Open new Terminal Tab from command line Mac OS X

Question

Is it possible to open a new tab in Mac OS X s terminal from the command line in a currently opened tab   I know that the keyboard shortcut to open a new tab in Terminal is  CMD t  but I am looking for a script-based solution executed in the command line

User · Answer

If you are using iTerm this command will open a new tab   osascript -e  tell application  iTerm  to activate  -e  tell application  System Events  to tell process  iTerm  to keystroke  t  using command down

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I added these to my  bash profile so I can have access to tabname and newtab  tabname       printf   e 1  1 a     new tab       TAB NAME  1   COMMAND  2   osascript       -e  tell application   Terminal          -e  tell application   System Events   to keystroke   t   using  command down         -e  do script   printf     e 1  TAB NAME   a    COMMAND   in front window        -e  end tell   gt   dev null     So when you re on a particular tab you can just type  tabname  New TabName    to organize all the open tabs you have  It s much better than getting info on the tab and changing it there

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I know this is an old post  but this worked for me   open -a Terminal   pwd     To run a command as requested below takes some jiggery   echo  sbin ping 8 8 8 8  gt   tmp tmp sh chmod a x  tmp tmp sh open -a Terminal  tmp tmp sh

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What about this simple snippet  based on a standard script command  echo      set mac osx s terminal title to  My Title  echo -n -e   033 0 My Title 007

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open -n -a Terminal   and you can pass the target directory as parameter  open -n -a Terminal  Users

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Here s how it s done by bash it   function tab       osascript 2 gt  dev null  lt  lt EOF     tell application  System Events        tell process  Terminal  to keystroke  t  using command down     end     tell application  Terminal        activate       do script with command  cd    PWD        in window 1     end tell EOF     After adding this to your  bash profile  you d use the tab command to open the current working directory in a new tab   See  https   github com revans bash-it blob master plugins available osx plugin bash L3

