VTE-Based Linux Terminals Now Support A Nice Feature Led By Windows Terminal

VTE-based terminals on Linux like Ptyxis are now seeing support introduced to better display progress state for long-running processes with a more visually pleasing progress bar. Microsoft's Windows Terminal has already supported this feature while now with systemd beginning to support using these Operating System Command escape sequences, Linux terminal support is on the rise.

Lennart Poettering recently posted on Mastodon around the improved progress bar support with systemd 257 using ANSI escape sequences to better represent progress state. With Windows Terminal the sequences can be used for displaying a spinner on the terminal tab, for example, during long running processes. But he noted Linux terminal support for these particular escape sequences hasn't seen much traction compared to Windows Terminal.

But with systemd now supporting the use of them, which will simply be ignored on unsupported terminals, the Linux support will likely become more widespread. Christian Hergert recently took to implementing the support within the VTE terminal library and finishing through the integration on the Ptyxis terminal emulator.

Above is a test screenshot by Christian with the latest Ptyxis code. More details for those interested via Christian's blog post.