[Feature] Touch Bar support

what would I like to do?

"exit" (send e+x+i+t+ENTER)
Close
New
show/swap tabs
send ESC+:+w+q+ENTER ;)
custom commands
paste

And more!

Ya, showing tabs while in full screen would be sweet. Love the idea of moving UI off of my screen real estate.

Docs are here: https://developer.apple.com/reference/appkit/nstouchbar

Keybinding actions could be used as touchbar actions. That gives easy access to sending text, menu items, etc. Showing tabs in the touchbar is another obvious one. Maybe as an option to show it only in fullscreen?

Milestone changed to %Next Beta

@jnovack is the touchbar completely blank? Or does it have some standard set of "buttons"? More importantly, does it have an esc key?

By default, it provides an "ESC" key and Mute/VolDn/VolUp/Siri.

It is available to customize with application specific functions should the application support it.

I don't normally have MANY (<6) tabs open at the same time, but swapping through them like the "pictures" slider is cool. Perhaps a "specific" tab button or adding/removing tabs to a "featured" button (I would expect to set a "Featured" button, and then add/remove tabs from the "Featured" rotation; if only 1 tab, it's an instant swap, if 2+ tabs are added to "Featured", then it swaps between them much like hitting 'next').

Mentioned in issue #5284 (closed)

In MacOS's native Terminal.app, the Touch Bar has a button that opens the man page for the command you're typing. For example, if I've typed doc (without finishing the command, mind you) it shows: Pressing it opens a new window with the man page. For pv, for example:

iTerm doesn't have to do this, but I can see how it would be useful. Switching tabs (or even just showing info about the currently running process) could also be super useful.

Things that would be nice:

bind touch buttons to custom key macros
spawn a throwaway shell displayed right on the touch bar to run one command

IMO, this should be tied into the "Shell Integration"/"Inline Images" functionality - i.e. an escape sequence lets you specify button labels (UTF-8) + raw key sequences to send - that would get you pretty good flexibility to implement most of what's described above.

Then you could imagine plugins for e.g. screen/tmux to provide window switching, etc.

My personal opinion is that it should work like @dbushong said. It would be really cool if you could show custom commands on the bar via shell scripts / shell integration. It would be the next evolution of command prompt customization.

For example, I might want the bar to show my git branch name / edit status while I'm in a folder looking at a git project. But then if I run an editor, I might want to show editing-related commands (vim shortcuts, etc).

How awesome would it be to show your CI-status in the touch bar. Green bar when all tests are passing and red bar when there are issues (with a description of the failing spec inside?)

Using the Touch Bar to show statuses goes directly against Apple's guidelines.

Use the Touch Bar as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, not as a display. Although technically it’s a screen, the Touch Bar functions as an input device, not a secondary display. The user may glance at the Touch Bar to locate or use a control, but their primary focus is the main screen. The Touch Bar shouldn’t display alerts, messages, scrolling content, static content, or anything else that commands the user’s attention or distracts from their work on the main screen.

Oh… well, how about we turn the status-light into a button that opens a status-report in a new tab?

It could be useful to have quick access to Copy & Paste history via touchbar. +1 to the idea of being able to launch custom scripts.

Another idea: would be cool to be able to use the Touch ID sensor for sudo auth :)

I'm starting on this soon. Here's the prioritization:

Key binding actions (having an actual keystroke assigned must now be optional)
Tabs while in full screen
Set mark
Navigate marks
Man page
Change color scheme to preset
Autocomplete suggestion
Status messages via custom escape sequence
Touch ID

Features I'd like to do but don't know how to make the UI usable:

Paste history
Recent directories
Command history

First line shows:

man page for text before cursor
color preset button
custom action added from Prefs > Keys > Add touch bar item
next/previous mark

Second example shows the color preset button's popout.

