i3-sensible-terminal(1)

i3-sensible-terminal1

Launches $terminal with fallbacks

Usage

i3-sensible-terminal [arguments]

Overview

i3-sensible-terminal is invoked in the i3 default config to start a terminal. This wrapper script is necessary since there is no distribution-independent terminal launcher (but for example Debian has x-terminal-emulator). Distribution packagers are responsible for shipping this script in a way which is appropriate for the distribution.

It tries to start one of the following (in that order):

• $TERMINAL (this is a non-standard variable)

• x-terminal-emulator (only present on Debian and derivatives)

• mate-terminal

• gnome-terminal

• terminator

• xfce4-terminal

• urxvt

• rxvt

• termit

• Eterm

• aterm

• uxterm

• xterm

• roxterm

• termite

• lxterminal

• terminology

• st

• qterminal

• lilyterm

• tilix

• terminix

• konsole

• kitty

• guake

• tilda

• alacritty

• hyper

Please don’t complain about the order: If the user has any preference, they will have $TERMINAL set or modified their i3 configuration file.

Releases

8 releases since Debian 7 (Wheezy); the text changed 7 times.

  1. 7
  2. 8
  3. 9
  4. 10
  5. 11
  6. 12
  7. 13
  8. Arch

Author

Michael Stapelberg and contributors

From i3-wm 4.25.1-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.