XFCE4-TERMINAL(1)

📦
version 1.2.0 · 11 versions
, in arch rolling, ubuntu stonking

💖 xfce4-terminal(1) — the terminal emulator for X, but make it make sense

okay bestie, pull up a chair 🫶 this is the manual page for xfce4-terminal, from section 1 of the manual (that's the "user commands" section, iykyk). it's a terminal emulator for X and it's about to be your new main character.

✨ NAME ✨

xfce4-terminal — a Terminal emulator for X 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

xfce4-terminal [OPTION...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so. xfce4-terminal is what we call an X terminal emulator — you'll also hear people just say "terminal" or "shell" like it's nothing, but it's literally giving you a whole text screen inside your pretty graphical desktop 🦋 and the best part? it shares that screen with all your other graphical apps, no drama, no fighting.

windows users might already know the MS-DOS Prompt utility, which does the analogous thing of offering a DOS command-line under Windows. that's the vibe, except — and I need you to hear me on this — the UNIX CLI offers far more power and ease of use than DOS does. not me being biased, that's just literally in the manpage 😌

xfce4-terminal emulates the xterm application developed by the X Consortium. and xterm, in turn, emulates the DEC VT102 terminal and also supports the DEC VT220 escape sequences. what's an escape sequence? it's a series of characters that start with the Esc character ✨ and xfce4-terminal accepts all of the escape sequences that the VT102 and VT220 terminals use for functions like positioning the cursor and clearing the screen. cursor go where you say. screen clears when you ask. iconic behaviour, no notes.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

🎀 Option Summary

here's the whole menu, grouped by type so it's not giving chaos. the actual explanations live in the sections right after ✨

General Options

-h, --help; -V, --version; --disable-server; --color-table; --preferences; --default-display=display; --default-working-directory=directory

Window or Tab Separators

--tab; --window

Tab Options

-x, --execute; -e, --command=command; -T, --title=title; --dynamic-title-mode=mode; --initial-title=title; --working-directory=directory; -H, --hold; --active-tab; --color-text=color; --color-bg=color

Window Options

--display=display; --drop-down; --geometry=geometry; --role=role; --startup-id=string; -I, --icon=icon; --fullscreen; --maximize; --minimize; --show-menubar, --hide-menubar; --show-borders, --hide-borders; --show-toolbar, --hide-toolbar; --show-scrollbar, --hide-scrollbar; --font=font; --zoom=zoom; --class=class

🌸 General Options

  • -h, --help — lists all the various command line options that xfce4-terminal supports, then dips out. you get the rundown and you get to leave, slay.
  • -V, --version — shows you the version info and exits. quick little flex 💅
  • --disable-server — does not register with the D-BUS session message bus. this runs your terminal in its own process. no sharing, just you and your own little world 🦋
  • --color-table — echoes the color codes. 🌈
  • --preferences — opens the xfce4-terminal preferences window. go customize your life.
  • --default-display=display — the default X display to use.
  • --default-working-directory=directory — sets directory as the default working directory for the terminal.

🎀 Window or Tab Separators

  • --tab — opens a new tab in the last specified window. you can pass more than one of these, and each one opens an additional tab. tabs on tabs on tabs ✨
  • --window — opens a new window containing one tab. more than one of these can be provided too.

and here's the ✨ lore ✨ about which window is "the last specified window":

  • If there is an active window, the last specified window is that window — until a --window option is encountered, at which point that new window becomes the last specified window.
  • If there is no active window, the last specified window is the window created by xfce4-terminal — until a --window option is encountered, at which point that new window becomes the last specified window.

these options can be combined with --drop-down 🫶

🦋 Tab Options

  • -x, --execute — executes the remainder of the command line inside the terminal.
  • -e, --command=command — executes command inside the terminal.
  • -T, --title=title — sets title as the window title for the terminal. heads up: this ignores the dynamically-set title 🫣
  • --dynamic-title-mode=mode — sets mode as the dynamically-set title mode for the terminal, one of: 'replace', 'before', 'after', 'none'.
  • --initial-title=title — sets title as the initial window title for the terminal. this one respects the dynamically-set title 💖
  • --working-directory=directory — sets directory as the working directory for the terminal.
  • -H, --hold — causes the terminal to be kept around after the child command has terminated. it stays. it's loyal 🥺
  • --active-tab — makes the terminal active. super useful when a terminal window contains multiple tabs, so you know which one is the one 💅
  • --color-text=color — sets color as the text color for the terminal, per this spec: https://docs.gtk.org/gdk3/method.RGBA.parse.html
  • --color-bg=color — sets color as the background color for the terminal, per the very same spec: https://docs.gtk.org/gdk3/method.RGBA.parse.html

