How to open several Terminal Tabs and open files in Vim and change directory?

Question

I'm asking this question because I tried a lot of solutions I found and they all didn't work:

gnome-terminal --save-config=... results in an error that this option is no more possible
gnome-terminal --tab -- 'vim ~/Files/file.txt' for creating a shell script results in an error, my system is in German but it seems to be like
```
There was an error creating the child process for this terminal
Failed to execute child process "vim ~/Files/file.txt" (No such file or directory)
```
and does nothing but using just vim without a file to open works
using a session manager just opens the Terminal automatically but without any tabs
and gnome-terminal --tab -- 'cd ~/Files/' doesn't work either (error like the one above)

The version is # GNOME Terminal 3.28.2 using VTE 0.52.2 +GNUTLS -PCRE2. Maybe there are mistakes in my ways of solving it or you know another (a better) alternative?

Thank you for helping me!

Thank you for the link. I hope I understand it right but setting the variable in .bashrc and typing gnome-terminal --tab -- 'bash -c "export BASH_POST_RC=\"vim todo.txt\"; exec bash"' doesn't work, too. — TravelTrader, Jan 20 '19 at 09:24
No, I think you should add the line eval "$BASH_POST_RC" (literally!) to the end of your ~/.bashrc and run e.g.: gnome-terminal --tab -e 'bash -c "export BASH_POST_RC=\"vim todo.txt\"; exec bash"' --working-directory="$HOME/Files" --tab -e 'exec bash' I’m not sure about the last -e 'exec bash', try with and without it. — dessert, Jan 20 '19 at 11:49
With the last phrase it opens 2 tabs, one with the working-directory and one with the error I had before. And without the last phrase only one tab with the directory. — TravelTrader, Jan 20 '19 at 12:14
Will something like this do? Spawn new Terminator tabs from Bash script Also see How to open terminal, split to 9 terminals and switch between them using one script? — terdon, Jan 20 '19 at 13:47
Thank you. I'll read about Terminator. Good hint. An other version of gnome-terminal isn't a possibility for solving my wish? — TravelTrader, Jan 20 '19 at 15:20

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '19 at 09:16

The closest I can find that would do this involves creating multiple scripts. gnome-terminal has changed over the years and the -x and --command options have been heavily deprecated. Your best bet is to create profiles for each of the tabs you want to run and use:

gnome-terminal --tab-with-profile=Something1 --tab-with-profile=Something2

If you're using stuff like ~ or * inside your commands it's likely those won't be evaluated since that's actually the job of the shell (bash) whereas gnome-terminal, so it might help to create an actual script somewhere and tell gnome-terminal to use that.

Using /home/username/ instead of ~/ and it works. Thank you. Maybe there is a more flexible solution because of having to use lots of profiles for different Terminal layouts. — TravelTrader, Jan 20 '19 at 09:30

Liber Abaci · Answer 2 · 2020-11-10T23:12:19.143

The script open new tabs:

saves in pathtabs.list a list of (foo-test) paths to new terminal tabs;
creates a new script autotab.sh to xdotool-FORMAT any list of paths adding controlshiftt shortcuts and cds to commands;
autotab.sh is useful to xdotool format <any-list-of-paths>;
usage: autotab.sh <any-list-of-paths>;
creates foo_* test dirs for the pathtabs.list;
runs ./autotab.sh pathtabs.list and saves output to new script maketabs.sh
maketabs.sh is useful to open the same set of tabs/paths from the original pathtabs.list;

...and runs commands:

saves in pathncommtabs.list a list of (foo-test) paths and commands to run in new terminal tabs;
creates a new script autopctab.sh to xdotool-FORMAT any list of paths and commands adding controlshiftt shortcuts, ; and cds to commands;
autopctab.sh is useful to xdotool format <list-of-paths-and-commands> (see pathncommtabs.list);
usage: autopctab.sh <list-of-paths-and-commands>; (see pathncommtabs.list)
runs ./autopctab.sh pathncommtabs.list and saves the command list to new script makepctabs.sh
makepctabs.sh is useful to open the same set of tabs/paths/commands from the original pathncommtabs.list;

