# GNOME Terminal Manual

The Terminal gives users the power to communicate with their system using text-based commands through a shell such as Bash.

2002
2003
2004
Sun Microsystems
2000
Miguel de Icaza
2000
Michael Zucchi
2000
Alexander Kirillov
2008
Christian Persch
2009
2010
Paul Cutler
2009
Jen Ockwell (jenfraggleubuntu@gmail.com)
GNOME Documentation Project

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence (GFDL), Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You can find a copy of the GFDL at this link or in the file COPYING-DOCS distributed with this manual.

This manual is part of a collection of GNOME manuals distributed under the GFDL. If you want to distribute this manual separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the licence to the manual, as described in section 6 of the licence.

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Sun
GNOME Documentation Team
Sun Microsystems
Miguel
de Icaza
GNOME Documentation Project
Michael
Zucchi
GNOME Documentation Project
Alexander
Kirillov
GNOME Documentation Project
GNOME Documentation Project
GNOME Terminal Manual V2.9
January 2010

Paul Cutler pcutler@gnome.org

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.8
March 2009

Paul Cutler

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.7
November 2003

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.6
September 2003

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.5
May 2003

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.4
January 2003

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.3
August 2002

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.2
August 2002

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.1
August 2002

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal Manual V2.0
April 2002

Sun GNOME Documentation Team

GNOME Documentation Project

GNOME Terminal User's Guide
May 2000

Miguel de Icaza, Michael Zucchi, Alexander Kirollov docs@gnome.org

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version 2.30 of GNOME Terminal.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the GNOME Terminal application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

GNOME Terminal is a terminal emulation application that you can use to perform the following tasks:

Access a UNIX shell in the GNOME environment

  A shell is a program that interprets and executes the commands that you type at a command line prompt. When you start GNOME Terminal, the application starts the default shell that is specified in your system account. You can switch to a different shell at any time.

Run any application that is designed to run on VT102, VT220, and xterm terminals

  GNOME 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 starts with the Esc character. GNOME 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.

## Getting Started

The following sections describe how to start GNOME Terminal.

### Starting GNOME Terminal

You can start GNOME Terminal in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Accessories Terminal.

Command line

  Execute the following command: `gnome-terminal`

  You can use command line options to modify the way in which you run GNOME Terminal. To view the command line options, execute the following command: `gnome-terminal --help`

### When You First Start GNOME Terminal

When you start GNOME Terminal for the first time, the application opens a terminal window with a group of default settings. The group of default settings is called the Default profile. The profile name appears in the titlebar of the GNOME Terminal window.

#### Example of a Default GNOME Terminal Window

GNOME Terminal default window
GNOME Terminal default window

The terminal window displays a command prompt where you can type UNIX commands. The command prompt can be a %, #, >, $, or any other special character. The cursor is positioned at the command prompt. When you type a UNIX command and press Return, the computer executes the command. By default, GNOME Terminal uses the default shell specified for the user who starts the application.

GNOME Terminal also sets the following environment variables:

`TERM`

  Set to `xterm` by default.

`COLORTERM`

  Set to `gnome-terminal` by default.

`WINDOWID`

  Set to the X11 window identifier by default.

### Terminal Profiles

You can create a new profile, and apply the new profile to the terminal to modify characteristics such as font, colour and effects, scroll behaviour, window title, and compatibility. You can also specify a command that runs automatically when you start GNOME Terminal in the profile.

You define each terminal profile in the Edit Profiles dialogue, which you access from the Edit menu. You can define as many different profiles as you require. When you start a terminal, you can choose the profile that you want to use for the terminal. Alternatively, you can change the terminal profile while you use the terminal. To specify an initial profile for a terminal when you start the application from a command line, use the following command:

`gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=profilename`

The name of the current profile appears in the titlebar of the GNOME Terminal, unless you specify a different titlebar name in the Editing Profile dialogue.

See for information about how to define and use a new terminal profile.

