Send a command from the console to a running X server

Question

Is it possible to send a command from the console, say tty1, to the terminal currently occupied with X (in my case tty7 as I use Debian), to tell for example mplayer to play a movie?

Edit - made a shorthand function with the commands I learned in the answer below:

function movie () {
  ORIG_TTY=`fgconsole`
  chvt 7
  DISPLAY=":0" mplayer -fs $1 > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
  chvt $ORIG_TTY
}

Solution

I'm exactly sure about what you are looking for. But to launch a new application inside a running X server you can use for example:

DISPLAY=":0" mplayer -fs video.ogg

You can choose the id of the X server, and you may add an optional screen identifier like :0.1 to launch the application in screen number 1.

Comments

[Emanuel Berg]

Yes, that's the thing I looked for. Do you also happen to know how to incorporate the focus shift into that command (i.e., to emulate the Alt-F7 keypress to get the X display)? But your answer is correct.

[Stéphane Gimenez]

Try with chvt. (It was hard to remember the name of this command, I don't use it everyday…)

[Emanuel Berg]

Yes, chvt 7 does it.