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COBOL, z/OS performance measurement, and systems programming updates.

effective use of Mate Terminal

By Arch Brooks on July 13, 2026 in Technology

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To open six tabs in MATE Terminal, use:

mate-terminal \
  --tab \
  --tab \
  --tab \
  --tab \
  --tab \
  --tab

Or more explicitly:

mate-terminal \
  --tab --title="Tab 1" \
  --tab --title="Tab 2" \
  --tab --title="Tab 3" \
  --tab --title="Tab 4" \
  --tab --title="Tab 5" \
  --tab --title="Tab 6"

To run a different command in each tab:

mate-terminal \
  --tab --title="Server"   -- bash -c "htop; exec bash" \
  --tab --title="Logs"     -- bash -c "tail -f /var/log/syslog; exec bash" \
  --tab --title="Project"  -- bash -c "cd ~/projects; exec bash" \
  --tab --title="Git"      -- bash -c "git status; exec bash" \
  --tab --title="Python"   -- bash -c "python3; exec bash" \
  --tab --title="Shell"    -- bash -c "exec bash"

If all six tabs should start in the same directory:

mate-terminal \
  --working-directory="$HOME/projects" \
  --tab --tab --tab --tab --tab --tab

Or, if you have a command or shell function (such as vr) you want to execute automatically in each tab, let me know and I can provide that version.

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