From 6443e726a61ef6e710b588de34cb62fb5acdd574 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Kovid Goyal Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2020 07:42:47 +0530 Subject: [PATCH] Add a note about how the query_terminal kitten works --- docs/kittens/query_terminal.rst | 10 ++++++++++ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/kittens/query_terminal.rst b/docs/kittens/query_terminal.rst index 26798d9f6..bdd6f0e34 100644 --- a/docs/kittens/query_terminal.rst +++ b/docs/kittens/query_terminal.rst @@ -4,6 +4,16 @@ Query terminal Used to query kitty from terminal programs about version, values of various runtime options controlling its features, etc. +The querying is done using the (*semi*) standard XTGETTCAP escape sequence +pioneered by XTerm, so it works over SSH as well. The downside is that it +is slow, since it requires a roundtrip to the terminal emulator and back. + +If you want to do some of the same querying in your terminal program without +depending on the kitten, you can do so, by processing the same escape codes. +Search `this page `_ +for *XTGETTCAP* to see the syntax for the escape code and read the source +of this kitten to find the values of the keys for the various queries. + Command Line Interface -------------------------