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Update  This answer gained popularity based on the shell function posted below  which still works as of OSX 10 10  with the exception of the -g option   However  a more fully featured  more robust  tested script version is now available at the npm registry as CLI ttab  which also supports iTerm2    If you have Node js installed  simply run   npm install -g ttab    depending on how you installed Node js  you may have to prepend sudo   Otherwise  follow these instructions  Once installed  run ttab -h for concise usage information  or man ttab to view the manual      Building on the accepted answer  below is a bash convenience function for opening a new tab in the current Terminal window and optionally executing a command  as a bonus  there s a variant function for creating a new window instead    If a command is specified  its first token will be used as the new tab s title   Sample invocations         Get command-line help  newtab -h       Simpy open new tab  newtab       Open new tab and execute command  quoted parameters are supported   newtab ls -l   Home Library Application Support        Open a new tab with a given working directory and execute a command        Double-quote the command passed to  eval  and use backslash-escaping inside  newtab eval  cd   Library Application  Support  ls        Open new tab  execute commands  close tab  newtab eval  ls   HOME Library Application  Support  echo Press a key to exit   read -s -n 1  exit        Open new tab and execute script  newtab  path to someScript       Open new tab  execute script  close tab  newtab exec  path to someScript       Open new tab and execute script  but don t activate the new tab  newtab -G  path to someScript   CAVEAT  When you run newtab  or newwin  from a script  the script s initial working folder will be the working folder in the new tab window  even if you change the working folder inside the script before invoking newtab newwin - pass eval with a cd command as a workaround  see example above    Source code  paste into your bash profile  for instance      Opens a new tab in the current Terminal window and optionally executes a command    When invoked via a function named  newwin   opens a new Terminal  window  instead  function newtab          If this function was invoked directly by a function named  newwin   we open a new  window  instead       of a new tab in the existing window      local funcName  FUNCNAME     local targetType  tab      local targetDesc  new tab in the active Terminal window      local makeTab 1     case    FUNCNAME 1    in         newwin              makeTab 0             funcName   FUNCNAME 1               targetType  window              targetDesc  new Terminal window                     esac        Command-line help      if      1      --help       1      -h      then         cat  lt  lt EOF Synopsis       funcName  -g -G   command  param1        Description      Opens a  targetDesc and optionally executes a command       The new  targetType will run a login shell  i e   load the user s shell profile  and inherit     the working folder from this shell  the active Terminal tab       IMPORTANT  In scripts     funcName    statically  inherits the working folder from the      invoking Terminal tab  at the time of script  invocation   even if you change the     working folder  inside  the script before invoking    funcName         -g  back g round  causes Terminal not to activate  but within Terminal  the new tab window       will become the active element      -G causes Terminal not to activate  and  the active element within Terminal not to change        i e   the previously active window and tab stay active       NOTE  With -g or -G specified  for technical reasons  Terminal will still activate  briefly  when     you create a new tab  creating a new window is not affected        When a command is specified  its first token will become the new   targetType  s title      Quoted parameters are handled properly       To specify multiple commands  use  eval  followed by a single   double -quoted string     in which the commands are separated by     Do NOT use backslash-escaped double quotes inside     this string  rather  use backslash-escaping as needed      Use  exit  as the last command to automatically close the tab when the command     terminates  precede it with  read -s -n 1  to wait for a keystroke first       Alternatively  pass a script name or path  prefix with  exec  to automatically     close the  targetType when the script terminates   Examples       funcName ls -l    Home Library Application Support       funcName eval  ls     HOME Library Application  Support  echo Press a key to exit   read -s -n 1  exit       funcName  path to someScript      funcName exec  path to someScript EOF         return 0     fi        Option-parameters loop      inBackground 0     while           do         case   1  in             -g                  inBackground 1                                -G                  inBackground 2                                --    Explicit end-of-options marker                  shift     Move to next param and proceed with data-parameter analysis below                  break                                -     An unrecognized switch                  echo   FUNCNAME  PARAMETER ERROR  Unrecognized option    1   To force interpretation as non-option  precede with  --   Use -h or --h for help   1 gt  amp 2  amp  amp  return 2                                      1st argument reached  proceed with argument-parameter analysis below                  break                            esac         shift     done        All remaining parameters  if any  make up the command to execute in the new tab window       local CMD PREFIX  tell application  Terminal  to do script             Command for opening a new Terminal window  with a single  new tab       local CMD NEWWIN  CMD PREFIX      Curiously  simply executing  do script  with no further arguments opens a new  window             Commands for opening a new tab in the current Terminal window            Sadly  there is no direct way to open a new tab in an existing window  so we must activate Terminal first  then send a keyboard shortcut      local CMD ACTIVATE  tell application  Terminal  to activate      local CMD NEWTAB  tell application  System Events  to keystroke  t  using  command down             For use with -g  commands for saving and restoring the previous application     local CMD SAVE ACTIVE APPNAME  tell application  System Events  to set prevAppName to displayed name of first process whose frontmost is true      local CMD REACTIVATE PREV APP  activate application prevAppName            For use with -G  commands for saving and restoring the previous state within Terminal     local CMD SAVE ACTIVE WIN  tell application  Terminal  to set prevWin to front window      local CMD REACTIVATE PREV WIN  set frontmost of prevWin to true      local CMD SAVE ACTIVE TAB  tell application  Terminal  to set prevTab to  selected tab of front window       local CMD REACTIVATE PREV TAB  tell application  Terminal  to set