CTicker - Cryptocurrency TUI Ticker

A Terminal User Interface (TUI) based cryptocurrency ticker written in pure C. CTicker connects to the Binance API to display real-time prices for your chosen trading pairs with beautiful ASCII charts.

Features

• 📊 Real-time Price Updates: Live cryptocurrency prices from Binance
• 💰 Custom Portfolio: Select and save your favorite trading pairs
• 📈 Price Charts: View historical price data with ASCII charts
• ⏱️ Multiple Time Periods: 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month views
• 🎨 Beautiful TUI: Clean terminal interface with color-coded price changes
• 💾 Persistent Configuration: Your portfolio is saved in your home directory

Requirements

CTicker requires the following libraries:

• libcurl - For HTTP requests to Binance API
• libjansson - For JSON parsing
• ncursesw - Wide-character terminal UI library
• pthread - For multi-threading (usually included with gcc)

Installing Dependencies

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libjansson-dev libncursesw5-dev build-essential

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS:

sudo dnf install libcurl-devel jansson-devel ncurses-devel gcc make

macOS (with Homebrew):

brew install curl jansson ncurses

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S curl jansson ncurses

Note: Use the wide-character ncursesw libraries. On Debian/Ubuntu this is provided by libncursesw5-dev, while ncurses-devel (Fedora), ncurses (Homebrew), and ncurses (Arch) already include wide-character support.

Building

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/xtaci/cticker.git
cd cticker

2. Check dependencies (optional):

make check-deps

3. Build the project:

make

4. (Optional) Install system-wide:

sudo make install

Usage

Running CTicker

Simply run the executable:

./cticker

Or if installed system-wide:

cticker

First Run

On the first run, CTicker will create a default configuration file at ~/.cticker.conf with three default trading pairs:

• BTCUSDT (Bitcoin/USDT)
• ETHUSDT (Ethereum/USDT)
• BNBUSDT (Binance Coin/USDT)

Keyboard Controls

Main Screen:

• ↑ / ↓ - Navigate through trading pairs
• Enter - View price chart for selected pair
• q - Quit application

Chart Screen:

• 1 - Show 1-day chart (15-minute intervals)
• 7 - Show 1-week chart (1-hour intervals)
• 30 - Show 1-month chart (4-hour intervals)
• ESC / q - Return to main screen

Customizing Your Portfolio

Edit the configuration file at ~/.cticker.conf to add or remove trading pairs:

nano ~/.cticker.conf

Or copy the example configuration:

cp example.conf ~/.cticker.conf

Add one trading pair per line (use Binance symbol format):

BTCUSDT
ETHUSDT
BNBUSDT
ADAUSDT
SOLUSDT
DOTUSDT

Valid Symbol Format:

• Use Binance trading pair symbols (e.g., BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT)
• Symbols are case-sensitive (use uppercase)
• Maximum 50 symbols supported

Configuration File

The configuration file is stored at ~/.cticker.conf and contains a simple list of trading pair symbols, one per line.

Example:

BTCUSDT
ETHUSDT
BNBUSDT
ADAUSDT
SOLUSDT

Features in Detail

Real-time Price Board

The main screen displays:

• Symbol name
• Current price (formatted with K/M/B suffixes for large numbers)
• 24-hour price change percentage (color-coded: green for positive, red for negative)
• Current date and time

Price Charts

Press Enter on any trading pair to view its price chart:

• ASCII line chart showing price movement
• Y-axis with price labels
• Color-coded chart (green for upward movement, red for downward)
• Current price and total change percentage
• Switchable time periods (1 day, 1 week, 1 month)

Technical Details

• Written in pure C for performance and efficiency
• Uses ncursesw for terminal UI rendering
• Multi-threaded design for non-blocking UI
• Connects to Binance REST API v3
• Auto-refreshes data every 5 seconds
• Thread-safe data handling with mutexes

API Usage

CTicker uses the following Binance API endpoints:

• 24-Hour Ticker: /api/v3/ticker/24hr - For real-time prices and 24h changes
• Kline/Candlestick Data: /api/v3/klines - For historical price data

No API key is required as we only use public endpoints.

Troubleshooting

"Failed to load configuration"

• Ensure you have write permissions to your home directory
• The file will be auto-created on first run

"Failed to fetch data" or network errors

• Check your internet connection
• Verify that api.binance.com is accessible
• Some networks may block Binance API access
• The application requires internet access to fetch price data

Display issues

• Ensure your terminal supports colors
• Try resizing your terminal window (minimum 80x24 recommended)
• Use a modern terminal emulator

Build errors

• Verify all dependencies are installed using make check-deps
• Check that pkg-config is installed
• Ensure you have a C compiler (gcc or clang)

Testing

A test script is provided to verify the configuration system:

./test.sh

This tests configuration loading, saving, and reloading without requiring network access.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

See the LICENSE file for details.

Disclaimer

This software is for informational purposes only. Cryptocurrency trading carries risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.

Credits

• Uses data from Binance API
• Built with ncursesw, libcurl, and jansson