Release 5.0.0 · xtermjs/xterm.js

v5 is here! This is our largest release in a long time, maybe ever 👀

Since this was a major version bump, we used the opportunity to clean up the API and make other breaking changes. Many of these changes enabled a significant reduction in the xterm module bundle size which went from 379kb to 265kb for a 30% reduction!

🚀 Features

Underline style and color support (#3921, #3976, #3980, #4053, #4068, #4074, #4077, #4109) via @Tyriar

Underline style and color sequences such as CSI 4:2m ST for double underlines are now supported:

Some work was also done to improve underline rendering overall, characters with long descenders don't overlap with the underline:

Hyperlink escape sequence support (#4005, #4087, #4088) via @Tyriar, @jerch

Building upon the improved underline rendering, hyperlink escapes outlined in this gist are now supported. They will be rendered using a dashed underline (like CSI 4:5m ST):

Along with this is a new linkHandler option which allows controling hover, leave and activate events, for example to show a custom tooltip. VS Code's implementation looks like this:

Smooth scroll support (#3940) via @Tyriar

The new smoothScrollDuration allows setting a duration in milliseconds to animate scroll between the origin and target positions. This is most useful when using a physical mouse (not a trackpad) to help not disorient the user when scrolling with the mouse wheel.

Canvas renderer addon (#3949, #3950, #3954, #3959, #3961, #3981) via @Tyriar

The canvas renderer has moved into an addon, significantly reducing the bundle size of the xterm module. This used to be the default renderer and is now recommended only as a fallback to the webgl addon if that does not work for some reason (eg. no webgl2 support).

New VT feature support (#4093, #4095, #4098)via @jerch

xterm.js handles several new VT sequences:

SGR-pixels mouse reports support (#4093) via @jerch
DECRQM support - ANSI and DEC private mode reporting (#4095) via @jerch
Protection flag support (#4098) via @jerch

Other features

Powerline semi-circle glyphs are now custom rendered (#3891) via @sbatten
Inactive selection background (#3965) via @Tyriar - ITheme.selectionInactiveBackground will now change the selection color when the terminal is not focused
Support setting extended ansi colors 16-255 (#3905, #3909) via @silamon, @Tyriar
The parser and buffer APIs are now stable (#3951) via @Tyriar
Rendering should now work when opening xterm.js in a popout window (#4069) via @mihaip

🐞 Bug fixes

Fix an exception when markers are deleted (#3888, #3901) via @Tyriar
Make corner box glyphs uniformly round (#3895) via @Tyriar
Fix changing allowTransparency from its initial value in the Terminal constructor (#3899) via @Tyriar
Throw when setting an invalid cursorStyle (#3900) via @Tyriar
Allow markers in the alt buffer (#3924) via @silamon
Retain hue when minimum contrast ratio flips luminance (#3929) via @Tyriar
Remove shift+backspace -> ^H binding (#3935) via @Tyriar
Fix disabling the webgl addon in the demo (#3988) via @Tyriar
Improve deletion handling on Android (#4007) via @ink404
Fix performance regression introduced with decoration support (#4080) via @Tyriar

📝 Documentation and internal improvements

Update CI macOS base image (#3906) via @silamon
Fix dev container docker build (#3907) via @silamon
Add theme picker to demo (#3922) via @Tyriar
Improve texture atlas presentation in demo (#3923, #3985) via @Tyriar
Support overviewRulerWidth in demo (#3927) via @Tyriar
Fix test-api running unit tests as well as API tests (#3934) via @Tyriar
v5 release preparations (#3942, #3943, #3953, #3956, #3957, #3999) via @Tyriar
Clarify in docs you shouldn't use the object after Terminal.dispose is called (#3958) via @Tyriar
Fix mocha test explorer support (#3966) via @silamon
Add note to the windowsMode option for the version of Windows 11 that it's recommended to be disabled on (#3967) via @Tyriar
Fix demo when loading webgl addon throws (#3983) via @silamon
Add ANSI colors test button to demo (#3991) via @deepanshu44
The TypeScript output target is now es2015 (was es5) (#3992) via @SvanT, this resulted in a 17% reduction in bundle size
Fix some typos (#4055) via @GreenMashimaro
Fix lgtm.io recommendations (#4089) via @Tyriar
Add CodeQL analysis to CI (#4090) via @Tyriar

🛑 Breaking changes

bellSound and bellStyle options as well as the previously builtin sound have been removed (#3941) via @Tyriar. This reduces the bundle size while still allowing the embedder to support the terminal bell via the Terminal.onBell API
```
// before 5.0.0
term = new Terminal({
  bellStyle: 'sound'
});

// after 5.0.0
term = new Terminal();
term.onBell(() => {
  // Play a sound
});
```
The link matcher API registerLinkMatcher and deregisterLinkMatcher have been removed in favor of the link provider API (#3944) via @Tyriar.

