FAQ

How does it differ from sysz?

sysz is a beautiful, light-weight TUI for systemctl based on fzf and bash. sysz was the inspiration for isd and has proven to be great reference material.

The main difference is that isd is stateful and allows to quickly chain multiple action together. For example, within one isd session one can search for the desired unit, edit it with the favorite editor, restart the unit, and view the journal output. sysz closes after every action. Plus, isd allows for more customization.

Why is isd so big?

At its core, isd is a Python application. As such, it requires a Python interpreter to run and this alone contributes to around 40 MB of the total installation size.

For the self-contained AppImage installation, there is no way to minimize the size. For the nix and uv installations, the same Python interpreter may be re-used by other applications, which may amortize the size across multiple installations.

If you are looking for a more light-weight solution, albeit with fewer features, have a look at sysz.

How do I copy text?

Running isd puts the terminal into the application mode which disables clicking and dragging to select text. Most terminal emulators offer a modifier key which you can hold while you click and drag to restore the behavior you may expect from the command line. The exact modifier key depends on the terminal and platform you are running on.

• Ghostty: Hold the Shift key.
• iTerm: Hold the Option key.
• Gnome Terminal: Hold the Shift key.
• Windows Terminal: Hold the Shift key.

Refer to the documentation for your terminal emulator, if it is not listed above.

Documentation snippet from the upstream documentation: https://textual.textualize.io/FAQ/#how-can-i-select-and-copy-text-in-a-textual-app

Copying more than a single line

One current limitation is that all rendered items are included in the text selection and copy buffer. Currently, the recommendation is to open the preview in the pager or editor and to copy the text from there. Usability enhancements for interacting with the preview window do not have a high priority at the moment, since a pager/editor can be launched with a single key press.

What are the security implications?

For a detailed description of possible security implications, take a look at the Security page.

Why can't I interact with the preview window?

At the time of writing, I believe that by limiting the possible interactions with the preview window one is more inclined towards using the pager or editor. These tools were purposefully build to navigate text and isd tries not to reinvent the wheel. I fear that by starting to add more "interactive features" to the preview window, feature creep would start.

Nah, I should really add support for basic scrolling.