64.zip
# Add to PATH (optional)
$env:Path += ";$PWD\term39-v*-windows-x86_64"

From Source

git clone https://github.com/alejandroqh/term39.git
cd term39
# Add --features framebuffer-backend for Linux framebuffer
cargo build --release
./target/release/term39

Usage

./term39                 # Run with Unicode (recommended)
./term39 --ascii         # ASCII mode for compatibility
./term39 --theme dark    # Themes: classic, dark, monochrome,
                         #         green_phosphor, amber

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

Window & Session

Copy & Paste

Dialog Controls

Mouse Controls

• Title bar: Drag to move | [X]/[+]/[_]: Close/Maximize/Minimize | ╬ handle: Resize
• Click window: Focus | Bottom bar: Switch | Drag/Right-click: Select/Context menu

Architecture

Core: Double-buffered video system, window manager (Z-order/focus), VT100/ANSI parser (VTE), PTY integration (portable-pty) Rendering: Front/back buffers with dirty tracking, save/restore regions, shadow system for depth

Development

Prerequisites: Rust 1.70+ (Install)

cargo build --release                     # Build optimized binary
cargo run -- --ascii                      # Run in ASCII mode
cargo test && cargo clippy && cargo fmt   # Test, lint, format

Contributing

Fork, create branch, test with cargo test && cargo clippy, commit, push, open PR. Follow Rust best practices, run cargo fmt, keep commits atomic.

Dependencies

crossterm, chrono, portable-pty, vte, arboard

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file. Copyright (c) 2025 Alejandro Quintanar

Support

Issues | Discussions | Wiki