Running Applications from a Terminal Emulator Window

A terminal emulator is an application whose window provides a command line. The command line lets you type commands into your system--for example, operating system commands, script names, or commands that run applications.

All applications have a command that users can type to start them. The application's documentation usually describes how to use the command.

The desktop provides a terminal emulator called dtterm. Your system may include other terminal emulators.

To open a terminal emulator window, click the Terminal control in the Personal Applications subpanel.

For more information on using dtterm, see Chapter 12, Using Terminal .

To Start an Application on Your System Using a Terminal Emulator

Type the command that starts the application into the terminal emulator window.

If the application has its own window, you should add an ampersand character (&) to the end of the command. This runs the application ``in the background,'' which lets you continue using the terminal emulator window while the application is running.

For example, the following command runs the load meter program xload in the background:

/usr/bin/X11/xload &

To Start an Application on Another System Using a Terminal Emulator

There are two ways to use a command line to start an application on another system:

• Using rlogin

• Using remsh

Using rlogin

When you use rlogin, you use your terminal emulator to log in to a different (remote) system. You then run the command to start the application on that system.

1. Use the rlogin command to log in to the system containing the application.

   rlogin remote_system_name
   

   For example:

   rlogin systemA

2. Type the command to start the application. Use the -display option to send the window back to your display.

   For example, assuming your own system's display name is MySystem:0:

   /usr/bin/X11/xload -label systemA -display MySystem:0

Using remsh

The term remsh stands for "remote shell." It provides a one-step way to run an application, since you do not have to log in before running the command.

Type the command:

remsh remote_system_name -n command 

The command must include the -display option to send the window back to your display.

For example:

remsh systemA -n /usr/bin/X11/xload -display MySystem:0