When Terminal is started from the command line or from a panel launcher, several options can be specified to modify its behaviour.
--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
--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.
--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 on 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 color.
${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.ui
This is the location of the main user interface description file. It includes the definitions for the main menubar and the right-click menu.
${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 favourite
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] MiscBell=TRUE MiscConfirmClose=FALSE MiscCursorBlinks=TRUE MiscCycleTabs=TRUE MiscTabCloseButtons=TRUE
plus all the options that are controlled through the preferences dialog.
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).
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 Next
Tab button from the Go menu (or the associated keyboard
shortcut), and from the first tab to the last tab using the Previous
Tab button from the Go menu. The option can be either
TRUE
or FALSE
.
This behaviour is disabled by default, because it tends to confuse users.
MiscTabCloseButtons
This setting controls whether Terminal provides a close button with the
terminal tab title. Can be either TRUE
(the default) or
FALSE
.