👑 Window Options

  • --display=display — the X display to use for the last-specified window.
  • --drop-down — starts the window in drop-down mode (also called a Quake-style terminal, yes that Quake 😌). this will only apply to the first window started with this option. it is advised to bind this to a shortcut in the keyboard preferences. do it. you'll thank yourself.
  • --geometry=geometry — sets the geometry of the last-specified window to geometry. read X(7) for more info on how to specify window geometries, bestie, it's all in there.
  • --role=role — sets the window role of the last-specified window to role. applies to only one window and can be specified once for each window you create from the command line. the role is a unique identifier for the window, used when restoring a session. it's the window's little name tag 🏷️
  • --startup-id=string — specifies the startup notification id for the last-specified window. used internally to forward the startup notification id when using the D-BUS service. that's some behind-the-scenes lore right there.
  • -I, --icon=icon — sets the terminal's icon as an icon name or filename.
  • --fullscreen — sets the last-specified window into fullscreen mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line. everything, everywhere, all at once 🌈
  • --maximize — sets the last-specified window into maximized mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --minimize — sets the last-specified window into minimized mode; applies to only one window; can be specified once for each window you create from the command line. go little window, take a nap 😴
  • --show-menubar — turns on the menubar for the last-specified window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --hide-menubar — turns off the menubar for the last-specified window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --show-borders — turns on the window decorations for the last-specified window. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --hide-borders — turns off the window decorations for the last-specified window. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --show-toolbar — turns on the toolbar for the last-specified window. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --hide-toolbar — turns off the toolbar for the last-specified window. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --show-scrollbar — turns on the scrollbar for the last-specified window. scrollbar position is taken from the settings; if position is None, the default position is Right side. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --hide-scrollbar — turns off the scrollbar for the last-specified window. applies to only one window. can be specified once for each window you create from the command line.
  • --font=font — sets the terminal font. pick a cute one, it's your screen 🎀
  • --zoom=zoom — sets the zoom level: the font size will be multiplied by this level. the range is from -7 to 7, default is 0. each step multiplies the size by 1.2, i.e. level 7 is 3.5831808 (1.2^7) times larger than the default size. yes the math is exact, do not come for me 😭
  • --class=class — sets the window manager class of all terminal windows. controls window grouping in the panel. if a terminal instance is already open, this requires --disable-server to be set.

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

xfce4-terminal --geometry 80x40 --command mutt --tab --command mc

this opens a new terminal window with a geometry of 80 columns and 40 rows and two tabs in it, where the first tab runs mutt and the second tab runs mc. two tabs, two commands, one line, absolutely ate 🔥

✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

xfce4-terminal uses the Basedir Specification as defined on Freedesktop.org[1] to locate its data and configuration files. what that means for you: file locations will be specified as a path relative to the directories described in the specification. so here's the tour 🧚

  • ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME} — the first base directory to look for configuration files. by default this is set to ~/.config/.
  • ${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS} — a colon separated list of base directories that contain configuration data. by default the application will look in ${sysconfdir}/xdg/. the value of ${sysconfdir} depends on how the program was build and will often be /etc/ for binary packages.
  • ${XDG_DATA_HOME} — the root for all user-specific data files. by default this is set to ~/.local/share/.
  • ${XDG_DATA_DIRS} — a set of preference ordered base directories relative to which data files should be searched, in addition to the ${XDG_DATA_HOME} base directory. the directories should be separated with a colon.

✨ FILES ✨

  • ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/xfce4/terminal/accels.scm — this is where the keyboard shortcuts configuration file for xfce4-terminal lives. editing this file allows one to modify or disable shortcuts for the supported actions. yes you can remap everything. go feral 💅

✨ BUGS ✨

please report any bugs to https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-terminal/-/issues. they wanna hear it, fr fr 🫶

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

bash(1), X(7)

✨ AUTHORS ✨

  • Sergios - Anestis Kefalidis <sergioskefalidis@gmail.com> — Developer
  • Igor Zakharov <f2404@yandex.ru> — Developer
  • Nick Schermer <nick@xfce.org> — Developer
  • Benedikt Meurer <benny@xfce.org> — Software developer, os-cillation, System development, Developer

✨ NOTES ✨

  1. Freedesktop.org — http://freedesktop.org/
okay that's the whole page, bestie. every flag, every default, every path, all preserved, none skipped 💖 go open a terminal and be the main character.

that's a wrap on xfce4-terminal, page 03/08/2026, version xfce4-terminal from the fine folks over at Xfce — mwah, no cap 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from