The Konsole Handbook
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002 Jonathan Singer
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
This document is the user handbook for the Konsole application.
Konsole is an X terminal emulator for KDE.
Table of Contents
UNIX® operating systems were originally designed as text-only systems, controlled by keyboard commands -- what is known as a command-line interface (CLI). The X Window System® and KDE and other projects have since added the graphical interface you are now using. However, the underlying CLI system is still there, and is frequently the easiest, fastest and most powerful way to perform many tasks.
Konsole is what is known as an X terminal emulator, often referred to as a terminal or a shell. It gives you the equivalent of an old-fashioned text screen on your desktop, but one which can easily share the screen with your graphical applications. Windows users may be familiar with the MS-DOS Prompt utility, which has the analogous function of offering a DOS™ command-line under Windows®. (Although the UNIX® CLIs offer far more power and ease of use than does DOS!)
Explaining the use of the UNIX® CLI is beyond the scope of this document, as it would require a lengthy book. Fortunately, many such books are available in every language in any good bookstore or library. There are also tutorials available on the Internet. Enjoy KDE, but don't be shy about learning to use the command-line! You will find that even learning just the basics will make your computer use much more efficient and enjoyable.
Konsole's advanced features include simple configuration and the ability to use multiple terminal shells in a single window, making for a less cluttered desktop.
Using Konsole, a user can open:
Linux® console sessions
Shell sessions
Screen sessions
Midnight Commander file manager sessions
Root console sessions
Root Midnight Commander sessions
These sessions can be renamed to help you keep track of all your shells, or signalled (STOP, CONT, HUP, INT, TERM, KILL).
For more control over Konsole, a user can:
hide/show the menubar, toolbar, scrollbar and/or frame
select the size of a Konsole window, fonts, colour schemes, and key mapping
change location of the scrollbar or hide the scrollbar
All chosen settings can be made the default for forthcoming sessions by saving them.
For those with a deep interest in the taxonomy of free X terminals, there are two others of this kind: xterm, the original, written even before X itself (a month or two), and xvt, a lightweight xterm clone, on which most other currently available derivatives (notably eterm) are based.
After a decade, Konsole is the first rewrite from the ground up. While xterm has definitely been hacked to death (its README begins with the words “Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here”), Konsole offers a fresh start using contemporary technologies and understanding of X.
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When Konsole is started, an application (typically a UNIX® shell) runs in the window. Simply type at the prompt.
A “Tip of the Day” window may also appear on startup, offering hints on the use of Konsole. If you do not wish to receive tips, uncheck the Show tips on startup box.
As lines scroll off the top of the screen, they can be reviewed by moving the scroll bar upwards, scrolling with a mouse wheel or through the use of the Shift+Page Up (to move back a page), Shift+Page Down (to move forward a page), Shift+Up (to move up a line) and Shift+Down (to move down a line) keys (provided the History option is on).
In addition, Konsole mimics the FreeBSD console when scroll lock is pressed. When scroll lock is on, ordinary in- and output from the shell is suspended, and you can scroll through the history with Page Up, Page down, and Up Arrow and Down Arrow.
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If you often have to log into remote machines, or always run a similar set of terminal applications, you can use Konsole's “Session” feature along with KDE's session management to automate a lot of this for you. Let's take the following example: You often have open an ssh session to the machine administration ready for generic administration tasks. You may have noticed the button on Konsole's tab bar contains a menu if you click and hold on it, and you can choose new session types here. We are going to add new entries to this menu.
Click on the menu entry ->
Choose the Session tab.
Fill in the first entry with a name. This is the name that will show in the menu, and will be the default label instead of Shell when you start a session of this type.
Enter a command just as you normally would if you opened a new shell and were going to issue that command. For our first example above, you might type ssh .administration
On the lower part of the panel, configure this session's appearance. You can have a different font, colour scheme, and $TERM type for each session.
Press the button. A dialogue will ask you to confirm the filename.
Press .
You should now be able to press and hold the button on the tab bar, and select your new session type from the list. A new shell session will open within the Konsole window, with the result of your executed command. In our example, you will be at an ssh passphrase prompt, and when you provide your passphrase, you will be logged into the remote machine. [1] Perhaps you want to remotely tail your http error logs on a webserver, you could use a commandline something like ssh . -f webserver tail -f /var/log/httpd-error.log
You can use this to execute local commands as well. Try creating a session where the command is tail . In this case, exiting the running application will close the shell session as well. -f /var/log/messages
One really nice use of this feature is if you find you always have the same set of open sessions, KDE can open them all for you automatically when you start a new KDE session. Simply have them open as you like when you exit KDE, and they will be saved with your KDE session, and restored just like any other application when you restart KDE.
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Clicking the button is passed as an event to the application running in the emulation, if it is mouse-aware. If a program will react on mouse clicks, Konsole indicates this by showing an arrow cursor. If not, an I-beam (bar) cursor is shown.
Holding the button down and dragging the mouse over the screen with a mouse-unaware application running will mark a region of the text. While dragging, the marked text is displayed reversed for visual feedback. Select from the menu to copy the marked text to the clipboard for further use within Konsole or another application. The selected text can also be dragged and dropped into compatible applications. Click on the selected text and drag it to the desired location. (Depending on your KDE settings, you may need to hold the Ctrl key while dragging.