The allowProposedApi option now defaults to false, set this to true to opt-in to proposed API usage if you understand the implications (#3945) via @Tyriar

// before 5.0.0
term = new Terminal({});
term.someProposedApi();

// after 5.0.0
term = new Terminal({
  allowProposedApi: true
});
term.someProposedApi();

The deprecated addMarker API has been removed in favor of registerMarker (#3946) via @Tyriar. They are functionally equivalent.

The deprecated getOption and setOption APIs have been removed in favor of options (#3947) via @Tyriar

// before 5.0.0
term.setOption('scrollback', 1000);
console.log(term.getOption('scrollback'));

// after 5.0.0
term.options.scrollback = 1000;
console.log(term.options.scrollback);

The deprecated writeUtf8 API has been removed in favor of write (#3947) via @Tyriar.

const arr = new Uint8Array(10);

// before 5.0.0
term.writeUtf8(arr);

// after 5.0.0
term.write(arr);

ISelectionPosition have been removed from the API in favor of IBufferRange (#3952) via @Tyriar
cols and rows options can now only be set in the constructor (#3960, #3972, #4078) via @Tyriar, @silamon
```
// before 5.0.0
term.setOption('cols', 10);

// after 5.0.0
term.resize(10, term.rows);
```

ITheme.selection has been renamed to selectionBackground for consistency (#3964) via @Tyriar

// before 5.0.0
term.options.theme = { selection: '#000000' };

// after 5.0.0
term.options.theme = { selectionBackground: '#000000' };

The Terminal.options getter now returns a Required<ITerminalOptions> instead of just ITerminalOptions for better correctness. Along with this change fastScrollModifier now accepts 'none' instead of undefined
```
// before 5.0.0
new Terminal({ fastScrollModifier: undefined });

// after 5.0.0
new Terminal({ fastScrollModifier: 'none' });
```

🎉 New real-world use cases

Go SSH Web Client (#3883) via @wuchihsu
web3os (#3884) via @mathiscode
Cratecode (#3908) via @uellenberg
Update maintained fork: yudai/gotty -> sorenisanerd/gotty (#4094) via @sorenisanerd

📥 Addons

xterm-addon-canvas

Redraw selection on resize (#3938) via @Tyriar
Fix rendering of the ▛ (U+259B) character (#3902) via @Tyriar
Fix blurry rendering that could happen when using a non-round devicePixelRatio (#3926, #4009, #4105) via @Tyriar, @jeanp413
Overdraw powerline strokes such that the top and bottom are flat against the cell boundaries (#4070) via @Tyriar
Show entire glyph for extra powerline symbols (#4073, #4086) via @Tyriar

xterm-addon-fit

Fix return type of proposeDimensions to include undefined (#3882) via @jerch

xterm-addon-ligatures

Warn when ligature fonts fail to download (#3933) via @Tyriar
Fix the addon in the latest version of Chrome (#3936) via @Tyriar
Fallback ligatures are now supported, allowing ligatures to work without font access (#3963) via @Tyriar
Remove electron renderer and node targets (#4002, #4003) via @Tyriar

xterm-addon-web-links

The link matcher-based implementation has been removed in favor of the link provider implementation (#3944) via @Tyriar

xterm-addon-webgl

More efficient GPU memory usage using new texture atlas packing strategy (#3979) via @Tyriar

The previous naive texture packing strategy which only allowed adding to the "active row" or below has been replaced with a new strategy that uses multiple active rows and adds glyphs to the most suitable row based on its pixel height. This leads to more effective usage of the texture xterm.js uploads to the GPU, meaning it's harder to reset the texture when it becomes filled (which is more likely to happen when screen scale is high).

Before:

After:

Other changes

Release webgl resources when the addon is disposed (#3890) via @Tyriar
Clip pixels to the left of a cell when the background color changes, preventing pixels overflowing (#3896) via @Tyriar
Clear glyph pixels when all channels differ below some threshold (#3897) via @Tyriar
Fix rendering of the ▛ (U+259B) character (#3902) via @Tyriar
Fix blurry rendering that could happen when using a non-round devicePixelRatio (#3926, #4009, #4105) via @Tyriar, @jeanp413
Fix dim rendering edge cases (#3973, #3989) via @Tyriar
Fix powerline and other custom glyph offsets and support letter spacing (#3985, #4085) via @Tyriar
Polish powerline rendering so the middle of the stroke won't be cut off (#3987) via @Tyriar
Overdraw powerline strokes such that the top and bottom are flat against the cell boundaries (#4070) via @Tyriar
Show entire glyph for extra powerline symbols (#4073, #4086) via @Tyriar
Improve handling of canvas context loss (#4075) via @kenrussell
Fix performance regressions (#4081, #4084) via @Tyriar
Clear the glyph renderer when the model is cleared (#4101) via @JasonXJ
Fix the cursor character being drawn outside the cursor cell (#4102) via @JasonXJ

🤝 Compatible addon versions

🌐 Website

Fix bootstrap 404 in some locales (xtermjs/xtermjs.org#179) via @fu1996

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5.0.0