#open-several-tabs-with-xdotool-slowly-and-easily
#!/bin/bash
#pathtabs.list
if [ ! -f ~/pathtabs.list ]; then
echo ~/foo_00 > pathtabs.list
echo ~/foo_00/foo_00_1 >> pathtabs.list
echo ~/foo_00/foo_00_2 >> pathtabs.list
echo ~/foo_00/foo_00_2/foo_00_2_1 >> pathtabs.list
fi
echo 'pathtabs.list: has a list of paths for the new tabs'
#mkdirs
if [ ! -d ~/foo_00/ ]; then
mkdir foo_00
mkdir foo_00/foo_00_1
mkdir foo_00/foo_00_2
mkdir foo_00/foo_00_2/foo_00_2_1
fi
echo 'mkdirs: testing foo_*'
##commtabs.list
if [ ! -f ~/commtabs.list ]; then
echo nano newfile1.txt > commtabs.list
echo nano newfile2.txt >> commtabs.list
echo nano newfile3.txt >> commtabs.list
echo nano newfile4.txt >> commtabs.list
fi
echo 'commtabs.list: has a list of commands to run on the new tabs'
#pathtabs.list+commtabs.list+options
if [ ! -f ~/pathncommtabs.list ]; then
cat pathtabs.list |sed 's/.*/cd &;/'|sed '1s/^/c+s+t;/'|

paste - commtabs.list|tr -d '\t' |sed '$!s/$/;c+s+t/' > pathncommtabs.list
fi
echo 'pathncommtabs.list: integrates pathtabs.list+commtabs.list+cd+;+(new-tab-tokens)'
#autopctab.sh <anypathncommtabs.list>
if [ ! -f ~/autopctab.sh ]; then
echo '#!/bin/bash' > autopctab.sh
echo 'cat $1| sed '''s/ /#/g'''| sed '''s/(.)/\1 /g'''|sed '''s/#/space/g'''|

    sed '''s/~/asciitilde/g'''|sed '''s/_/underscore/g'''|sed '''s/c + s + t/control+shift+t/g'''|

    sed '''s///slash/g'''|sed '''s/./period/g'''|sed '''s/;/Return/g'''|

    sed '''s/.*/xdotool key --delay 18  & Return/'''' >> autopctab.sh
chmod u+x autopctab.sh
fi
echo 'autopctab.sh: xdotool-format paths+commands+(xdotool-commands)'
#run autopctab.sh <pathncommtabs.list>
#makepctabs.sh
if [ ! -f ~/makepctabs.sh ]; then
echo '#!/bin/bash' > makepctabs.sh
./autopctab.sh pathncommtabs.list >> makepctabs.sh
chmod u+x makepctabs.sh
fi
echo 'makepctabs.sh: run xdotool command lines to OPEN new tabs AND RUN commands with pathncommtabs.list'
#autotab.sh <anytabs.list>
if [ ! -f ~/autotab.sh ]; then
echo '#!/bin/bash' > autotab.sh
echo 'cat $1|sed '''s/./cd &/'''|sed '''s/ /#/g'''|

    sed '''s/(.)/\1 /g'''|sed '''s/#/space/g'''|

    sed '''s/~/asciitilde/g'''|sed '''s/_/underscore/g'''|

    sed '''s///slash/g'''|sed '''s/./period/g'''|

    sed '''s/./xdotool key --delay 18 control+shift+t space c d space asciitilde Return & Return c l e a r Return/''''  >> autotab.sh
chmod u+x autotab.sh
fi
echo 'autotab.sh: xdotool-format ONLY paths+(xdotool-commands)'
#run autotab.sh <pathtabs.list>
#maketabs.sh
if [ ! -f ~/maketabs.sh ]; then
echo '#!/bin/bash' > maketabs.sh
./autotab.sh pathtabs.list >> maketabs.sh
chmod u+x maketabs.sh
fi
echo 'maketabs.sh: run xdotool command lines ONLY to open new tabs with pathtabs.list'
#run-maketabs?
#./maketabs.sh
#remove-maketabs.sh?
#remove-autotab.sh?
#rm autotab.sh
#remove-pathtabs.list?
#rm pathtabs.list
#run-makepctabs?
#./makepctabs.sh
#remove-makepctabs.sh?
#rm makepctabs.sh
#remove-autopctab.sh?
#rm autopctab.sh
#remove-pathncommtabs.list?
#rm pathncommtabs.list
#remove-dirs?
#rm -r foo_0?
#echo See also 'https://askubuntu.com/a/380320'
#echo '        https://www.semicomplete.com/projects/xdotool/'
#echo '        https://github.com/jordansissel/xdotool'

How to open several Terminal Tabs and open files in Vim and change directory?

2 Answers2