TERMINATOR(1)

💖 TERMINATOR(1) — the manual for Terminator, bestie edition 💖

okay so you opened man terminator and it was giving ✨ dry✨ — not anymore. this is the Manual for Terminator, rewritten with love, and every single fact is still in here. no cap.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

terminator — literally multiple GNOME terminals in one single window. one window. many terminals. iconic. 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

terminator [options]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this manual page documents Terminator, which is a terminal emulator application. that's the vibe.

Terminator is a program that lets users set up flexible arrangements of GNOME terminals. it's aimed at people who normally arrange lots of terminals near each other but do not want to use a frame based window manager. like, they want the terminal party without the window-manager drama. 💅

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

this program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (-). a summary of options is included below, and yes bestie, we're doing all of them:

• -h, --help — show summary of options. the classic "what do i even do here" button. 🫶
• -v, --version — show the version of the Terminator installation. gotta know which era of Terminator you're living in. ⭐
• -m, -M, --maximise, --maximize — start with a maximised window. big window energy. both spellings, because we're inclusive. 😌
• -f, --fullscreen — start with a fullscreen window. main character energy, terminal edition. 🎀
• -b, --borderless — instruct the window manager not to render borders/decorations on the Terminator window. (this works well with --maximise.) naked window, no frame, no notes.
• -H, --hidden — hide the Terminator window by default. its visibility can be toggled with the hide_window keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+A by default). sneaky little window. 🙈
• -T FORCEDTITLE, --title=FORCEDTITLE — force the Terminator window to use a specific name rather than updating it dynamically based on the wishes of the child shell. the child shell does not get a vote. periodt.
• --geometry=GEOMETRY — specify the preferred size and position of Terminator's window; see X(7).
• -e COMMAND, --command=COMMAND — run the specified command instead of the default shell or profile specified command.

Note: if Terminator is launched as x-terminal-emulator, -e behaves like -x, and the longform becomes --execute2=COMMAND.

• -x COMMAND [ARGS], --execute=COMMAND [ARGS] — run the rest of the command line instead of the default shell or profile specified command.
• --working-directory=DIR — set the terminal's working directory. tell it where to live. 🏠
• -g FILE, --config=FILE — use the specified file for configuration.
• -r ROLE, --role=ROLE — set a custom WM_WINDOW_ROLE property on the window.
• -l LAYOUT, --layout=LAYOUT — start Terminator with a specific layout. the argument here is the name of a saved layout. ✨
• -s LAYOUT, --select-layout=LAYOUT — open the layout launcher window instead of the normal terminal.
• -p, --profile=PROFILE — use a different profile as the default.
• -i, --icon=FORCEDICON — set a custom icon for the window (by file or name).
• -u, --no-dbus — disable DBus. bye dbus 🫡
• -d, --debug — enable debugging output (please use this when reporting bugs). this can be specified twice to enable a built-in python debugging server. yes, twice. double the debug, double the fun. 🐛
• --debug-classes=DEBUG_CLASSES — if this is specified as a comma separated list, debugging output will only be printed from the specified classes.
• --debug-methods=DEBUG_METHODS — if this is specified as a comma separated list, debugging output will only be printed from the specified functions. if this is specified in addition to --debug-classes, only the intersection of the two lists will be displayed.
• --new-tab — if this is specified and Terminator is already running, DBus will be used to spawn a new tab in the first Terminator window.
• --toggle-visibility — if this is specified and Terminator is already running, DBus will be used to toggle Terminator window visibility. usable under Wayland to replace hide keyboad shortcut.

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🎀 KEYBINDINGS 🎀

the following default keybindings can be used to control Terminator. most of these keybindings can be changed in the Preferences.

• F1 — launches the full HTML manual. 📖

🌈 Creation & Destruction 🌈

the following items relate to creating and destroying terminals. dramatic, honestly.

• Ctrl+Shift+O — split terminals Horizontally.
• Ctrl+Shift+E — split terminals Vertically.
• Ctrl+Shift+T — open new tab.
• Ctrl+Shift+I — open a new window.

(Note: unlike in previous releases, this window is part of the same Terminator process.)

