Provided by: expect_5.45.4-3_amd64 bug

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
       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 window.

       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
                  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
                  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 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
       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 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
       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
       arguments 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
       manually  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
       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 version of Expect from http://expect.nist.gov

DATE

       April 30, 2002

AUTHOR

       Don Libes <don@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)