multishell

Multishell allows multiple programs to be run at the same time.

When multiple programs are running, it displays a tab bar at the top of the screen, which allows you to switch between programs. New programs can be launched using the fg or bg programs, or using the shell.openTab and multishell.launch functions.

Each process is identified by its ID, which corresponds to its position in the tab list. As tabs may be opened and closed, this ID is not constant over a program's run. As such, be careful not to use stale IDs.

As with shell, multishell is not a "true" API. Instead, it is a standard program, which launches a shell and injects its API into the shell's environment. This API is not available in the global environment, and so is not available to APIs.

Changes

• New in version 1.6

getFocus()Source

Get the currently visible process. This will be the one selected on the tab bar.

Note, this is different to getCurrent, which returns the process which is currently executing.

Returns

1. number The currently visible process's index.

See also

• setFocus

setFocus(n)Source

Change the currently visible process.

Parameters

1. n number The process index to switch to.

Returns

1. boolean If the process was changed successfully. This will return false if there is no process with this id.

See also

• getFocus

getTitle(n)Source

Get the title of the given tab.

This starts as the name of the program, but may be changed using multishell.setTitle.

Parameters

1. n number The process index.

Returns

1. string | nil The current process title, or nil if the process doesn't exist.

setTitle(n, title)Source

Set the title of the given process.

Parameters

1. n number The process index.
2. title string The new process title.

Usage

• Change the title of the current process

  multishell.setTitle(multishell.getCurrent(), "Hello")

See also

• getTitle

getCurrent()Source

Get the index of the currently running process.

Returns

1. number The currently running process.

launch(tProgramEnv, sProgramPath, ...)Source

Start a new process, with the given environment, program and arguments.

The returned process index is not constant over the program's run. It can be safely used immediately after launching (for instance, to update the title or switch to that tab). However, after your program has yielded, it may no longer be correct.

Parameters

1. tProgramEnv table The environment to load the path under.
2. sProgramPath string The path to the program to run.
3. ... Additional arguments to pass to the program.

Returns

1. number The index of the created process.

Usage

• Run the "hello" program, and set its title to "Hello!"

  local id = multishell.launch({}, "/rom/programs/fun/hello.lua")
  multishell.setTitle(id, "Hello!")

See also

• os.run

getCount()Source

Get the number of processes within this multishell.

Returns

1. number The number of processes.