php-webterminal

A fake interactive Linux terminal emulator for your website — built in PHP and vanilla JavaScript, zero dependencies. Drop it into any page via a single <iframe> and give visitors a realistic shell experience complete with a fake filesystem, boot sequence, configurable system info, and a few surprises.

Whether you want to show off your server-side skills, add a geeky touch to your portfolio, or just give visitors something fun to poke at — this is a self-contained, fully sessionised terminal that feels like the real thing.

Live demo: www.clsoftware.nl

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Open the demo and have a poke around. Some highlights:

• sudo rm -rf / — just try it. You'll see why it's in here.
• sudo su or su root — become root. The prompt changes, permissions change, locked commands unlock.
• cat /etc/shadow — readable as root only. Try it as guest first.
• nano /etc/hosts — open and edit a real-looking system file. Save it, cat it back, the change sticks for the session.
• mysql -u root -p — a full fake database session. SHOW DATABASES, USE production, SELECT * FROM users. It's all there.
• htop — colour bars, fake processes, press q to exit.
• ssh someserver.com — it'll refuse the connection. Try ssh localhost instead.
• dig clsoftware.nl MX — fake but formatted like the real thing.
• bc <<< "2^32" — it actually calculates it.
• base64 <<< "hello" — encodes it. base64 -d decodes it back.
• neofetch — AlmaLinux logo, fake specs, the works.
• pushd /var/log then dirs then popd — directory stack, works as expected.
• dnf install vim — watch it pretend to install something. Root only.
• man ssh — there are man pages for everything.

The terminal resets when you close the tab. Nothing is real. Break whatever you want.

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Add a terminal to your website

Sometimes you just want something on your site that makes people go "oh, that's cool."

Drop a fully working Linux terminal into any page in one line:

<iframe src="path/to/php-webterminal/index.php" width="900" height="520"></iframe>

Visitors get a real shell they can actually type in. They can ls around, read fake config files, break things, sudo to root, run htop, mess with nano — the whole deal. Nothing is real, nothing breaks, and most people will spend way longer poking at it than you'd expect.

It's a great addition to a portfolio, an agency site, or honestly anywhere you want to make a good impression on someone who knows their way around a terminal. A static screenshot of a server says "I know Linux." An interactive terminal says it louder.

Configure it to look like your own stack — set the hostname, OS, kernel version, disk layout, whatever — and it'll feel like you're giving someone a live shell on your actual machine. You're not, obviously, but it looks the part.

No database. No npm. No framework. One PHP file and you're done.

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Use it as a self-hosted Linux practice environment

No VM. No Docker. No signup. Just open a browser and start typing.

This project doubles as a self-hosted, browser-based Linux sandbox. Use it to practice Linux commands without risking anything on a real server. It runs a simulated AlmaLinux 9.7 environment with a realistic filesystem, three user accounts (guest, deploy, and root), and over 80 commands covering everything beginners and intermediate users need to know.

Who is this for?

• Beginners learning Linux for the first time
• Students preparing for the LPIC-1, CompTIA Linux+, or RHCSA exams
• Sysadmins who want a quick command reference they can actually run
• Developers who want to add a Linux terminal to their portfolio site
• Anyone who just wants to poke around a Linux shell without setting up a VM

What makes it different from paid Linux practice sites?

• Open source (MIT licence)
• Zero setup — no account, no download, no VM
• Runs in any browser, including mobile
• Fully self-hostable — runs on any machine with PHP 7.4+, including your local laptop, a Raspberry Pi, a shared hosting account, or a VPS. No internet connection required after the initial clone. See Setup below.
• 80+ commands implemented: ls, cd, grep, ps, top, htop, systemctl, dnf, nano, vim, sudo, chmod, tar, zip, curl, wget, ping, netstat, ss, dig, journalctl, awk, sed, and many more
• Two users: guest (default, logged in automatically), deploy (regular user), and root (full access via sudo or su) — practice privilege escalation safely
• Realistic fake filesystem with config files, logs, home directories, and service unit files
• Session-persistent — changes you make (mkdir, touch, rm) survive across commands in the same session
• Embeddable in any page via a single <iframe>

Run it locally in 30 seconds:

git clone https://github.com/MikkieMuis/php-webterminal.git
cd php-webterminal
cp config.example.php config.php
php -S localhost:8080

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser. That's it — no database, no composer, no npm.

