OSX CLI for opening a new terminal tab/window, optionally with a command to execute and/or display settings
Contents
A CLI for 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).
Terminal (the default terminal emulator) or popular alternative iTerm2.gnome-terminal), thanks to a contribution by @ksvirsky.Note: iTerm2 and gnome-terminal support is currently not covered by the automated tests run before every release.
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.
With Homebrew installed, run the following:
brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mklement0/ttab/master/ttab.rb
Tip of the hat to @dsingingwolfboy for inspiring me to add this installation method and providing the original formula.
Note: The Homebrew version may lag behind the npm registry version if later versions relate solely to the Linux-only Gnome Terminal functionality.
With Node.js installed, install from the npm registry:
[sudo] npm install ttab -g
Note:
sudo depends on how you installed Node.js and whether you've changed permissions later; if you get an EACCES error, try again with sudo.-g ensures global installation and is needed to put ttab in your system's $PATH.bash script as ttab.chmod +x ttab.$PATH, such as /usr/local/bin.# Open a new tab in the current terminal window.
ttab
# Open a new tab in a new terminal window.
ttab -w
# Open a new tab and execute the specified command before showing the prompt.
ttab ls -l "$HOME/Library/Application Support"
# Open a new tab and execute *multiple* commands in it - note how the entire
# command line is specified as *single, quoted string*.
ttab 'git branch; git status'
# Open a new tab, switch to the specified dir., then execute the specified
# command before showing the prompt.
ttab -d ~/Library/Application\ Support ls -1
# Open a new tab with title 'How Green Was My Valley' and settings 'Grass'.
# See the note re use of -t in iTerm2 below.
ttab -t 'How Green Was My Valley' -s Grass
# Open a new tab and execute the specified script before showing the prompt.
ttab /path/to/someScript
# Open a new tab, execute the specified script, and exit.
ttab exec /path/to/someScript
# Open a new tab, execute a command, wait for a keypress, and exit.
ttab 'ls "$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.'
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] [-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 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.
-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.
Copyright (c) 2015-2020 Michael Klement mklement0@gmail.com (http://same2u.net), released under the MIT license.
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.
Versioning complies with semantic versioning (semver).
v0.7.0 (2020-08-24):
ttab is now also available on Linux, assuming gnome-terminal is available.v0.6.1 (2017-11-08):
-G work again.v0.6.0 (2017-06-21):
-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):
v0.5.0 (2016-10-01):
-q now allows clearing the "screen" of the new tab after
opening using clear, assuming any command (list) passed succeeded.eval command.-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.v0.4.0 (2016-09-13):
-a Terminal|iTerm2 now allows specifying the target Terminal
application, which is useful for launching ttab from non-terminal applications
such as Alfred.ttab to report a nonzero exit code.v0.3.1 (2016-06-03):
v0.3.0 (2016-05-04):
iTerm.app) added.v0.2.1 (2015-09-15):
v0.2.0 (2015-09-14):
eval.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):
v0.1.7 (2015-06-26):
v0.1.6 (2015-06-01):
v0.1.5 (2015-06-01):
v0.1.4 (2015-06-01):
package.json.make browse now opens the GitHub repo in the default browser.v0.1.3 (2015-06-01):
v0.1.2 (2015-06-01):
v0.1.1 (2015-06-01):
v0.1.0 (2015-06-01):
FAQs
OSX CLI for opening a new terminal tab/window, optionally with a command to execute and/or display settings
The npm package ttab receives a total of 4,112 weekly downloads. As such, ttab popularity was classified as popular.
We found that ttab demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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