### Working With Multiple Terminals

GNOME Terminal provides a tab feature that enables you to open several terminals in a single window. Each terminal opens in a separate tab. Click on the appropriate tab to display the terminal in the window. Each tabbed terminal in a window is a separate subprocess, so you can use each terminal for different tasks. You can apply a different profile to each tabbed terminal in the window.

The titlebar of the terminal window shows either the name of the current profile, or the name specified by the current profile. shows a GNOME Terminal window with four tabs. In this case, each of the four tabs has a different profile. The name of the profile in the active tab, Profile 1, appears in the titlebar.

#### Example of a Terminal Window With Tabs

GNOME Terminal default window
GNOME Terminal default window

See for information about how to open a new tabbed terminal.

## Usage

### Opening and Closing Terminals

To open a new terminal window:

  Choose File Open Terminal.

  The new terminal inherits the application settings and default shell from the parent terminal.

To close a terminal window:

  Choose File Close Window.

  This action closes the terminal and any subprocesses that you opened from the terminal. If you close the last terminal window, the GNOME Terminal application exits.

To add a new tabbed terminal to a window:

  Choose File Open Tab Default or just File Open Tab if there is no submenu.

To display a tabbed terminal:

  Click on the tab of the tabbed terminal that you want to display, or select a tab title from the Tabs menu.

  Alternatively, choose Tabs Next Tab or Tabs Previous Tab to navigate between tabs.

To close a tabbed terminal:

  1. Display the tabbed terminal that you want to close.

  2. Choose File Close Tab.

### Managing Profiles

To add a new profile:

  1. Choose File New Profile to display the New Profile dialogue.

  2. Type the new profile name in the Profile name text box.

  3. Use the Base on drop-down list to select the profile on which you want to base the new profile.

  4. Click Create to display the Editing Profile dialogue.

  5. Click Close. GNOME Terminal adds the profile to the Terminal Change Profile submenu.

To change the profile of a tabbed terminal:

  1. Click on the tab of the tabbed terminal for which you want to change the profile.

  2. Choose Terminal Change Profile profilename.

To edit a profile:

  You edit profiles in the Editing Profile dialogue. You can access the Editing Profile dialogue in the following ways:

  - Choose Edit Current Profile.

  - Right-click in the terminal window, then choose Edit Current Profile from the popup menu.

  - Choose Edit Profiles, select the profile you want to edit, then click Edit. For information on the options you can set for profiles, see .

To delete a profile:

  1. Choose Edit Profiles.

  2. Select the name of the profile that you want to delete in the Profiles list, then click Delete. The Delete Profile dialogue is displayed.

  3. Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

  4. Click Close to close the Edit Profiles dialogue.

### Modifying a Terminal Window

To hide the menubar:

  Choose View Show Menubar.

To show a hidden menubar:

  Right-click on the terminal window, then choose Show Menubar from the popup menu.

To display the GNOME Terminal window in full-screen mode:

  Choose View Full Screen. Full-screen mode displays the text in a window that fills the full screen. The window does not contain a window frame or titlebar. To exit from this mode, choose View Full Screen again.

To change the appearance of the terminal window:

  See for information about the options that you can choose in the Editing Profile dialogue to change the appearance of the terminal window. For example, you can change the background colour, or the location of the scrollbar.

### Working with the Contents of Terminal Windows

To scroll through previous commands and output:

  Perform one of the following actions:

  - Use the scrollbar, which is usually displayed on the right of the terminal window.

  - Press the Shift Page Up, Shift Page Down, Shift Home, or Shift End keys.

  The number of lines that you can scroll back to in the terminal window is determined by the Scrollback setting in the Scrolling tabbed section of the Editing Profile dialog. You can also scroll up or down one line at a time by pressing Control Shift Up or Control Shift Down.

To select and copy text:

  You can select text in any of the following ways:

  - To select a character at a time, click on the first character that you want to select and drag the mouse to the last character that you want to select.

  - To select a word at a time, double-click on the first word that you want to select and drag the mouse to the last word that you want to select. Symbols are selected individually.

  - To select a line at a time, triple-click on the first line that you want to select and drag the mouse to the last line that you want to select.

