How can I import a .terminal file using the command line?

Question

I'm writing a (Bash) script to automate setting up my Mac environment and would like to do this, except using the command line only. I'd also like to make that theme the default.

I have a .terminal file exported and all ready to go, I just can't figure out how to do this programmatically. Is there a documentation for this somewhere that I'm missing?

... or would these be easier using AppleScript? Never done that before though.

Answer 1

Use the open command, followed by the preference change:

open ~/MyTerminalSettings.terminal
defaults write com.apple.terminal "Default Window Settings" -string "MyTerminalSettings"
defaults write com.apple.Terminal "Startup Window Settings" -string "MyTerminalSettings"

The open command will further open a new Terminal window, but the script will continue running in the original window, and you can close the new window when convenient.

Answer 2

This isn't an answer but the basic bricks you will have to use to write your shell script.

1. Check that Terminal isn't running to avoid corrupting its plist:

   if ps ax | grep '[/]Terminal' >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
       echo Terminal running! >&2 && exit 2
   fi
   # go ahead
   

   beware to the [/] which is here to avoid to grep your grep command which will be always successfull.

2. Convert your Terminal plist to a text file with:

       
   plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist
   

3. Strip your .terminal file from its header, let's says its name is imported.terminal

   sed -n '/<dict>/,/<\/dict>/p' imported.terminal >tmp.terminal
   

4. Insert this tmp.terminal plist within the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist inside the right dictionary.

   This will need some context analysis to do it right. I'd chose perl if I had to do it, but awk, ex, or sed might be easier with a few lines and testing.