Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide

Using a Terminal Window

The Terminal window provides a means to start other applications, enter UNIX commands, and copy and paste text between and within windows.

To Start Applications in a Terminal Window

    Type the command to start the application at the command-line prompt.

The general syntax for starting an application is:

application [options] &

application--the application name

options--a list of optional information to be passed to the application

&--indicates that the application runs in the background; that is, you can continue to use the Terminal window while the application is also running

Refer to the man page or other documentation for each application to find the command and options to use for that application.

For example, to start a digital clock from the command line, type:

xclock -digital &

To Enter a Command

    Type the command and press Return.

For example, to obtain a list of the files in the current directory, type:


To obtain a list of the files in the current directory and print it on the default printer, type:

ls | lp 

To Copy and Paste Text


    The text appears highlighted.





To Resize the Window Contents

When you change the size of a Terminal window, applications running in the window may not know about the resizing. Use this procedure to resize the application's output.

    To resize the window contents, type the following at the command-line prompt:

eval `resize` 

Note that resize is enclosed within a set of single close quotation marks rather than double quotation marks.