Xfce Forum

seeking_the_truth

Member

Registered: 2025-05-09

Posts: 7

XFCE4-Terminal question

Hi there,

Two question:
1) How do I apply xfce4-terminal theme programmatically?
I have, say, custom.theme within /usr/share/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes/custom.theme
But without applying it via GUI, it seems like there's no other options (tried many things already, vie config file with Theme=custom etc)
2) Can I apply the /home/user/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc globally, for all users somehow?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,011

Re: XFCE4-Terminal question

Hello and welcome.

If you are referring to a terminalrc file, then you must be using an older version of xfce4-terminal as newer versions have migrated to using xfconf as their backend.

1) How do I apply xfce4-terminal theme programmatically?
I have, say, custom.theme within /usr/share/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes/custom.theme
But without applying it via GUI, it seems like there's no other options (tried many things already, vie config file with Theme=custom etc)

The custom theme should have one or more "Color*" statements. Your goal will be to remove the existing Color statements from the terminalrc file:

sed -i '/Color.*/d' terminalrc

...and then add the ones from your custom theme:

while read line; do 
   if echo "$line" | grep -q "^Color"; then
      echo "$line" >> terminalrc
   fi
done < /usr/share/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes/solarized-dark.theme

...change the name of the colorscheme file at the end of that statement to your custom file.

The changes will be made live because xfce4-terminal monitors changes to this file.

2) Can I apply the /home/user/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc globally, for all users somehow?

Not easily, but here are a couple of options. If the user has never logged in before (for example a new user), you can put the terminalrc file in the /etc/skel/.config/xfce4/terminal and it will be copied over during account creation. For existing users, you could create a script to run the above statements and put it in their autostart applications list (globally would be /etc/xdg/autostart (must be a formatted .desktop file).

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

seeking_the_truth

Member

Registered: 2025-05-09

Posts: 7

Re: XFCE4-Terminal question

Thank you for your response.

Yes, I use the 1.0.4 version and it indeed uses the terminalrc file for its config as I found out with trial and error.
I did have a conflict between the files(theme and terminalrc).
It's resolved now, thanks.

As for the /etc/skel/.config/xfce4/terminal and scripting, I'm aware of this, just thought maybe there's a more simple way for it e.g. putting into /usr/share/ or something alike.