#+date: <2022-12-17 Sat 00:00:00>
#+title: Simple Terminal
#+description: 
#+slug: st

* st

[[https://st.suckless.org][st]] standards for Simple Terminal, a simple
terminal implementation for X made by the
[[https://suckless.org][suckless]] team.

This post walks through the dependencies needed and process to build and
install =st= on Fedora Workstation.

** Obtain Files

To start, obtain the source files for =st= via =git clone=.

#+begin_src sh
mkdir ~/suckless && cd ~/suckless
git clone https://git.suckless.org/st && cd st
#+end_src

** Dependencies

Once you have the files and are in the =st= directory, ensure the
following packages are installed.

#+begin_src sh
sudo dnf update && sudo dnf upgrade
sudo dnf install gcc patch libX11-devel libXft-devel
#+end_src

** Building

Before building, ensure that you read the README file.

#+begin_src sh
cat README
#+end_src

Once you've read the instructions, open the =config.mk= file and ensure
it matches your setup. If you're not sure, leave the default options
within the file.

Finally, you can build =st= with the following command. Ensure you run
as root (e.g., =sudo=) or else you may not end up with a usable
application file.

#+begin_src sh
sudo make clean install
#+end_src

** Customization (Patches)

Note that customizing =st= requires you to modify the source files or to
download one of the [[https://st.suckless.org/patches/][available
patches]] for suckless.org.

If you've already installed =st= and want to customize or install a
patch, start by uninstalling the current program.

#+begin_src sh
cd ~/suckless/st
sudo make uninstall
#+end_src

Next, grab the =<path>.diff= file from the page of the patch you chose.
For example, I will be using the
[[https://st.suckless.org/patches/defaultfontsize/][defaultfontsize]]
patch in the below example.

#+begin_src sh
wget https://st.suckless.org/patches/defaultfontsize/st-defaultfontsize-20210225-4ef0cbd.diff
#+end_src

Once the file is downloaded inside the =st= folder, apply the patch and
re-install the program. You may need to install the =patch= command if
you don't have it installed already (you should have installed it
above).

#+begin_src sh
patch -i st-defaultfontsize-20210225-4ef0cbd.diff
sudo make clean install
#+end_src

Once installed, you can use the default font size patch to launch =st=
with any font size you wish:

#+begin_src sh
st -z 16
#+end_src