The Terminal is an essential part of all *ix systems and most Linux geek’s like to spend their time on the command line terminals. Problems arise when we are using more than one terminal for our work and we have to switch between them regularly. We have an utility on most of the Linux distro’s named as “Terminator” that is able to open multiple terminals within a single window. So you don’t need to switch between different terminals.
Terminator also know as the Terminal Emulator is a cross platform utility and is released under the GPL license. So you can also use it on Windows and a Mac OS too. I am using Ubuntu 10.04 desktop edition. This utility is available in the Ubuntu repository and you can install it by typing
sudo apt-get install terminator .
If you want a manual download then you can download it from the official link of this utility http://software.jessies.org/terminator/ . Deb packages are available on the download page, so you just download them and install them by clicking on the install package button. To launch it go to Applications → Accessories → Terminator. You can also launch it by typing terminator in your terminal. Below is the screenshot of the utility
Key-bindings you need to know while using this utility –
- Ctrl+Shift+e/E → Vertical tab division
- Ctrl+shift+o/O → Horizontal tab division
- Ctrl+Tab → Switch between the terminals
- Ctrl+Shift+t/T → Tab Division
- Ctrl+Shift+q/Q → Quits Terminator
There are numerous number of combinations. See the man page of the terminator by typing
man terminator.
Besides tabbing of the terminals, terminator also provides the auto logging feature such as-
.Unlike terminals it provides you the option of “Safe Quit” by asking you as soon as you hit the cross sign. So if the process is in the buffer, you can still carry on with it by clicking on the cancel option.
So don’t waste your time in switching between different terminals. Just give Terminator a try.
