Saltbush Terminal: version history

• Copy Public Key to Server: like ssh-copy-id, from the Tools menu, the session's right-click menu or the key generator. See Copy Public Key to Server.

• Clearer window edges: windows inside Saltbush have a darker border and a shadow, the SFTP browser's two sides are each in an outlined box, and each new browser opens offset from the last.

Tried on real computers: tear-off tabs and RDP sessions (new in 1.8.0) have been tried on a Linux desktop and on Windows with several monitors, including two RDP sessions at once.

• Tear-off tabs on Windows with several monitors: a tab dragged out could open its window off the screen (it looked minimised), and dragging it back often did not dock. Window positions are now worked out in screen pixels, and a new window opens where the tab was dropped.

Not yet tested on a real computer: tear-off tabs and RDP sessions are new in 1.8.0. They have only been tested with automated tests and on a virtual X display, not yet on a real Windows or Linux computer.

• Tear-off tabs: drag a tab out to give it its own window, and dock it back with Dock to Main Window, by closing the window or by dragging it onto the tab bar (not on Wayland). See Tear-off tabs.
• RDP sessions (Windows Remote Desktop) in a tab, built on IronRDP: TLS with Network Level Authentication, fit-to-tab resizing, keyboard and mouse, text clipboard, certificate check, and optionally the system RDP program. See RDP.

• Terminal-only actions are greyed out or explain that they are not available on RDP tabs.
• The program is about 7 MB larger.

• Function keys: F1 Help, F2 Session Options, F3 / Shift+F3 Find next / previous, F4 Quick Connect, F5 Reconnect, F6 next split pane, F7 SFTP Browser, F8 send a file, F9 start/stop logging, F11 full screen, F12 Script → Run, Shift+F12 cancel the script, Ctrl+F12 run the last script again. F10 stays with the remote program; Alt+F1 to Alt+F12 send the plain key, and the Input page option Function keys go to the remote program gives them all back. Key mappings win.
• Script → Run remembers the last script, its arguments and folder after a restart.
• After an update, Restart Now brings the window back as it was (size, position except on Wayland, maximised, minimised, full screen); size and maximised state are also remembered between normal starts.
• Highlighting and Key Mappings are edited in tables.
• Sync between computers through a shared folder (see Sync).
• SSH: jump hosts and Ed25519 certificates in the built-in engine, about 40 OpenSSH -o options handled by it, and Use FIPS-approved algorithms only.
• Terminal: sixel graphics, double-width and double-height lines, left/right margins, real 132-column mode, selective erase and 8-bit C1 controls.
• macOS support in the source and scripts/build-macos.sh (not yet tried on a Mac).

• Menu paths in labels use “>” and the Button Bars dialog has Up and Remove buttons (the interface font has no arrow characters).
• With ServerAliveCountMax, a session whose server stops answering keepalives is closed.
• A host key of a different type than the one in known_hosts gets the normal new-host question instead of the changed-key refusal.

• Scripts ran slowly, especially SyncTERM-Lua bots such as lordbot.lua, and almost stopped while the window was minimised or hidden: every script request waited for the window to draw its next frame. Requests are now answered by a background thread, and waits for text return as soon as text arrives. A full-screen read (as lordbot.lua does after each move) went from about 0.37 s to under 0.02 s on a test display.
• Text in the Activity pane could not be copied while a script was writing to it. The selection now stays as lines arrive, Ctrl+C copies it after you click or drag in the pane, and right-click offers Copy and Copy All. A Copy All button was added.

• SFTP browser: two panes, this computer on the left and the server on the right. Upload » and « Download copy the selected files and folders across; double-clicking a file copies it to the other side. New Folder, Rename and Delete work on both sides (deleting on this computer asks first and is permanent). Shift+click selects a range.
• Interrupted transfers resume: an unfinished download is kept as name.part on this computer and an unfinished upload as name.part on the server. Sending the same file again continues where it stopped, as long as the original has not changed since.
• Permissions…: tick read, write and run for owner, group and others on the selected server files and folders.
• Transfers keep the file's modification time. Uploads from Linux keep the file's permissions.

• The local pane replaces the Upload Files… and Upload Folder… buttons and the download folder chooser. Downloads go to the folder shown on the left, which starts at the session's download folder. Dropping files on the window still uploads them.

