Xterm

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The correct title of this article is xterm. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

xterm

A sample xterm, running the BASH shell, showing a list of /etc.
Developer:	Thomas Dickey
Latest release:	Patch #225 / March 24, 2007
OS:	X Window System
Use:	Terminal emulator
License:	MIT/X Consortium License
Website:	http://invisible-island.net/xterm/

In Unix computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it (normally the process is a Unix shell).

xterm originated prior to the X Window System. It was originally written as a stand-alone terminal emulator for the VAXStation 100 (VS100) by Mark Vandevoorde, a student of Jim Gettys, in the summer of 1984, when work on X started. It rapidly became clear that it would be more useful as part of X than as a standalone program, so it was retargeted to X. As Gettys tells the story [1], "part of why xterm's internals are so horrifying is that it was originally intended that a single process be able to drive multiple VS100 displays."

After many years as part of the X reference implementation, around 1996 the main line of development then shifted to XFree86 (which itself forked from X11R6.3) and is presently maintained by Thomas Dickey.

Many xterm variants are also available. Most terminal emulators for X started as variations on xterm.

Example showing xterm's toolbar

xterm normally does not have a menu bar. To access xterm's three menus, users must hold the Control key and press the left, middle, or right mouse button. Support for a "toolbar" can be compiled-in, which invokes the same menus.