Normally, new-line characters are inserted at the end of each line selected. This is best for cut and paste of source code, or the output of a particular command. For ordinary text, the line breaks are often not important. One might prefer, however, for the text to be a stream of characters that will be automatically re-formatted when pasted into another application. To select in text-stream mode, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting normally.
Double-click with the button to select a word; triple-click to select an entire line.
If the upper or lower edge of the text area is touched while marking, Konsole scrolls up or down, eventually exposing text within the history buffer. The scrolling stops when the mouse stops moving.
After the mouse is released, Konsole attempts to keep the text in the clipboard visible by holding the marked area reversed. The marked area reverts back to normal as soon as the contents of the clipboard change, the text within the marked area is altered or the mouse button is clicked.
To mark text on a mouse-aware application (Midnight Commander, for example) the Shift key has to be pressed when clicking.
Pressing the button pastes text currently in the clipboard. Holding down the Ctrl key as you press the button pastes the text and sends it to Konsole.
If you have a mouse with only two buttons, pressing both the and buttons together emulates the button of a three button mouse.
The button brings up a menu with the , , , , , , and menu items. The Ctrl+ button brings up the menu.
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The menubar is at the top of the Konsole window. It can be hidden and restored by toggling in the menu. When the menubar is hidden, can be reached by clicking in the window or by Alt+Ctrl+M.
Open a new session with a terminal shell. Alt+Ctrl+N can also be used, as described in more detail below.
Open a new session emulating a text-only Linux® system.
See the file README.linux.console in the Konsole source package for detailed information on how the Linux® console differs from a typical UNIX® console. If this doesn't mean anything to you, you almost certainly don't need to worry about it.
Open a new session with the Midnight Commander file browser.
Open a new session with a terminal shell, as the root user.
After being prompted for the root password, the # prompt appears, indicating that the user is working with root privileges. This is frequently necessary for installing new software and other system maintenance, but care should be taken to avoid accidental damage.
Open a new session with the Midnight Commander file browser, as the root user.
After being prompted for the root password, the # prompt appears under the browser window, indicating that the user is working with root privileges. Again, working as root is frequently necessary but care should be taken to avoid accidental damage.
Open a new session with the Screen virtual terminal manager. See man for more information. screen
Start a new terminal shell, in a folder chosen from the bookmark list.
Close the current session.
Quit Konsole, closing all sessions and any applications launched from them.
You can also open a new session with a key shortcut. By default, Alt+Ctrl+N is used. You can also define your own key shortcuts through the -> menu command.
The files with a *.keytab extension in $ also define keyboard shortcuts. Use the -> menu command to choose a keytab file. The file KDEDIR/share/apps/konsoleREADME.KeyTab contains more information on defining shortcuts.
The list of available sessions may differ from those listed here. Konsole detects your installed programs and customises the list to reflect the available options.
Finally, note that the session types can be modified, and new types created, by using the configuration dialogue, reached from the -> menu entry.
Copy the selected text to the clipboard.
Paste text from the clipboard at the cursor location.
Send Signal - Send the specified signal to the shell process, or other process, that was launched when the new session was started.
Currently available signals are:
| STOP | to stop process |
| CONT | continue if stopped |
| HUP | hangup detected on controlling terminal, or death of controlling process |
| INT | interrupt from keyboard |
| TERM | termination signal |
| KILL | kill signal |
| USR1 | user signal 1 |
| USR2 | user signal 2 |
Refer to your system manual pages for further details by giving the command man .7 signal
Clear all text from the session window..
Start a new session in the window..
Find a word or string of text in the current history. Options allow case sensitive or backwards searches, and the use of regular expressions in searches. Press the button to use the KDE graphical editor to create a regular expression.
Move to the next instance of the text for which you are searching.
Move to the previous instance of the text for which you are searching.
Save the current history as a text file.
Clear the history for the current session.
Clear the history for all sessions.
Open the current session in a separate window. The name of the session is displayed on the titlebar of the new window. Close the new window to restore the session to its original place, or -click on the new window and select . Note that if the main window is closed, any detached sessions will be closed with it.
Open a dialogue box allowing you to change the name of the current session. The name is displayed on the session tab. Alt+Ctrl+S can also be used.
Flag the current session so it will show an alert if activity occurs. An icon of a lit light bulb will appear in the session's tab. Use this to alert you if something happens while you are working in another session. The time before an alert can be modified in the Konsole preferences.
Flag the current session so it will show an alert if no activity occurs for 10 seconds. An icon of a dark light bulb will appear in the session's tab. Use this to alert you if a task stops while you are working in another session. The time before an alert can be modified in the Konsole preferences.
Flag the current session so any commands entered into it will be sent to all sessions. The session will have a small icon in its tab to remind you to be careful of what you enter! rm , for instance, is probably not a good idea.-rf *
Move the tab of the current session one tab to the left.
Move the tab of the current session one tab to the right.
Shift+Left and Shift+Right can be also be used to move between sessions.
