How to Install and Use Alacritty Terminal Emulator in Linux

Alacritty is a fast, lightweight, and GPU-accelerated terminal emulator that aims for simplicity and performance. It’s written in Rust, making it highly efficient and responsive for Linux users. In this guide, we’ll cover how to install and use Alacritty on Linux systems.

Prerequisites

Before installing Alacritty, ensure your system has the necessary dependencies:

Rust programming language (to compile from source)
cmake, pkg-config, and libfreetype6-dev for building
Installing Alacritty on Linux

1. Using a Package Manager
Alacritty is available in most Linux distributions’ repositories, making installation straightforward.

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install alacritty

For Fedora:

sudo dnf install alacritty

For Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S alacritty

2. Building Alacritty from Source
If you want the latest version, or if it’s not available in your distribution’s repositories, you can build it from source.

Step 1: Install Rust and Required Dependencies

sudo apt install cmake pkg-config libfreetype6-dev libfontconfig1-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxkbcommon-dev python3
curl –proto ‘=https’ –tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Step 2: Clone the Alacritty Repository

git clone https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty.git
cd alacritty

Step 3: Build Alacritty

cargo build –release

Step 4: Install Alacritty

sudo cp target/release/alacritty /usr/local/bin
sudo cp extra/logo/alacritty-term.svg /usr/share/pixmaps/Alacritty.svg
sudo desktop-file-install extra/linux/Alacritty.desktop

Configuring Alacritty
Alacritty uses a YAML configuration file. To set up your configuration:

Create the configuration file: Copy the default config file to your home directory.

mkdir -p ~/.config/alacritty
cp alacritty.yml ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml

Modify the configuration: You can customize colors, font size, and more by editing the alacritty.yml file.

Using Alacritty
Once installed, you can launch Alacritty from your terminal by typing:

alacritty

You can also find it in your desktop environment’s application menu. If you’ve created a custom key binding or shortcut for it, you can use that to open Alacritty as well.

Key Features
Fast and lightweight: Alacritty’s main selling point is its speed. It runs using the GPU for rendering, which significantly improves performance.
Customization: Alacritty supports deep customization, including themes, key bindings, and shell integrations.
Cross-platform: It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, making it a versatile terminal emulator for developers across different environments.

Conclusion

Alacritty is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a terminal emulator that prioritizes speed and simplicity. By following this guide, you should have Alacritty up and running in no time. You can further tweak the configuration to suit your workflow and make the most of its performance capabilities.