KITTY

PRIMARY CATEGORY → DESKTOP SETUP

KITTY → Fast and Feature-Rich GPU Based Terminal Emulator

It is an enhanced terminal with a tabbed/tiling structure focused in performance and customization

Each tab can be divided into several panes/windows

Some of this features are →

• Multiple Instances and Windows
  
• Setting of Keybinds/Hotkeys via a simple configuration file
  
• Image and Emojis Display

$ kitty +kitten icat /path/to/image

IMPORTANT

Note that some dependencies are required to display images in this Kitty Terminal Emulator through the command above such as imagemagick

Just check that the package is installed →

bash -c "apt list --installed *imagemagick*"

If not →

apt install -y -- imagemagick

Anyways, It should be installed, as It is indicated as environment dependency to be installed in the Setup’s components section

• SSH Protocol support

$ kitty +kitten ssh user@hostname

Note that the above commands use the syntax kitty +kitten

kittens are small integrated programs that extend kitty’s capacity - See here

kitty is launched by the sxhkd daemon when a certain input event, such as a Hotkey, is performed

~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc

# Kitty Launch
super + Return
  /opt/kitty/bin/kitty

Configuration File → ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

More information here

💫 Awesome Documentation → Kitty Site

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Installation

CAUTION

First, see the bspwm and the sxhkd’s installation before proceeding with this one related to kitty

There are some dependencies that are needed in the following installation steps

Download the binary and its related files from the project’s release page. The required one, in this Environment Setup is the Linux amd64 binary bundle

Being root →

mkdir /opt/kitty
mv /home/al3xbb/Downloads/kitty-0.36.2-x86_64.txz !$

cd !$ && tar --extract --verbose --file kitty-0.36.2-x86_64.txz
rm -i -- !$

INFO

That .TXZ file is simply a TAR package compressed via XZ. As the above command does, It can be decompressed and unpacked using the tar command

It can also be done in two steps through →

$ 7z x file.txz && tar --extract --verbose --file file.tar

$ xz --decompress --verbose --threads=0 file.txz
$ (( $? )) || tar --extract --verbose --file file.tar

That’s it

$ command -V kitty
kitty is /opt/kitty/bin/kitty

To run the component, simply map its launch to a certain keybind through a Hotkey Daemon such as sxhkd

~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc

super + Return # Windows + Enter
	/opt/kitty/bin/kitty

Shortcut → Super-Return

As for the kitty’s Configuration File, It need to be created

Just create it in ~/.config/kitty and paste this Configuration File’s content into it →

nvim ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf # Or {nano,vi,emacs,vim...}

Moreover, as mentioned below, a color.ini file must also be created in the ~/.config/kitty directory to apply various terminal colours

Copy the Color.ini file from here and paste into it →

nvim ~/.config/kitty/color.ini

Once the above is done, as Root, copy the entire /home/al3xbb/.config/kitty directory’s content into his kitty’s configuration directory

cp /home/al3xbb/.config/kitty/* ~/.config/kitty/

Hack Nerd Fonts

See here to download them

CAUTION

Make sure the Nerd Font installed does not end with mono to prevent small icons

To install them, as root →

mv /home/al3xbb/Downloads/Hack.zip /usr/local/share/fonts
cd !$

7z x Hack.zip # Or unzip
rm -i -- {LICENSE,README}.md !$

Once installed, just check in the kitty.conf file that the font_family parameter is set as follows →

Reference

~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

font_family HackNerdFont

More info here

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Configuration File

Kitty.conf

Configuration File Sample Fully documented

Copy from here the kitty’s Full Customised Configuration File

Configuration File Documentation → kitty.conf

Color.ini

Likewise, copy from here the kitty’s Colours File

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Parameters

Font

Reference

Several parameters related to the kitty terminal’s font such as the font_family or font_size can be specificed in the kitty.conf configuration file

Take a look at this installation for more information

Shell

Reference

This Enviroment Setup make use of a ZSH as the Default Shell

IMPORTANT

The following action requires the ZSH shell to be installed on the system

Just installed it via the apt repositories as follows →

apt install -y -- zsh

Anyway, See this to get it all set up as far as ZSH is concerned

Then, It’s necessary to tell it to Kitty. This can be done via the shell parameter

shell zsh

Background Opacity

Reference

The kitty terminal’s opacity is set by the background_opacity parameter

Its value ranges from 0, fully transparent, to 1, opaque

background_opacity 0.55

IMPORTANT

Note that the Terminal’s Background Opacity will probably not work until the picom component is correctly configured

