Terminator - ArchWiki

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Terminator is a terminal emulator which supports tabs and multiple resizable terminal panels in one window. It is based on GNOME Terminal.

## Installation

Install the terminator package. Install terminator-gitAUR for the latest (trunk) version.

## Configuration

See the man page or right click Terminator then click Preferences.

    man terminator_config

User-specific configurations can be found in `~/.config/terminator/config`.

### GTK customization

Terminator supports tabs. If their size is considered too big, GTK styling can be used in `~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css` on 'notebook tab' and 'notebook tab button' to achieve the desired height and/or width.

Note: This affects all GTK applications.

## Key commands

`F11` Toggle fullscreen

`Ctrl+Shift+o` Split terminals horizontally

`Ctrl+Shift+e` Split terminals vertically

`Ctrl+Shift+w` Close current Panel

`Ctrl+Shift+t` Open new tab

`Alt+Up` Move to the terminal above the current one

`Alt+Down` Move to the terminal below the current one

`Alt+Left` Move to the terminal left of the current one

`Alt+Right` Move to the terminal right of the current one

## Managing profiles

It is possible to start terminator with a random profile every time. To avoid unexpected behavior, you should start with a clean `[profiles]` section. You can copy the one from this file. It contains many well-known color schemes. Copy its contents to your `config` file, which is located in `~/.config/terminator/`. Then, `cat` your list of profiles to a destination of your choice.

    cat $HOME/.config/terminator/config | grep -B 1 'background_color' | grep '\]\]' | tr -d '[]' > $HOME/.config/terminator/profiles

When you add more profiles in the future and would like to have them included in the startup pool, you will have to reissue the command above. You can create an alias.

You must now modify Terminator's desktop file so that it selects a random profile from this list at startup.

    sudoedit /usr/share/applications/terminator.desktop

Find the `Exec` line and comment it out with `#`. Add your own `Exec` line as follows.

    # Exec=terminator
    Exec=sh -c "terminator -p $( shuf -n 1 $HOME/.config/terminator/profiles )"

Save the file and restart your desktop environment.

Tip: Go to the terminator preferences and under the "keybindings" tab, take note of how to switch to the next profile. This way, if the profile Terminator has not started with your liking, you can quickly change it.

## See also

- Terminator - Official site
- https://github.com/gnome-terminator/terminator - GitHub

Category:

- Terminal emulators