NAME¶
multixterm - drive multiple xterms separately or together
SYNOPSIS¶
multixterm [
args ]
DESCRIPTION¶
Multixterm creates multiple xterms that can be driven together or separately.
In its simplest form, multixterm is run with no arguments and commands are
interactively entered in the first entry field. Press return (or click the
"new xterm" button) to create a new xterm running that command.
Keystrokes in the "stdin window" are redirected to all xterms started
by multixterm. xterms may be driven separately simply by focusing on them.
The stdin window must have the focus for keystrokes to be sent to the xterms.
When it has the focus, the color changes to aquamarine. As characters are
entered, the color changes to green for a second. This provides feedback since
characters are not echoed in the stdin window.
Typing in the stdin window while holding down the alt or meta keys sends an
escape character before the typed characters. This provides support for
programs such as emacs.
ARGUMENTS¶
- -xa
- The optional -xa argument indicates arguments to pass to xterm.
- -xc
- The optional -xc argument indicates a command to be run in each named
xterm (see -xn). With no -xc argument, the command is the current shell.
- -xd
- The optional -xd argument indicates a directory to search for files that
will appear in the Files menu. By default, the directory is:
~/lib/multixterm
- -xf
- The optional -xf argument indicates a file to be read at startup. See
FILES below for more info.
- -xn
- The optional -xn argument indicates a name for each xterm. This name will
also be substituted for any %n in the command argument (see -xc).
- -xv
- The optional -xv flag puts multixterm into a verbose mode where it will
describe some of the things it is doing internally. The verbose output is
not intended to be understandable to anyone but the author.
Less common options may be changed by the startup file (see FILES below).
All the usual X and wish flags are supported (i.e., -display, -name). There are
so many of them that to avoid colliding and make them easy to remember, all
the multixterm flags begin with -x.
If any arguments do not match the flags above, the remainder of the command line
is made available for user processing. By default, the remainder is used as a
list of xterm names in the style of -xn. The default behavior may be changed
using the .multixtermrc file (see DOT FILE below).
EXAMPLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS¶
The following command line starts up two xterms using ssh to the hosts bud and
dexter.
multixterm -xc "ssh %n" bud dexter
FILES¶
Command files may be used to drive or initialize multixterm. The File menu may
be used to invoke other files. If files exist in the command file directory
(see -xd above), they will appear in the File menu. Files may also be loaded
by using File->Open. Any filename is acceptable but the File->Open
browser defaults to files with a .mxt suffix.
Files are written in Tcl and may change any variables or invoke any procedures.
The primary variables of interest are 'xtermCmd' which identifies the command
(see -xc) and 'xtermNames' which is a list of names (see -xn). The procedure
xtermStartAll, starts xterms for each name in the list. Other variables and
procedures may be discovered by examining multixterm itself.
EXAMPLE FILE¶
The following file does the same thing as the earlier example command line:
# start two xterms connected to bud and dexter
set xtermCmd "ssh %n"
set xtermNames {bud dexter}
xtermStartAll
DOT FILE¶
At startup, multixterm reads ~/.multixtermrc if present. This is similar to the
command files (see FILES above) except that .multixtermrc may not call
xtermStartAll. Instead it is called implicitly, similar to the way that it is
implicit in the command line use of -xn.
The following example .multixtermrc file makes every xterm run ssh to the hosts
named on the command line.
set xtermCmd "ssh %n"
Then multixterm could be called simply:
multixterm bud dexter
If any command-line argument does not match a multixterm flag, the remainder of
the command line is made available to .multixtermrc in the argv variable. If
argv is non-empty when .multixtermrc returns, it is assigned to xtermNames
unless xtermNames is non-empty in which case, the content of argv is ignored.
Commands from multixterm are evaluated early in the initialization of
multixterm. Anything that must be done late in the initialization (such as
adding additional bindings to the user interface) may be done by putting the
commands inside a procedure called "initLate".
Except as otherwise noted, the menus are self-explanatory. Some of the menus
have dashed lines as the first entry. Clicking on the dashed lines will
"tear off" the menus.
