Rust Cli Crossterm

Crossterm is a terminal library for Rust, which provides an easy-to-use interface for writing terminal applications in Rust.

To start the application, you can use the following command:

cargo run

Code

Adding the crossterm dependency to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
crossterm = "0.27.0"

Now let’s add a basic Hello World program to our project (a hello world for cli):

use crossterm::{
    execute,
    style::{Color, Print, ResetColor, SetForegroundColor},
    terminal,
    cursor,
};

fn main() {
    // Setup terminal
    execute!(
        std::io::stdout(),
        cursor::Hide
    )
    .expect("Failed to enter alternate screen");

    // Ask for user's name
    print!("Enter your name: ");
    std::io::Write::flush(&mut std::io::stdout()).unwrap();

    let mut name = String::new();
    std::io::stdin()
        .read_line(&mut name)
        .expect("Failed to read line");

    // Greet the user
    execute!(
        std::io::stdout(),
        SetForegroundColor(Color::Yellow),
        Print(format!("Hello, {}!\n", name.trim())),
        ResetColor,
        cursor::Show,
    )
    .expect("Failed to execute commands");

    // Cleanup
    terminal::disable_raw_mode().expect("Failed to disable raw mode");
}

Explaining the code:

First, we import the crossterm crate.
Next, we create a function called main that will be called when the application is started.
Inside the function, we setup the terminal.
Then, we ask the user’s name.
Then, we greet the user.
Finally, we cleanup the terminal.

Conclusion

Crossterm is a terminal library for Rust, which provides an easy-to-use interface for writing terminal applications in Rust.