Rebuilding My iTerm setup in Alacritty

alacritty
iterm alacritty tmux

As I’ve fallen more down the rabbit hole, empowered by nix making it so easy to install, configure and manage any software, I discovered Alacritty as a fast, configurable terminal emulator. I’ve used and enjoyed iTerm2 for a while but it never hurts to try something new. I have some muscle memory built up for how my use my machine, so my aim was to configure something I could use comfortably in Alacritty, modeling it off of my iTerm setup.

What went well

  • Replicating my iTerm tmux pane creation, switching, and maximizing. After a bit of time, I mapped my existing iTerm keybindings to the proper tmux commands to reproduce nearly an identical experience.
  • Starting a tmux session when Alacritty starts. This allows me to quit the Alacritty without losing my layout or anything that is running. I can also attach to it from any other terminal.
  • Configuration for version control. It’s all in ~/config/alacritty/alacritty.toml.
  • Color configuration. It just works in the config.
  • Nerdfonts. These just worked too.
  • ⌘k, ⌘+, ⌘-, ⌘=, ⌘0 (to clear, resize and resize text size) all work the same way as iTerm by default, so that was a nice surprise.
  • Mouse navigation. I’ve become used to being able to using the mouse to scroll up through the history of a pane’s output. By default, tmux scrolls through the command history. You need to enter copy-mode with ctrl+b [ for the mouse to be usable to scroll, then q to exit this mode and return to the command prompt. However, I was able to match the behavior I’m used to by adding set -g mouse on to ~/.tmux.conf. I eventually pulled this out into my nix home-manager setup with a few other quality of life improvements, like inactive pane dimming.
programs.tmux = {
    enable = true;
    aggressiveResize = true;
    shell = "${pkgs.zsh}/bin/zsh";
    terminal = "tmux-256color";
    historyLimit = 100000;
    mouse = true;
    extraConfig = ''
    # dim inactive pane
    set -g window-style 'fg=color8,bg=default'
    set -g window-active-style 'fg=color7,bg=default'
    '';
};

This config also allows for pane selection by clicking and selection within a single pane. Pretty nice.

What could be better

  • Pane closing. I don’t like having to confirm a pane close with y, but it’s probably for the best because one day it will save me from losing something.
  • ⌘f for find is different, not necessarily worse. I will have to see.

This is the alacritty.toml after my initial effort:

live_config_reload = true


# start zsh then attach to a consistent tmux session that lives beyond quitting the app
[shell]
program = "/etc/profiles/per-user/danielcorin/bin/zsh"
args = ["--login", "-c", "tmux new-session -A -s main-alacritty"]


[font]
size = 14.0


# installed via nix
[font.bold]
family = "Hack Nerd Font Mono"
style = "Bold"


[font.italic]
family = "Hack Nerd Font Mono"
style = "Italic"


[font.normal]
family = "Hack Nerd Font Mono"
style = "Regular"


[font.bold_italic]
family = "Hack Nerd Font Mono"
style = "Italic"




# sublime text monokai
[colors.bright]
black = "#666666"
red = "#f92672"
green = "#A6E22E"
yellow = "#e2e22e"
blue = "#819aff"
magenta = "#AE81FF"
cyan = "#66D9EF"
white = "#f8f8f2"


[colors.normal]
black = "#333333"
red = "#C4265E"
green = "#86B42B"
yellow = "#B3B42B"
blue = "#6A7EC8"
magenta = "#8C6BC8"
cyan = "#56ADBC"
white = "#e3e3dd"


[colors.cursor]
cursor = "0xd8d8d8"
text = "0x181818"


# highlight copies text, only really useful when a pane is in full screen unless selection isn't multi-line
[selection]
save_to_clipboard = true


[window]
decorations = "Full"
dynamic_padding = true
dynamic_title = true


# the default padding
[window.padding]
x = 2
y = 2


# vertical, slightly thickened cursor
[cursor]
style = "Beam"
unfocused_hollow = false
thickness = 0.2


[keyboard]
bindings = [
    # ⌘ + enter puts window in macOS full screen
    { key = "Enter", mods = "Command", action = "ToggleFullscreen"},
    # opt + right and left jump between words
    { key = "Right", mods = "Alt", chars = "\u001BF" },
    { key = "Left",  mods = "Alt", chars = "\u001BB" },
    # ⌘ + d adds a pane to the right (splits window vertically)
    { key = "D",  mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002%" },
    # ⌘ + ⇧ + d adds a pane below (splits window horizontally)
    { key = "D",  mods = "Command|Shift", chars = "\u0002\"" },
    # ⌘ + w prompts you to close the pane, "y" to confirm
    { key = "W",  mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002x" },
    # ⌘ + arrows are for directional navigation around the panes
    # move down a pane
    { key = "Down", mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002\u001b[B" },
    # move up a pane
    { key = "Up", mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002\u001b[A" },
     # move left a pane
    { key = "Left", mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002\u001b[D" }
    # move right a pane
    { key = "Right", mods = "Command", chars = "\u0002\u001b[C" },
    # ⌘ + ⇧ + enter maximizes the pane within the alacritty window
    { key = "Enter", mods = "Command|Shift", chars = "\u0002z" },
]

Eventually, I ported these to my home-manager config, which creates the ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml for me using nix-darwin.

programs.alacritty = {
    enable = true;
    settings = {
        # ... omitted for brevity
    };
};

Another nice (terrible?) thing about this project was I learned and remembered a bunch of tmux along the way. My tmux modifier is ctrl+b which is not that nice to type.

  • d: detach
  • ": split horizontal
  • %: split vertical
  • x: close pane with confirmation
  • arrows: navigate between panes

my starting Alacritty terminal setup

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