• Update notifications: once a day Saltbush checks the website and says when a new version is out, with Update Now, Not Now and Skip This Version. Update Now installs the new Debian package (asks for your password) or runs the new Windows installer; other copies open the download page. Help → Check for Updates… checks at any time. On by default; turn it off in the update window or Options → Global Options. See Updates.

• Pasting on Wayland desktops (KDE Plasma and others): Edit → Paste, the right-click menu, the toolbar button, Shift+Insert, middle-click and script clipboard reads pasted nothing; only Ctrl+Shift+V worked. They now read the Wayland clipboard.

• SSH: the built-in engine now does X11 forwarding (fake cookie swapped locally; untrusted mode uses an xauth untrusted cookie like ssh -X), agent forwarding (Linux), OpenSSH certificate logins (RSA and ECDSA), Kerberos (GSSAPI) logins with optional credential delegation, and compression. These no longer need the OpenSSH client.
• Tools → SSH Agent: list the agent's keys, add key files (passphrase, lifetime, confirm-on-use), add or remove smartcard/token keys through PKCS#11, remove one or all keys, lock and unlock, and start an agent for Saltbush's sessions (stopped when Saltbush exits).
• SFTP browser: Transfer → SFTP Browser or right-click an SSH session. Browse folders, upload files and folders (or drop them on the window), download, new folder, rename, delete, progress and Cancel. Login questions appear in the window.
• Built-in Xmodem (checksum, CRC, 1K), Ymodem batch and Kermit (long packets, CRC, 8th-bit prefixing, repeat counts) uploads and downloads, on Linux and Windows. Kermit downloads start by themselves. The lrzsz programs are no longer needed.
• Terminal emulation: DEC Special Graphics and G0–G3 character sets, tab stops (HTS, TBC, CHT, CBT), IND/NEL, DECALN, REP, CNL/CPL, HPA/HPR/VPR/HVP, insert and newline modes, auto-wrap control (the “Wrap long terminal lines” option now works), reverse-video screen, alternate screen 1047/1048, DECSTR soft reset, ED 3, cursor shapes set by programs (DECSCUSR), dim, hidden and strikethrough text, VT220 and xterm device-attribute replies and mode reports (DECRQM). IL/DL respect the scroll region.
• New terminal types Wyse 60 and SCO ANSI, with their own keys; VT220 sessions send VT220 function and editing keys.
• Split panes: View → Split Left/Right (Ctrl+Shift+E) and Split Top/Bottom (Ctrl+Shift+O) show several sessions at once. Click a pane to give it the keyboard; drag the divider to resize. A tab chosen in the tab bar shows in the active pane, or its pane becomes active if it is already on screen. View → Close Pane and Single Pane undo the split. Each pane's terminal gets its own size.
• Linux: the Debian package now includes AppStream information, so Saltbush Terminal shows up in Discover and other software centres after it is installed.

• X/Ymodem use the built-in engines instead of lrzsz; the package no longer recommends lrzsz.

• Lua regex.find, regex.match, expect_regex and on(…, 'regex') now accept PCRE features (lookahead, lookbehind, back-references, inline flags) as SyncTERM-Lua does. lordbot.lua and twbot.lua stopped with a “bad regex” error.

• Windows version: installer (per user, Start menu shortcut, uninstaller) and a portable zip. Built-in SSH, scripting (Python and Lua), Telnet, RLogin, serial (COM ports), local shells (PowerShell or cmd) and Zmodem work on Windows; credential passwords use Windows Credential Manager.
• Built-in Zmodem (ported from Lantern Terminal's engine), used on Linux and Windows. Downloads still start by themselves; uploads start when the host is ready to receive.
• A program icon of its own (taskbar, window list, menus, the Windows exe and installer).

• Each tab now has its close button inside it (middle-click also closes a tab).

• Lua scripts did not have the standard debug library (SyncTERM-Lua and Lantern scripts may use it).
• High CPU use: the built-in SSH engine busy-waited for data, and the window redrew itself continuously. An idle window now uses almost no CPU.
• Scripts could connect to the session's port instead of the application when a session had a port number set (the variable names clashed).

1.3.1 was the first public release. Earlier builds were private test versions.