Mac OS X / Open terminal with specified windows

Question

Is it possible to open a terminal window with 3 tabs. Each tab should have different path.

Example:

Tab1: /etc
Tab2: /bin
Tab3: /www/ tail -f file.tx         


        

Answer 1

I suspect you can control commands to be executed too. One of the programs I use creates a single-tab terminal window and arranges to execute a profile-setting script before continuing to the command prompt - the same should be feasible for a multi-tab terminal. The file is a MacOS X properties XML file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CommandString</key>
    <string>. /Applications/IBM/informix/demo/server/profile_settings</string>
    <key>FontAntialias</key>
    <false/>
    <key>RunCommandAsShell</key>
    <false/>
    <key>ShowShellCommandInTitle</key>
    <true/>
    <key>TerminalType</key>
    <string>xterm</string>
    <key>WindowTitle</key>
    <string>IDS Command Window</string>
    <key>name</key>
    <string>IDS Command Window</string>
    <key>type</key>
    <string>Window Settings</string>
</dict>
</plist>

You can click on it and the terminal window is launched, the profile settings are set, and then you have a command prompt to type at. Presumably, changing the 'dot' command into the 'tail' command of the question would work; it might be that the 'RunCommandAsShell' key set to '<true\>' would replace the normal shell with the command - which is perhaps more appropriate for the question.

Answer 2

Another way of doing this is by using the Elscripto ruby gem: https://github.com/Achillefs/elscripto. It allows yuo to easily specify terminal tabs using a YAML file

Answer 3

Open the tabs you want and set each one up as you wish, i.e. in tab 1, cd /etc, tab 2 cd /bin and so on. Now go to Window > Save Windows as Group. Click the checkbox 'Use window group when Terminal starts' and hey presto!