starred/asciinema

Fork 0

mirror of https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema.git synced 2026-04-25 16:05:52 +03:00

[GH-ISSUE #321] Feature Request: add "pause" control to record action #827

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-03-15 10:37:57 +03:00 by kerem · 11 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:37:57 +03:00

Owner

Originally created by @yuvalif on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema/issues/321

When recording, sometimes you want to pause the recording, and then continue.

Originally created by @yuvalif on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema/issues/321 When recording, sometimes you want to pause the recording, and then continue.

kerem closed this issue

2026-03-15 10:38:02 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:08 +03:00

Author

Owner

@just4t commented on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018):

You can set an idle_time_limit in a custom file /root/.config/asciinema/config as follows (this would save you to record the delay times while typing your terminal entries, making the playback 'waiting' times reduced to max. 2 seconds) :

[record]
; Limit recorded terminal inactivity to max n seconds, default: off
idle_time_limit = 2

Recommended to read the docs. about for more info. + other options available.

Hope this helps.

@just4t commented on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018): You can set an _idle_time_limit_ in a custom file _/root/.config/asciinema/config_ as follows (this would save you to record the delay times while typing your terminal entries, making the playback 'waiting' times reduced to max. 2 seconds) : ``` [record] ; Limit recorded terminal inactivity to max n seconds, default: off idle_time_limit = 2 ``` Recommended [to read the docs.](https://asciinema.org/docs/config) about for more info. + other options available. Hope this helps.

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:13 +03:00

Author

Owner

@yuvalif commented on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018):

@just4t thanks for the answer. This will help in some cases, but not when i want to actually skip in the recording parts that are printed to the terminal (e.g. booting of a virtual machine).

@yuvalif commented on GitHub (Sep 6, 2018): @just4t thanks for the answer. This will help in some cases, but not when i want to actually skip in the recording parts that are printed to the terminal (e.g. booting of a virtual machine).

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:18 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Nov 16, 2018):

That's a good use case. We could implement pause/unpause via a keyboard shortcut, for ex: <ctrl-p> or similar.

It would probably be good to have some indicator/confirmation that you actually paused/unpaused, otherwise you would never be sure.

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Nov 16, 2018): That's a good use case. We could implement pause/unpause via a keyboard shortcut, for ex: `<ctrl-p>` or similar. It would probably be good to have some indicator/confirmation that you actually paused/unpaused, otherwise you would never be sure.

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:23 +03:00

Author

Owner

@vanyakosmos commented on GitHub (Dec 6, 2018):

The only thing I can imagine is that recorder could write play/pause status into some file and we will need to run something like watch -n 1 cat that_file.txt in separate tab in order to check that status.
But this approach looks kinda ugly...

Maybe we can add this feature as post processing step:

play recording in special "edit" mode
first character of each row will indicate state (play/pause), maybe with some color
on press we will pause recording and change first column to mark this pause
on second press we will continue recording and change first column again
when recording is finished we will cut off segments that were marked as pause

illustration:

+ echo recording...
+ echo still playing...
- echo this pause, it will not be present in final recording file
- echo this line too
+ echo and this line we will keep
- exit

@vanyakosmos commented on GitHub (Dec 6, 2018): The only thing I can imagine is that recorder could write play/pause status into some file and we will need to run something like `watch -n 1 cat that_file.txt` in separate tab in order to check that status. But this approach looks kinda ugly... Maybe we can add this feature as post processing step: - play recording in special "edit" mode - first character of each row will indicate state (play/pause), maybe with some color - on <key> press we will pause recording and change first column to mark this pause - on second <key> press we will continue recording and change first column again - when recording is finished we will cut off segments that were marked as pause illustration: ```diff + echo recording... + echo still playing... - echo this pause, it will not be present in final recording file - echo this line too + echo and this line we will keep - exit ```

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:28 +03:00

Author

Owner

@probonopd commented on GitHub (Dec 27, 2018):

You can set an idle_time_limit in a custom file /root/.config/asciinema/config

Can this be made the default please?

@probonopd commented on GitHub (Dec 27, 2018): > You can set an idle_time_limit in a custom file /root/.config/asciinema/config Can this be made the default please?

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:33 +03:00

Author

Owner

@fabianbaier commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2019):

Another workaround would be:

Start the recording via asciinema rec my.cast
On the part where you want to pause press CTRL+D to end the recording
When you are ready to resume use asciinema rec --append my.cast
Optional: You can edit the recording and e.g. remove certain bits and pieces by editing the my.cast afterwards with a text-editor

Watching your recording via asciinema play my.cast should show you a smooth video as if you hit the pause/resume buttons.

@fabianbaier commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2019): Another workaround would be: 1) Start the recording via `asciinema rec my.cast` 2) On the part where you want to **pause** press `CTRL+D` to end the recording 3) When you are ready to **resume** use `asciinema rec --append my.cast` Optional: You can edit the recording and e.g. remove certain bits and pieces by editing the `my.cast` afterwards with a text-editor Watching your recording via `asciinema play my.cast` should show you a smooth video as if you hit the pause/resume buttons.

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:38 +03:00

Author

Owner

@probonopd commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2019):

Not really, as I don't type with constant speed ;-)

@probonopd commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2019): Not really, as I don't type with constant speed ;-)

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:43 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Mar 2, 2019):

You can "burn" fixed idle time of existing recording by playing it inside new recording.

This one will save idle-time-limit in new recording's header line:

asciinema rec -i 2 -c "asciinema play existing.cast" new.cast

This one will actually adjust the timing of every print event:

asciinema rec -c "asciinema play -i 2 existing.cast" new.cast

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Mar 2, 2019): You can "burn" fixed idle time of existing recording by playing it inside new recording. This one will save idle-time-limit in new recording's header line: asciinema rec -i 2 -c "asciinema play existing.cast" new.cast This one will actually adjust the timing of every print event: asciinema rec -c "asciinema play -i 2 existing.cast" new.cast

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:48 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Mar 17, 2019):

I've opened PR #340 for recording pause feature. Please take a look, I think this is what @yuvalif had in mind when opening this issue.

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Mar 17, 2019): I've opened PR #340 for recording pause feature. Please take a look, I think this is what @yuvalif had in mind when opening this issue.

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:53 +03:00

Author

Owner

@stealthman22 commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019):

This pause feature if added will be the best.
Sometimes I am not too sure of what I am doing on the terminal (Like reading some docs to learn something), I should be able to pause and resume easily. It's intuitive

@stealthman22 commented on GitHub (Oct 22, 2019): This pause feature if added will be the best. Sometimes I am not too sure of what I am doing on the terminal (Like reading some docs to learn something), I should be able to pause and resume easily. It's intuitive

kerem commented

2026-03-15 10:38:59 +03:00

Author

Owner

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2021):

This has been solved with #340, will be relased shortly with v2.1.

@ku1ik commented on GitHub (Oct 2, 2021): This has been solved with #340, will be relased shortly with v2.1.