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Similar tool: https://asciinema.org/

It does not generate a GIF file, but can be easily published on the web. The recorded terminal session is clipboard friendly: you can select and copy.




I love asciinema. A key difference between these two tools seems to be that asciinema records a human using the terminal, whereas VHS generates output based on a list of steps to execute.

I can see VHS being nicer than asciinema for a lot of applications, since you can avoid typos and fumbling, and you can easily re-render the same output with different settings.


I've started using demo-magic [1] to automate my asciinema recorded demos, not perfect but it gets the job done. VHS does look excellent however and I'll definitely be giving it a go the next time I need to record anything.

[1] https://github.com/paxtonhare/demo-magic


> It does not generate a GIF file,...

Although it's separate, the creator(s) does provide a utility called `agg`[0] to convert asciicast files to GIF. The GitHub appears to provide prebuilt binaries in Releases, but it's easily built using Cargo/Rust too.

0: https://github.com/asciinema/agg


But that kind of defeats the purpose, no? If I'm going to record asciinema to convert to GIF, why not just record the terminal to GIF directly?


You may want to edit the timing maybe? Or provide an asciicast format where you can run JS (your blog or site) and a gif where you can only insert a picture, like social networks.


You can't edit the timing with asciinema though, as far as I know.


It's possible. The file format is JSONL, you just need to export the raw version before uploading.


To generate GIFs use: https://github.com/dstein64/gifcast Works in the browser and locally. No install needed.



do you still have to go to asciinema.org to view them? that always rubbed me the wrong way, whether it was a requirement or just the dominant preference.


You can record and play cast files offline easily. You can also embed an asciinema js player [1] on your own site to play casts.

[1]: https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema-player


The publishing is why I've avoided asciinema. Very easy to publish secrets. Can't easily share them around as an image either.




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