OS Manuals

/usr/bin/xdg-terminal-exec

Reference implementation of the proposed XDG Default Terminal Execution Specification

From xdg-terminal-exec 0.14.4-r1 (enterprise-packages), captured 2026-11-09 by running xdg-terminal-exec --help (exit 0). permalink

xdg-terminal-exec - Shell-based default terminal launcher.

Implementation of the proposed Default Terminal Specification.

Usage:
  xdg-terminal-exec [options] [--] [command [arguments ...]]

Launches given command in default terminal, or launches default terminal.

Options for modifying terminal behavior (if supported by terminals's
entry):

  --app-id=app-id    set app-id (Wayland) or window class (X11)
  --title=title      set tile of terminal.
  --dir=workdir      set workdir of terminal.
  --hold             instruct terminal to hold after command ends.

Options for printing data instead of executing terminal:

  --print-id
      print selected Desktop Entry ID. Action is appended delimited
      by ":".

  --print-path
      print path to selected Desktop Entry. Action is appended
      delimited by ":".

  --print-content
      print content of selected Desktop Entry. Conflicts with --print-cmd.

  --print-cmd[=printf_sequence]
      print resulting command line, delimited by given printf sequence,
      "\n" by default. If sequence is "\n", output is also terminated with
      a newline.

  --print-delimiter=printf_sequence
      printf sequence to be used as the delimiter between multiple requested
      print statements, "\n" by default. If sequence is "\n", output is
      also terminated with a newline.

Configuration:

Preferred terminals are configured by listing their Desktop Entry IDs
in config files named "[${desktop}-]xdg-terminals.list" placed in XDG Config
hierarchy. Where "${desktop}" is a lowercased string that is matched
(case-insensitively) against items of "${XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP}".

See "man xdg-terminal-exec" for more details.
Options (9)
OptionDescriptionSource
--app-id app-idset app-id (Wayland) or window class (X11)help
--title titleset tile of terminal.help
--dir workdirset workdir of terminal.help
--holdinstruct terminal to hold after command ends.help
--print-idprint selected Desktop Entry ID.help
--print-pathprint path to selected Desktop Entry.help
--print-contentprint content of selected Desktop Entry.help
--print-cmd printf_sequenceprint resulting command line, delimited by given printf sequence, "\n" by default.help
--print-delimiter printf_sequenceprintf sequence to be used as the delimiter between multiple requested print statements, "\n" by default.help

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.