  These actions select all text between the first and last items. For all text selections, GNOME Terminal copies the selected text into the clipboard when you release the mouse button. To explicitly copy the selected text, choose Edit Copy.

To paste text into a terminal:

  If you previously copied text to the clipboard, you can paste the text into a terminal by performing one of the following actions:

  - To paste text that you copied by selection only, middle-click at the command prompt. If you do not have a middle mouse button, refer to the X Server documentation for information about how to emulate the middle mouse button.

  - To paste text that you explicitly copied, choose Edit Paste.

To drag a file name into a terminal window:

  You can drag a file name to a terminal from another application such as a file manager. The terminal displays the path and the full name of the file.

To access a link:

  To access a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that is displayed in a terminal, perform the following steps:

  1. Move the mouse over the URL until the URL is underlined.

  2. Right-click on the URL to open a popup menu.

  3. Choose Open Link to start a link application and display the file located at the URL.

### Viewing the Keyboard Shortcut Settings

To view the keyboard shortcut settings that are defined for GNOME Terminal, choose Edit Keyboard Shortcuts. The Keyboard Shortcuts dialogue contains the following items:

Disable all menu access keys (such as Alt+f to open File menu)

  Deselect this option to disable the access keys that are defined to enable you to use the keyboard instead of the mouse to select a menu item. Each access key is identified by an underlined letter on a menu or dialogue option. In some cases, you must press the Alt key in combination with the access key to perform the action.

Disable menu shortcut key (F10 by default)

  Deselect this option to disable the shortcut key that is defined to enable you to access the GNOME Terminal menus. The default shortcut key to access the menus is F10.

Shortcut Keys

  The Shortcut Keys section of the dialogue lists the shortcut keys that are defined for each menu item.

  Not all keys can be used as shortcut keys, such as Tab.

### Text Size

You can use the following methods to resize the text in the GNOME Terminal window:

- To increase the size of the text, choose View Zoom In.

- To decrease the size of the text, choose View Zoom Out.

- To view the text at actual size, choose View Normal Size.

### To Change the Terminal Title

To change the title of the currently displayed terminal, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Terminal Set Title.

2. Type the new title in the Title text box. GNOME Terminal applies the change immediately.

3. Click Close to close the Set Title dialogue.

### To Change the Character Encoding

To change the character encoding, choose Terminal Set Character Encoding, then select the appropriate encoding.

#### To Change the List of Character Encodings

To change the list of character encodings displayed in the Set Character Encoding menu, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Terminal Set Character Encoding Add or Remove.

2. To add an encoding to the Set Character Encoding menu, select the encoding in the Available encodings list box, then click the right arrow button.

3. To remove an encoding from the Set Character Encoding menu, select the encoding in the Encodings shown in menu list box, then click the left arrow button.

4. Click Close to close the Add or Remove Terminal Encodings dialogue.

### To Recover Your Terminal

This section provides some advice if you have problems with terminals.

To reset the state of the terminal:

  Choose Terminal Reset.

To reset the terminal and clear the screen:

  Choose Terminal Reset and Clear.

## Preferences

To configure GNOME Terminal, choose Edit Current Profile. To configure another profile that you set up choose Edit Profiles, select the profile you want to edit, then click Edit.

The Editing Profile dialogue contains the following tabbed sections that you can use to configure GNOME Terminal:

### General

Profile name

  Use this text box to specify the name of the current profile.

Use the system fixed width font

  Select this option to use the standard fixed width font that is specified in the Font tab of the Appearance preference tool.

Font

  Click on this button to select a font type and font size for the terminal. This button is only enabled if the Use the system terminal font option is unselected.

Allow bold text

  Select this option to enable the terminal to display bold text.

Show menubar by default in new terminals

  Select this option to show the menubar on new terminal windows.

Terminal bell

  Select this option to enable the terminal bell.

Select-by-word characters

  Use this text box to specify characters or groups of characters that GNOME Terminal considers to be words when you select text by word. See for more information about how to select text by word.