Keywords: linux terminal online, linux command line practice, linux sandbox browser, learn linux commands, linux practice environment, fake linux terminal, linux command simulator, bash practice online, linux shell online, linux for beginners, rhcsa practice, lpic practice, comptia linux practice, linux vm alternative, linux web terminal, php terminal emulator, localhost linux terminal, offline linux practice, self-hosted linux sandbox, linux practice without vm

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Features

• Realistic boot sequence with configurable kernel version, CPU and disk info (never exposes real server data)
• Auto-login as guest — no login prompt, start typing immediately
• Session-based fake filesystem — cd, mkdir, touch, rm persist across commands
• Full readline-style cursor editing — ←/→, Home/End, Backspace, Delete, Ctrl+A/E/U/K/W
• Tab completion for commands and file paths
• Arrow key command history (↑/↓)
• Clipboard support — paste from browser with Ctrl+V, copy output with mouse selection or Ctrl+Shift+C
• Embeddable via <iframe> or standalone
• Zero dependencies — pure PHP + vanilla JS, no frameworks

Commands implemented

Category	Commands
Navigation	ls, ll, cd, pwd
Files	cat, touch, mkdir, rmdir, rm, cp, mv, ln, wc, du, chmod, chown, zip, unzip, tar
Search & text	grep, head, tail, diff, find, sort, uniq, cut, tr, awk, sed
Pagers	more, less
System info	uname, uptime, hostname, date, df, free, ps, top, htop, id, env, printenv, which, whoami, fastfetch, neofetch, exa
Services	systemctl, firewall-cmd, journalctl
Hardware & processes	php, kill, pkill, lsblk, blkid, dmesg, vmstat, iostat, hostnamectl, timedatectl, chgrp, logger, lsof, strace
Network	ping, ifconfig, ip, wget, curl, telnet, sendmail, netstat, ss, ssh, dig, host, scp, nmcli
Shell	echo, history, alias, clear, exit, logout, help, man, sudo, su, last, passwd, base64, bc, pushd, popd, dirs, xargs
Editors	nano, joe, vim, vi
Packages	dnf
Database	mysql, mariadb

grep supports -i (ignore case), -n (line numbers), -v (invert), -c (count), -l (filenames only), and -r (recursive).

cp supports -r/-R for recursive directory copy. mv renames files and moves them between directories.

head outputs the first N lines (or bytes with -c) of a file. Default is 10 lines. Supports -n, -c, -q, -v, and multiple files.

tail outputs the last N lines (or bytes with -c) of a file. Default is 10 lines. Supports -n, -c, -f (simulated follow), -q, -v, +N offset syntax, and multiple files.

more and less support paging through any file in the fake filesystem. less additionally supports backward navigation (b, ↑, g/G). Press q or Ctrl+C to exit either pager.

ll is an alias for ls -la.

sudo allows non-root users to run commands as root after a password prompt.

zip creates ZIP archives from files and directories. zip -r recurses into directories. unzip extracts archives, lists contents with -l, and can extract to a target directory with -d. tar creates and extracts .tar.gz (with -z) and .tar.bz2 (with -j) archives; -c create, -x extract, -t list, -v verbose.

sort sorts lines of a file. Supports -r (reverse), -n (numeric), -u (unique), -f (ignore case), -k N (sort by field N), and -t SEP (field separator).

uniq filters adjacent duplicate lines. Supports -c (prefix with count), -d (duplicates only), -u (unique only), and -i (ignore case).

fastfetch and neofetch display system information alongside the AlmaLinux ASCII logo.

top shows a live process table (auto-refreshes). htop shows an enhanced process viewer with colour bars for CPU and memory; press q to exit.

dnf supports install, remove, update/upgrade (animated), list [installed|available], search, info, history, check-update, and clean all. install, remove, update, upgrade, and clean require root.

systemctl supports status, start, stop, restart, enable, disable, is-active, and list-units for eight fake services (httpd, mariadb, php-fpm, mysqld, sshd, firewalld, crond, nginx). The .service suffix is stripped automatically.

php supports -v / --version (version string), -i (phpinfo), -m (module list), and -r 'code' (evaluate arithmetic and echo expressions).

exa is a modern replacement for ls. Supports --long / -l (detailed table with Permissions, Size, Date columns), --tree / -T (recursive tree view), --all / -a (include dotfiles), --git (add a Git status column), and --icons.

firewall-cmd is a front-end for firewalld. Supports --state, --reload, --list-all, --list-ports, --add-port=PORT/PROTO, and --remove-port=PORT/PROTO.

telnet connects to a remote host and port (default 23). Returns connection metadata to the JS layer for a simulated connection animation.

sendmail queues a mail message. Plain invocation reports the message as queued. -v prints a full SMTP trace (EHLO, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, DATA, QUIT). -t accepts the message from stdin (non-interactive stub).

