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mklement0 / ttab

macOS and Linux CLI for opening a new terminal tab/window, optionally with a command to execute and/or display settings
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ttab — programmatically open a new terminal tab or window

A CLI for Unix-like platforms that programmatically opening a new terminal tab/window in one of the following terminal applications, optionally with a command to execute and/or a specific title and specific display settings (profile).

Note: iTerm2 and gnome-terminal support is currently not covered by the automated tests run before every release.

Installation

Important: On macOS, irrespective of installation method, Terminal / iTerm2 (iTerm.app) needs to be granted access for assistive devices in order for ttab to function properly, which is a one-time operation that requires administrative privileges. If you're not prompted on first run and get an error message instead, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy, tab Privacy, select Accessibility, unlock, and make sure Terminal.app / iTerm.app is in the list on the right and has a checkmark. For more information, see Apple's support article on the subject.

Installation via Homebrew (macOS only)

With Homebrew installed, run the following:

brew tap mklement0/ttab https://github.com/mklement0/ttab.git
brew install mklement0/ttab/ttab
brew upgrade mklement0/ttab/ttab

Note:

Installation from the npm registry

With Node.js installed, install from the npm registry:

Note:

Manual installation

Examples

# Open a new tab in the current terminal window.
ttab

# Open a new tab in a new terminal window.
ttab -w

# Open new horizontal split tab in the current terminal window:
ttab -h

# Open new vertical split tab in the current terminal window, changing the path to the
# given path, but without checking the presence of the target directory:
ttab -v -i -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support"

# Open a new tab and execute the specified command before showing the prompt.
ttab ls -l "$HOME/Library/Application Support"

# Open a new tab and execute the specified command *after a delay* of 0.8 secs,
# to accommodate shells with lengthy initialization-file processing.
# Note: You may preset the delay via environment variable TTAB_CMD_DELAY
ttab -l 0.8 ls -1

# Open a new tab and execute *multiple* commands in it - note how the entire
# command line is specified as *single, quoted string*.
ttab 'git branch; git status'

# Open a new tab, switch to the specified dir., then execute the specified
# command before showing the prompt.
ttab -d ~/Library/Application\ Support ls -1

# Open a new tab with title 'How Green Was My Valley' and settings 'Grass'.
# See the note re use of -t in iTerm2 below.
ttab -t 'How Green Was My Valley' -s Grass

# Open a new tab and execute the specified script before showing the prompt.
ttab /path/to/someScript

# Open a new tab, execute the specified script, and exit.
ttab exec /path/to/someScript

# Open a new tab, execute a command, wait for a keypress, and exit.
ttab 'ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support"; echo Press a key to exit.; read -rsn 1; exit'

# Open a new tab in iTerm2 (if installed).
ttab -a iTerm2 echo 'Hi from iTerm2.'

# Execute the command in the current tab of the current terminal window:
ttab -c 'ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support"'

Usage

Find concise usage information below; for complete documentation, read the manual online, or, once installed, run man ttab (ttab --man if installed manually).

$ ttab --help

Opens a new terminal tab or window, on macOS in either Terminal.app or  
iTerm2.app; on Linux in Gnome Terminal, if available.

    ttab [-w|-v|-h|-c] [-i] [-s <settings>] [-t <title>] [-q] [-g|-G] [-d <dir>] [<cmd> ...]

    -w                  Open new tab in new terminal window.
    -v                  iTerm only: create a new vertical split
    -h                  iTerm only: create a new horizontal split
    -c                  Terminal/iTerm only: do not open any new window or
                        tab, run in the current tab of the current window.
    -i                  Suppress up-front verification of the existence of
                        the target directory specified via the -d option.
    -s <settings>       Assign a settings set (profile).
    -t <title>          Specify title for new tab.
    -q                  Clear the new tab's screen.
    -g                  Terminal/iTerm only: create in background (don't
                        activate application).
    -G                  Terminal/iTerm: don't activate new tab and create in
                        background.
                        gnome-terminal: don't activate new tab, except with -w.
    -d <dir>            Specify working directory; -d '' disables inheriting
                        the current dir. in Terminal/iTerm.
    -l <secs>           Terminal/iTerm only: delay startup command submission;
                        may be preset via env. var. TTAB_CMD_DELAY
    -a Terminal | iTerm Open the new tab in the given terminal app on macOS.
    <cmd> ...           Command to execute in the new tab.
    "<cmd> ...; ..."    Multi-command command line (passed as single operand).

Standard options: --help, --man, --version, --home

Note to iTerm2 users: The -t option for specifying a title only works if the new tab's active profile is configured to show the session name in the title, which can be configured via the Preferences dialog as shown by @francis-lookback here.

License

Copyright (c) 2015-2024 Michael Klement mklement0@gmail.com (http://same2u.net), released under the MIT license.

Acknowledgements

A thank you to all contributors to this repo, especially the following major ones:

This project gratefully depends on the following open-source components, according to the terms of their respective licenses.

npm dependencies below have optional suffixes denoting the type of dependency; the absence of a suffix denotes a required run-time dependency: (D) denotes a development-time-only dependency, (O) an optional dependency, and (P) a peer dependency.

npm dependencies

Changelog

Versioning complies with semantic versioning (semver).