Xtab NPM | npm.io

Contents

xtab — open a new Terminal.app / iTerm2.app / Gnome Terminal tab or window
Installation
Examples
Usage
License
- Acknowledgements
- npm dependencies
Changelog

xtab — open a new Terminal.app / iTerm2.app / Gnome Terminal tab or window

xtab is a fork of ttab package with added Gnome Temrinal support (Ubuntu OS and some other Linux dists.)

A macOS (OS X) CLI for programmatically opening a new terminal tab/window in the standard terminal application, Terminal, or in popular alternative iTerm2, optionally with a command to execute and/or a specific title and specific display settings.

Note: iTerm2 support is experimental in that it is currently not covered by the automated tests run before every release.

Installation

Important: Irrespective of installation method, Terminal / iTerm2 (iTerm.app) needs to be granted access for assistive devices in order for xtab 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

With Homebrew installed, run the following:

brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ksvirsky/xtab/master/xtab.rb

Tip of the hat to @dsingingwolfboy for inspiring me to add this installation method and providing the original formula.

Installation from the npm registry

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

[sudo] npm install xtab -g

Note:

Whether you need sudo depends on how you installed Node.js / io.js and whether you've changed permissions later; if you get an EACCES error, try again with sudo.
The -g ensures global installation and is needed to put xtab in your system's $PATH.

Manual installation

Download this bash script as xtab.
Make it executable with chmod +x xtab.
Move it to a folder in your $PATH, such as /usr/local/bin.

Examples

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

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

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

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

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

# Open a new tab with title 'How Green Was My Valley' and settings 'Grass'.
tab -t 'How Green Was My Valley' -s Grass

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

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

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

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

Usage

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

$ xtab --help


Opens a new terminal tab or window in OS X's Terminal application or iTerm2.

    xtab [-w] [-s <settings>] [-t <title>] [-q] [-g|-G] [-d <dir>] [<cmd> ...]

    -w                  open new tab in new terminal window
    -s <settings>       assign a settings set (profile)
    -t <title>          specify title for new tab
    -q                  clear the new tab's screen
    -g                  create tab in background (don't activate Terminal/iTerm)
    -G                  create tab in background and don't activate new tab
    -d <dir>            specify working directory; -d '' disables inheriting
                        the current dir.
    -a Terminal|iTerm2  open tab or window in Terminal.app / iTerm2
    <cmd> ...           command to execute in the new tab
    "<cmd> ...; ..."    multi-command command line (passed as single operand)

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

License

Acknowledgements

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).

v0.6.1 (2017-11-08):
- fix macOS 10.13 (High Sierra compatibility), which makes -G work again.
- installation Homebrew formula added (added post-release, on 2019-12-22).
v0.6.0 (2017-06-21):
- enhancement -d '' now prevents ttab from implicitly changing to what it thinks the working directory should be; useful for creating tabs/windows that set their own working directory.
v0.5.1 (2017-03-23):
- doc Sample command fixed.
- dev Reliability of tests improved.
v0.5.0 (2016-10-01):
- new feature -q now allows clearing the "screen" of the new tab after opening using clear, assuming any command (list) passed succeeded.
- enhancement A quoted multi-command shell command string can now be specified as a single - and only - operand, without having to precede with an explicit eval command.
- behavior change If no custom title is specified with -t <title>, no attempt is made anymore to auto-derive a meaningful tab title from the shell command specified, as there is no heuristic that works well in all cases.
- fix(https://github.com/mklement0/ttab/issues/7): iTerm2 now also preserves the current working dir. when opening a new tab in the current window.
v0.4.0 (2016-09-13):
- enhancement -a Terminal|iTerm2 now allows specifying the target Terminal application, which is useful for launching ttab from non-terminal applications such as Alfred.
- fix Specifying a syntactically invalid shell command to execute in the new tab now causes ttab to report a nonzero exit code.
v0.3.1 (2016-06-03):
- enhancement Support for iTerm2 v3 added (whose AppleScript syntax changed fundamentally)
- enhancement Setting a tab title is now also supported in iTerm2 v2.
v0.3.0 (2016-05-04):
- enhancement Experimental support for iTerm2 (iTerm.app) added.
v0.2.1 (2015-09-15):
- dev Makefile improvements; various other behind-the-scenes tweaks.
v0.2.0 (2015-09-14):
- enhancement You can now use embedded (escaped, if necessary) double-quotes inside a multi-command string passed via eval.
- doc If installed via the npm registry, a man page is now installed (view with man ttab); if installed manually, ttab --man shows a plain-text version. ttab -h now only prints concise, single-page usage information.
v0.1.8 (2015-09-11):
- doc Incorrect new-window option corrected in examples.
- doc, dev Read-me improved together with the Makefile to turn off syntax highlighting for the CLI help chapter.
v0.1.7 (2015-06-26):
- doc Read-me: npm badge changed to shields.io; license badge added.
- dev Makefile updated.
v0.1.6 (2015-06-01):
- doc Read-me improvements; typo in CLI usage help fixed.
v0.1.5 (2015-06-01):
- doc Improved CLI usage help.
v0.1.4 (2015-06-01):
- doc Improved CLI usage help; keywords added to package.json.
- dev make browse now opens the GitHub repo in the default browser.
v0.1.3 (2015-06-01):
- fix The -g and -G options again correctly do not activate Terminal.app when creating the desired tab.
- enhancement Option parsing now accepts option-arguments directly attached to the option.
- dev Tests added.
v0.1.2 (2015-06-01):
- doc Manual-installation link and instructions fixed; examples fixed.
v0.1.1 (2015-06-01):
- doc README.md improved with respect to manual installation instructions.
v0.1.0 (2015-06-01):
- Initial release.

@infinitebrahmanuniverse/nolb-xt @everything-registry/sub-chunk-3190

0.0.1

3 years ago

0.7.1

5 years ago