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nobody
Asked: 2021-08-12 11:40:27 +0800 CST

How to convert a terminal recording to a GIF?

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I made a terminal record with the script tool.

mediainfo video 
General
Complete name                            : video
File size                                : 1.29 KiB

I can play it with scriptreplay. Is it possible to convert it to a GIF, for example with ffmpeg or another program?

To clarify, I mean script from the bsdutils package, not a program script. I thought that the saved file is a kind of video, so I can grep some frames/pictures and create a GIF of it.

I hope it is more clear now.

20.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    A nice option is to use ttyrec to record your terminal activity and then convert it to a GIF using ttygif.

    1. Install the ttyrec and ttygif packages:

      sudo apt install ttyrec ttygif

    2. Open a terminal and start ttyrec to record your terminal:

      ttyrec

      Running ttyrec without an argument will save the recording in a file named ttyrecord in your current folder. You can specify a filename as an argument to save the file with this name.

    3. Use your terminal.

    4. Press Ctrl+D to stop recording.

    5. To convert the recording to a GIF, run:

      ttygif ttyrecord

      If you saved the recording with another filename, change ttyrecord to the filename you used.

      This command will save the recording as a GIF with the name tty.gif.

    Here is a GIF I created with the above procedure that contains the above procedure:

    GIF containing the above procedure

    Notes

    • If you get this error when you run ttygif:

      Error: WINDOWID environment variable was empty

      you need to run the following command before running ttygif:

      export WINDOWID=$(xdotool getwindowfocus)

      The above command needs xodtool. You can install it using:

      sudo apt install xdotool

      Reference: https://github.com/icholy/ttygif#additional-notes

    • ttygif does not work with qterminal for some reason. Use another terminal for the conversion instead.

      I have confirmed that it works fine with kitty, it's slow with GNOME terminal, and it's extremely fast with XTerm.

    • The ttygif command can produce big-size directories in /tmp. I recommend removing them manually after the conversion using:

      rm -r /tmp/ttygif.*
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