rmdir removes empty directories (errors if the directory has contents). du reports disk usage; supports -s (summarise), -h (human-readable), and -d N / --max-depth=N (limit output depth). chmod and chown are cosmetic — they accept the standard arguments and succeed silently. diff compares two files line by line; supports -u (unified format) and -i (ignore case).

xargs reads whitespace-separated tokens from stdin and appends them as arguments to a command (default: echo). Fully pipe-compatible.

strace traces system calls for a command (strace ls) or an existing process (strace -p PID). Outputs a fake but realistic syscall log ending with +++ exited with 0 +++.

scp copies files to/from a remote host over SSH (simulated). Accepts the standard [user@]host:path syntax, -P for port, and -r for recursive. Returns a progress animation to the browser like wget.

nmcli is the NetworkManager command-line client. Supports device status, device show [IFACE], connection show, general status, radio, and --version.

passwd simulates a password change prompt and always reports success. base64 encodes or decodes a string (-d / --decode); pass input via <<<. bc evaluates arithmetic expressions (+, -, *, /, ^, %, parentheses); pass the expression via <<<.

nano is a full-screen text editor overlay. Open a file with nano <file>, edit freely, and save with Ctrl+O (then Enter) or exit with Ctrl+X. joe is an alternative full-screen editor with ^K prefix key bindings; save with ^KD, exit with ^KX, abort with ^KC. vim (and its alias vi) is a full modal editor with Normal, Insert, Visual, and Cmdline modes; open a file with vim <file>, press i to insert, Esc to return to Normal mode, and :wq to save and quit.

ln -s TARGET LINK creates symbolic links. Symlinks appear cyan in ls output and show lrwxrwxrwx -> target in ls -l. Hard links are not supported.

cut extracts fields or byte ranges from lines. Supports -f (fields), -d (delimiter), -c (character positions), and --complement.

tr translates or deletes characters. Supports -d (delete), -s (squeeze), and character classes such as [:upper:], [:lower:], [:digit:].

awk processes text by field. Supports print, printf, $0–$NF, NR, NF, BEGIN/END blocks, and field separator with -F. Pass the program as awk '{...}' file or via stdin.

sed applies substitutions and other edits to text. Supports s/pattern/replacement/[g], address ranges, -n (suppress default output), and p (print). Pass the script as sed 's/.../' file or via stdin.

kill PID sends SIGTERM to a process; kill -9 PID sends SIGKILL. pkill NAME kills processes by name. Both operate on the fake process table.

lsblk lists block devices in a tree layout (four disks: sda 500G, sdb 2T, sdc 4T, sdd 500G, each with partitions). blkid prints UUIDs and filesystem types for each partition.

dmesg prints the kernel ring buffer. Supports -T (human-readable timestamps) and -n N (last N lines).

vmstat shows virtual memory statistics (single static snapshot). iostat shows CPU and per-disk I/O statistics.

hostnamectl shows the system hostname, machine ID, OS, kernel, and chassis type. timedatectl shows local time, UTC time, timezone, and NTP sync status.

chgrp is a cosmetic stub — it accepts standard arguments and exits silently. logger writes a message to the system log (cosmetic; no persistent syslog across sessions).

lsof lists open files and network sockets. Filter by -i :PORT (connections on a port), -p PID (files for a process), or -u USER (files for a user).

journalctl queries the systemd journal. Supports -u UNIT (filter by service), -n N (last N lines), -r (reverse order), -f (simulated follow), and --since DATE.

netstat prints active connections and listening sockets. Supports -a (all), -n (numeric), -p (show PID/program), -t (TCP), -u (UDP), -l (listening only), and -r (routing table).

ss shows socket statistics (iproute2 replacement for netstat). Supports -a, -l, -n, -p, -t, -u.

ssh [USER@]HOST simulates a remote login. Connections to localhost succeed; all other hosts are refused. Supports -v (verbose handshake output).

dig HOST [TYPE] performs a DNS lookup and prints a full resolver-style response. Supports record types A, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, ANY, and the @server flag to specify a resolver.

host HOST [-t TYPE] is a concise DNS lookup. Supports reverse PTR lookups for IP addresses and -t TYPE to request a specific record type.

pushd <dir> changes to the given directory and pushes the previous directory onto the stack. Called with no arguments it swaps the top two stack entries. popd returns to the previous directory by popping the stack. dirs [-v] displays the directory stack; -v shows numbered entries.

mysql and mariadb open an interactive database session stub. Supports SHOW DATABASES, USE db, SHOW TABLES, DESCRIBE table, SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE TABLE, and DROP TABLE against a small in-memory fake schema.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
↑ / ↓	Scroll through command history
← / →	Move cursor within typed text
Home / End	Jump to start / end of line
Backspace / Delete	Delete char before / at cursor
Ctrl+A / Ctrl+E	Jump to start / end of line
Ctrl+U	Delete from cursor to start of line
Ctrl+K	Delete from cursor to end of line
Ctrl+W	Delete word before cursor
Ctrl+C	Cancel current input line (shows ^C)
Ctrl+L	Clear the screen
Ctrl+R	Reverse history search (type to search, Enter to run, Esc to cancel)
Ctrl+V	Paste clipboard text at cursor
Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy selected output text, or typed line if nothing selected

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Requirements

• PHP 7.4 or higher
• Any web server (Apache, Nginx, etc.)

