asciinema records your terminal session. This is especially useful for going back and writing documentation for a process or showing someone else a procedure asynchronously. The name is a combination of ascii and cinema.
Another practical use case: An intern wanted to see an upgrade process. Scheduling was difficult. A security update came and the issue was pressing. I made a cast file and emailed it to them with instructions. They still got to see the upgrade even though we could not coordinate a good time for us both.
GitHub and basic documentation
Install with apt on Debian based operating systems:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y asciinema
Install/upgrade with cargo:
cargo install --git /~https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema
Config file goes here: $HOME/.config/asciinema/config
If you are paranoid about accidentally uploading casts to their website, you could set these configs and uploads should not work:
[api]
; Override URL environment variable to make sure that
; cast files are not uploaded to their server.
asciinema_api_url = 127.0.0.1
url = 127.0.0.1
Record a session without uploading it to their website. I would suggest using a filename that is descriptive about what you are doing such as drupalupgrade.cast.
asciinema rec FILENAME.cast
Record a session without uploading it to their website with a date stamp.
asciinema rec FILENAME$(date +%Y-%m-%d).cast
asciinema will drop you into a new shell. Exit the shell with exit or CTRL + d to stop the recording.
Controls: Temporarily pause asciinema recording with Ctrl + p. This allows executing secret commands during the recording session or pasting secrets such as passwords. Resume the recording with Ctrl + p again.
asciinema can record the entire terminal session and what is displayed by text editors and terminal multiplexers including tmux or screen, but the terminal multiplexers must be started after asciinema.
asciinema rec
Note: Nothing will be published without consent and a prompt asks if you want to upload.
Controls: Playback can be paused/resumed with space key. When paused, . will step through the recording frame by frame. CTRL + c will stop the playback.
Playback at normal speed (BOOOOORRRRRING):
asciinema play /path/to/FILENAME.cast
Playback with a idle limit of 2 seconds (MUCH BETTER):
asciinema play -i 2 FILENAME.cast
Playback with triple speed (WHOA THAT'S FAST!):
asciinema play -s 3 FILENAME.cast
Playback from the asciinema website:
asciinema play https://asciinema.org/a/99999999999999999999
Note: Do not upload any secrets.
If you want to share the asciinema recording with the general public, you can upload it to their website with this command:
asciinema upload FILENAME.cast
If you only need to share a recording with one person, you could also email the cast file and give them instructions on how to install asciinema and playback the file.
VHS is a similar project written in Go that is built to generate gifs from terminal. /~https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs