Open Terminal with multiple tabs and execute application

Question

I am new to linux shell scripting. I want to write a shell script which will open terminal with multiple tabs; it should run rtsp client app in each tab.

For this, I have gone through question here in this forum and tried to code like bellow,

tab="--tab-with-profile=Default -e "
cmd="java RunRTSPClient"
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
   do
#   
   foo="$foo $tab $cmd"         
   done
gnome-terminal $foo
exit 0

This is running and opens the terminal window with tabs but suddenly it will close. I am not getting any errors.

Answer 1

Use this variant of the script to do what you want:

#!/bin/bash

tab="--tab-with-profile=Default"
cmd="bash -c 'java RunRTSPClient';bash"
foo=""

for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
      foo+=($tab -e "$cmd")         
done

gnome-terminal "${foo[@]}"

exit 0

Generally, a script like this:

#!/bin/bash

tab="--tab"
cmd="bash -c '<command-line_or_script>';bash"
foo=""

for i in 1 2 ... n; do
      foo+=($tab -e "$cmd")         
done

gnome-terminal "${foo[@]}"

exit 0

will open a new terminal with n tabs executing the <command-line_or_script> in each tab. This can be very useful when you want for example to open a terminal with some tabs with the interpreter at a specific path (using cd /path in the above script).

Also, read man bash, this post and this post to understand the changes.

I have tested these scripts and they work.

Answer 2

I came up with my own answer. I think this is a better approach because:

1. I can understand it. I'm not a bash expert and no explanation was given in the more popular answer for what is ..., ${}, -e, or @
2. It allows you to easily customize the title and command for each tab
3. Did I say it's a lot easier to understand?

Note that the ; $SHELL at the end of each gnome-terminal command is what keeps the terminal window open. Otherwise it would immediately close.

title1="tab 1"
title2="tab 2"
title3="tab 3"

cmd1="cd /etc"
cmd2="cd ~/Documents"
cmd3="cd /usr/local"

gnome-terminal --tab --title="$title1" --command="bash -c '$cmd1; $SHELL'" \
               --tab --title="$title2" --command="bash -c '$cmd2; $SHELL'" \
               --tab --title="$title3" --command="bash -c '$cmd3; $SHELL'"