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Setup

1. Clone the repo into your web root (or a subdirectory):

git clone https://github.com/MikkieMuis/php-webterminal.git

2. Copy the example config and edit it:

cp config.example.php config.php

3. Edit config.php — every option is documented inline with comments.

4. Visit index.php in your browser. Done.

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Embedding via iframe

To embed the terminal inside an existing page, use an <iframe> and forward keyboard events via postMessage so the terminal receives input even when the iframe does not have focus:

<div id="terminal-wrap">
  <iframe id="term-frame" src="path/to/php-webterminal/index.php"></iframe>
</div>

<script>
var frame = document.getElementById('term-frame');
document.addEventListener('keydown', function(e) {
  if (['Space','ArrowUp','ArrowDown','Backspace','Enter'].includes(e.code)) {
    e.preventDefault();
  }
  frame.contentWindow.postMessage({
    type: 'keydown', key: e.key,
    ctrlKey: e.ctrlKey, altKey: e.altKey, metaKey: e.metaKey
  }, window.location.origin);  // same-origin only
});
</script>

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Customising the filesystem

Edit fs_data.php to change what files and directories exist. Each entry is an array with a type (file or dir) and optional content and mtime:

'/etc/motd' => [
    'type'    => 'file',
    'content' => "Welcome to my server.\n",
    'mtime'   => mktime(9, 0, 0, 1, 15, 2026),
],

After changing fs_data.php, bump the FS_VERSION constant at the top of terminal.php to force all active browser sessions to reload the new filesystem:

define('FS_VERSION', '18');  // increment this whenever fs_data.php changes

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Configuration reference

All constants live in config.php. Every option has an inline comment explaining it.

Constant	Description
CONF_HOSTNAME	Hostname shown in the shell prompt and title bar
CONF_DEFAULT_USER	Override the startup username (default: guest)
CONF_KERNEL	Kernel version string shown by uname -a, top, boot sequence
CONF_ARCH	CPU architecture shown by uname -a
CONF_OS	OS name shown by uname -a and boot sequence
CONF_DISK_TOTAL	Fake total disk size in bytes, shown by df
CONF_DISK_USED	Fake used disk space in bytes, shown by df
CONF_DISK_FREE	Fake free disk space in bytes, shown by df
CONF_LOAD_1	Fake 1-minute load average, shown by uptime and top
CONF_LOAD_5	Fake 5-minute load average, shown by uptime and top
CONF_LOAD_15	Fake 15-minute load average, shown by uptime and top

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Known incompatibilities

Vimium / Surfingkeys and other keyboard extensions

Browser extensions that intercept keyboard input — such as Vimium and Surfingkeys — will capture keystrokes before they reach the terminal, breaking typing completely.

If the terminal is not responding to keyboard input, disable these extensions for the page or add the site to their exclusion list:

• Vimium — open Vimium options → Excluded URLs and keys → add the site URL
• Surfingkeys — press Alt+s on the page to toggle it off, or add an exclusion in settings

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Similar projects

These all take a different approach (pure JavaScript, browser-only, no PHP backend) but are worth knowing about:

• m4tt72/terminal ★1.5k — The gold standard for terminal portfolio sites. Built with Svelte 4 + TypeScript. Highlights: multiple switchable themes, real weather via wttr.in, todo task manager, tab autocomplete, responsive on mobile. 53 releases, actively maintained.
• MarketingPipeline/Termino.js ★642 — A JavaScript library for embedding a terminal widget into any website. Supports HTML output (clickable links), multiple instances per page, custom key/mouse event hooks, and curses-style apps. Great if you want a drop-in component rather than a standalone page.
• DosX-dev/braux ★97 — Unix-like web console system in pure JS/HTML/CSS with multiple color themes and scheme switching. Minimal and clean.
• jcubic/fake-linux-terminal — browser-only fake GNU/Linux environment using LightningFS and jQuery Terminal. More ambitious in scope, still a work in progress.
• edgorman/edgorman.github.io — personal portfolio site that uses real GitHub repos as the filesystem content via git submodules. Clever idea.

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License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.