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[Linux] tty-clock: A Tool For Displaying Electronic Clock Time On Terminal

Last Updated on 2024-08-14 by Clay

Introduction

I often use my computer to watch full-screen videos and need to promptly return to work mode when the time comes — but embarrassingly, I don't like constantly picking up my phone to check the current time, as it's quite inconvenient.

I once used the watch -n 1 date command on another screen to continuously display the current time, allowing me to glance over at it whenever needed; however, this display method was not very aesthetic, and the font was quite small.

Eventually, I found a small terminal tool for displaying the clock: tty-clock. This is, so far, the most satisfying solution I've used.


Installation

sudo apt install tty-clock


Simply using the tty-clock command can display the time in the terminal. There are also several standard operations, such as adding the -s parameter to display seconds, centering the clock by pressing C after entering, and changing the color using the number keys [0-7]... etc.


How to Use

Commands

       tty-clock  accepts  a number of runtime keyboard commands, upper and lower case characters
       are treated identically.

       K,J,H,L
              vi-style movement commands to set the  position  of  the  displayed  clock.   These
              commands have no effect when the centered option is set.

       [0-7]  Select a different color for displaying the clock.

       B      Toggles bewteen bold and normal colors.

       X      Toggles displaying a box around the clock. This option is disabled by default.

       C      Toggle  the  clock's  position  to  centered.   When  set the movement commands are
              disabled.

       R      Set the clock to rebound along the edges of the terminal.

       S      Display seconds.

       T      Switch time output to the 12-hour format.

       Q      Quit.


Options

       -s     Show seconds.

       -S     Screensaver mode. tty-clock terminates when any key is pressed.

       -x     Show box.

       -c     Set the clock at the center of the terminal.

       -C [0-7]
              Set the clock color.

       -b     Use bold colors.

       -t     Set the hour in 12h format.

       -u     Use UTC time.

       -T tty Display the clock on the given tty. tty must be a valid character device  to  which
              the user has rw access permissions.  (See EXAMPLES)

       -r     Do rebound the clock.

       -f format
              Set the date format as described in strftime(3).

       -n     Do not quit the program when the Q key is pressed (or when any key is pressed while
              in Screensaver mode). A signal must be sent to tty-clock in order to terminate  its
              execution. (See EXAMPLES)

       -v     Show tty-clock version.

       -i     Show some info about tty-clock.

       -h     Show usage information.

       -D     Hide the date.

       -B     Enable blinking colon.

       -d delay
              Set the delay (in seconds) between two redraws of the clock. Default 1s.

       -a nsdelay
              Additional delay (in nanoseconds) between two redraws of the clock. Default 0ns.



References


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