• Super+I — spawn a new Terminator process.
• Alt+L — open layout launcher.
• Ctrl+Shift+W — close the current terminal.
• Ctrl+Shift+Q — close the current window.

🧭 Navigation 🧭

the following items relate to moving between and around terminals. it's giving map app but for terminals.

• 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.
• Ctrl+PageDown — move to next tab.
• Ctrl+PageUp — move to previous tab.
• Ctrl+Shift+N or Ctrl+Tab — move to the next terminal within the same tab.
• Ctrl+Shift+P or Ctrl+Shift+Tab — move to the previous terminal within the same tab.

🧚 Organisation 🧚

the following items relate to arranging and resizing terminals. interior design but make it shell. 🏡

• Ctrl+Shift+Right — move parent dragbar right.
• Ctrl+Shift+Left — move parent dragbar left.
• Ctrl+Shift+Up — move parent dragbar up.
• Ctrl+Shift+Down — move parent dragbar down.
• Super+R — rotate terminals clockwise.
• Super+Shift+R — rotate terminals counter-clockwise.
• Ctrl+Shift+PageDown — swap tab position with next tab.
• Ctrl+Shift+PageUp — swap tab position with previous tab.
• Drag and Drop — the layout can be modified by moving terminals with Drag and Drop. to start dragging a terminal, click and hold on its titlebar. alternatively, hold down Ctrl, click and hold the right mouse button. then, release Ctrl. you can now drag the terminal to the point in the layout you would like it to be. the zone where the terminal would be inserted will be highlighted. ✨

fr fr, do not skip the "release Ctrl" step. it's the whole trick. 💀

🔍 Focus 🔍

the following items relate to helping to focus on a specific terminal. like a little spotlight, but for your shell.

• F11 — toggle window to fullscreen.
• Ctrl+Shift+X — toggle between showing all terminals and only showing the current one (maximise).
• Ctrl+Shift+Z — toggle between showing all terminals and only showing a scaled version of the current one (zoom).
• Ctrl+Shift+Alt+A — hide the initial window. note that this is a X11 global binding, and can only be bound once. on Wayland use window manager keyboard shortcuts to call terminator --toggle-visibility.

📣 Grouping & Broadcasting 📣

the following items relate to grouping and broadcasting. tell one terminal, tell them all. gossip network but productive. 👑

• Super+T — group all terminals in the current tab so that any input sent to one of them goes to all of them.
• Super+Shift+T — remove grouping from all terminals in the current tab.
• Super+G — group all terminals so that any input sent to one of them goes to all of them.
• Super+Shift+G — remove grouping from all terminals.
• Alt+A — broadcast to all terminals.
• Alt+G — broadcast to grouped terminals.
• Alt+O — broadcast off.

🍓 Miscellaneous 🍓

the following items relate to miscellaneous terminal related functions. the grab bag. the little extras. we love her.

• Ctrl+Shift+C — copy selected text to clipboard.
• Ctrl+Shift+V — paste clipboard text.
• Ctrl+Shift+S — toggle scrollbar.
• Ctrl+Shift+F — search within terminal scrollback.
• Ctrl+Shift+R — reset terminal state.
• Ctrl+Shift+G — reset terminal state and clear window.
• Ctrl+Plus (+) — increase font size.

Note: this may require you to press shift, depending on your keyboard.

• Ctrl+Minus (-) — decrease font size.

Note: this may require you to press shift, depending on your keyboard.

• Ctrl+Zero (0) — restore font size to original setting.
• Ctrl+Alt+W — rename window title.
• Ctrl+Alt+A — rename tab title.
• Ctrl+Alt+X — rename terminal title.
• Super+1 — insert terminal number, i.e. 1 to 12.
• Super+0 — insert padded terminal number, i.e. 01 to 12.

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Terminator was written by Chris Jones <cmsj@tenshu.net> and others.

this manual page was written by Chris Jones <cmsj@tenshu.net> and others.

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• terminator_config(5)

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okay bestie that's the whole page, nothing skipped, nothing invented, all facts intact 💖 this was Terminator, version dated 2023-04-01, from the Manual for Terminator — go forth and split some terminals, you absolute icon 🦋✨