Tip: Shell Integration

Extraterm's shell integration unlocks many powerful features such as frames around command output, reusing command output and in-place editing of text. bash, zsh and fish shells are supported. To enable it in your shell session see this guide.

Tip: Double click to Select

Double clicking on text will select complete words and also most common special characters. Very useful when copying file names and paths.

Tip: Command Palette

Extraterm has a pop up Command Palette where all relevant commands can be seen, searched and executed.

Tip: Global Hot Key

It is possible in the Settings tab to configure a global hot key to show and focus the Extraterm window. Combine this with the system tray icon and "Minimize window to tray" options and you've got (almost) Quake Mode.

Tip: Tabs

Use tabs to run multiple terminal sessions at the same time. Create a new tab by clicking on the plus button in the top right or by using on the keyboard.

Move between tabs using next and previous keys.

Tip: Frames

Once the shell integration has been set up, Extraterm will place 'frames' around the output of commands. Frames also display the command which was executed and warn when a command has indicated failure status. Frames can also be deleted from the scrollback if desired ( ) or moved into their own tab for safe keeping ( ), plus many other things.

Tip: Cursor Mode

Extraterm has two modes: normal mode which acts as a traditional terminal emulator, and cursor mode which allows you to navigate the screen and the contents of the scrollback using a cursor like in a text editor.

Enter cursor mode using . Once in cursor mode you have a blinking vertical bar cursor and keypresses are no longer sent to your shell. The cursor keys works like a text editor and text can be selected using shift and copied to the clipboard . Text inside frames can also be edited in-place. Useful when you want to use previous command output to prepare your next command line.

Exit cursor mode using .

More detailed information can be found here.

Tip: Hear About Extraterm News

Extraterm is up on Twitter @ExtratermDev.

Follow us to hear about releases and all Extraterm news. If you are enjoying Extraterm then send us a quick tweet!

Tip: Multiple cursor editing in cursor mode

Extraterm has some text editor features, and like many modern text editors it too support mutliple cursor editing.

When in cursor mode press or the Command Palette ("Selection to Multiple Cursors") to create a column of cursors. Press Escape to return to one cursor.

To create fewer cursors, first select the rows where you want the cursors to appear before executing the multiple cursor command.

Tip: Use cursor mode and frames to prepare complex commands

Use cursor mode and frames to edit text already on the screen to prepare a complex command.

Once your command is complete the next question is how to get the shell to execute it. One way is to select it and copy it to the clipboard , exit cursor mode and then paste it into the shell.

Another, faster way is to select the text and one of these commands:

Click here to see a demo.

Tip: Use text from a frame in a command pipe-line

Once shell integration is set up, Extraterm will place frames around the output of commands. Each frame has a little tag with a number which indentifies the frame. Extraterm's from command lets you grab the contents of a frame and use it as part of a shell command.

For example, if we have run the ls command and it has tag 5 then we can use from and the normal grep command to filter the output.

from 5 | grep .txt

This will find any lines with the text ".txt" in it. This works across tabs and terminal sessions.

Click here to see a demo.

Tip: Use the "Go to Previous/Next Frame" commands to quickly move through the scrollback

Use the "Go to Previous Frame" and "Go to Next Frame" commands to quickly navigate between frames in the scrollback. This is useful when you are at the bottom of a tower of output and you want to get to the top.

Tip: Splitting the window

The "Horizontal Split" and "Vertical Split" commands let you split the window in half with side-by-side groups of tabs. These too can be split again if desired.

These commands are all available in the Command Palette .

Tip: Drag and Drop tabs and command frames

Tabs can dragged around and repositioned using the mouse. Command frames can also be dragged out of the terminal and up to the tab bar. Command frames which hold text can also be dragged outside of Extraterm and dropped into any application which accepts text via drag and drop.

Tip: Window Title Bar

Is the window title bar too big? Or maybe you like a standard operating system style title bar. Configure it the Settings tab in the Appearance section.

Tip: Messed up Terminal

Sometimes if a terminal application crashes unexpectedly it can leave your terminal in a messed up unusable state. If this happens, open the Command Palette and run the "Reset VT" command to reset everything back to a normal state.

Tip: Start a different terminal session

The plus icon in the title bar lets you open a new terminal tab using the default terminal session type. Did you know that you can select a different session type? Just click on the plus icon with the right mouse button to choose a different session type.

Tip: Have More Fun

Extraterm is more fun if you use a mechanical keyboard.

Once you click and clack you can't go back!