gnome-terminal and KDE konsole happily sharing tasks

Datum: 15.10.2008 01:01

Last Saturday, I tried to compile KDE's trunk. Didn't work.

Last Sunday, I compiled the Ubuntu packages and tried to make Bookmark/Open-in-tabs work with ssh://user@host/ bookmarks. Got lost between KDE layers and QT signals.

Then, just before daylight came up, a final google for a tabbed or MDI ssh terminal (tons for Win, two for Mac, none for Linux) finally gave my an idea for what may be my way:

For normal non-root work (development, office stuff) I use KDE4's konsole with structured directory-bookmarks.

For maintaining multiple servers easily, i.e. for opening a tabbed thing with SSH sessions to each server, I use a script that takes advantage of gnome-terminal's extensive command line options, like this:

gnome-terminal \
  --tab -t MyServer01 -e "ssh server1.myfirm.com" \
  --tab -t MyServer02 -e "ssh server2.myfirm.com" \
  --tab -t MyServer03 -e "ssh server3.myfirm.com" \
  --win \
  --tab -t Cust1ServerA -e "ssh server-a.otherfirm1.com" \
  --tab -t Cust2ServerH -e "ssh server-h.otherfirm2.com"

I don't get the "send to all tabs" feature, but using the middle mouse button or Ctrl-V is fast enough and beeing sure not to accidently execute some half-typed command line is a good idea anyway. Maybe someday I extend the gnome-terminal myself; GTK uses painful plain C but seems much more straight forward and a friend made me start with GTK based co-development anyway.

The different shortcuts for tab management are somewhat uncomfortable, but it's not that much work to change the shortcuts or adapt one's finger's automatisms.