Mac OS X for Unix Geeks

Customizing the Terminal

To customize the shell used by the Terminal, start by changing the Terminal’s Preferences (Terminal → Preferences). On the preference pane, you can tell Terminal to execute the default shell at startup or a specific command (such as an alternative shell).^[4]

You can also adjust the Terminal’s characteristics using Terminal → Window Settings (or ⌘-I), which brings up the Terminal Inspector, shown in Figure 1-2. Table 1-1 lists the available window settings. Changing these settings affects only the topmost Terminal window. If you want to change the default settings for all future Terminal windows, click the Use Settings As Defaults button at the bottom of the Terminal Inspector window.

Figure 1-2. The Terminal Inspector

Table 1-1. Window settings

Pane	Description
Shell	Displays the shell used by the Terminal and lets you choose whether to close the Terminal window when the shell exits.
Processes	Displays the processes running under the frontmost window. You can also control whether Terminal will warn you if you try to close the window while you are running a program. You can disable this by choosing Never under “Prompt before closing window”. You can also supply a list of commands that should be ignored, so if you’re running a program (such as vi or Emacs) that’s not in the list, the Terminal will warn you before closing the window.
Emulation	Controls ...