# Starting Terminal from CLI



## jasonvp (Feb 20, 2006)

Greetings -

I run OpenMenu so that I can get a pop-up menu when I right-click anywhere in the background.  It allows me to start applications quickly and easily; very X11-ish.  From that menu, I run scripts that pop open xterms that ssh to other hosts.

I'd like to use another terminal app, like the one included with OS X.  I can't figure out how to open Terminal from the CLI.  Is it possible?  I know the 'open' command will do it, but it'll only open the first one.  I need a way, from the CLI, to open new Terminal windows and automatically run commands within them.

Is it possible to do this?

Thanks!

jas


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## Fragger (Feb 21, 2006)

Jas,

You can open terminal by running the command (not surprisingly):


```
open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal
```

Your best bet: an apple script that contains the lines


```
tell application "Terminal"
	do script "command"
end tell
```

where "command" is something like "ps -aux | grep monkey". Also you can have this call a shell script, if that is more familiar to you. Just use the script editor or your favorite text editor to dream up whatever you want. You can run that applescript you created from CLI using:


```
osascript scriptname
```

Good luck,
Graham


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## jasonvp (Feb 21, 2006)

Graham -



			
				Fragger said:
			
		

> Jas,
> You can open terminal by running the command (not surprisingly):



Won't this only open the *first* Terminal window?  I've tried this a few times and it does nothing if I already have a Terminal window open.  Perhaps there's an arg I can throw to open that says "Open *another* copy of this?"

Thanks!

jas


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## Fragger (Feb 21, 2006)

You are correct that would only open the first window, but the subsequent commands I gave you will open a new window for each time you run them. If you run 
	
	



```
do script ""
```
 as is, with nothing between the quotes, it will simply spawn a new window (ugly, yes.)

Hopefully the helps,
graham


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## jasonvp (Feb 21, 2006)

Fragger said:
			
		

> You are correct that would only open the first window, but the subsequent commands I gave you will open a new window for each time you run them.



Way friggen cool.  Thanks!  Just what I was looking for.

jas


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## jasonvp (Feb 22, 2006)

OK, follow-up question.  I've whipped up a few AppleScripts to do exactly what I want, and they work great.  Now: can I use the same scripts the set the title of each individual Terminal.app window?

For instance, I tried this in the script I use to just open a new Terminal (no command)

```
tell application "Terminal"
	do script ""
	set title of window to "test"
end tell
```

But it tells me it can't set the title of window to "test".  I'm missing some other step or key here...

Thanks.

jas


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