up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

How can I change the transparency of the Terminal windows in Ubuntu with a command line?

I already know about the profile method but want a command so that I can quickly swap between transparent and opaque.

link|improve this question
67% accept rate
Which terminal are you using? – sarnold Nov 15 '11 at 0:18
Is this really off topic? I use terminal for building and running and the command I'm looking is like an API request :) – Kurru Nov 15 '11 at 0:25
@sarnold: GNOME Terminal 2.30.2 – Kurru Nov 15 '11 at 0:26
I discovered the Unix stackexchange and cross-posted. Got a response that works :) unix.stackexchange.com/questions/24616/… – Kurru Nov 15 '11 at 19:01
feedback

migrated from stackoverflow.com Nov 15 '11 at 21:03

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote

According to the manpage for gnome-terminal, what you want to do does not appear to be directly achievable.

NAME
   gnome-terminal — is a terminal emulation application.

SYNOPSIS
   gnome-terminal  [-e,  --command=STRING]   [-x, --execute ]  [--window-with-profile=PROFILENAME]  [--tab-with-profile=PRO‐
   FILENAME]    [--window-with-profile-internal-id=PROFILEID]    [--tab-with-profile-internal-id=PROFILEID]    [--role=ROLE]
   [--show-menubar]   [--hide-menubar]   [--geometry=GEOMETRY]   [--disable-factory]  [-t, --title=TITLE]  [--working-direc‐
   tory=DIRNAME]  [--usage]  [-?, --help]

However, you might be able to achieve something similar to your goal via creating a couple of different profiles and then using either the --window-with-profile or --tab-with-profile options. Combined with aliases in your .*rc file, and you could be good to go.

link|improve this answer
Is there a command to close the current terminal window? Those commands open a new instance of terminal – Kurru Nov 15 '11 at 18:55
exit should close your current term window... – Mike Nov 15 '11 at 19:03
Note that the gnome-terminal(1) manpage was written by someone else because the GNOME team doesn't "do" documentation. The manpage just vaguely says something like "supports all VT102 and VT220 escape codes", but I fully expect it doesn't support all those codes and I fully expect they introduced new codes, too -- one of which might swap transparency on the fly. But just maybe. (The GNOME team is also known for removing configurable options whenever they think they can.) – sarnold Nov 15 '11 at 23:35
1  
In the cross-posted question there is an answer showing how to swap opacity / transparency -- showing that once again you cannot count on the lack of documentation to mean something is or isn't possible with the GNOME software. – sarnold Nov 15 '11 at 23:38
What a giant ball of fail. sigh – Mike Jan 31 at 21:26
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.