[SOLVED] Backslash operator in linux shell script doesn't work as it should

Issue

I've got a simple shell script that should open a new terminal window with multiple (three) tabs.

open_gnome_terminal () {
  gnome-terminal \
        --window -- bash -ic "echo tab1; exec bash;" \  
        --tab  -- bash -ic "echo tab2; exec bash;" \
        --tab  -- bash -ic "echo tab3; exec bash;"
}

open_gnome_terminal

However, when I run the script via . ./myScript I get the following error:

--window: command not found
--tab: command not found

I also tried to run that script all in a single command in terminal and it worked fine, so my question is why backslash operator doesn't work properly in my shell script and how do I fix that? I use Linux Ubuntu 23.04

EDIT: I removed spaces after backslashes and the errors are gone now. Though I still didn't achieve the desired result of a new terminal window with 3 tabs (It only opens up a window with one tab)

Solution

Your code is:

open_gnome_terminal () {
  gnome-terminal \
        --window -- bash -ic "echo tab1; exec bash;" \  
        --tab  -- bash -ic "echo tab2; exec bash;" \
        --tab  -- bash -ic "echo tab3; exec bash;"
}

This invokes gnome-terminal with one option --window.

Then option processing is terminated by --.

The rest of the "line" is a program to run and its arguments:

bash -ic "echo tab1; exec bash;" --tab -- bash -ic "echo tab2; exec bash;" --tab -- bash -ic "echo tab3; exec bash;"

bash reads a command from the argument following -c. The next argument (--tab) is used to set its $0. The remaining arguments are ignored (since you did not refer to them in the first -c command).

---

To do what you want, the --command option is deprecated but appears to still work on my machine:

open_gnome_terminal() {
    gnome-terminal \
        --window --command 'bash -ic "echo tab1; exec bash"' \
        --tab    --command 'bash -ic "echo tab2; exec bash"' \
        --tab    --command 'bash -ic "echo tab3; exec bash"'
}

My manpage warns that this is not an actual shell commandline. I would probably put more complicated code into a shell script and invoke that (--command /path/to/my/script)

Answered By - jhnc

Answer Checked By - Timothy Miller (WPSolving Admin)