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lanternterminal:capabilities

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Capabilities — 0.3.1

Included

  • C++/Qt desktop application, immediate System/Light/Dark theme selection with readable wizard pages, dockable navigation/command/activity panes, toolbar and button bar.
  • Saved session folders, filtering, natural/alphabetical/manual ordering, remembered expanded folders, stable-ID desktop shortcuts, create/edit/rename/cut/copy/paste/delete, bulk edits of changed fields, quick connections and default-session settings.
  • Linux PTY and Windows ConPTY process backends; interactive local shells; SSH2 and SFTP through OpenSSH; raw TCP; Telnet terminal-type/window-size negotiation; serial ports and format/flow/break controls.
  • Per-profile SSH host trust, key authentication, terminal password/challenge prompts, jump/proxy commands, configurable algorithms, compression, agent/X11 forwarding and local/remote/dynamic forwards. Actual provider/agent/X11 availability depends on the OS and server.
  • VT220/Xterm terminal engine with ANSI/256/true colour, Unicode, alternate screens, cursor/key modes, mouse tracking, scrollback, selection/copy/paste, search, font zoom, input mappings, temporary and configured keyword highlighting.
  • Tabs, horizontal/vertical group splits, tab rename/reset/clone/reorder, move-to-next-group, active-session list and password-protected local session locking.
  • Workspace snapshots, scoped command broadcasting, saved commands with script arguments and validated cut/copy/paste, named button bars with ordered buttons, copy/rename/delete, global and per-session selection, text/raw logging, timestamps/templates, pause/resume and rotation; text/binary terminal sends; interactive SFTP transfers.
  • Explicit optional TFTP server with roots, client restrictions, overwrite policy, block-size negotiation and octet-mode transfer. It is stopped by default. Privileged UDP ports may require OS permissions; an unprivileged port can be selected.
  • Python and bundled Lua 5.4.9 automation with a local authenticated application API, prompt waits/capture, tab/configuration/logging access and cancellation; editable Python/Lua send-action recording.
  • Key-generation/agent command launchers, host-trust editor, named credential metadata, native JSON/XML export/import and simple text session import; printing through the OS.
  • Linux Debian installer, Windows user installer/portable ZIP, complete source package and build scripts.

Limits and compatibility work

This release does not implement every item in the comprehensive specification. The following are explicit limits:

  • Legacy SSH1, RLogin, TN3270, TVI/WYSE/SCO-specific emulation, RDP/TAPI, Telnet/TLS and integrated graphical FTP/S3 browsers are not included. The core terminal engine is VT220/Xterm-compatible; changing its advertised terminal type is not a promise of every legacy emulator's behaviour.
  • Kermit/X/Y/Zmodem transfers and terminal pass-through/raw printer emulation are not included. Use SFTP or terminal text/binary sends. TFTP supports octet mode, not netascii.
  • Session cloning uses independent connections; SSH transport multiplexing, drag-to-detach into a separate application window, arbitrary nested split trees and some tab-indicator customisation remain to be implemented.
  • Command/bar clipboard interchange is included. Live-character broadcast mode and full per-button appearance customisation remain to be implemented. Named bars reference shared command definitions; copying commands creates independent definitions.
  • Saved credentials currently store username/key-file metadata; passwords remain terminal prompts and are not saved. Vault adapter code is present but a full saved-password authentication UI is not included. Optional certificate/provider/GSSAPI support is supplied by the installed OpenSSH client and must be tested with that provider.
  • Recording creates send-action Python or Lua skeletons. It does not infer reliable expected prompts or automatically redact every arbitrary secret typed as ordinary terminal data. Edit recordings before retaining/sharing them.
  • The implemented interfaces are listed in SCRIPTING-GUIDE.md and LUA-SCRIPTING.md. The larger SCRIPTING-API.md contract contains additional members for future implementation. Lua prompt capture is synchronous; setting Synchronous=false is rejected. Third-party Lua binary modules are not bundled. Scripts run with the current user’s privileges and must be trusted.
  • Not all advanced global/session controls from OPTIONS-CATALOGUE.md are surfaced. The application presents the controls its current implementation handles; the catalogue and SPECIFICATION.md retain the fuller product contract.
  • Physical serial flow-control lines, X11/provider/certificate/GSSAPI integrations, physical printers and physical Windows hardware require dedicated target testing. A Wine launch is a Windows binary/packaging smoke test, not validation of all those integrations.

Runtime packaging

Both platforms include the statically linked Lua worker; a separate Lua installation, LuaSocket or Python is not required for Lua scripts.

Linux uses distribution OpenSSH/Python and dynamically linked Qt libraries. The supplied .deb declares its actual dependencies and targets the build distribution.

Windows packages include Qt plugins/compiler runtimes, Python 3.14.10 and portable OpenSSH tools. When Windows already supplies OpenSSH, the application prefers that system client. The bundled fallback is Microsoft's 10.4.0.0p1 Preview build; its preview status is retained here rather than described as a stable OS component. No SSH server service is installed. Users can replace the tools through an updated compatible distribution.

The Windows SSH diagnostic trace uses a private temporary directory and a regular file whose creation handle is released before OpenSSH starts. Failed trace creation reports an error before connection startup.

See TEST-RESULTS.md for the checks actually performed on this release.

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lanternterminal/capabilities.1794108817.txt.gz · Last modified: by slaterm