USAGE SUGGESTION - ALIASES AND COMMAND FILES¶
Aliases may be used to store lengthy command-line invocations. Command files can
be also be used to store such invocations as well as providing a convenient
way to share configurations.
Tcl is a general-purpose language. Thus multixterm command files can be
extremely flexible, such as loading hostnames from other programs or files
that may change from day-to-day. In addition, command files can be used for
other purposes. For example, command files may be used to prepared common
canned interaction sequences. For example, the command to send the same string
to all xterms is:
xtermSend "a particularly long string"
The File menu (torn-off) makes canned sequences particularly convenient.
Interactions could also be bound to a mouse button, keystroke, or added to a
menu via the .multixtermrc file.
The following .multixtermrc causes tiny xterms to tile across and down the
screen. (You may have to adjust the parameters for your screen.) This can be
very helpful when dealing with large numbers of xterms.
set yPos 0
set xPos 0
trace variable xtermArgs r traceArgs
proc traceArgs {args} {
global xPos yPos
set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+$yPos -font 6x10"
if {$xPos} {
set xPos 0
incr yPos 145
if {$yPos > 800} {set yPos 0}
} else {
set xPos 500
}
}
The xtermArgs variable in the code above is the variable corresponding to the
-xa argument.
xterms can be also be created directly. The following command file creates three
xterms overlapped horizontally:
set xPos 0
foreach name {bud dexter hotdog} {
set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+0 -font 6x10"
set ::xtermNames $name
xtermStartAll
incr xPos 300
}
USAGE SUGGESTION - SELECTING HOSTS BY NICKNAME¶
The following .multixtermrc shows an example of changing the default handling of
the arguments from hostnames to a filename containing hostnames:
set xtermNames [exec cat $argv]
The following is a variation, retrieving the host names from the yp database:
set xtermNames [exec ypcat $argv]
The following hardcodes two sets of hosts, so that you can call multixterm with
either "cluster1" or "cluster2":
switch $argv {
cluster1 {
set xtermNames "bud dexter"
}
cluster2 {
set xtermNames "frank hotdog weiner"
}
}
COMPARE/CONTRAST¶
It is worth comparing multixterm to xkibitz. Multixterm connects a separate
process to each xterm. xkibitz connects the same process to each xterm.
LIMITATIONS¶
Multixterm provides no way to remotely control scrollbars, resize, and most
other window system related functions.
Because xterm has no mechanism for propagating size information to external
processes, particularly for character graphic applications (e.g., vi, emacs),
you may have to manually ensure that the spawned process behind each xterm has
the correct size. For example, if you create or set the xterm to a size, you
may have to send an explicit stty command with the correct size to the spawned
process(es). Alternatively, you can add the correct size argument when an
xterm is created (i.e., "-geometry 80x20").
Multixterm can only control new xterms that multixterm itself has started.
As a convenience, the File menu shows a limited number of files. To show all the
files, use File->Open.
FILES¶
$DOTDIR/.multixtermrc initial command file
~/.multixtermrc fallback command file
~/lib/multixterm/ default command file directory
BUGS¶
If multixterm is killed using an uncatchable kill, the xterms are not killed.
This appears to be a bug in xterm itself.
Send/expect sequences can be done in multixterm command files. However, due to
the richness of the possibilities, to document it properly would take more
time than the author has at present.
REQUIREMENTS¶
Requires Expect 5.36.0 or later.
Requires Tk 8.3.3 or later.
VERSION¶
This man page describes version 1.8 of multixterm.
The latest version of multixterm is available from
http://expect.nist.gov/example/multixterm . If your version of Expect and Tk
are too old (see REQUIREMENTS above), download a new version of Expect from
http://expect.nist.gov
DATE¶
April 30, 2002
AUTHOR¶
Don Libes <don@libes.com>
LICENSE¶
Multixterm is in the public domain; however the author would appreciate
acknowledgement if multixterm or parts of it or ideas from it are used.