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MULTIXTERM(1)                        General Commands Manual                        MULTIXTERM(1)

NAME
       multixterm - drive multiple xterms separately or together

SYNOPSIS
       multixterm [ args ]

DESCRIPTION
       Multixterm creates multiple xterms that can be driven together or separately.

       In  its  simplest form, multixterm is run with no arguments and commands are interactively
       entered in the first entry field.  Press return (or click the "new xterm" button) to  cre-
       ate a new xterm running that command.

       Keystrokes  in  the  "stdin  window"  are  redirected to all xterms started by multixterm.
       xterms may be driven separately simply by focusing on them.

       The stdin window must have the focus for keystrokes to be sent to the xterms.  When it has
       the  focus, the color changes to aquamarine.  As characters are entered, the color changes
       to green for a second.  This provides feedback since characters  are  not  echoed  in  the
       stdin window.

       Typing in the stdin window while holding down the alt or meta keys sends an escape charac-
       ter before the typed characters.  This provides support for programs such as emacs.

ARGUMENTS
              -xa The optional -xa argument indicates arguments to pass to xterm.

              -xc The optional -xc argument indicates a command to be run  in  each  named  xterm
                  (see -xn).  With no -xc argument, the command is the current shell.

              -xd The  optional  -xd argument indicates a directory to search for files that will
                  appear in the Files menu.  By default, the directory is: ~/lib/multixterm

              -xf The optional -xf argument indicates a file to be read at  startup.   See  FILES
                  below for more info.

              -xn The optional -xn argument indicates a name for each xterm.  This name will also
                  be substituted for any %n in the command argument (see -xc).

              -xv The optional -xv flag puts multixterm into a verbose mode  where  it  will  de-
                  scribe  some  of  the things it is doing internally.  The verbose output is not
                  intended to be understandable to anyone but the author.

       Less common options may be changed by the startup file (see FILES below).

       All the usual X and wish flags are supported (i.e., -display, -name).  There are  so  many
       of  them  that to avoid colliding and make them easy to remember, all the multixterm flags
       begin with -x.

       If any arguments do not match the flags above, the remainder of the command line  is  made
       available for user processing.  By default, the remainder is used as a list of xterm names
       in the style of -xn.  The default behavior may be changed  using  the  .multixtermrc  file
       (see DOT FILE below).

EXAMPLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
       The following command line starts up two xterms using ssh to the hosts bud and dexter.

            multixterm -xc "ssh %n" bud dexter

FILES
       Command files may be used to drive or initialize multixterm.  The File menu may be used to
       invoke other files.  If files exist in the command file directory (see  -xd  above),  they
       will appear in the File menu.  Files may also be loaded by using File->Open.  Any filename
       is acceptable but the File->Open browser defaults to files with a .mxt suffix.

       Files are written in Tcl and may change any variables or invoke any procedures.  The  pri-
       mary  variables  of  interest  are  'xtermCmd'  which identifies the command (see -xc) and
       'xtermNames' which is a list of names (see  -xn).   The  procedure  xtermStartAll,  starts
       xterms for each name in the list.  Other variables and procedures may be discovered by ex-
       amining multixterm itself.

EXAMPLE FILE
       The following file does the same thing as the earlier example command line:

            # start two xterms connected to bud and dexter
            set xtermCmd "ssh %n"
            set xtermNames {bud dexter}
            xtermStartAll

DOT FILE
       At startup, multixterm reads ~/.multixtermrc if present.  This is similar to  the  command
       files  (see FILES above) except that .multixtermrc may not call xtermStartAll.  Instead it
       is called implicitly, similar to the way that it is implicit in the command  line  use  of
       -xn.

       The  following  example .multixtermrc file makes every xterm run ssh to the hosts named on
       the command line.

            set xtermCmd "ssh %n"

       Then multixterm could be called simply:

            multixterm bud dexter

       If any command-line argument does not match a multixterm flag, the remainder of  the  com-
       mand  line  is made available to .multixtermrc in the argv variable.  If argv is non-empty
       when .multixtermrc returns, it is assigned to xtermNames unless xtermNames is non-empty in
       which case, the content of argv is ignored.

       Commands  from  multixterm  are evaluated early in the initialization of multixterm.  Any-
       thing that must be done late in the initialization (such as adding additional bindings  to
       the  user  interface) may be done by putting the commands inside a procedure called "init-
       Late".

MENUS
       Except as otherwise noted, the menus are self-explanatory.  Some of the menus have  dashed
       lines as the first entry.  Clicking on the dashed lines will "tear off" the menus.

