Terminalizer is a terminal recorder application that allows you to record your terminal session in real-time, and then play it back at a later date.
It works in the same way as a desktop screen recorder, but instead runs in your terminal.
Terminalizer is a very useful terminal recording tool designed for different distributions of the Linux operating system. It has the capability to record all the activities that you perform on the Linux terminal and then save them in the form of an animated GIF.
Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform Linux related queries and Software Installation tasks.
In this context, we shall look into the step-by-step procedure of installing Terminalizer tool on a Linux system.
To install Terminalizer on your Linux system, you will have to go through the series of steps shared below.
1. Update your System:
To update your Linux system, you will have to execute this command in the terminal:
$ sudo apt update
2. Install Node.js on your System:
Now, you need to install Node.js on your Linux system with the command shown below:
$ sudo apt-get install node.js
Once Node.js is installed on your system, you can confirm its installation by following the next step.
3. Verify Node.js Installation on your System:
To confirm Node.js installation on your system, you will have to check its version with the command shown below:
$ node --version
The version of Node.js installed on our Linux Mint 20 system will be displayed on the terminal.
4. Install "npm" on your System:
After installing Node.js on your system, you have to install "npm" on it by executing the command shown below:
$ sudo apt install npm
5. Verify "npm" Installation on your System:
To confirm "npm" installation on your system, you will have to check its version with the following command:
$ npm --version
The version of "npm" installed on our Linux Mint 20 system will be displayed on the terminal.
6. Install the Build Essential Tools on your System:
For being on the safe side, you should also install the Build Essential tools on your system with the following command:
$ sudo apt install build-essential
To confirm the installation of the Build Essential tools on your system, you will have to successively run the commands stated below:
$ gcc –v
$ make –v
7. Install "node-gyp" on your System:
At times, when you head on directly to the installation of Terminalizer on Linux after following the above-mentioned steps, you still face some issues during the installation.
To avoid those issues, it is advisable to install "node-gyp" on your Linux Mint 20 system with the following command:
$ sudo npm install –g node-gyp
When "node-gyp" is installed on your Linux Mint 20 system, you can conveniently install Terminalizer on it by performing the next step.
8. Install Terminalizer on your System:
To install Terminalizer on your Linux system, you should execute the command shared below:
$ sudo npm install –g terminalizer
This article covers how to install Terminalizer which is a terminal recording tool on a Linux distribution of your choice, you will be able to conveniently record all your terminal-related activities.
Terminalizer is a fancy and highly customizable CLI tool that records and renders terminal activity and can make an animated GIF image from it.
It can work well on Ubuntu, CentOS, Arch Linux, SUSE, RedHat, Fedora, and so on.
How to perform the Installation of terminalizer on Linux systems ?
To install the terminalizer, run the following command:
$ sudo npm install -g terminalizer
In the higher version of Node.js, there might be a failure of installation. In such a case, let's install the developer tools to compile the C++ add-ons.
$ sudo apt install build-essential
To verify the installation of development tools, run the following command:
$ gcc -v
$ make -v
How to use the terminalizer ?
To use terminalizer, First run the test file in the current directory with the following command:
$ terminalizer record test
You can run some commands then press ctrl+D to save the recording as a YAML file (test.yml).
Now, you can play the recording by running the below command that shows all the history of the command running on that session:
$ terminalizer play test
How to Create animated Gif ?
You can create a animated Gif of the terminal session with the following command:
$ sudo terminalizer render test
Here, we are trying to create a animated Gif for our terminal session with file name test.yml.
You will get the animated gif with the program default settings for our terminal session of the test file.
To install Node.js on Ubuntu:
1. update your system.
$ apt update
2. Next, run the command below to install Node.js from the repositories.
$ apt install node.js
3. Upon successful installation of node.js, you can verify the version of Node.js using the command as shown.
$ nodejs --version