Bashcaster

Bashcaster is a simple script that uses ffmpeg to record screencasts to videos or GIFs. It can record the whole screen or a window. It can optionally optimize GIFs with gifsicle.

Installation

Put bashcaster.sh wherever you want.

Requirements

Bashcaster only works on X-based GUIs. It should work on any Linux distro, and all common ones should have these tools available for installation:

• ffmpeg does all the work behind the scenes.
• xprop and xwininfo are used to retrieve screen and window dimensions.
• yad shows the stop-icon tray notification and confirmation dialogs.
• slop is used when available to select rectangles, otherwise a fallback method is used.
• gifsicle optionally optimizes GIFs.

Examples

Record a window to a GIF:

bashcaster --window output.gif

Record a window to a GIF at 15 frames per second, with the mouse cursor, optimize it, and don’t show confirmation prompts:

bashcaster -coy --window -f 15 output.gif

Record the whole screen to an MKV at 60 fps immediately, without confirmation:

bashcaster -f 60 -y output.mkv

Usage

bashcaster.sh [OPTIONS] OUTPUT-FILE

Bashcaster is a simple script that uses ffmpeg to record screencasts
to videos or GIFs.  It can record the whole screen or a window.  It
can optionally optimize GIFs with gifsicle.

OUTPUT-FILE should end with the desired video type's extension,
e.g. ".mp4" or ".gif".

Click the stop-icon tray notification to stop recording.

Options
  --debug  Print debug info
  --help   I need somebody!

  --force           Overwrite output file if it exists
  -y, --no-confirm  Don't ask for confirmation before recording

  -c, --cursor      Record mouse cursor
  -F, --fullscreen  Record the whole screen (the default)
  -R, --rectangle   Select and record a rectangle
  -W, --window      Select and record a window

  -f, --framerate NUMBER  Video framerate (default: 30)

  -l, --left   NUMBER  Video left edge position (default: 0)
  -t, --top    NUMBER  Video top edge position (default: 0)
  -h, --height NUMBER  Video height
  -w, --width  NUMBER  Video width

  --max-colors NUMBER  Limit colors in palette
  -d, --dither         Enable dithering to reduce filesize
  -o, --optimize       Optimize GIF with gifsicle

Credits

• Inspired by Silentcast.
• FFmpeg does all the work.
• YAD shows dialogs and the stop button.
• Giphy posted a helpful guide (GitHub repo) showing how to record optimized GIFs with FFmpeg.

Development

Bug reports, feature requests, suggestions — oh my!

License

GPLv3