I have three scripts I need to run when I start up my Ubuntu machine, they start services I use in my development environment. To do that, I manually open three terminals and type in the commands. Is there any way to create a script that will open three terminals and execute one command in each of these? (Each command should be in a separate terminal window so I can see their output).
42.7k 24 24 gold badges 104 104 silver badges 173 173 bronze badges asked Jun 2, 2011 at 19:58 2,521 3 3 gold badges 16 16 silver badges 8 8 bronze badgesA decade later and I've added a new answer. Kindly let me know of any tweaks to improve it for software developers.
Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 16:42gnome-terminal -- commandxterm -e commandkonsole -e commandterminal -e commandIn konsole there is a --noclose flag.
In xterm, there is a -hold flag.
In gnome-terminal , go to Edit -> Profile Preferences -> Title. Click the Command tab. Select Hold the terminal from the drop-down menu labelled When command exits. You should create a new profile for that and execute with
gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=NAMEOFTHEPROFILE -e command16.4k 4 4 gold badges 83 83 silver badges 122 122 bronze badges answered Jun 2, 2011 at 20:03 nickguletskii nickguletskii 4,930 3 3 gold badges 23 23 silver badges 29 29 bronze badges If I try to hold the terminal, I get "child process exited normally with status code 127" Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 7:49 gnome-terminal does not have the title option any more :( Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 13:04
@törzsmókus it is 2017 indeed! LTS releases have a 5 year support life. 14.04 does not end until April 2019. wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 22:33gnome-terminal -e command only works if command is quoted. So this does not work: gnome-terminal -e "echo hello world; sleep 3" but this does: gnome-terminal -e "bash -c 'echo hello world; sleep 3'" . Sigh.
Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 19:47 consider using now: gnome-terminal -- command Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 7:35Instead of hard-coding gnome-terminal , konsole , et cetera, use the Alternatives system. The program that executes the default terminal emulator is:
x-terminal-emulator On my system, it opens a new instance of Konsole every time I execute this command.
Luckily, the terminals seems to support the -e option for executing a command (I verified it for konsole and gnome-terminal ). Arguments after the command are passed to the invoked command. Bash refuses to stay open in my terminal, an additional script is needed to get a terminal:
#!/bin/sh "$@" exec "$SHELL" If you've saved the previous script as /home/user/hacky and made it executable, you would run your scripts with:
x-terminal-emulator -e /home/user/hacky your-script optional arguments here The full path is required and /home/user/hacky has to be executable.
My previous attempt to run a script in a new terminal window can be found in revision #2, it was before I realised arguments can be passed to x-terminal-emulator .
answered Jun 2, 2011 at 20:29 Lekensteyn Lekensteyn 176k 67 67 gold badges 315 315 silver badges 405 405 bronze badgesIn this case, it won't help much as the asker wants to do something that isn't the same for all terminals.
Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 20:36 Attempt #3: this one should keep the terminal open and run the program with optional arguments. Commented Jun 2, 2011 at 21:06 I used gnome option, however, once I run my script, the main terminal closes !! .. any idea why ? Commented May 20, 2015 at 14:33@Suda.nese That is by design, when the "terminal" is done executing the script it will quit because there is nothing more to do. You could "fix" this by invoking a shell where you can execute commands ( bash ) or have a line such as read -p "Press Return to continue" .
Commented May 20, 2015 at 15:44How can you run more than one command in the terminal? For example cd xxx && start.sh . The interpretor sees the && as the second part of the command (which is logical), but if I quote it, then it tries to exec the whole thing as one big argument
Commented May 25, 2017 at 7:02UPDATE 17 FEB 2020: this answer is now perhaps obsolete.
Consider clicking this link and using this other answer of mine instead: Open Terminal with multiple tabs and execute application
Aided by @nickguletskii's answer, and my own comment under his answer, and inspired by @grabantot's upvote of my comment, here's my preferred way to do it, especially when I want the terminal to stay open so I can then manually use it.
Ex. usage: this is really useful to add to your startup programs so this script will run, open a terminal, create and name a tab in the terminal, and run a command for you. Or, you can just add a symlink to this script to your desktop. I use this type of approach so I can double-click a single icon on my desktop and have it open up a bunch of terminals (with various tabs named according to what work I'm going to do in them) and programs to set up my programming environment, for instance, for daily work.