If you want to try it out, it's in the nightly build. Go get it now :)

When trying to start iterm nightly after the update with an older MBP (late 2012), the app closes immediately. When trying to start from terminal, I get the following error output:

/Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/iTerm2
2016-11-28 12:12:17.346 iTerm2[649:13230] Try to connect to orphaned server at /var/tmp/iTerm2.socket.9133
2016-11-28 12:12:17.347 iTerm2[649:13230] Failed: Connection refused
2016-11-28 12:12:17.476 iTerm2[649:13230] -[PseudoTerminal touchBar]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fe1d3308710
[1]    649 illegal hardware instruction  /Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/iTerm2

Anything I can do to get iterm into working? Like disabling nightly and "downgrade"?

Adding a touchbar key to open a new profile item seems like a natural thing to do. Having all of the profiles already populated without having to do Prefs->keys->Add Touchbar item would be great. Not sure how to handle the "new window" vs "new tab" selection, though.

@marcuspoehls: I confirm the same problem. Late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina 15", MacOS 10.11.6. Last iTerm2 nightly that does not have the problem is iTerm2-3_0_20161122-nightly.zip Starting with the November 25th nightly, crash reporter says:

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
Crashing on exception: -[PseudoTerminal touchBar]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fa3d2c52400

I've had no issues with the nightly build. The touchbar feature is phenomenal. I'm mostly using it to manage some common shortcuts - is there a way to have it send a command instead of just entering text? Or, to enter text, but also send Return?

Sorry about breaking the nightly build. It'll be fixed tomorrow. You can always grab an old version from the archive: http://iterm2.com/downloads/nightly/#/section/home

@erickpece Use the action Send text with "vim" special characters and then you can write text like ls -l\n to get a newline at the end.

I've confirmed that 3.0.20161130-nightly fixes the crashing / illegal instruction problem on non-touchbar machines. Thanks for the quick update!

This works great in the latest nightly, thanks so much for the quick implementation of this feature!

Can I add another feature request? Would be nice if the open tabs were an option, and to hilight them on change/terminal bell as the tabs in the app do. Safari similarly implements tabs (with visual previews that are unusable!)

Could we get function strips like Terminal.app has as well? Individual keys would be even better, if possible.

Could we have something so that applications running in the terminal can use the touch bar? For example curl could show a progress bar. My shell could show the current git branch, and/or predictions for tab expansion. My text editor could have a save button... Such kind of things...

Maybe this kind of things can be done using custom escape codes, just like the inline images feature of iTerm? TouchBar presses could emit key/scancodes that can be specified in de key definition?

To give an idea of what I'm thinking about is the following nonsens:

ESC ] 1337 ; TouchBar = caption = save; keys = \27:w\n ^G

ESC ] 1337 ; TouchBar = image = <base64 encoded image>; keys = \27:w\n ^G

ESC ] 1337 ; TouchBar = reset = true ^G

When I add a custom command through "Add Touch Bar item" it does not show up on the touch bar. In the picture @gnachman posted, I see everything except the Instant Replay button which I assume is a custom touch bar item, except for a button that has a Play Button and a plus. From what I can tell, it sets a mark which you can navigate with the Up and Down keys.

EDIT: I figured it out. You must go to View -> Customize Tool Bar... duh

Also, just had a quick idea. What if you could control what items were shown, depending on what process is in the foreground?

@perryprog that sounds like a perfect idea!

Tomorrow's nightly build adds function keys, which you can customize the labels of using this script: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnachman/iTerm2/master/tests/it2setkeylabel.sh

For example,

it2setkeylabel.sh set F1 "New Document"

Also, just had a quick idea. What if you could control what items were shown, depending on what process is in the foreground?

This is a very good idea but reliably knowing what program is in the foreground is hard over ssh, especially when you ssh from within an ssh session.

@gnachman what if you could install a script on remote hosts to communicate with the client? Not sure how that would work, but you never know.

@gnachman I like the it2setkeylabel.sh thank you! The idea of the stack is awesome!

