butterfly – web terminal based on websocket and tornado

Last Updated on February 22, 2021

In Operation

Type butterfly and a new tab appears in your default web browser¹.

As the image above shows, the session is not secure. We certainly recommend that you use secure authentication when using butterfly. The software lets you use X.509 certificates². Once you have secured the session, you might want to use multiple sessions support. This lets you access a terminal from different places.

There’s support for 24 bit color and the web terminal is compatible with xterm.

What else does the software offer?

• Native browser scroll and search;
• Theming in css / sass (20 preset themes);
• HTML in your terminal! cat images and use;
• Keyboard text selection;
• Desktop notifications on terminal output;
• Geolocation from browser.

¹ Naturally it’s possible to change your default web browser. The method is distro-specific. For example, on Ubuntu, we can set the default web browser by:

• Open the Activities overview and start typing Default Applications.
• Click on Default Applications to open the panel.
• Choose which web browser you would like to open links by changing the Web option.

² In cryptography, X.509 is a standard defining the format of public key certificates. X.509 certificates are used in many Internet protocols, including TLS/SSL, which is the basis for HTTPS, the secure protocol for browsing the web.

Next page: Page 3 – Summary

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Summary