Here's a contrived example, which opens up a single tab, titles it "test", then runs the simple command cd /etc; ls inside it. The $SHELL part at the end forces the shell to stay open so you can then see its output and continue using it (I learned this somewhere else on Stack Overflow):
gnome-terminal --tab --title="test" --command="bash -c 'cd /etc; ls; $SHELL'" Here's a more complicated example which opens up 3 separate tabs in the same gnome-terminal. This is exactly the type of thing my desktop shortcut does so I can open up a bunch of programming windows at once:
gnome-terminal --tab --title="tab 1" --command="bash -c 'cd /etc; ls; $SHELL'" --tab --title="tab 2" --command="bash -c 'cd ~; ls; $SHELL'" --tab --title="tab 3" --command="bash -c 'cd ~/temp3; ls; $SHELL'" Here's a breakdown of that command above:
glad I was helpful) I also have scripts that I can just click on and start working on the project. There were two problems with them: lots of terminal windows (had a whole separate screen for them) and windows closing after server crashes for example. That answer solves both of my problems with --tab + $SHELL. Nice
Commented Dec 31, 2018 at 9:33How can I open a tab and set it as active, at the moment I open a tab and then have to click on it as well to make it the active tab
Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 17:47@AlfaBravo, not sure. You might consider scripting actual keyboard presses as though a human had done them. Ex: xdotool key --clearmodifiers Super+d , as I use in my show-desktop.desktop file, presses Windows Key + D to toggle showing the desktop--same as if a human had done these key presses. I'm sure you could just script pressing Ctrl + PgUp or Ctrl + PgDn the right number of times to select the tab you want, as that's how you can switch tabs manually as a human.
Commented Aug 21, 2020 at 18:01The gnome-terminal --tab --title="tab 1" example was exactly what I'm looking for. However, on Ubuntu 22.10 I get these warnings: # Option “--command” is deprecated and might be removed in a later version of gnome-terminal. # Use “-- ” to terminate the options and put the command line to execute after it.
Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 19:51I tried the suggestion, but it doesn't work for this case where multiple tabs are created. After the first "-- " it will execute the first tab's command, but then does not parse any subsequent "--tab" options. Is there a different syntax needed when multiple tabs and commands are used together?
Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 20:05#!/bin/bash /etc/init.d/ccpd status This is enough for other commands that do not need to display anything in terminal. But here one has to see the status displayed.
So, it needs to run in a terminal window
#!/bin/bash gnome-terminal -e "/etc/init.d/ccpd status" --window-with-profile=NAMEOFTHEPROFILE The other post intended [] to be a placeholder
Here "NAMEOFTHEPROFILE" is to be replaced with the name of the profile that "Holds the terminal when the command exits".
got it. but i have to make the terminal not to close so fast. i guess that is also in the linked question
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 9:43@cipricus have you tried the profile one? Just need to add --window-with-profile=NAMEOFTHEPROFILE to what I have given
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 9:44@cipricus I would have to get back home to give better instructions, but the idea is to create a special profile with that option set, and use the name of the special profile in the place above.
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 9:51@cipricus if that is enough for you, then that is ok. Profile is nothing more than a group of settings. You can setup the settings ONLY for use in your script, and not have to use it in all terminals. You can see Edit -> Profiles to see all the profiles you have, and you would add one there which was setup as explained in the post you linked
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 15:39Almost a decade late to the party but, here's my answer using Python.
In the .gif below I launched the program from an existing terminal with screen recorder running to show what it would look like at login:
I wrote a python program for this answer. There are some extra features not requested by OP but beneficial to me:
The python program:
#!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- #============================================================================== # # dellstart - Autostart GUI applications on Dell Fileserver # #============================================================================== ''' CALL: dellstart REQUIRES: sudo apt install xdotool ''' from __future__ import print_function # Must be first import import os import time BASHRC_TIME = 2 # Seconds to load ~/.bashrc WINDOW_TIME = .5 # Secpmds fpr window to appear commands = [ 'gnome-terminal &', # Launch terminal in background 'sleep '+str(BASHRC_TIME), # Bash command wait a sec 'move x y', # Move windows to x and/or y # 'move 2100 1000', # triple monitor setup 'xdotool type "cd ~"', # Change to home directory 'xdotool key Return', # Enter Key 'xdotool type "./ssh-activity"', # Suspend after 15 minutes 'xdotool key Return', # Enter Key 'title SSH\ Activity', # Window title (escape spaces) 'xdotool key Control_L+Shift_L+T', # Open new terminal tab 'sleep '+str(BASHRC_TIME), # Bash command wait a sec 'xdotool type "cd ~/askubuntu"', # Change to working directory 'xdotool key Return', # Enter Key 'title Ask\ Ubuntu', # Window title (escape spaces) 'gedit', # Last 5 files will open up 'move x y', # Move windows to x and/or y # 'move 3849 2266', # triple monitor setup ] """ NOTE: To discover window coordinates, arrange on desktop and type: wmctrl -lG """ def process_commands(command_list): for command in command_list: if command.endswith('&'): # Launch in background and get window ID opened active_pid, active_win = launch_command(command) if active_pid == 0: print("ERROR launching", command, \ "Aborting 'dellstart' script") exit() elif command.startswith('move'): move_window(command, active_win) elif command.startswith('title'): terminal_title(command) elif command.startswith('gedit'): gedit() else: run_and_wait(command) def launch_command(ext_name): ''' Launch external command in background and return PID to parent. Use for programs requiring more than .2 seconds to run. ''' all_pids = get_pids(ext_name) # Snapshot current PID list all_wins = get_wins(all_pids) # Snapshot of windows open new_pids = all_pids new_wins = all_wins sleep_count = 0 # Counter to prevent infinite loops os.popen(ext_name) # Run command in background while new_pids == all_pids: # Loop until new PID is assigned new_pids = get_pids(ext_name) # Snapshot current PID list if sleep_count > 0: # Don't sleep first time through loop time.sleep(.005) # sleep 5 milliseconds sleep_count += 1 if sleep_count == 1000: # 10 second time-out print('launch_ext_command() ERROR: max sleep count reached') print('External command name:',ext_name) return 0 pid_list = list(set(new_pids) - set(all_pids)) if not len(pid_list) == 1: print('launch_command() ERROR: A new PID could not be found') return 0, 0 time.sleep(WINDOW_TIME) # Give time for window to appear new_wins = get_wins(all_pids) # Snapshot of windows open win_list = list(set(new_wins) - set(all_wins)) if not len(win_list) == 1: #print('launch_command() ERROR: New Window ID could not be found') #suppress error message because we aren't using window ID at all return int(pid_list[0]), 0 # Return PID of program we just launched in background return int(pid_list[0]), int(win_list[0]) def run_and_wait(ext_name): ''' Launch external command and wait for it to end. Use for programs requiring less than .2 seconds to run. ''' result = os.popen(ext_name).read().strip() #print('run_and_wait() command:', ext_name) return result def get_pids(ext_name): ''' Return list of PIDs for program name and arguments Whitespace output is compressed to single space ''' all_lines = [] # Just grep up to first space in command line. It was failing on ! prog_name = ext_name.split(' ',1)[0] all_lines = os.popen("ps aux | grep -v grep | grep " + \ "'" + prog_name + "'").read().strip().splitlines PID = [] for l in all_lines(): l = ' '.join(l.split()) # Compress whitespace into single space PID.append(int(l.split(' ', 2)[1])) return PID def get_wins(all_pids): ''' Return list of all windows open under PID list Currently unncessary because we work on active window ''' windows = [] for pid in all_pids: all_lines = os.popen('xdotool search --pid ' + str(pid)). \ read().strip().splitlines for l in all_lines(): windows.append(int(l)) return windows def move_window(line, active_win): ''' Move window to x y coorindates on Desktop If the letter x or y is passed, that dimension remains unchanged eg: xdotool getactivewindow windowmove 100 100 # Moves to 100,100 xdotool getactivewindow windowmove x 100 # Moves to x,100 xdotool getactivewindow windowmove 100 y # Moves to 100,y ''' line = ' '.join(line.split()) # Compress whitespace to single space x = line.split(' ')[-2] y = line.split(' ')[-1] # We don't need to pass window ID as last active window defaults all_lines = os.popen('xdotool getactivewindow windowmove ' + x + ' ' + y). \ read().strip().splitlines for l in all_lines(): print(l) def terminal_title(new_title): ''' Rather awkward calling xdotool which chokes on double quotes and bash via python which chokes on backslashes. Simple format (if it worked) would be: command = r'PS1="$"' The bash function copied from is: function termtitle() < PS1="$"; > Reference for xdotool keycodes: https://gitlab.com/cunidev/gestures/-/wikis/xdotool-list-of-key-codes ''' title = new_title.split(' ', 1)[1] # Strip out leading "title" token command = 'xdotool type PS1=' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key quotedbl') command = 'xdotool type $' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key braceleft') command = 'xdotool type PS1/' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') command = 'xdotool type u@' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') command = 'xdotool type "h: "' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') run_and_wait('xdotool key backslash') command = 'xdotool type "w/"' run_and_wait(command) command = 'xdotool type "' + title + '"' run_and_wait(command) run_and_wait('xdotool key braceright') run_and_wait('xdotool key quotedbl') run_and_wait('xdotool key Return') def gedit(): last_modified_files = gedit_recent_files() command = 'gedit ' for f in last_modified_files: command=command+'"' command=command+f command=command+'" ' # Open gedit with last five modfied files command=command+' &' active_pid, active_win = launch_command(command) if active_pid == 0: print("ERROR launching", command, \ "Aborting 'dellstart' script") exit() def gedit_recent_files(): ''' Get list of gedit 5 most recent files: grep --no-group-separator -B5 'group>gedit' ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel | sed -n 1~6p | sed 's# /home/rick/python/mserve added=2020-07-26T16:36:09Z modified=2020-11-28T01:57:19Z visited=2020-07-26T16:36:09Z> ''' command = "grep --no-group-separator -B5 'group>gedit' " + \ "~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel | " + \ "sed -n 1~6p | sed 's# len(times): # Less than 5 most recent files in list N = len(times) if N == 0: # No most recent files in list return top_files # return empty list # Store list in tmp to retrieve index tmp=list(times) # Sort list so that largest elements are on the far right times.sort() #print ('5 most recent from lists and indices') for i in range(1, N+1): top_files.append(recent_files[tmp.index(times[-i])]) return top_files if __name__ == "__main__": process_commands(commands) # end of dellstart Note you may have to tinker with the variable BASHRC_TIME on your system to make program run faster. I have a lot of functions running in my ~/.bashrc and yours may run a lot faster.
I've planned on writing this for many years but never got around to it until now.
