xfce4-terminal

Open a new terminal window

$ xfce4-terminal

Set the initial title

$ xfce4-terminal --initial-title "[initial_title]"

Open a new tab in the current terminal window

$ xfce4-terminal --tab

Execute a command in a new terminal window

$ xfce4-terminal --command "[command_with_args]"

Keep the terminal around after the executed command finishes executing

$ xfce4-terminal --command "[command_with_args]" --hold

Open multiple new tabs, executing a command in each

$ xfce4-terminal --tab --command "[command_a]" --tab --command "[command_b]"

xfce4-terminal [OPTION...]

xfce4-terminal is what is known as an X terminal emulator, often referred to as terminal or shell. It provides an equivalent to the old-fashioned text screen on your desktop, but one which can easily share the screen with other graphical applications. Windows users may already be familiar with the MS-DOS Prompt utility, which has the analogous function of offering a DOS command-line under Windows, though one should note that the UNIX CLI offer far more power and ease of use than does DOS.

xfce4-terminal emulates the xterm application developed by the X Consortium. In turn, the xterm application emulates the DEC VT102 terminal and also supports the DEC VT220 escape sequences. An escape sequence is a series of characters that start with the Esc character. xfce4-terminal accepts all of the escape sequences that the VT102 and VT220 terminals use for functions such as to position the cursor and to clear the screen.

Option Summary

Here is a summary of all the options, grouped by type. Explanations are in the following sections.

General Options

-h, --help; -V, --version; --disable-server; --color-table; --default-display=display; --default-working-directory=directory

Window or Tab Separators

--tab; --window

Tab Options

-x, --execute; -e, --command=command; -T, --title=title; --dynamic-title-mode=mode; --initial-title=title; --working-directory=directory; -H, --hold; --active-tab; --color-text=color; --color-bg=color

Window Options

--display=display; --drop-down; --geometry=geometry; --role=role; --startup-id=string; -I, --icon=icon; --fullscreen; --maximize; --minimize; --show-menubar, --hide-menubar; --show-borders, --hide-borders; --show-toolbar, --hide-toolbar; --show-scrollbar, --hide-scrollbar; --font=font; --zoom=zoom

General Options

-h, --help

List the various command line options supported by xfce4-terminal and exit

-V, --version

Display version information and exit

--disable-server

Do not register with the D-BUS session message bus

--color-table

Echo the color codes

--default-display=display

Default X display to use.

--default-working-directory=directory

Set directory as the default working directory for the terminal

Window or Tab Separators

--tab

Open a new tab in the last-specified window; more than one of these options can be provided.

If you use this as the first option, without --window separators, the last window will be re-used.

--window

Open a new window containing one tab; more than one of these options can be provided.

Tab Options

-x, --execute

Execute the remainder of the command line inside the terminal

-e, --command=command

Execute command inside the terminal

-T, --title=title

Set title as the window title for the terminal (ignores dynamically-set title)

--dynamic-title-mode=mode

Set mode as the dynamically-set title mode for the terminal, one of: replace, before, after, none

--initial-title=title

Set title as the initial window title for the terminal (respects dynamically-set title)

--working-directory=directory

Set directory as the working directory for the terminal

-H, --hold

Causes the terminal to be kept around after the child command has terminated

--active-tab

Makes the terminal active: useful when a terminal window contains multiple tabs

--color-text=color

Set color as the text color for the terminal per the following specification: https://developer.gnome.org/gdk3/stable/gdk3-RGBA-Colors.html#gdk-rgba-parse

--color-bg=color

Set color as the background color for the terminal per the following specification: https://developer.gnome.org/gdk3/stable/gdk3-RGBA-Colors.html#gdk-rgba-parse

Window Options

--display=display

X display to use for the last- specified window.

--drop-down

Will start the window in drop-down mode (also called a Quake-style terminal). This will only apply to the first window started with this option. It is advised to bind this to a shortcut in the keyboard preferences.

--geometry=geometry

Sets the geometry of the last-specified window to geometry. Read X(7) for more information on how to specify window geometries.

--role=role

Sets the window role of the last-specified window to role. Applies to only one window and can be specified once for each window you create from the command line. The role is a unique identifier for the window to be used when restoring a session.

--startup-id=string

Specifies the startup notification id for the last-specified window. Used internally to forward the startup notification id when using the D-BUS service.

-I, --icon=icon

Set the terminals icon as an icon name or filename.

--fullscreen

Set the last-specified window into fullscreen mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--maximize

Set the last-specified window into maximized mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--minimize

Set the last-specified window into minimized mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--show-menubar

Turn on the menubar for the last-specified window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--hide-menubar

Turn off the menubar for the last-specified window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--show-borders

Turn on the window decorations for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--hide-borders

Turn off the window decorations for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--show-toolbar

Turn on the toolbar for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--hide-toolbar

Turn off the toolbar for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--show-scrollbar

Turn on the scrollbar for the last-specified window. Scrollbar position is taken from the settings; if position is None, the default position is Right side. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--hide-scrollbar

Turn off the scrollbar for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.

--font=font

Set the terminal font.

--zoom=zoom

Set the zoom level: the font size will be multiplied by this level. The range is from -7 to 7, default is 0. Each step multiplies the size by 1.2, i.e. level 7 is 3.5831808 (1.2^7) times larger than the default size.

xfce4-terminal --geometry 80x40 --command mutt --tab --command mc

Opens a new terminal window with a geometry of 80 columns and 40 rows and two tabs in it, where the first tab runs mutt and the second tab runs mc.

xfce4-terminal uses the Basedir Specification as defined on Freedesktop.org[1] to locate its data and configuration files. This means that file locations will be specified as a path relative to the directories described in the specification.

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}

The first base directory to look for configuration files. By default this is set to ~/.config/.

${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}

A colon separated list of base directories that contain configuration data. By default the application will look in ${sysconfdir}/xdg/. The value of ${sysconfdir} depends on how the program was build and will often be /etc/ for binary packages.

${XDG_DATA_HOME}

The root for all user-specific data files. By default this is set to ~/.local/share/.

${XDG_DATA_DIRS}

A set of preference ordered base directories relative to which data files should be searched in addition to the ${XDG_DATA_HOME} base directory. The directories should be separated with a colon.

${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc

This is the location of the configuration file that includes the preferences which control the look and feel of xfce4-terminal. Note: any update made to the configuration file via an external editor will be picked up by xfce4-terminal instances running.

${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}/xfce4/terminal/accels.scm

This is the location of the keyboard shortcuts configuration file for xfce4-terminal. Editing this file allows one to modify or disable shortcuts for the supported actions.

Igor Zakharov <f2404@yandex.ru>

Developer

Nick Schermer <nick@xfce.org>

Developer

Benedikt Meurer <benny@xfce.org>
Software developer, os-cillation, System development,

Developer

1.

Freedesktop.org

http://freedesktop.org/

bash(1), X(7)