Colours

Regarding the kitty terminal’s colours, a .ini file is included in the kitty.conf

include color.ini

Get the color.ini file content here

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Actions and Default Shortcuts

All mappable actions here

All default shortcuts here related to Windows, Tabs, Layouts…

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TL;DR ⌨

Shorcuts’ Meaning

Key	Meaning
C	Control	C-c → Control+c
M	Alt	M-a → Alt+a
S	Shift	S-o → Shift+o
Super	Windows	Super-s → Windows+s
Return	Enter	C-S-Return → Control+Shift+Enter
-	+	C-z → Control+z
{a,b,c,d}	a b c d	C-{a,b,c,d} → C-a C-b C-c C-d

Layouts

Reference

Action	Shortcut
Toogle between Split and Stack Layout	C-S-z
Split Rotation	C-S-o

Windows

Reference

Action	Shortcut
Vertical Split	C-S-Return
Horizontal Split	C-S-dash/hyphen
Adaptative Split	C-S-plus
Windows Closing	C-S-w
Windows Movement ⬆️⬅️➡️⬇️	C-M-{k,h,l,j}
Windows Focus ⬆️⬅️➡️⬇️	C-S-{k,h,l,j}
Windows Resize ⬆️⬅️➡️⬇️	M-S-{k,h,l,j}
Windows Resize - Reset	M-S-r
Windows Detach	M-S-w

Tabs

Reference

Action	Shortcut
Tab Creation	C-S-t
Tab Closing	C-S-q
Tab Detach	C-M-o
Tab Rename	C-M-S-t
Tab Movement (Backward ~ Forward) ⬅️➡️	C-S-{comma,dot}
Tab Focus (Previous - Next) ⬅️➡️	C-{S-TAB,TAB}

Misc

Reference

Action	Shortcut
Paginate last Command Output	C-S-g
Clear Screen and Scrollback Buffer	C-l
Copy to Clipboard	C-S-c
Paste from Clipboard	C-S-v
Copy to Buffer A	f1
Paste from Buffer A	f2
Copy to Buffer B	f3
Paste from Buffer B	f4
Increase/Decrease Font Size	C-S-{plus,minus} (Block-Num)
Restore Font Size	C-S-Backspace

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Custom Shortcuts

Note that, as mentioned earlier, a keybind is mapped to a specific action

Keybind → Action

map KEYBIND ACTION # An Action may has arguments

INFO

All the following block codes are snippets extracted from the Kitty’s Configuration File

Layouts Management

Types of Layout

All the Layouts are enabled by default. To switch between them use default shorcut → C-S-l

In the configuration file, the selected ones are the Splits Layout and the Stack Layout

Most of the mappeable actions used there have been implemented in the kitty.conf file, such as the below ones

enabled_layouts splits,stack

As mentioned in the reference link above, the Splits Layout is the most flexible layout

The Stack Layout is simple enabled to allow zooming in and out a specific Window, i.e. switching between the two layouts via the toogle_layout mappeable action below

Switch to Stack Layout (Window Zoom {in,out}) → C-S-z

Reference

Switch to Stack Layout

map ctrl+shift+z toggle_layout stack

IMPORTANT

The toogle_layout action switches to the layout specified as argument

A handy action is implemented in the code above, which allows Zoom due to the change to the Stack Layout

If the action is performed again being in the specificed layout, It switches to the latest layout

Basically it removes the zoom generated by the Stack Layout

Split Rotation → C-S-o

Shown in the Split Layout Section

map ctrl+shift+o layout_action rotate

Basically rotates the current Windows Split (i.e. Horizonal ↔ Vertical)

Window Management

Most of the mappeable actions below are implemented in the Split Layout Section

Window Split

Different types of Split are implemented through the launch action

• Vertical Split → C-S-Return

map ctrl+shift+enter launch --location=vsplit --cwd=current

• Horizontal Split → C-S-dash/hyphen

map ctrl+shift+- launch --location=hsplit --cwd=current

• Adaptative Split → C-S-plus

map ctrl+shift++ launch --location=split --cwd=current

The --cwd=current option of the launch action causes the terminal of the newly generated window to retain the previous CWD

CWD → Current Work Directory

IMPORTANT

Take into account that the split orientation is being handled by the --location option

See here

Windows Movement → C-M-{k,h,l,j}

Reference

Moves the Windows in the specificed direction. It is like a Windows Exchange

Action → move_window

map ctrl+alt+k move_window up
map ctrl+alt+h move_window left
map ctrl+alt+l move_window right
map ctrl+alt+j move_window down