Example for using the \033]1337;SetKeyLabel in Vim: https://gist.github.com/tader/03842a1e61188993e311712e22518b61

Oh, now I understand how you could use this. GJ @gnachman

@gnachman I have three remarks/questions about the TouchBar stack, first a crash, and second should it reset after a push?

First, using the TouchBar stack crashes iTerm (a crash reporter report has been sent by me):

$ ./it2setkeylabel.sh set F1 foo
$ ./it2setkeylabel.sh push
$ ./it2setkeylabel.sh set F1 bar
$ ./it2setkeylabel.sh pop
$ ./it2setkeylabel.sh set F1 crash

Second, one would push a TouchBar configuration on the stack because of a context switch, e.g., you switch from your shell to your text editor. Wouldn't it make sense to reset the function key labels to the defaults ([F1] [F2] ... [F20]) when you push?

Finally, would it be the right approach to make it the responsibility of the shell to push on the stack before starting a process and pop afterwards?

First, using the TouchBar stack crashes iTerm

Thanks for letting me know about the crash. It's fixed now.

Second, one would push a TouchBar configuration on the stack because of a context switch, e.g., you switch from your shell to your text editor. Wouldn't it make sense to reset the function key labels to the defaults ([F1] [F2] ... [F20]) when you push?

Good idea. Done in commit 1ed0a45f.

would it be the right approach to make it the responsibility of the shell to push on the stack before starting a process and pop afterwards

No because programs can be suspended and many (all?) shells aren't capable of dealing with that. For example, you can give vim a string to output when it becomes active and another sequence to run when it ceases to be active (t_ti and t_te, respectively). You'd need to do push & set in t_ti and a pop in t_te.

Also, an update: I've extended push and pop to take an optional "name" parameter to handle programs exiting unexpectedly in commit 65bca1e3. If ssh exits because of a network error you end up with a stack of unknown depth. By using unique names you can always pop back to a known state. You could use an ssh wrapper script like this:

#!/bin/bash
NAME=ssh_$RANDOM
it2setkeylabel.sh push $NAME
ssh $*
it2setkeylabel.sh pop $NAME

Do you want bug reports on this feature right here in this issue?

I notice that the man page touch key does not work if the command that precedes it has an underscore.

@bwhaley Please open new issues. This one is getting hard to follow.

Just an example for nano


runNano() {
  echo -ne "\033]1337;PushKeyLabels\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F1=Help\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F2=Exit\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F3=Save\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F6=Search\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F7=Go up\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F8=Go down\a"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;SetKeyLabel=F11=Cursor\a"
  nano "$@"
  echo -ne "\033]1337;PopKeyLabels\a"
}
alias nano=runNano

Should someone make a GitHub repo of a list of useful escape sequences like that one? Basically for anyone to lazy to make their own. :P

For those using the fish shell, I have created the following http://fisherman.sh/ plugins:

https://github.com/tader/touchbar_git (Shows Git branch and status)
https://github.com/tader/touchbar_dirstack (Provides pushd and popd buttons)

@pupaxxo You are forgetting to PushKeyLabels before setting the key labels...

@thomas fixed! Thanks!

mentioned in issue #5444

@pupaxxo You should use the name argument to PushKeyLabels and PopKeyLabels in case nano runs a subprocess that pushes key labels but doesn't pop them properly.

TOUCHBAR_NAME=nano_$RANDOM
echo -ne "\033]1337;PushKeyLabels=$TOUCHBAR_NAME\a"
...
nano "$@"
echo -ne "\033]1337;PopKeyLabels=$TOUCHBAR_NAME\a"

great work! +1 for touch id support on password prompt

This is awesome! 2 questions:

Is it possible for certain applications within iTerm (say, nano or vim) to expand the function keys when they're opened? (and then return them to the popover after quitting?). That would make the labels suuuper useful.
Might be tough, but when the tabs are displayed in the touch bar while in fullscreen, is there any way to color the touch bar tab text (like you color the tabs themselves using something like echo -n -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;96\a";)?

I too would love to see a way to style the keys.