### Title and Command

Initial title

  Use this text box to specify the initial title of terminals that use the profile. New terminals that are started from the current terminal have the new initial title.

When terminal commands set their own titles

  Use this drop-down list to specify how to handle dynamically-set titles, that is, terminal titles set by commands that run in the terminal.

Run command as a login shell

  Select this option to force the command that currently runs inside the terminal to run as a login shell. If the command is not a shell, the setting has no effect.

Update login records when command is launched

  Select this option to insert a new entry in the login records when a new shell is opened.

Run a custom command instead of my shell

  Select this option to run a specified command, other than the normal shell, in the terminal. Specify the custom command in the Custom command text box.

When command exits

  Use this drop-down list to specify what action to perform when the command exits.

### Colours

Foreground and Background

  Select the Use colours from system theme option to use the colours that are specified in the GNOME Desktop theme that is selected in the Theme tab of the Appearance preference tool.

  Use the Built-in schemes drop-down list to specify the foreground and background colours for the terminal. GNOME Terminal supports the following foreground and background colour combinations:

  - Black on light yellow

  - Black on white

  - Gray on black

  - Green on black

  - White on black

  - Custom

    This option enables you to select colours that are not in the selected colour scheme.

  The actual display of the foreground and background colours can vary depending on the colour scheme that you choose. For example, if you choose White on black and the Linux console colour scheme, the application displays the foreground and background colours as light gray on black. The Built-in schemes drop-down list is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

  Click on the Text colour button to display the Choose terminal text colour dialogue. Use the colour wheel or the spin boxes to customise the colour that you want to use as the text colour, then click OK. The Text colour button is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

  Click on the Background colour button to display the Choose terminal background colour dialogue. Use the colour wheel or the spin boxes to customise the colour that you want to use as the background colour, then click OK. The Background colour button is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

Palette

  The terminal emulation can only use 16 colours at a time to draw text. The colour palette specifies these 16 colours. Applications that run in the terminal use an index number to specify a colour from this palette.

  Use the Built-in schemes drop-down list to choose a preset colour schemes. The colour palette below and the contents of the terminal window both update to show the scheme.

  Use the Colour palette to customise the 16 default colours in the custom colour palette. To customise a colour, click on the colour to display the Palette entry dialogue. Use the colour wheel or the spin boxes to customise the colour, then click OK.

### Effects

Background

  Select a background for the terminal window. The options are as follows:

  - Solid colour

    Select this option to use the background colour that is specified in the Colours tabbed section as the background colour for the terminal.

  - Background image

    Select this option to use an image file as the background for the terminal. Use the Image file drop-down combination box to specify the location and name of the image file. Alternatively, click Browse to search for and select the image file.

    Select the Background image scrolls option to enable the background image to scroll with the text when you scroll through the terminal. If you do not select this option, the background image remains fixed on the terminal background and only the text scrolls. This option is only enabled if you select the Background image option.

  - Transparent background

    Select this option to use a transparent background for the terminal.

Shade transparent or image background

  Use this slider to shade or dim the background of the terminal. This option is only enabled if you select the Background image or Transparent background options.

### Scrolling

Scrollbar is

  Use this drop-down list to specify the position of the scrollbar on the terminal window.

Scrollback ... lines

  Use this spin box to specify the number of lines that you can scroll back using the scrollbar. For example, if you specify 100 you can scroll back the last 100 lines displayed in the terminal.

Scroll on output

  Select this option to enable you to scroll the output on the terminal while the terminal continues to display more output from a command.

Scroll on keystroke

  Select this option to enable you to press any key on the keyboard to scroll down the terminal window to the command prompt. This action only applies if you scrolled up the terminal window and you want to return to the command prompt.

### Compatibility

Backspace key generates

  Use the drop-down list to select the function that you want the Backspace key to perform.

Delete key generates

  Use the drop-down list to select the function that you want the Delete key to perform.

Reset compatibility options to defaults

  Click on this button to reset the options on the Compatibility tabbed section to the default settings.