At the bottom of the menu is a list of the available sessions. Selecting one makes that session active.
You can also use the Shift+Left/Shift+Right keys to cycle through the available sessions.
Add the current location to the bookmark list.
Edit the bookmark list.
Add a new folder to the bookmark list.
The bookmark list is displayed at the bottom of the menu. Select a bookmark to change to that location.
You can use the bookmark editor to manually add URLs like ssh://user@host or telnet://host to open remote connections.
Show or hide the menubar.
Show or hide the toolbar.
Control location of scrollbar: , , or .
Toggle window between full-screen and normal size.
Set the system bell to a KDE System Notification or a visible flash, or turns it off.
Set font and font size
Select the option to use any combination of font, size and style. The README.fonts file in the Konsole source package gives tips on which fonts will work well.
Choose desired keymapping.
The list of these keymappings is taken from $KDEDIR/share/apps/konsole/*.keytab. The file $KDEDIR/share/apps/konsole/README.KeyTab describes the keytab format in more detail. Add to or modify these files to match your needs.
Set colours of text and background.
The list of these schemata is taken from $KDEDIR/share/apps/konsole/*.schema. The file $KDEDIR/share/apps/konsole/README.Schema describes the schema format in more detail. Add to or modify these files to match your needs. You can also create custom schema through the preferences dialogue at ->.
Set size of text area (given in columns x rows).
Open a dialogue where you can configure the history. The Enable checkbox toggles saving of lines that have scrolled off the top of the window. You can enter the Number of lines to remember in the text field, or use the spinner buttons to increase or decrease the number in steps of 100 lines. The button will reset the history to 1000 lines. Setting this value to 0 will cause all history to be saved. Press to save your changes, or to close the dialogue without saving your settings. The button will open this manual, and display the text you're reading right now.
Save the current settings as the new defaults.
Save the current set of sessions under a name you choose. The profile can then be used by starting Konsole from the command-line with the --profile and the name of the profile.
Customise keyboard shortcuts for Konsole commands.
Open the KDE Control Centre module, allowing many additional changes to Konsole's interface and behaviour, including the creation of custom schemas and modification of the available sessions.
Open the table of contents of this document.
Display a helpful tip about the use of Konsole. Check the Show on start box to display a tip each time Konsole is started.
Submit a bug report or a feature request for Konsole.
Information about Konsole's author
Information about the KDE project
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The toolbar is at the bottom of the Konsole window.
It can be hidden and restored by toggling in the menu or by clicking the textured “handle” at the side of the bar. The bar contains a New icon and icons for the current sessions. Clicking New opens a new “Shell” session.
Double-clicking a session tab opens a dialogue box enabling you to change the name of that session. Alt+Ctrl+S can also be used to rename the active session.
Clicking an existing session's icon makes that session active.
When the toolbar is hidden, Shift+Left and Shift+Right can be used to move between sessions.
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When Konsole is started from the command-line, various options can be specified to modify its behaviour.
--helpList the various options
--name nameSet the name that appears in the titlebar
--lsStart with a login shell environment. What that does varies depending on your system, but generally it means that files such as ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile will be read. (If that doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry about it, but keep in the back of your mind for when you realise you need it.)
-T titleSet the window title
--tn terminalSets the environment variable TERM to the specified value. Read man for more information on TERM.xterm
--xwinIgnored
--noclosePrevent Konsole from closing when an exit command is issued in the only session window.
--nohistDisable the saving of lines that scroll off the top of the window
--nomenubarStart Konsole without a menubar
--notoolbarStart Konsole without a toolbar
--noframeStart Konsole without a frame
--noscrollbarStart Konsole without a scrollbar
--noxftStart Konsole without Xft antialiasing. Antialiasing of a small font may be difficult to read.
--vt_sz CCxLLStart a terminal window of CC Columns and LL lines
--type typeStart a session of the given type rather than the default.
--keytab fileStart Konsole using a specified .keytab file to customise key bindings.
--profile fileStart Konsole using a saved set of sessions.
--schema fileStart Konsole using a specified .schema file to customise appearance.
--script fileAllow the use of extended DCOP commands to paste text into sessions.
--workdir dirOpen with dir as the working folder.
-e commandExecute command instead of shell.
For instance:
bash$konsole--vt_sz90x25--nohist
starts a Konsole window with 90 columns and 25 rows, with no history
Konsole also accepts generic Qt™ and KDE options:
--help-qtList Qt-specific options
--help-kdeList KDE-specific options
--help-allList all options
--authorShow the authors' names
-v,--versionShow the version number
--licenseShow licence information
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Konsole is maintained by Waldo Bastian (bastian AT kde.org)
The application Konsole Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Lars Doelle (lars.doelle AT on-line.de)
This document was written by Jonathan Singer (jsinger AT leeta.net)
Originally converted to DocBook SGML by Mike McBride and Lauri Watts
Conversion to British English: John Knight (anarchist_tomato AT herzeleid.net)
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
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Information on building Konsole on platforms other than Linux® is available in the README.ports file in the Konsole source package. It provides a list of experts for certain platforms (Tru64, Solaris™, OpenBSD) and requests volunteers from other UNIX® platforms.
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