selected of prevTab to true       if           then   Command specified  open a new tab or window  then execute command                Use the command s first token as the tab title          local tabTitle  1         case   tabTitle  in             exec eval    Use following token instead  if the 1st one is  eval  or  exec                   tabTitle   echo   2    awk    print  1                                     cd    Use last path component of following token instead  if the 1st one is  cd                  tabTitle   basename   2                              esac         local CMD SETTITLE  tell application   Terminal   to set custom title of front window to    tabTitle                  The tricky part is to quote the command tokens properly when passing them to AppleScript                Step 1  Quote all parameters  as needed  using printf   q  - this will perform backslash-escaping          local quotedArgs   printf   q                       Step 2  Escape all backslashes again  by doubling them   because AppleScript expects that          local cmd   CMD PREFIX     quotedArgs                            Open new tab or window  execute command  and assign tab title                  gt  dev null  suppresses AppleScript s output when it creates a new tab          if    makeTab     then             if    inBackground     then                      Sadly  because we must create a new tab by sending a keystroke to Terminal  we must briefly activate it  then reactivate the previously active application                  if    inBackground    2     then   Restore the previously active tab after creating the new one                      osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE APPNAME  -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE TAB  -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB  -e   cmd in front window  -e   CMD SETTITLE  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV APP  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV TAB   gt  dev null                 else                     osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE APPNAME  -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB  -e   cmd in front window  -e   CMD SETTITLE  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV APP   gt  dev null                 fi             else                 osascript -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB  -e   cmd in front window  -e   CMD SETTITLE   gt  dev null             fi         else   make  window                Note   CMD NEWWIN is not needed  as  cmd implicitly creates a new window              if    inBackground     then                      Sadly  because we must create a new tab by sending a keystroke to Terminal  we must briefly activate it  then reactivate the previously active application                  if    inBackground    2     then   Restore the previously active window after creating the new one                      osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE WIN  -e   cmd  -e   CMD SETTITLE  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV WIN   gt  dev null                 else                     osascript -e   cmd  -e   CMD SETTITLE   gt  dev null                 fi             else                       Note  Even though we do not strictly need to activate Terminal first  we do it  as assigning the custom title to the  front window  would otherwise sometimes target the wrong window                  osascript -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   cmd  -e   CMD SETTITLE   gt  dev null             fi         fi             else      No command specified  simply open a new tab or window          if    makeTab     then             if    inBackground     then                      Sadly  because we must create a new tab by sending a keystroke to Terminal  we must briefly activate it  then reactivate the previously active application                  if    inBackground    2     then   Restore the previously active tab after creating the new one                      osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE APPNAME  -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE TAB  -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV APP  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV TAB   gt  dev null                 else                     osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE APPNAME  -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV APP   gt  dev null                 fi             else                 osascript -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWTAB   gt  dev null             fi         else   make  window              if    inBackground     then                      Sadly  because we must create a new tab by sending a keystroke to Terminal  we must briefly activate it  then reactivate the previously active application                  if    inBackground    2     then   Restore the previously active window after creating the new one                      osascript -e   CMD SAVE ACTIVE WIN  -e   CMD NEWWIN  -e   CMD REACTIVATE PREV WIN   gt  dev null                 else                     osascript -e   CMD NEWWIN   gt  dev null                 fi             else                       Note  Even though we do not strictly need to activate Terminal first  we do it so as to better visualize what is happening  the new window will appear stacked on top of an existing one                   osascript -e   CMD ACTIVATE  -e   CMD NEWWIN   gt  dev null             fi         fi     fi       Opens a new Terminal window and optionally executes a command  function newwin       newtab        Simply pass through to  newtab   which will examine the call stack to see how it was invoked

User · Answer

osascript -e  tell app  Terminal     do script  echo hello  end tell    This opens a new terminal and executes the command  echo hello  inside it

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Try this   osascript -e  tell application  Terminal  to activate  -e  tell application  System Events  to tell process  Terminal  to keystroke  t  using command down

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The keyboard shortcut cmd-t opens a new tab  so you can pass this keystroke to OSA command as follows   osascript -e  tell application  System Events   -e  keystroke  t  using command down  -e  end tell

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With X installed  e g  from homebrew  or Quartz   a simple  xterm  amp   does  nearly  the trick  it opens a new terminal window  not a tab  though

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If you use oh-my-zsh  which every trendy geek should use   after activating the  osx  plugin in  zshrc  simply enter the tab command  it will open a new tab and cd in the directory your were on

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when you are in a terminal window  command   n    opens a new terminal and command   t    opens a new tab in current terminal window

[macos] Open new Terminal Tab from command line (Mac OS X)

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