Rewindtty – Record and replay terminal sessions as structured JSON

A terminal session recorder and replayer written in C that allows you to capture and replay terminal sessions with precise timing.

• Record terminal sessions: Capture all terminal input/output with accurate timing information
• Replay sessions: Play back recorded sessions with original timing
• JSON format: Sessions are stored in a structured JSON format for easy parsing
• Signal handling: Graceful shutdown and file closure on interruption
• Lightweight: Minimal dependencies, written in pure C

• GCC compiler
• GNU Make
• Standard C library with GNU extensions

This will create the executable at build/rewindtty.

To clean build artifacts:

To start recording a terminal session:

This will create a new session file (defaults to data/session.json if no file is specified) and begin capturing all terminal activity.

To replay a previously recorded session:

This will read the session file (defaults to data/session.json if no file is specified) and replay it with the original timing.

Sessions are stored in JSON format in the data/session.json file. The format captures timing information and terminal data to enable accurate replay.

The recorder handles interruption signals (like Ctrl+C) gracefully by:

• Closing the session file properly
• Writing the final JSON structure
• Cleaning up resources before exit

The project uses the following GCC flags:

• -Wall -Wextra: Enable comprehensive warnings
• -std=gnu99: Use GNU C99 standard
• -g: Include debugging symbols

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Test thoroughly
5. Submit a pull request

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

Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Debernardi

• Uses standard POSIX system calls for terminal interaction
• Implements proper signal handling for clean shutdown
• JSON output format enables integration with other tools
• Minimal memory footprint and dependencies