{"id":6774,"date":"2024-08-02T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=6774"},"modified":"2024-07-30T14:48:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T18:48:17","slug":"5-things-i-love-about-xfce-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=6774","title":{"rendered":"5 things I love about Xfce Terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I grew up using the command line. From my early years with a DOS computer at home, to exploring the campus Unix systems as an undergraduate, and now as a desktop Linux user. Even though I have a variety of graphical tools to get my work done, I often find it\u2019s easier to do something at the command line. I often have a terminal window open on my Linux desktop, even when I\u2019m using a graphical program like LibreOffice Writer or a web browser, so I can tap out a few commands when I need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A while back, I switched from GNOME to Xfce<\/a> for my desktop environment. I initially used Xfce Terminal because it was the default terminal, but I found several features about Xfce Terminal that I use all the time. Here are the top 5 things I love about Xfce Terminal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Open file manager here<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I like to edit files using Vim<\/a>, such as Markdown files. When I\u2019m done working on my files, I usually need to view the output in a graphical program. For example, I might convert my Markdown file to PDF, and view the PDF. If I\u2019m deep in a directory tree, using Xfce Terminal\u2019s File > Open file manager here<\/strong> menu action is a huge time-saver. It opens the file manager right where I\u2019m working on my files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. Full screen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time, I prefer to use Xfce Terminal as a window, so I can run it alongside whatever other application I\u2019m using at the time. But if I know I\u2019m going to use the command line to do a lot of work, it\u2019s less distracting to make the terminal fill the whole screen. Tap the F11<\/strong> key or use the View > Fullscreen<\/strong> menu action to use the entire screen for your terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Copy\/paste<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One thing I often do at the command line is using the fmt<\/code> program<\/a> to reformat email replies. I write emails in plain text – but if someone sent me a rich text email, my email client writes out each paragraph as a single line. That can make it more difficult for me to write a reply, so I\u2019ll jump to the command line, and run:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$ fmt -p '>' > tempfile<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In my email client, I\u2019ll cut or copy the text I want to reformat, then use Edit > Paste<\/strong> to paste that as standard input in my terminal window. You can also right-click in the terminal window and select Paste<\/strong> in the context menu. Then I use cat<\/code> to display the contents of my temporary file, highlight it, and use Edit > Copy<\/strong> (or right-click then Copy<\/strong>) so I can paste the reformatted text back into my email client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
4. Tabs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To keep my windows tidy on my desktop, I don\u2019t always start up a new terminal in its own window. If I just need to run a second terminal to run some quick command without disturbing my other shell session, I\u2019ll open a new tab using File > Open tab<\/strong>. You can also right-click in the terminal and select Open tab<\/strong> from the context menu, but I also like to use ctrl+shift+T<\/strong> as a keyboard shortcut to open a new tab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With multiple tabs, you can navigate between them by clicking on the tab in the Xfce Terminal window, or you can use the Tabs<\/strong> menu to navigate to the previous and next tabs. Use the Terminal > Set title<\/strong> menu action to label important tabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
5. Increase\/decrease font size<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I know this is pretty much a standard feature in any terminal window app these days, but I love that I can make my text larger or smaller using the ctrl+plus<\/strong> and ctrl+minus<\/strong> keys, and instantly reset my terminal to the default text size with ctrl+zero<\/strong>. I\u2019ll often increase the font size a bit if I\u2019m going to be working in it for a while, then set the font size back to the default as I switch back to another application. I might also change the font size for an SSH session so I can more easily track which window is local and which one is remote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The terminal provides a convenient way to do work outside other programs. With the terminal, I can run a quick command, copy the output, and paste it into another window. The Xfce Terminal provides an excellent window experience with lots of features that I rely on every day to do my work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I use these Xfce Terminal features all the time to work at the command line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[318,293],"tags":[91,507,119],"class_list":["post-6774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-terminal","category-xfce","tag-linux","tag-terminal-emulators","tag-xfce"],"modified_by":"Jim Hall","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6781,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6774\/revisions\/6781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}