USAGE SUGGESTION - ALIASES AND COMMAND FILES
       Aliases  may be used to store lengthy command-line invocations.  Command files can be also
       be used to store such invocations as well as providing a convenient way to share  configu-
       rations.

       Tcl  is a general-purpose language.  Thus multixterm command files can be extremely flexi-
       ble, such as loading hostnames from other programs or files that may change  from  day-to-
       day.   In  addition,  command  files can be used for other purposes.  For example, command
       files may be used to prepared common canned interaction sequences.  For example, the  com-
       mand to send the same string to all xterms is:

           xtermSend "a particularly long string"

       The  File  menu  (torn-off)  makes canned sequences particularly convenient.  Interactions
       could also be bound to a mouse button, keystroke, or added to a menu via the .multixtermrc
       file.

       The  following  .multixtermrc causes tiny xterms to tile across and down the screen.  (You
       may have to adjust the parameters for your screen.)  This can be very helpful when dealing
       with large numbers of xterms.

           set yPos 0
           set xPos 0

           trace variable xtermArgs r traceArgs

           proc traceArgs {args} {
               global xPos yPos
               set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+$yPos -font 6x10"
               if {$xPos} {
                   set xPos 0
                   incr yPos 145
                   if {$yPos > 800} {set yPos 0}
               } else {
                   set xPos 500
               }
           }

       The  xtermArgs  variable  in the code above is the variable corresponding to the -xa argu-
       ment.

       xterms can be also be created directly.  The following command file creates  three  xterms
       overlapped horizontally:

           set xPos 0
           foreach name {bud dexter hotdog} {
               set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+0 -font 6x10"
               set ::xtermNames $name
               xtermStartAll
               incr xPos 300
           }

USAGE SUGGESTION - SELECTING HOSTS BY NICKNAME
       The following .multixtermrc shows an example of changing the default handling of the argu-
       ments from hostnames to a filename containing hostnames:

            set xtermNames [exec cat $argv]

       The following is a variation, retrieving the host names from the yp database:

            set xtermNames [exec ypcat $argv]

       The following hardcodes two sets of hosts, so that you can  call  multixterm  with  either
       "cluster1" or "cluster2":

            switch $argv {
                   cluster1 {
                       set xtermNames "bud dexter"
                   }
                   cluster2 {
                       set xtermNames "frank hotdog weiner"
                   }
               }

COMPARE/CONTRAST
       It  is  worth  comparing multixterm to xkibitz.  Multixterm connects a separate process to
       each xterm.  xkibitz connects the same process to each xterm.

LIMITATIONS
       Multixterm provides no way to remotely control scrollbars, resize, and most  other  window
       system related functions.

       Because  xterm  has  no  mechanism for propagating size information to external processes,
       particularly for character graphic applications (e.g., vi, emacs), you may have  to  manu-
       ally ensure that the spawned process behind each xterm has the correct size.  For example,
       if you create or set the xterm to a size, you may have to send an  explicit  stty  command
       with  the correct size to the spawned process(es).  Alternatively, you can add the correct
       size argument when an xterm is created (i.e., "-geometry 80x20").

       Multixterm can only control new xterms that multixterm itself has started.

       As a convenience, the File menu shows a limited number of files.  To show all  the  files,
       use File->Open.

FILES
       $DOTDIR/.multixtermrc   initial command file
       ~/.multixtermrc         fallback command file
       ~/lib/multixterm/       default command file directory

BUGS
       If  multixterm  is  killed using an uncatchable kill, the xterms are not killed.  This ap-
       pears to be a bug in xterm itself.

       Send/expect sequences can be done in multixterm command files.  However, due to the  rich-
       ness  of  the  possibilities, to document it properly would take more time than the author
       has at present.

REQUIREMENTS
       Requires Expect 5.36.0 or later.
       Requires Tk 8.3.3 or later.

VERSION
       This man page describes version 1.8 of multixterm.

       The latest version of multixterm is available from  http://expect.nist.gov/example/multix-
       term  .  If your version of Expect and Tk are too old (see REQUIREMENTS above), download a
       new version of Expect from http://expect.nist.gov

DATE
       April 30, 2002

AUTHOR
       Don Libes <don AT libes.com>

LICENSE
       Multixterm is in the public domain; however the author would appreciate acknowledgement if
       multixterm or parts of it or ideas from it are used.

                                          16 August 2002                            MULTIXTERM(1)

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