How to open a new tab in GNOME Terminal from command line?

You can also have each tab run a set command.

gnome-terminal --tab -e "tail -f somefile" --tab -e "some_other_command"

#!/bin/sh

WID=$(xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"| awk '{print $5}')
xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key ctrl+shift+t
wmctrl -i -a $WID

This will auto determine the corresponding terminal and opens the tab accordingly.

Just in case, you want to open

• a new window
• with two tabs
• and executing command in there
• and having them stay open...

here you go:

gnome-terminal --geometry=73x16+0+0 --window \
  --working-directory=/depot --title='A' --command="bash -c ls;bash" \
  --tab --working-directory=/depot/kn --title='B' --command="bash -c ls;bash"

(same for mate-terminal btw.)

To bring together a number of different points above, here's a script that will run any arguments passed to the script vim new_tab.sh:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Dependencies:
#   sudo apt install xdotool

WID=$(xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"| awk '{print $5}')
xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key ctrl+shift+t
wmctrl -i -a $WID
sleep 1; xdotool type --delay 1 --clearmodifiers "$@"; xdotool key Return;

Next make it executable: chmod +x new_tab.sh

Now you can use it to run whatever you'd like in a new tab: ./new_tab.sh "watch ls -l"

I don't have gnome-terminal installed but you should be able to do this by using a DBUS call on the command-line using dbus-send.