iTerm2

• iTerm2 is a macOS terminal emulator and replacement for Terminal.app
  • The dominant terminal on macOS for many years, known for its deep macOS integration and extensive feature set
  • Forked from the original iTerm (2002) by Fabian Kaiser; rewritten and greatly expanded by Person/George Nachman

  • Platform

    • macOS only — no Linux or Windows support

  • Language

    • Objective-C with some Swift; built on macOS native frameworks (AppKit)

  • Image Protocol

    • Invented the iTerm2/Image/Protocol (also called "inline images protocol"), which many other terminals have since adopted
    • See iTerm2/Image/Protocol for implementation details

  • Nix

    • Available in nixpkgs as pkgs.iterm2
    • No programs.iterm2 home-manager module — macOS-only, so configuration is handled via nix-darwin or by managing the com.googlecode.iterm2 plist directly
    • Settings can be exported/imported via a .itermocol profile file and committed to a dotfiles repo

  • Notable Features

    • Shell integration (marks, command history, recent directories)
    • Split panes, tabs, window arrangements
    • tmux integration mode (tmux -CC)
    • Inline image display via iTerm2/Image/Protocol
    • Trigger-based automation