Release 0.43 Discussion

[imsnif]

Web Client

This release includes the long promised web-client, allowing Zellij users to start up a built-in web server in order to share their existing terminal sessions in the browser, start new ones or resurrect exited ones.

The web-client includes built-in security measures such as enforced authentication and HTTPS. More info in the documentation or the screencast.

This feature is opt-in. The server will not be started except by an explicit user action or configuration. Even so, the Zellij maintainers are aware some users might prefer a version of Zellij that does not include this capability, and so we will now start providing a zellij-no-web release binary. This new binary does not contain this feature or any of its dependencies.

Multiple Pane Select + hover effects

This release offers the ability to perform bulk operations on panes. For example: stack multiple panes, break multiple panes to a new tab, float multiple panes, etc. Panes are selected either with the mouse (Alt + <left-mouse-click> on any pane) or with Alt p.

As part of its UI feedback, this feature also includes mouse hover effects. Users who do not like these can disable the feature by adding advanced_mouse_actions false to the config. It's unfortunately not yet possible to only disable the hover effects.

Optional Key Tooltips for the compact-bar

A long requested feature has been the ability to temporarily see the keybinding hints when using the compact-bar, rather than having them being displayed all the time as they are with the status-bar. This version adds an optional tooltip to the compact bar that will appear when toggled or when entering a non-base mode (eg. Pane, Tab, etc.)

More info: https://zellij.dev/documentation/faq.html#the-ui-takes-up-too-much-space-what-can-i-do-about-it

Performance Improvements

This version places all renders behind an asynchronous rendering engine, reducing the number of render events sent to the client. While the raw performance numbers themselves will not be directly affected, the perceived performance is much smoother.

Stack Keybinding

While stacked panes have been available in Zellij for a while, this version adds the ability to directly open a new stacked pane on top of the current one. This can be done with Ctrl p + s (or Ctrl g + p + s). For those with a pre-existing config, you can add this line to the keybinds block in the config in the pane section:

// default
bind "s" { NewPane "stacked"; SwitchToMode "normal"; }

// for the unlock-first preset
bind "s" { NewPane "stacked"; SwitchToMode "locked"; }

Fix multiline hyperlinks

A long standing issue with Zellij has been that hyperlinks in the terminal that are broken down by line wraps do not behave properly: clicking on these links would only lead to the first wrap of the URL rather than the full URL itself. This version fixes this issue by utilizing OSC 8 more intelligently (essentially: sending the full link data with each URL wrap and giving them all the same ID so that the terminal emulator knows to underline all of them on hover).

post_command_discovery_hook

The Zellij session-resurrection is a much loved and essential feature in Zellij: allowing users to pick up where they left off with their previous session even after a machine reboot. The way Zellij detects running commands in panes though is not perfect, often not working well with command wrappers such as nix, actively running shell pipeline, etc. This version offers a way to mitigate this in the form of a post_command_discovery_hook, allowing users to apply edits to these commands before they are serialized.

More info: https://zellij.dev/documentation/session-resurrection.html#post_command_discovery_hook

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[DANIII3L]

Hi imsif good day to you,

The following is to let you know that if you try to rename the pane it will allow you to do so, but if you try to erase the word so you can rename it to something else it wont allow you.
this happens on the new version

if you think it needs to be opened a issue on github let me know, but its odd since if you rename a tabs youll be able to erase and change the name of the tabs without any issue, but if you try to do the same on on panes it wont work, it only allows you to write a new name but once its typed you cant erase any characters of the new name on panes regardless if you try "rename option"

Thanks :)

[imsnif]

Fixed: #4346

Will release a patch with this and other minor fixes likely in the next few days.

Thank you!

[DANIII3L]

Imsif,

Thanks for the help , much appreciated :)

Good day ahead.

[iprok]

Hello! Can I upgrade running or dead zellij sesssions to new version of zellij?

[imsnif]

Unfortunately not yet - sessions are version specific because we don't yet have a proper client/server contract. This is a pain point for lots of users and I hope to address it in the next version.

What you can do for now is copy the session metadata from an older version which will allow you to resurrect it in the new one. Essentially, copy the relevant sessions (or all sessions) from ~/.cache/zellij/<version>/session_info into ~/.cache/zellij/0.43.0/session_info and then resurrect them with the session-manager/welcome-screen.

[iprok]

Also, because #3114 isn't fixed and is really annoying I created my own builds of zellij 0.43.0 that can be downloaded here https://github.com/iprok/zellij_builder/releases/tag/zellij-0.43.0-1 or easily built by yourself using that repository.

[iprok]

Can I start zellij with some session as a server? After system boot, without user login and restart if accidentally exit? I need webshell on the VM.

[imsnif]

I'm not 100% sure I understand your meaning, but you can do zellij web -d to start it as a daemon on startup.

[ysooqe]

Thanks for the hard work and the new release!

Quick question though: I have session_serialization false in my config.kdl. For some reason though, when I exit a session, it still shows up as exited with the hint (EXITED - attach to resurrect) and can not be attached to:

➜  zellij ls
friendly-duck [Created 0s ago] (EXITED - attach to resurrect)

~ 
➜  zellij attach friendly-duck
No session with the name 'friendly-duck' found!

(output copied from my terminal)

Did I miss something in the release notes or is this a bug and I should open a bugticket?

[imsnif]

Fixed in #4354 - will release a patch in a few days. Thanks for the report!

[reda-chakkour]

Incredible release 🔥
I love the ability to open a new stacked pane 🙏 I was wondering whether I can make an existing pane stacked without stacked layout.

[reda-chakkour]

I guess that's what the bulk pane actions are for. I just so happen to immediately disable them cause I don't like the hover UI.

[imsnif]

I'm not 100% sure I understand... the stacked keybind does what you want, no?

[reda-chakkour]

Sorry for the confusion. Say I have two vertical panes, I was asking asking for a way to stack em. That is indeed possible using the new pane bulk ops. I'll wait until the hover thingy improves before I start using that.

[imsnif]

You can also press Alt + until they are stacked (twice in this case). More info: https://zellij.dev/tutorials/stacked-resize/

[reda-chakkour]

That's a great one Aram, I didn't know about this one. Thank you!

[DANIII3L]

Hi Imsif,

Good day to you,

On a suggestion basis, for instance if you open a pane and try resize and move it with the arrow keys youll see that the lenght of the resize its much larger than the one on the panes that are floating , the floating panes for instance if you resize them are much smaller in lenght while doing the resizing which is nicer, i think that in the future it could be useful that the resizing percentages within zellij could be configurable within "zellig configuration kdl" so that the user could determine the amount of lenght the resize it could be applied wether is a pane or a floating pane.

this is merely a suggestion that could help a lot in the long run or make it more configurable on the sizing lenght aspect of the panes

hope you have a great day ahead

Thanks Imsif for all the help given :)