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New to Linux: Can I Script the Opening and Positioning of Multiple Terminal Windows on Startup?

posted by martyb on Thursday January 17 2019, @01:45AM   
from the automation++ dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Hi all,

I have been learning linux and have a secondary monitor that I wanted to use for showing some sensor data. Currently I need to manually enter in three commands and then arrange my windows each time I want to look at (and start-up, etc). I am using the nethogs, inxi, and lm-sensors libraries:

sudo nethogs
watch -n1 "inxi -s"
watch -n1 "sensors | grep Tdie"

The end result looks something like this:
https://i.ibb.co/TgWXKSn/sensors.png

Is it possible/easy to script the opening of these three terminal windows and position them onto a specific monitor? Or is there a completely different better way to go about this?

Also, is there a way for me to custom arrange the data on the screen? Eg, could I put the sensors "Tdie" data into two columns and remove the "high = +70.0 C" info?

[Beyond this specific case, is there a general solution with, say, a directory containing a separate shell script for launching each program, with a master script that specifies terminal width/height as well as (x,y) coordinates? --Ed.]

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Original Submission

• Re:GNU Screen FTW Re:GNU Screen FTW (Score: 3, Informative) by mmh on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:19PM (3 children)

  by mmh (721) on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:19PM (#787970)

  It would be possible to nest the quotes and get it working, but that'd be a giant pain to do and more of a pain in the future edit. A better solution would be to stick it in a different script and call it:

  Create ~/bin folder if it doesn't exists:

  mkdir -p $HOME/bin/

  Take your commands and pipe and save them to fancy-schmancy-sensors.sh:

  #!/bin/bash
  echo -n 'Tdie '
  sensors | grep Tdie | sed 's/^[^:]*:\ *\([^\ ]*\).*$/\1/' | xargs echo

  Make your new script executable:

  chmod +x $HOME/bin/fancy-schmancy-sensors.sh

  Update the previously created sensors.screen file to call fancy-schmancy-sensors.sh:

  layout new
  screen -t 'nethogs' 0 /bin/bash -c 'sudo nethogs'
  split
  focus next
  screen -t 'sensors' 1 /bin/bash -c 'watch -n1 ${HOME}/bin/fancy-schmancy-sensors.sh'
  split -v
  focus next
  screen -t 'inxi' 2 /bin/bash -c 'inxi -s'
  resize -8

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Informative=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:GNU Screen FTW (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:39PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:39PM (#787976)

  Perfect. Thanks. Now to the layout...

  Parent

• Re:GNU Screen FTW Re:GNU Screen FTW (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:50PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 17 2019, @06:50PM (#787980)

  What do you use when you search for help? Screen is an awful name for that purpose...

  Basically I am trying to search for how to adjust the font size per panel and can't find anything. I assume that's because my results are polluted by general questions about increasing font size on the monitor.

  Parent

  • Re:GNU Screen FTW (Score: 2) by mmh on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:15PM

    by mmh (721) on Thursday January 17 2019, @07:15PM (#787996)

    You'll get best results searching "GNU Screen" (including the quotes)

    Parent