SDN Terminal

A custom terminal emulator with an integrated shell.

Features

• Command Execution: Run standard Unix commands.
• Pipelines: Chain commands using |.
• Redirection: Support for input (<), output (>), and append (>>) redirection.
• Background Processes: Use & to run commands in the background. Shell notifies when background processes complete.
• Command History:
  • View history with history. Entries are timestamped.
  • Navigate history using Up/Down arrows.
  • Persistent history saved to ~/.sdn_history.
• Autocompletion:
  • Tab completion for commands (with inline suggestions) and filenames/directories.
  • Completes to the longest common prefix for multiple file/directory matches.
  • Displays matching filenames/directories if multiple options exist after a Tab press.
• Wildcard Expansion (Globbing): Supports *, ?, [], and {} patterns for filename expansion in command arguments.
• Alias Support:
  • Define and use aliases for commands (e.g., alias ll="ls -al").
  • Manage aliases with alias and unalias commands.
• Directory-Local Aliases: Automatically loads aliases from a .sdn_local_aliases file in the current directory when you cd into it. These aliases are cleared when you cd out. This allows for project-specific command shortcuts.
• Built-in Commands:
  • cd: Change directory.
  • exit: Exit the shell.
  • history: Show command history.
• Interactive Editing: Backspace, arrow keys, and Ctrl+D for input control.
• Error Handling: Informative messages for syntax and execution errors.
• Terminal Features:
  • Copy/Paste with Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V
  • Customizable colors via command-line themes (dark (default), light, light-blue, gray)
  • 10,000 lines of scrollback buffer

Building and Installation

Dependencies

The terminal requires the following libraries:

• GTK+ 3.0
• VTE 2.91 (Virtual Terminal Emulator)

On Ubuntu/Debian, install dependencies with:

sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev libvte-2.91-dev

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install gtk3-devel vte291-devel

On Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S gtk3 vte3

Building

Use the included Makefile:

make

This builds both the sdn shell and the sdn_terminal application.

Installation

To install the applications to your user directory:

make install

This installs to ~/.local/bin/ and adds a desktop entry.

Running

You can run the terminal emulator in several ways:

1. From the build directory:

   ./sdn_terminal

2. If installed:

   sdn_terminal
   # To use a specific theme, for example "light":
   sdn_terminal --theme light
   # Available themes: dark(default), light, light-blue, gray

3. From your desktop environment's application menu (search for "SDN Terminal")

   Note: The desktop entry (sdn.desktop) uses the Exec field to launch sdn_terminal from your user install location. If you are installing from a release archive (e.g, sdn-0.1.tar.gz), the sdn.desktop file within the archive will have a placeholder username in the Exec path (e.g., Exec=/home/your_username/.local/bin/sdn_terminal). You must manually edit this file after installation (usually found in ~/.local/share/applications/sdn.desktop) and replace your_username with your actual username for the desktop entry to work correctly. By default, if you build and install from source using make install, the Exec path in the sdn.desktop file copied to ~/.local/share/applications/ should reflect the username of the user who ran the install command. However, always verify this path if the desktop entry doesn't work.

Using Just the Shell

If you want to use the SDN shell without the terminal emulator:

./sdn

Or if installed:

sdn

Uninstallation

To uninstall:

make uninstall

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+Shift+C: Copy selected text
• Ctrl+Shift+V: Paste from clipboard
• Ctrl+Shift+T: Open a new tab
• Ctrl+W: Close the current tab
• Alt+[1-9]: Switch to tab 1 through 9
• Alt+0: Switch to tab 10
• Ctrl+D: Exit the shell