man > multixterm(1)

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 en‐
       tered in the first entry field.  Press return (or click the "new xterm" button) to  create  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 win‐
       dow.

       Typing in the stdin window while holding down the alt or meta keys sends an escape  character
       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  ap‐
                  pear 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 describe
                  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 ac‐
       ceptable 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  primary
       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  examining  multixterm  it‐
       self.


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  command
       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.  Anything
       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 "initLate".


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 configurations.

       Tcl  is a general-purpose language.  Thus multixterm command files can be extremely flexible,
       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 command 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 argument.

       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 "clus‐
       ter1" 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 sys‐
       tem related functions.

       Because  xterm  has no mechanism for propagating size information to external processes, par‐
       ticularly for character graphic applications (e.g., vi, emacs), you may have to manually  en‐
       sure  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 argu‐
       ment 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 appears
       to be a bug in xterm itself.

       Send/expect sequences can be done in multixterm command files.  However, due to the  richness
       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/multixterm
       .  If your version of Expect and Tk are too old (see REQUIREMENTS above), download a new ver‐
       sion 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)