INFO

Note that Vim-like Motions are being used here to increase efficiency

Windows Focus → C-S-{k,h,l,j}

Reference

Move the Focus in the specified selection between the adjacent Windows in the current Tab

Action → neighboring_window

map ctrl+shift+h neighboring_window left
map ctrl+shift+l neighboring_window right
map ctrl+shift+k neighboring_window up
map ctrl+shift+j neighboring_window down

Windows Resize → M-S-{k,h,l,j,r}

Reference

Default Shorcut to enter the Windows Resize Mode → C-S-r

Thus, the Window is resized using:

• w → Wider
• n → Narrower
• t → Taller
• s → Shorter
• r → Reset Windows Size

To resize a Windows in a customised way, use the resize_window action

As mentioned earlier, Nvim-like Motions are used to increase efficiency. Therefore, instead of use the above ones, use these →

map alt+shift+h resize_window wider 3
map alt+shift+l resize_window narrower 3
map alt+shift+k resize_window taller 3
map alt+shift+j resize_window shorter 3

IMPORTANT

The above resize_window mappeable action receives two arguments

The First one is simply the windows resize motion to be made (i.e. Narrower, Taller, Shorter, Wider)

While the second one controls the resizing increment

To reset all Windows to their initial size, use the reset option in the resize_window actions rather than a specific motion

map alt+shift+r resize_window reset

Windows Detach → M-S-w

Reference

Completely detach a Window in a new Window OS

Actions → detach_window

See here

map alt+shift+w detach_window

Tab Management

Tab Creation → C-S-t

Reference

Default shortcut to open a new tab → C-S-t

The above one keybind is overwritten in the Configuration File by the new_tab_witch_cmd mappeable action

This allows to create a new tab while keeping the CWD

map ctrl+shift+t new_tab_with_cwd

Tab Detach → C-M-o

Reference

Completely detach a tab in a new Window OS

Action → detach_tab

See here

map ctrl+alt+o detach_tab

Copy ~ Paste

Reference

Traditional Clipboards → C-S-{c,v}

This environment setup make use of several Copy/Paste mappeable actions such as:

• copy_to_clipboard → C-S-c
• paste_from_clipboard → C-S-v

The above ones are mapped with the default shortcuts

Additional Clipboards (Buffers) → {f1,f2,f3,f4}

Reference

The customised ones are the related to the Buffers

A Buffer simply is a string that stores the value copied into it. Then, that value can be pasted from the Buffer to any location

• copy_to_buffer <buffer_name> → f1
• paste_from_buffer <buffer_name> → f2

In this case, two Buffers are declared in kitty.conf and used →

map f1 copy_to_buffer a # Buffer a
map f2 paste_from_buffer a
map f3 copy_to_buffer b # Buffer b
map f4 paste_from_buffer b

Miscellaneous

Clear Screen and Scrollback Buffer

Reference

map ctrl+l clear_terminal to_cursor active

IMPORTANT

The same or similar actions can also be performed via functions declaration in a shell rc file such as the zshrc

• Clear Screen →

clearOnlyScreen() {
    printf "\e[H\e[2J"
	zle && zle .reset-prompt && zle -R
}

• Clear Screen and Scrollback Buffer →

clearScreenAndScrollback() { 
    printf "\e[H\e[3J"
    zle && zle .reset-prompt && zle -R	
}

• Clear Screen saving its content in Scrollback Buffer →

clearScreenSavingContentsInScrollback() {
    printf "\e[H\e[22J"
    zle && zle .reset-prompt && zle -R
}

Note that the ZSH Line Editor zle is used in the above functions to prevent some undesired actions and perform a more optimal cleanup

• zle → Verify if the ZSH Line Editor is available
  
• zle .reset-prompt → Prompt Restart to prevent corruption due to clear or reset actions

See both issue1 and issue2

• zle -R → Prompt Redisplay to prevent visual problems

See this pull request discussion

In this environment setup, this action is implemented in the zshrc as follows →

Reference

~/.zshrc

clearScreenAndScrollback () {
	clear && printf '\e[3J' # Or printf "\e[H\e[3J"
	zle && zle .reset-prompt && zle -R # Avoid Screen Element/Prompt Corruption
}

~/.zshrc

zle -N clearScreenAndScrollback 
bindkey '^L' clearScreenAndScrollback

INFO

The last commands above perform the following actions:

• zle -N FUNCTION_NAME → Function register as a New Widget in ZSH Line Editor
  
• bindkey KEYBIND FUNCTION_NAME → A certain keybind runs the passed function