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Accepted
Raffael
Asked: 2014-02-20 23:57:25 +0800 CST

How to efficiently switch between several terminal windows using the keyboard?

  • 772

Alt+Tab lets me only switch between windows belonging to different applications.

I often use about four terminal bound applications at the same time (e.g. IPython, VIM, fish for system and fish for git).

Even using the mouse, clicking the terminal icon on the launcher being offered takes time to decide which is which. But I don't know so far any way to switch in this case using my keyboard only.

How to handle multiple terminals (and instances of same application in general) efficiently using the keyboard?

With respect to the terminal special case - is there a terminal application allowing sperate terminals in tabs?

And the Oscar goes to ...

tmux

unity

15 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    In linux almost every terminal support tab, for example in Ubuntu with default terminal you can press:

    1. Ctrl + Shift + T or click File / Open Tab

    2. and you can switch between them using Alt + $ {tab_number} (*eg. Alt + 1)

    also you might want to take a look at terminator

    • 124

  2. You can use Alt+tilde (tilde = Grave) to switch between windows of the current application. Note that tilde is always the key above tab, it is a tilde in an US english keyboard, but it can be anything in other languages.

    If you press the Windows key for a while unity will show you all it's keyboard shortcuts in an overlay:

    enter image description here

    Finally, near all terminal applications support tabs. The default one in Ubuntu does.

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  3. Have you Tried to open multiple terminals using:

    Ctrl + Shift + T

    Then switching among them using:

    Ctrl + PageUP

    And

    Ctrl + PageDown

    I usually use this scenario at least for me

    • 38

  4. Not the answer you are looking for, but I think it's worth considering:
    Instead of multiple tabs, you can use screen and byobu: enter image description here

    screen lets you manage multiple terminals in the same window. In the previous image you can see I have 3 terminals (0 tcpdump, 1 top and 2 Node.js). You can switch between them with Ctrl+a+{index of the terminal} for example (there are a lot of commands).
    byobu is a wrapper for screen, it adds some color, more commands and a help menu. But you can use screen alone, without byobu.
    Here there is a tutorial on how to install and use screen and byobu:

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  5. Alt+` i.e. Alt+Tildeallows you to switch between the windows of the same application.

    Or you can organize those windows in different workspaces and use the keyboard shortcuts to go to the proper workspace; I have four workspaces and use Ctrl+Alt+→, Ctrl+Alt+↓, Ctrl+Alt+←, Ctrl+Alt+↑ to switch between them. This could comparatively prove to be a faster way to go to the right application window when you have quite a few to handle.You can specify the number of workspace to be used in your system.

    To swap the windows between the workspaces I use Shift+Ctrl+Alt+→, Shift+Ctrl+Alt+↓, Shift+Ctrl+Alt+←, Shift+Ctrl+Alt+↑.

    These are some terminal emulators that allow multiple tab feature:

    yakuakeSnap

    • 6

  6. In KDE it is Alt+`: System Settings → Workspace Appearance and Behavior → Window Behavior :

    enter image description here

    • 5

  7. I suggest you to try out Guake, which can be installed from the software center

    sudo apt-get install guake

    Here's a screenshot

    enter image description here

    I personally switch tabs by using Ctrl+Page up and Ctrl+Page down, which is also the default as far as I remember.

    Also I've bound Guake to the menu button, which I always considered useless. Now I can toggle the terminal with a single button and feel like I have super powers.

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  8. Create a new terminal window: Ctrl+Shift+n

    Create a new terminal tab: Ctrl+Shift+t

    Close a single terminal tab or window: Ctrl+d

    Switch between terminal windows: Alt+ `

    Switch between terminal tabs: Ctrl+ Page down (left), Ctrl+Page up (right), or Alt+#, e.g. Alt+1

    • 2

  9. Raffael asked:

    is there a terminal application allowing seperate terminals in tabs?

    I really like konsole for that.

    Keyboard Shortcuts (which also can be changed!)

    New Tab

    • STRG + Shift + T

    Change Tab

    • Shift + Left / Right

    Move Tab

    • STRG + Change Tab

    Close Tab

    • Type 'exit' as often as you need or STRG + Shift + W

    You can also split view (vertically or horizontally)

    • STRG + ( or ) (means for me STRG + Shift + 8 or 9)

    and close split view

    • STRG + Shift + S

    And try it together with Gnome Extension Putwindows

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  10. Switch between open instances of one program:

    Alt + `

    Switch between open tabs of one program instance:

    Ctrl + Tab

    Switch between programs:

    Alt + Tab or Super + Tab

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