First, I was thinking of a way to set key background and text color (both optional) like SetKeyColor=F1=0082D8;FFFFFF. But probably, for consistency, it would be better to offer a set of predefined styles, such as: default, primary (blue background), disabled (grey text) SetKeyStyle=F1=primary?

But, even more than styling, I would like to be able to use fontawesome for icons :)

@scald TouchId is supported for iTerm's builtin password manager. Other tools like ssh-askpass gpg-pinentry should implement it themselves.

Can this functionality be extended so that it's possible to (re)label any custom touchbar item? I'd rather be able to add an item whose default action is 'Ignore' and then assign that to something, as opposed to having to use an Fn key.

@yankcrime Would you mind opening a new issue? This one has gotten a bit out of hand and it's too difficult to track individual feature requests. Thanks!

I'm closing this issue out—please file new feature requests or bug reports for touch bar related things.

closed

Any chance of making tabs in fullscreen an option? I typically only work in full screen with 1 tab (I use non-iterm tmux, I know) and would like to take advantage of some of the other functionality.

Any chance of making tabs in fullscreen an option You can configure the touch bar items in View > Configure touch bar. Do it while in full screen to be able to remove the fullscreen tab bar.

@gnachman ah, I hadn't spotted that option in there, thanks for pointing it out!

Thank's a lot, awesome job @gnachman

Like @thomas did for the fish shell, I made a ZSH plugin to display some basic feedback from your Terminal:

https://github.com/iam4x/zsh-iterm-touchbar (Current directory, Git branch & status)

Sorry for the question, but I missed it: has this been released to stable, or still just in nightlies?

@maxxer You can use iTerm2 3.1.beta.3 (OS 10.10+)

@iam4x Is it possible to do the same (Current directory, Git branch & status) with bash?

Git/branch status for bash would be really nice (switching into a git dir shows some git stuff... nerdy:D)

Any idea what touching the git/branch status button would do? I like the idea of showing it but there really should be an action associated with it.

Commit 71ccb475 adds a status button. To change it:

it2setkeylabel set status "Git branch: master"

Pressing the button takes you to where it was set.

@gnachman When I saw this status button, I thought it would be nice to have a bunch of them, and that they could emit function keys...

But we already have that... Instead of going this way, would it not be possible to arrange individual function keys on the touchbar?

pushd / popd seem great. would like to show current dir as buttons so that one could click on one and go several levels up.

sound like a great breadcrumbs touchbar feature!

My personal feeling is that you should just implement the pushd/popd using the it2setkeylabel approach like I did for the Fish shell (https://github.com/tader/touchbar_dirstack).

The it2setkeylabel is really flexible and will be context sensitive. (Your shell can set the labels and listen for the function keys, any application can set the labels and listen for the function keys.) What would happen to the breadcrumbs while you are working over SSH in your favorite text editor? Would they remain occupying valuable touchbar real estate? Would pressing them change your local or remote directory? Even while in an editor?

I opened a new issue for the breadcrumbs idea: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/5874 Please follow up there.

I love that there is now TouchBar support and that we can add new items but is there a way to remove some of the predefined items? Having an item on the TouchBar that changes its content and size while I'm typing (man page) kind of distracts me from work.

@eugenk View > Customize Touch Bar...

Great, thank you! :)

You guys, this is so awesome!

But.. how do I find it? Is it still only in nightlies? I can't find touchbar settings anywhere..

Thanks!!

@hayimd It's in 3.1.beta.7, which you can download from https://iterm2.com/downloads

Hi, I am using this now and I see a lot of potential.

Question: is there any way to send a CTRL-N as to get word completion in vim?

@foice1 Have a look at the example I posted 7 months ago: https://gist.github.com/tader/03842a1e61188993e311712e22518b61

sorry, because of ignorance with both iTerm and vim I do not see how to apply that gist to my case, can you say more what the gist does? thanks, roberto

Would be really nice to be able to have a key to add an open terminal window here that you can launch from within finder as a button on the Touch Bar

[Feature] Touch Bar support

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