beer

beer(1)

# NAME

beer - a fast, software-rendered, Wayland-native terminal emulator

# SYNOPSIS

*beer* [_options_]

# DESCRIPTION

*beer* is a lightweight, CPU-rendered terminal emulator for Wayland. It spawns

the user's login shell in a pseudo-terminal and renders its output into a

server-decorated window, with truecolor, styled text, scrollback, incremental

search, mouse selection, and clipboard integration.

# OPTIONS

*--server*

	Run as a daemon: a single process that hosts many windows over a Unix

	socket (see *DAEMON MODE*).

*--no-daemon*

	Always open a private, standalone window; never connect to or start a

	server. Without this flag a plain *beer* prefers a running server.

*--config* _PATH_

	Load configuration from _PATH_ on top of the defaults. Repeatable; when

	given more than once, later files override keys from earlier ones and

	have higher priority than files listed in *BEER_CONFIG* (see

	*ENVIRONMENT*). Without any *--config* flags, the default location is

	used (see *FILES*).

*-h*, *--help*

	Print usage and exit.

*-V*, *--version*

	Print the version and exit.

# KEY BINDINGS

These are the built-in defaults; all are configurable in the *key-bindings*

table of _beer.toml_(5).

[[ *Binding*

:< *Action*

|  Ctrl+Shift+C

:  Copy the selection to the clipboard

|  Ctrl+Shift+V

:  Paste from the clipboard

|  Ctrl+Shift+F

:  Start incremental scrollback search

|  Shift+Page_Up / Shift+Page_Down

:  Scroll the viewport one page

|  Ctrl+Shift+Home / Ctrl+Shift+End

:  Scroll to the top / bottom of history

|  Ctrl+Plus / Ctrl+Equal / Ctrl+Minus

:  Increase / decrease the font size

|  Ctrl+0

:  Reset the font size

|  F11

:  Toggle fullscreen

|  Ctrl+Shift+N

:  Open a new window in the shell's current directory

|  Ctrl+Shift+Up / Ctrl+Shift+Down

:  Jump to the previous / next shell prompt (OSC 133)

|  Ctrl+Shift+O

:  Enter URL hint mode

|  Ctrl+Shift+U

:  Enter a Unicode codepoint by hex value

The *pipe-command-output* action (unbound by default) feeds the last command's

output to the configured command; see *shell-integration* in _beer.toml_(5).

In incremental search, type to refine the query, *Up*/*Return* jumps to the

previous match, *Down* to the next, and *Escape* exits.

In URL hint mode each visible URL is tagged with a label; type the label to open

the URL in the configured launcher, or press *Escape* to cancel.

In Unicode codepoint-input mode, type the hexadecimal value of a codepoint (e.g.

_2603_ for a snowman) and press *Return* or *Space* to insert it; *Escape*

cancels.

*beer* implements the kitty keyboard protocol (progressive enhancement via

*CSI u*), so applications that request it receive disambiguated keys, key

release and repeat events, alternate keys, and associated text.

# MOUSE

Left-click and drag selects text; double-click selects a word, triple-click a

line, and Ctrl+drag selects a rectangular block. The selection is copied to the

primary selection on release; middle-click pastes it. The wheel scrolls

history. Holding *Shift* forces local selection even while an application has

requested mouse reporting. Clicking an *OSC 8* hyperlink opens it; hovering one

underlines it.

# SHELL INTEGRATION

With a shell configured to emit them, *beer* tracks the working directory

(*OSC 7*, used by new windows) and prompt marks (*OSC 133*) for prompt jumping

and piping the last command's output. Applications may raise desktop

notifications via *OSC 9*, *OSC 777*, and *OSC 99*.

# DAEMON MODE

*beer --server* runs one process that hosts many windows, sharing a single

Wayland connection and glyph cache. It listens on a Unix socket at

_$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/beer-$WAYLAND_DISPLAY.sock_.

A plain *beer* (without *--server* or *--no-daemon*) is the client: it forwards

its working directory and environment to a running server, which opens a window

there, and it mirrors that window's exit status. If no server is running it

falls back to a standalone window, so the same command works with or without a

daemon. *--no-daemon* forces the standalone path.

Whether the server keeps running after its last window closes is set by

*server-resident* in _beer.toml_(5); by default it stays resident.

# GRAPHICS AND TEXT SIZING

*beer* implements the kitty graphics protocol (inline raster images via the

*APC* _G_ transmission, placements, animation, and Unicode placeholders) and the

kitty text-sizing protocol (*OSC 66*), which scales a run of text across a block

of cells. It does not implement sixel.

# ENVIRONMENT

*SHELL*

	The shell to spawn; defaults to _/bin/sh_.

*TERM*

	Set to the configured terminal name (default _beer_) for the child.

*KITTY_WINDOW_ID*

	Set for the child process to the window's numeric id, so programs that key

	off it (kitty graphics placeholders) have a stable per-window handle.

*BEER_CONFIG*

	A colon-separated list of config file paths, like *PATH*. These are

	lower priority than paths given via *--config* so explicit flags always

	win. Empty elements are ignored.

*BEER_LOG*

	Log filter, in the _tracing_ env-filter syntax (e.g. _debug_).

# SIGNALS

*SIGUSR1*

	Reload the configuration file and re-apply it without restarting.

# FILES

_$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/beer/beer.toml_

	The configuration file (falls back to _~/.config/beer/beer.toml_). See

	_beer.toml_(5).

# SEE ALSO

_beer.toml_(5), _beer-themes_(7)