When Terminal is started from the command line or from a panel launcher, several options can be specified to modify its behavior.
--help
List the various command line options supported by Terminal and exit
--version
Display version information and exit
--disable-server
Do not register with the D-BUS session message bus
--execute
...
Execute the remainder of the command line inside the terminal
--command
command
Execute command
inside the terminal
--working-directory
directory
Set directory
as the working directory for the terminal
--title
title
Set title
as the initial window title for the terminal
--hold
Causes the terminal to be kept around after the child command has terminated
--display
display
Open terminal window on the X screen specified by display
.
--geometry
geometry
Sets the geometry of the last-specified window to geometry
. Read
man
for more information on how
to specify window geometries.
X
--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. It is mostly used for session management inside Terminal.
--startup-id
id
Specifies the startup notification id for the last-specified window. Used internally to forward the startup notification id when using the D-BUS service.
--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.
--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-toolbars
Turn on the toolbars for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
--hide-toolbars
Turn off the toolbars for the last-specified window. Applies to only one window. Can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
--tab
Open a new tab in the last-specified window. More than one of these options can be provided.
--window
Open a new window containing one tab. More than one of these options can be provided.
For example, say you want to open a new terminal window with two tabs in it, where the first tab should run mutt and the second tab should run mc, and the window should have 80 columns and 40 rows, then you would use the following command to start Terminal:
Terminal --geometry 80x40 --command mutt --tab --command mc
Terminal uses the Basedir Specification as defined on Freedesktop.org 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}/Terminal/terminalrc
This is the location of the configuration file that includes the preferences which control the look and feel of Terminal.
${XDG_DATA_DIRS}/Terminal/Terminal-toolbars.ui
This file includes the user interface definition for the toolbars. If
you customize the toolbars using the graphical toolbars editor, Terminal
will store the new toolbars layout in the file
${XDG_DATA_HOME}/Terminal/Terminal-toolbars.ui
.
Terminal offers a few hidden options to allow powerusers to control various advanced settings and
to reduce the number of options in the user interface. To set any of these options, you will have
to open the file ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/Terminal/terminalrc
in your favorite
text editor and edit the section [Configuration]
; simply create the file if
it does not already exist. For example, your terminalrc
could look like
[Configuration] MiscAlwaysShowTabs=TRUE MiscBell=TRUE MiscConfirmClose=FALSE MiscCursorBlinks=TRUE MiscCursorShape=TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK MiscCycleTabs=FALSE MiscInheritGeometry=TRUE MiscMouseAutohide=FALSE MiscTabCloseButtons=TRUE MiscTabCloseMiddleClick=TRUE MiscTabPosition=GTK_POS_TOP MiscHighlightUrls=TRUE
plus all the options that are controlled through the preferences dialog.
MiscAlwaysShowTabs
If TRUE
the tab headers will always be displayed even if only a single
terminal tab is open. This option is useful if you do not want the terminal window to
resize when you open a second tab. It is disabled by default.
MiscBell
Enables (MiscBell=TRUE
) or disables (MiscBell=FALSE
)
the audible terminal bell. It is disabled by default.
MiscConfirmClose
Controls whether Terminal popups a confirmation dialog when the user tries to close
a terminal window with multiple tabs in it. Can be either TRUE
(the default) or FALSE
.
MiscCursorBlinks
Enable this option to display a cursor that blinks. Can be either TRUE
or FALSE
(the default).
MiscCursorShape
Specifies the shape of the cursor in the terminal. This can be either
TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK
(the default),
TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_IBEAM
or
TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_UNDERLINE
. This option is
only available when you compile against VTE 0.19.1 or newer.
MiscCycleTabs
This option controls whether you can circulate through terminal tabs. That is, whether
you are able to go from the last tab to the first tab using the TRUE
(the default) or FALSE
.
MiscDefaultGeometry
The default geometry for new Terminal windows if no --geometry
option is specified on the command line (defaults to 80x24
).
MiscInheritGeometry
This setting controls whether new windows will inherit the geometry (width
and height of the active tab) from its parent window (the window from which
the new window was opened). Can be either TRUE
or
FALSE
(the default).
MiscMouseAutohide
This setting controls whether Terminal will hide the mouse cursor
while you are typing in a terminal window. Can be either
TRUE
or FALSE
(the default).
MiscTabCloseButtons
This setting controls whether Terminal provides a close button with the
terminal tab title. Can be either TRUE
(the default) or
FALSE
.
MiscTabCloseMiddleClick
This setting controls whether Terminal will close a terminal tab when
the user middle-clicks the tab title. Can be either TRUE
(the default) or FALSE
.
MiscTabPosition
Specifies the position where the tab headers should be displayed. This can
be either GTK_POS_TOP
(the default), GTK_POS_LEFT
,
GTK_POS_BOTTOM
or GTK_POS_RIGHT
. If you
specify GTK_POS_LEFT
or GTK_POS_RIGHT
here, the tab header texts will be displayed vertically instead of horizontally.
It is highly recommended to disable MiscTabCloseButtons
for
GTK_POS_LEFT
and GTK_POS_RIGHT
.
MiscHighlightUrls
This setting controls whether URLs - both hyperlinks and email addresses - will
be highlighted in the text displayed in a terminal window. If you change this
option to FALSE
, URLs won't be highlighted anymore and you
will no longer be able to middle-click the URL to open it in the preferred
application.