Getting started
wiki-tui is a simple and easy-to-use Wikipedia text user interface written in rust. The package already is in a few package repositories with more coming but you can also compile it from source if you want.
Installation
After installing wiki-tui with your preferred method you can start it with wiki-tui.
Nix
You can find the package in the nixpkgs repository. Either install it with
nix-env -iA wiki-tui
Get it temporarily to try it out
nix-shell -p wiki-tui
Or add it to your configuration.
AUR
The package is available in the AUR. Either install it with makepkg manually or use the preferred AUR helper.
NetBSD
Using the package manager
pkgin install wiki-tui
Building from source
cd /usr/pkgsrc/www/wiki-tui
make install
FreeBSD
Using the package manager
pkg install wiki-tui
Building from source
cd /usr/ports/www/wiki-tui/
make install clean
Cargo
If wiki-tui cannot be installed with your package manager, you can also install it with cargo. There are no extra dependencies (except rust of course).
cargo install wiki-tui
If you want, you can also use the latest development version from GitHub (can be unstable)
cargo install --git https://github.com/builditluc/wiki-tui
When you install wiki-tui with cargo, you can choose what kind of backend (this is what the UI library cursive uses to draw to the screen and interface with the terminal) is being used. You can select a different backend (the default one is crossterm) by modifying
the installation command
The following backends are available:
Uses the pure-rust crossterm library. Works cross-platform, even for windows systems down to version 7
Install command
cargo install wiki-tui --no-default-features --features crossterm-backend
Uses the pure-rust termion library. Works on Linux, macOS, and Redox
Install command
cargo install wiki-tui --no-default-features --features termion-backend
Uses the ncurses-rs library directly. Currently only compatible on Linux and macOS. Requires ncurses to be installed on the system
Warning
The ncurses backend doesn't support true colors (which is the full RGB color spectrum with 255 values per channel). What that means is the configured colors won't be displayed correctly and depend on your terminal theme
Install command
cargo install wiki-tui --no-default-features --features ncurses-backend
Uses the pancurses library, which forwards calls to ncurses-rs on Linux/macOS or pdcurses-sys on Windows
Warning
The pancurses backend doesn't support true colors (which is the full RGB color spectrum with 255 values per channel). What that means is the configured colors won't be displayed correctly and depend on your terminal theme
cargo install wiki-tui --no-default-features --features pancurses-backend
Uses the cross-platform BearLibTerminal.rs binding. Works on Linux and Windows.
Note
BearLibTerminal is a graphical application emulating a terminal. There is an archlinux package, or you can download a release
cargo install wiki-tui --no-default-features --features blt-backend
Info
The description of the available backends was taken from the corresponding wiki page of the cursive library (wiki-tui uses cursive for the ui).
Git
wiki-tui can be directly used from the GitHub repository by cloning it into a folder on your system and compiling it from source. This can be useful if you want to try out the latest version without installing it directly on your system.
git clone https://github.com/Builditluc/wiki-tui.git
git clone git@github.com:Builditluc/wiki-tui.git
gh repo clone Builditluc/wiki-tui
External Dependencies of different backends
When trying out a different backend, check if the backend requires any external dependencies
Created: June 22, 2022