rs-mrxvt/docs/quickstart.md

rs-mrxvt Quick Start

A 60-second tour from zero to running terminal. For full docs see README.md.

1. Install build deps

./scripts/sysprep.sh

This auto-detects your distro and installs Rust + the system libraries needed for the GPU backends. Works on Arch, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Void, Alpine, NixOS, SourceMage, and Gentoo.

Skip GPU deps if you only want the TUI backend:

./scripts/sysprep.sh --no-gpu

2. Build

./scripts/build.sh

Defaults to release mode with all features (lua,images,gpu). For a barebones TUI-only build:

./scripts/build.sh --no-features

For a debug build while hacking:

./scripts/build.sh --debug

3. Run

./target/release/rs-mrxvt

You should see a bash shell in a tabbed terminal. Try these:

Keys	What happens
Alt+N	New bash tab
Alt+Z	New zsh tab
Alt+1 … Alt+0	Jump to tab 1..10
Alt+Left/Right	Shuffle to previous/next tab
Alt+Shift+X	Close the focused tab
Ctrl+Shift+I	Toggle input broadcasting to all tabs
Ctrl+Shift+P	Open the command palette (fuzzy search)
Ctrl+Shift+T	New tab (classic mrxvt binding)
Ctrl+Shift+W	Close tab (classic mrxvt binding)

4. Broadcasting (the killer feature)

Open three tabs and broadcast keystrokes to all of them:

./target/release/rs-mrxvt -n 3 -j

Now anything you type goes to every tab simultaneously. The status bar turns red and shows ● BROADCAST:All. Toggle it off with Ctrl+Shift+I.

For tagged-group broadcasting (only some tabs receive input):

./target/release/rs-mrxvt -n 5 -g web

All 5 tabs are tagged "web". Use ToggleBroadcastGroup("web") from the command palette to broadcast only to them.

5. Pick a theme

Edit ~/.config/rs-mrxvt/config.toml:

[ui]
theme = "tokyo-night"   # or: mrxvt, gruvbox, dracula, solarized-dark, solarized-light

Or use Lua for dynamic theming (~/.config/rs-mrxvt/config.lua, requires --features lua):

local hour = tonumber(os.date("%H"))
local theme = "mrxvt"
if hour >= 20 or hour < 6 then
  theme = "tokyo-night"
end

return {
  ui = { theme = theme },
}

6. Install system-wide

sudo ./install.sh              # /usr/local/bin/rs-mrxvt
sudo ./install.sh /usr         # /usr/bin/rs-mrxvt

Or one-shot from a fresh checkout:

sudo ./install.sh --sysprep    # install deps + build + install

7. Verify it works

rs-mrxvt --version
rs-mrxvt --help
python3 scripts/stress_test.py --tabs 50   # 50-instance broadcast test

Next steps

• Read README.md for the full feature list and config schema.
• Read ARCHITECTURE.md for the module layout.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md if you want to hack on it.
• File issues / PRs at the project repo.