How to launch a KDE konsole with multiple tabs running various progs?

Question

I know how to start a Konsole with one executable running in it, and leave the Konsole open after the program ends. I can do this using a .desktop file and change s

Answer 1

This is a solution using qdbus, see D-Bus documentation. The Konsole docs doesn't say much about the interfaces used, so some experimenting is necessary. I've left comments in the code about the things I attempted but that didn't work.

This works in KDE 5.

#! /bin/bash
# Multi command start in various konsole tabs

# List of commands to run, with parameters, in quotes, space-separated; do not use quotes inside (see bash arrays)
COMMANDS=("/my/prog1 param" "/my/prog2 param2" "/my/prog3 param1 param2 param3")

# KDS=$KONSOLE_DBUS_SERVICE # This is a ref to current Konsole and only works in Konsole
# KDS=$(org.kde.konsole)    # This is found in some examples but is incomplete

qdbus >/tmp/q0              # Get the current list of konsoles
/usr/bin/konsole            # Launch a new konsole
# PID=$!                    # And get its PID - But for some reason this is off by a few
sleep 1
qdbus >/tmp/q1              # Get the new list of konsoles
# KDS=org.kde.konsole-$PID      
# KDS=org.kde.konsole       # Sometimes
KDS=$(diff /tmp/q{0,1} | grep konsole)  # Let's hope there's only one
#echo $KDS
KDS=${KDS:3}
echo $KDS

echo $KDS >/tmp/KDS
echo >>/tmp/KDS

qdbus $KDS >>/tmp/KDS || exit
echo >>/tmp/KDS

# See note https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/applications/konsole/scripting.html about using /Konsole
qdbus $KDS /Konsole >>/tmp/KDS
echo >>/tmp/KDS

FirstTime=1

for i in "${COMMANDS[@]}"
do 
    echo "Starting: $i"
    echo >>/tmp/KDS
    if [ $FirstTime -eq 1 ]
    then
        session=$(qdbus $KDS /Konsole currentSession)
        FirstTime=0
    else
        session=$(qdbus $KDS /Konsole newSession)
    fi
    echo $session >>/tmp/KDS

    # Test: Display possible actions
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} >>/tmp/KDS

    # Doesn't work well, maybe use setTabTitleFormat 0/1 instead
    # Title "0" appears to be the initial title, title "1" is the title used after commands are executed. 
    #qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} setTitle 0 $i
    #qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} setTitle 1 $i

    # The line break is necessary to commit the command. \n doesn't work
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} sendText "${i}
"

    # Optional: will ping when there's no more output in the window
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} setMonitorSilence true
done

Update 2016: the structure of qdbus has changed again. Here's an update of the above script (I left out the original since depending on your KDE version you may need one or the other):

#! /bin/bash
# Multi command start in various konsole tabs

# List of commands to run, with parameters, in quotes, space-separated; do not use quotes inside (see bash arrays)
COMMANDS=("echo 1" "echo 2" "echo 3")

# KDS=$KONSOLE_DBUS_SERVICE # This is the ref of the current konsole and only works in a konsole
# KDS=$(org.kde.konsole)    # This is found in some examples but is incomplete

qdbus >/tmp/q0              # Get the current list of konsoles
/usr/bin/konsole            # Launch a new konsole
sleep 1
qdbus >/tmp/q1              # Get the new list of konsoles
KDS=$(diff /tmp/q{0,1} | grep konsole)  # Let's hope there's only one
KDS=${KDS:3}
echo $KDS

echo $KDS >/tmp/KDS
echo >>/tmp/KDS

qdbus $KDS >>/tmp/KDS || exit
echo >>/tmp/KDS

# See note https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/applications/konsole/scripting.html about using /Konsole
qdbus $KDS /konsole >>/tmp/KDS
echo >>/tmp/KDS

FirstTime=1

for i in "${COMMANDS[@]}"
do 
    echo "Starting: $i"
    echo >>/tmp/KDS
    if [ $FirstTime -eq 1 ]
    then
        session=$(qdbus $KDS /Windows/1 currentSession)
        FirstTime=0
    else
        session=$(qdbus $KDS /Windows/1 newSession)
    fi
    echo $session >>/tmp/KDS

    # Test: Display possible actions
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} >>/tmp/KDS

    # The line break is necessary to commit the command. \n doesn't work
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} sendText "${i}
"

    # Optional: will ping when there's no more output in the window
    qdbus $KDS /Sessions/${session} setMonitorSilence true
done