Configuration#

The configuration is divided into the following categories:

Options (applies to both the CLI and the TUI Modes)
Keybindings (applies to only the TUI mode)

The configuration file is written in JSON format, using a partial config style i.e only the fields to be modified need to be present in the config file.

By default, termvisage searches the following locations, in the specified order, for $DIR/termvisage/termvisage.json (a file named termvisage.json within a directory named termvisage):

All valid directories specified in the XDG_CONFIG_DIRS environment variable, in reverse order or /etc/xdg if not set.
The directory specified by the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable or ~/.config if not set (where ~ is the current user’s home directory).

If multiple config files are found (i.e in different locations), they’re applied on top of one another in the order in which they were found. Hence, a field present in the latter, if valid, will override the same field also present in the former.

An alternative config file can be specified per-session using --config.

To use the default configuration and not load any config file, use --no-config.

Tip

termvisage performs [quite] thorough validation on the values specified in a config file and reports any errors. To see information about how the errors are resolved (if resolvable), use -v.

This is a sample config file with all options and keybindings at their defaults. Note that this is only for reference, using any field within it as-is has no effect.

Options#

These are top-level fields whose values control various settings of the viewer.

anim cache#

anim cache#: The maximum frame count of an image for which frames will be cached during animation.

Type: integer

Valid values: x > 0

Default: 100

Note

Overridden by --anim-cache, --cache-all-anim and --cache-no-anim.

cell ratio#

cell ratio#

The cell ratio.

Type: null or float
Valid values: null or x > 0.0
Default: null

If null, the ratio is determined from the active terminal such that the aspect ratio of any image is always preserved. If this is not supported in the active terminal or on the platform, 0.5 is used instead.

Note

Overridden by -C and --auto-cell-ratio.

cell width#

cell width#: The initial width of (no of columns for) grid cells, in the TUI.

Type: integer

Valid values: 10 <= x <= 50 and x is even

Default: 30

checkers#

checkers#

Maximum number of subprocesses for checking directory sources.

Type: null or integer
Valid values: null or x >= 0
Default: null

If null, the number of subprocesses is automatically determined based on the amount of logical processors available. CPU affinity is also taken into account on supported platforms.

If less than 2, directory sources are checked within the main process.

getters#

getters#: Number of threads for downloading images from URL sources.

Type: integer

Valid values: x > 0

Default: 4

grid renderers#

grid renderers#

Number of subprocesses for rendering grid cells.

Type: integer
Valid values: x >= 0
Default: 1

If 0 (zero), grid cells are rendered by a thread of the main process.

log file#

log file#

The file to which logs are written.

Type: string
Valid values: A writable/creatable file path
Default: "{$XDG_STATE_HOME}/termvisage/termvisage.log"

If the file:

doesn’t exist, at least one of the parents must be a directory and be writable, so the file can be created.
exists, it is appended to, not overwritten.

Supports tilde expansion i.e a leading ~ (tilde) character is expanded to the current user’s home directory.

The environment variable $XDG_STATE_HOME defaults to ~/.local/state if undefined.

Warning

Relative paths are allowed but this will cause the log file to be written (or created) relative to the current working directory every time a session is started.

Note

Overridden by -l.

max notifications#

max notifications#

The maximum number of TUI notifications that can be shown at a time.

Type: integer
Valid values: x >= 0
Default: 2

Adjusts the height of the notification bar.

max pixels#

max pixels#

The maximum pixel-count for images that should be rendered.

Type: integer
Valid values: x >= 0
Default: 0

If zero, all images will be rendered normally, regardless of their resolution. Otherwise, any image having more pixels than the specified value will be:

skipped in CLI mode.
replaced in TUI mode (except in the full-grid-image context), with a placeholder (filled with exclamation marks) but can be forced to render using the Force Render action in contexts with a full-sized image view.

In the image-grid context, such images have a yellow border (when selected) and title.

Note

Overridden by --max-pixels.

multi#

multi#

Enable (if supported) or disable multiprocessing.

Type: boolean
Valid values: true, false
Default: true

If false, the checkers and grid renderers options have no effect.

Note

Overridden by --multi and --no-multi.

query timeout#

query timeout#: Timeout (in seconds) for all terminal queries.

Type: float

Valid values: x > 0.0

Default: 0.1

Note

Overridden by --query-timeout.

style#

style#

Image render style.

Type: string
Valid values: "auto", "block", "iterm2", "kitty"
Default: "auto"

If set to any value other than "auto" and is not overridden by -S, the style is used regardless of whether it’s supported or not.

Note

Overridden by -S.

swap win size#

swap win size#

A workaround for some terminal emulators (e.g older VTE-based ones) that wrongly report window dimensions swapped.

Type: boolean
Valid values: true, false
Default: false

If true, the window dimensions reported by the terminal emulator are swapped.

Note

Overridden by --swap-win-size and --no-swap-win-size.
Affects auto cell ratio computation.

thumbnail#

thumbnail#

Enable or disable thumbnailing for the image grid.

Type: boolean
Valid values: true, false
Default: true

If true, thumbnails are generated for some images (based on their resolution), cached on disk and cleaned up upon exit. Otherwise, all images in the grid are rendered directly from the original image files.

