marquee

A command-line tool to scroll multi-line text and ASCII art across your terminal.

Features

• Multi-line Support: Scrolls entire blocks of text, like ASCII art, while preserving the layout.
• ANSI Color Parsing: Correctly interprets and displays embedded ANSI color codes from the input.
• Customizable Animation: Control the scroll direction, speed, and number of repetitions.
• Flexible Input: Accepts text from command-line arguments or piped from stdin.
• Advanced Options: Includes long options (e.g., --count), flexible argument order, and an sl-inspired "accident" mode that ignores interrupts.

Installation

Follow these steps to clone and compile the project.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/agtkh/marquee.git
cd marquee

2. Install Dependencies You will need a C compiler (gcc or clang), make, and the ncurses development library.

• On Debian / Ubuntu:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install build-essential libncurses-dev

• On Red Hat / CentOS / Rocky Linux:

  sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
  sudo yum install ncurses-devel

• On macOS (using Homebrew):

  # Install Command Line Tools if you haven't already
  xcode-select --install
  
  # Install ncurses via Homebrew
  brew install ncurses

3. Compile Simply run make in the project directory.

make

The executable marquee will be created in the current directory.

4. Install To install the marquee executable to /usr/local/bin, run:

sudo make install

5. Uninstall To remove the marquee executable from /usr/local/bin, run:

sudo make uninstall

Usage

The program's help message provides a complete list of options.

$ ./marquee --help

Usage: ./marquee [text...] [OPTIONS]

Displays multi-line text as a scrolling marquee in the terminal.
Text can be provided as arguments (use $'...' for newlines), or piped via stdin.

OPTIONS:
  -c, --count <n>      Scroll <n> times. (Default: 1)
  -s, --speed <usec>   Set animation delay in microseconds. (Default: 100000)
  -r, --reverse        Scroll from left to right.
  -l, --loop           Scroll infinitely.
  -a, --accident       Ignore Ctrl-C interruptions.
  -h, --help           Display this help message and exit.

Examples

Here are more examples demonstrating the different ways you can use marquee.

1. Scrolling Simple Text

The most basic usage: scrolling text once from right to left (default behavior).

Command:

./marquee "Hello, terminal!"

Expected Behavior: The phrase "Hello, terminal!" will scroll across your terminal from the right edge to the left and then the program will exit.

2. Looping Text with Adjusted Speed

Use the --loop option (-l) to make the text scroll continuously, and --speed (-s) to control the delay between steps (in microseconds).

Command:

./marquee --loop --speed 150000 "Scrolling slowly and continuously..."

Expected Behavior: The text will scroll from right to left repeatedly at a slightly slower pace. You'll need to press q to exit.

3. Scrolling from Left to Right

The --reverse option (-r) changes the scrolling direction.

Command:

./marquee --loop --reverse "Moving from left to right"

Expected Behavior: The text will scroll from the left edge of your terminal to the right repeatedly. Press q to stop.

4. Scrolling Multiple Times

The --count option (-c) specifies how many times the text should scroll across the screen.

Command:

./marquee --count 2 "Scroll twice"

Expected Behavior: The phrase "Scroll twice" will scroll from right to left two times, and then the program will automatically exit.

5. Using Multi-line Text from Arguments

You can use the $'' syntax in your shell to provide multi-line text as a command-line argument.

Command:

./marquee $'First Line\n  Second Line\nThird Line' --loop

Expected Behavior: The three lines of text will scroll together as a block from right to left continuously. Press q to exit.

6. Displaying Colored Text

If your terminal supports ANSI escape codes for colors, marquee will interpret them.

Command:

echo -e "\x1b[31mRed Text\x1b[0m and \x1b[32mGreen Text\x1b[0m" | ./marquee --loop

Expected Behavior: The text will scroll with "Red Text" displayed in red and "Green Text" in green. Press q to stop.

7. Scrolling ASCII Art with Controlled Speed

Combine multi-line input (often from tools like figlet) with speed control.

Command:

figlet -f banner "MARQUEE" | ./marquee --loop --speed 180000

Expected Behavior: The large ASCII art banner for "MARQUEE" will scroll from right to left repeatedly at a slower speed. Press q to exit.

8. Ignoring Interrupts (Accident Mode)

The --accident option (-a) makes the program ignore Ctrl+C interrupts for the duration of one scroll. This is a playful nod to the sl command.

Command:

./marquee --accident "Try to stop me with Ctrl-C!"

Expected Behavior: The text will scroll once from right to left. During the scroll, pressing Ctrl+C will have no effect. The program will exit automatically after the scroll is complete.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.