How to open a new tab in GNOME Terminal from command line?

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 x64 and when I write:

gnome-terminal --tab

At the terminal, I expect it to open a new tab in the same terminal window. But it opens a new window instead.

I found out that its intention is to open a new tab in a new window, i.e., if I write:

gnome-terminal --tab --tab

It will open a new window with two tabs.

So, the question is, how can I open a new tab in the current window using a command in gnome-terminal?

Solution 1

#!/bin/sh

WID=$(xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"| awk '{print $5}')
xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key ctrl+shift+t
wmctrl -i -a $WID

This will auto determine the corresponding terminal and opens the tab accordingly.

Solution 2

You can also have each tab run a set command.

gnome-terminal --tab -e "tail -f somefile" --tab -e "some_other_command"

Solution 3

I found the simplest way:

gnome-terminal --tab -e 'command 1' --tab -e 'command 2'

I use tmux instead of using terminal directly. So what I want is really a single and simple command/shell file to build the development env with several tmux windows. The shell code is as below:

#!/bin/bash
tabs="adb ana repo"
gen_params() {

    local params=""
    for tab in ${tabs}
    do  
        params="${params} --tab -e 'tmux -u attach-session -t ${tab}'"
    done
    echo "${params}"
}
cmd="gnome-terminal $(gen_params)"
eval $cmd

Solution 4

A bit more elaborate version (to use from another window):

#!/bin/bash

DELAY=3

TERM_PID=$(echo `ps -C gnome-terminal -o pid= | head -1`) # get first gnome-terminal's PID
WID=$(wmctrl -lp | awk -v pid=$TERM_PID '$3==pid{print $1;exit;}') # get window id

xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key alt+t # my key map
xdotool sleep $DELAY # it may take a while to start new shell :(
xdotool type --delay 1 --clearmodifiers "$@"
xdotool key Return

wmctrl -i -a $WID # go to that window (WID is numeric)

# vim:ai
# EOF #

Solution 5

Just in case, you want to open

• a new window
• with two tabs
• and executing command in there
• and having them stay open...

here you go:

gnome-terminal --geometry=73x16+0+0 --window \
  --working-directory=/depot --title='A' --command="bash -c ls;bash" \
  --tab --working-directory=/depot/kn --title='B' --command="bash -c ls;bash"

(same for mate-terminal btw.)

View more solutions

Comments

[Vikrant Chaudhary]

Thanks, works good. In proper form - WID= xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"| awk '{print $5}'; xdotool windowfocus $WID; xdotool key ctrl+shift+t $WID

[Jeffrey Jose]

if this works that'll put an end to so many months of frustration. Thanks a lot.

[Cerin]

xdotool, great resource. I was looking for the equivalent of Window's AutoIt, but for Linux.

[Calin]

Thanks for the solution. Though, it's not clear to me how I can execute different commands in different tabs. No matter where I add the commands they all get executed in the first tab. Can you include a solution for this?

[umpirsky]

I have nautilus script which opens current location in remote terminal github.com/umpirsky/nautilus-scripts/blob/master/…. I would like to open it in existing terminal if one exists. Is there any way to combine it with this solution?

[Hedgehog]

I get 'There was an error creating the child process for this terminal' in response to gnome-terminal --tab -e "cd /tmp"

[glarrain]

@Hedgehog, I've a way for that: gnome-terminal --tab --working-directory="/home/user/X/Y/". I do not why, but "~/X/Y/" did not work.

[Adrian Matteo]

I'm having trouble with my commands, if I only use --tab it works but if I use --tab -e "my_bash_shorcut" it does not work. Do you know why?

[user13107]

@Calin use sleep 1; xdotool type --delay 1 --clearmodifiers "your Command"; xdotool key Return; to run a command.

[IDDQD]

@AdrianMatteo A bit late, but I think I've figured it out: if you make two files with gibberish and then run this command gnome-terminal --tab -e "tail -f file_a" --tab -e "tail -f file_b", the gnome terminal will open with two tabs where each tab will have respective file contents, but will close the moment you send ^C. This show you why it doesn't work, but I don't know how to remedy this.

[Klaus]

@AdrianMatteo See stackoverflow.com/questions/17402152/…

[Muthu Ganapathy Nathan]

They are asking command line ., to automate the things. These shortcuts seldom helps.

[Chris Morgan]

Why the WID and windowfocus bit? Won’t the window already be focused?

[Steffen Winkler]

that was exactly what I was looking for. The question in the title is not limited to 'automated solutions' @EAGER_STUDENT and to be honest, I find it hard to come up with a use case where I need a GUI automated. That's like doing an open heart surgery through the spine.

[Muthu Ganapathy Nathan]

@SteffenWinkler I'm glad that the solution helped you. But since the question said 'using command line' I assumed to use some automated commands, something like the high voted answers... Anyway the answer itself clarifies 'For anyone seeking a solution that does not use the command line'.... Kudos to the answer.... Moreover, 'I find it hard to come up with a use case where I need a GUI automated.'say always I need 5 tabs to be opened at startup. In that case, it would be useful. But in that case too we can use shortcut to automate anyway ;)

[EoghanM]

This only works when executed from within gnome-terminal right? Is there a way of getting it to switch to terminal if e.g. executed as a script from within nautilus

[Barry Staes]

These quotes 'command 1' work better than double quotes which only work for me when i also specify --working-directory="/some/path/"

[WillC]

Example where I need automated tab-opening; I'm automating startup scripts on a robot, and I want to open tabs to run commands so that when the processes crash (as they all eventually do) I can ssh in from my laptop and have a look at the log output on the consoles without digging through the log file directories.

[nhed]

Sounds like this is very OSX centric answer when the question is clearly about (gnome) terminal in linux. osascript is OSX(Apple)

[Michael Scheper]

@nhed: Thanks—that answers my what on earth is that?? response to this answer. Pallavi: Even if the question was about Mac, hardcoding your own home path doesn't make your answer very helpful. I suggest you use the $HOME environment variable, or the OSX equivalent if it's different.

[Dawoodjee]

Where do I place this script?

[user000001]

This is good, unfortunately -e seems to be deprecated now, I get a warnging "Option “-e” is deprecated and might be removed in a later version of gnome-terminal.", but you can easily separate the commands, like gnome-terminal --tab -- guard; gnome-terminal --tab -- rails runner MonitorRedisJob.perform_now

[ATorras]

In Ubuntu 16, xdotool key 'ctrl+shift+t' will do the job (in the current terminal)

[saiyan boy sunny]

but xdotool requires to not touch computer till it finishes otherwise it keeps writing wherever focus is

[Jankapunkt]

Works the same for xfce4-terminal btw. Which of these commands is actually responsible for the point and having them stay open...? Iam asking because this is not mentioned in the manpage at least for xfce4-terminal

[Frank Nocke]

@Jankapunkt Hmm... Excellent question! What I found: a simple, parameterless „<guiXY>-terminal“ stays open, as soon as --command enters the game, it indeed closes after execution. This --command="bash -c ls;bash" thing, nested and with a trailing bash command seems to be the trick! (because that sub-bash stays open, thus the command never finishes. until you type exit.)