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Start XFCE Terminal with a Different Shell

I have PowerShell set as the default shell when XFCE Terminal launches. I was not able to update the PowerShell snap package while PowerShell was running. And restarting my Terminal did not cause PowerShell to update. I needed to launch a different shell and trigger an update there.

It is possible to launch an application with command-line options directly from XFCE's Whisker Menu (Start Menu).

I needed the command-line name for Terminal. And I needed the command-line option to launch an alternative shell. In my case, I can just use Bash as the alternative shell.

The executable name for Terminal is "xfce4-terminal". The command-line option to launch a different application is '-e'. This execute option is for Terminal version 1.0.2. I believe older versions of Terminal required an additional window option to work properly.

Here is the command I typed into the Whisker Menu search box:

xfce4-terminal -e bash

From there, I was able to manually update PowerShell with the snap command-line utility.

If you want to view the options for Terminal, use the --help option from a shell. If you use --help directly in the Whisker Menu, nothing will show.

xfce4-terminal --help

Created: Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Updated: Wednesday, May 18, 2022