xfce4-terminal - Man Page

A Terminal emulator for X

Examples (TL;DR)

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 "command1" --tab --command "command2"

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.

Options

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; --preferences; --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. Run this terminal in its own process.
--color-table: Echo the color codes.
--preferences: Open the xfce4-terminal preferences window.
--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, each opening an additional tab.
--window: Open a new window containing one tab. More than one of these options can be provided.

If there is an active window, the last specified window is that window until a --window option is encountered at which point that new window is the last specified window.

If there is no active window, the last specified window is the window created by xfce4-terminal until a --window option is encountered at which point that new window is the last specified window.

These options can be combined with --drop-down.

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://docs.gtk.org/gdk3/method.RGBA.parse.html
--color-bg=color: Set color as the background color for the terminal per the following specification: https://docs.gtk.org/gdk3/method.RGBA.parse.html

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 terminal's 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.

Examples

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.

Environment

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.

Files

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/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.