Quickstart
Record a command, render it differently, and pull out a screenshot.
In a few minutes, you'll record a program, then render that recording in several ways without running it again.
Record something
reel rec runs a command in this terminal, and records it. Use any program you like, or leave out the command to record your shell. Drop a mark with ctrl+] then m at a point you'd like to find later, and quit the program to stop.
$ reel rec -o demo.cast -- htop
reel: recording htop (80x24); ctrl+] m drops a mark; exit the program to stopdemo.cast is the whole recording, in asciicast format. It's only text, and small.
Look at it
reel info describes a recording. Here's one from this site:
$ reel info public/casts/cli-tour.cast
title tea shop
size 72x16
duration 6.877s
events 3 annotation · 20 input · 8 mark · 46 output
marks 1.089s browse:start
1.711s filter:start
2.474s filter:typed
2.785s filter:done
3.096s brew:start
4.314s brew:done
6.816s brew:toasted
6.877s tape:end
annotations 3 reel.queryreel play demo.cast replays it in this terminal. Press q or ctrl+c to stop.
Render it
reel export draws a recording. The extension of each -o picks the format:
reel export demo.cast -o demo.gif
reel export demo.cast -o demo.webp --chrome --keys --pause
--chrome draws a title bar, --keys shows the keys pressed, and --pause pauses at the end.
Cut it
Mark labels name moments you can cut at. To render only what happened after a mark:
reel export demo.cast --between mark:1, -o end.gifThe comma separates the start from the end, and an empty one means the end of the recording. Check reel info for your marks' labels.
Take a screenshot
reel still renders one moment, at a mark or a time:
reel still demo.cast --at 3.2s -o shot.png
reel still demo.cast --at 3.2s -o shot.snapA .png is an image, and .snap is the screen's text.
Next
- Script the recording with a tape, so you can regenerate it.
- See what flags can do to how it looks.
- Open it in the inspector to look through it event by event.
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