Note

Overridden by --thumbnail and --no-thumbnail.
Thumbnails are generated on demand i.e a thumbnail will be generated for an image only if its grid cell has come into view at least once.
Thumbnails are deduplicated i.e only one thumbnail is cached and used for different images having exactly identical thumbnails.

thumbnail cache#

thumbnail cache#

The maximum amount of thumbnails that can be cached per time.

Type: integer
Valid values: x >= 0
Default: 0

If 0, the cache size is infinite i.e no eviction. Otherwise, older thumbnails will be evicted to accommodate newer ones when the cache is full (i.e the specified size limit is reached).

Note

Unused if thumbnail is false or --no-thumbnail is specified.

thumbnail size#

thumbnail size#

Maxiumum thumbnail dimension.

Type: integer
Valid values: 32 <= x <= 512
Default: 256

Thumbnails generated will have a maximum of x pixels in the long dimension.

Note

Unused if thumbnail is false or --no-thumbnail is specified.

Keybindings#

The key assigned to every action in the TUI can be modified in the config file.

Keybindings are set by the keys top-level field, the value of which is a mapping containing fields each mapping a context to a mapping of actions and their respective properties.

The format of the keys field is thus:

"keys": {
   "<context>": {
      "<action>": [ "<key>", "<symbol>" ],
      ...
   },
   ...
}

context is the name of a context or navigation.
action is the name of an action.
Both key and symbol may contain Unicode characters and Python unicode escape sequences (\uXXXX and \UXXXXXXXX).
‘…’ means continuous repetition of the format may occur.

Tip

If using a Unicode character that occupies multiple columns in symbol, you might have to add after it as many spaces as are required to cover-up for the extra columns.

Note

The navigation field is not actually a context. Instead, it’s the universal navigation configuration from which navigation actions in actual contexts are derived.

The base navigation actions are:

Left
Up
Right
Down
Page Up
Page Down
Home
End

Attention

Keys used in the global context cannot be used in any other context (including navigation).
Keys used in the navigation “context” cannot be used in any other context.
All keys in a context must be unique.
If a key is invalid or already used, the former and default keys for that action are tried as a fallback but if that fails (because they’re already used), all keybindings from that config file are considered invalid and any changes already made are reverted.

Here is a sample config file with Vim-style (majorly navigation) keybindings.

Below is a list of all valid values for key:

" "
"!"
"""
"#"
"$"
"%"
"&"
"'"
"("
")"
"*"
"+"
","
"-"
"."
"/"
"0"
"1"
"2"
"3"
"4"
"5"
"6"
"7"
"8"
"9"
":"
";"
"<"
"="
">"
"?"
"@"
"["
"\\"
"]"
"^"
"_"
"`"
"A"
"a"
"ctrl a"
"B"
"b"
"ctrl b"
"C"
"c"
"D"
"d"
"ctrl d"
"E"
"e"
"ctrl e"
"F"
"f"
"ctrl f"
"G"
"g"
"ctrl g"
"H"
"h"
"ctrl h"
"I"
"i"
"ctrl i"
"J"
"j"
"ctrl j"
"K"
"k"
"ctrl k"
"L"
"l"
"ctrl l"
"M"
"m"
"ctrl m"
"N"
"n"
"ctrl n"
"O"
"o"
"ctrl o"
"P"
"p"
"ctrl p"
"Q"
"q"
"ctrl q"
"R"
"r"
"ctrl r"
"S"
"s"
"ctrl s"
"T"
"t"
"ctrl t"
"U"
"u"
"ctrl u"
"V"
"v"
"ctrl v"
"W"
"w"
"ctrl w"
"X"
"x"
"ctrl x"
"Y"
"y"
"ctrl y"
"Z"
"z"
"{"
"|"
"}"
"~"
"f1"
"ctrl f1"
"shift f1"
"shift ctrl f1"
"f2"
"ctrl f2"
"shift f2"
"shift ctrl f2"
"f3"
"ctrl f3"
"shift f3"
"shift ctrl f3"
"f4"
"ctrl f4"
"shift f4"
"shift ctrl f4"
"f5"
"ctrl f5"
"shift f5"
"shift ctrl f5"
"f6"
"ctrl f6"
"shift f6"
"shift ctrl f6"
"f7"
"ctrl f7"
"shift f7"
"shift ctrl f7"
"f8"
"ctrl f8"
"shift f8"
"shift ctrl f8"
"f9"
"ctrl f9"
"shift f9"
"shift ctrl f9"
"up"
"ctrl up"
"shift up"
"shift ctrl up"
"end"
"ctrl end"
"shift end"
"shift ctrl end"
"esc"
"f10"
"ctrl f10"
"shift f10"
"shift ctrl f10"
"f11"
"ctrl f11"
"shift f11"
"shift ctrl f11"
"f12"
"ctrl f12"
"shift f12"
"shift ctrl f12"
"tab"
"down"
"ctrl down"
"shift down"
"shift ctrl down"
"home"
"ctrl home"
"shift home"
"shift ctrl home"
"left"
"ctrl left"
"shift left"
"shift ctrl left"
"enter"
"right"
"ctrl right"
"shift right"
"shift ctrl right"
"delete"
"ctrl delete"
"shift delete"
"shift ctrl delete"
"insert"
"backspace"
"page up"
"ctrl page up"
"page down"
"ctrl page down"

Any value other than these will be flagged as invalid.