QGIS Terminal

An integrated terminal plugin for QGIS, similar to VS Code's integrated terminal. Provides a dockable terminal panel with full shell access, ANSI color support, and cross-platform compatibility.

Features

• Integrated Terminal: A dockable terminal panel that works like VS Code's terminal
• True Interactive Shell: Full pty-based shell with history, tab completion, and signal handling
• ANSI Color Support: Colored output for commands like ls --color, git, and more
• Cross-Platform: Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Multiple Shells: Auto-detects available shells (bash, zsh, sh, PowerShell, cmd)
• Configurable: Font, color scheme, shell path, and scrollback buffer settings
• QGIS Integration: Defaults to the current QGIS project directory

Project Structure

qgis-terminal-plugin/
├── qgis_terminal/
│   ├── __init__.py              # Plugin entry point
│   ├── qgis_terminal.py         # Main plugin class
│   ├── metadata.txt             # Plugin metadata for QGIS
│   ├── deps_manager.py          # Dependency management
│   ├── uv_manager.py            # uv package manager support
│   ├── LICENSE                  # Plugin license
│   ├── terminal/                # Terminal implementation
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── ansi_parser.py       # ANSI escape sequence parser
│   │   ├── shell_process.py     # Cross-platform shell process manager
│   │   ├── terminal_view.py     # Terminal display widget
│   │   ├── terminal_widget.py   # Container with toolbar
│   │   └── terminal_dock.py     # QDockWidget wrapper
│   ├── dialogs/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── settings_dock.py     # Settings panel
│   │   └── update_checker.py    # Update checker dialog
│   └── icons/
│       ├── terminal.svg         # Terminal icon
│       ├── settings.svg         # Settings icon
│       └── about.svg            # About icon
├── package_plugin.py            # Python packaging script
├── package_plugin.sh            # Bash packaging script
├── install.py                   # Python installation script
├── install.sh                   # Bash installation script
├── README.md                    # This file
└── LICENSE                      # Repository license

Requirements

• QGIS 3.28 or later
• Python 3.10+

Installation

Option A: QGIS Plugin Manager (Recommended)

1. Open QGIS
2. Go to Plugins -> Manage and Install Plugins...
3. Go to the Settings tab
4. Click Add... under "Plugin Repositories"
5. Give a name for the repository, e.g., "OpenGeos"
6. Enter the URL of the repository: https://qgis.gishub.org/plugins.xml
7. Click OK
8. Go to the All tab
9. Search for "QGIS Terminal"
10. Select the plugin and click Install Plugin

Option B: Install Script

# Install
python install.py

# Or with bash
./install.sh

# Remove
python install.py --remove

Option C: Manual Installation

Copy the qgis_terminal folder to your QGIS plugins directory:

• Linux: ~/.local/share/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\QGIS\QGIS3\profiles\default\python\plugins\

Usage

1. Enable the plugin in QGIS: Plugins -> Manage and Install Plugins... -> Enable "QGIS Terminal"
2. Click the Terminal button in the toolbar, or go to QGIS Terminal -> Terminal
3. The terminal panel appears at the bottom of the QGIS window
4. Type commands and interact with the shell as you would in any terminal

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy (if text selected) or send interrupt signal
Ctrl+V	Paste from clipboard
Ctrl+L	Clear screen
Ctrl+D	Send EOF
Ctrl+A	Select all
Up/Down	Navigate command history
Tab	Shell tab completion
Page Up/Down	Scroll terminal output

Toolbar Actions

• Shell Selector: Choose between available shells (bash, zsh, PowerShell, etc.)
• Clear: Clear the terminal output
• Restart: Kill the current shell and start a new one

How It Works

Architecture

The terminal is built from four main components:

1. AnsiParser (ansi_parser.py): Parses ANSI/VT100 escape sequences and converts them to Qt text formatting (colors, bold, underline, etc.)

2. ShellProcess (shell_process.py): Cross-platform shell process manager

   • Unix: Uses pty.openpty() for true terminal emulation with QSocketNotifier for non-blocking I/O
   • Windows: Uses subprocess.Popen with pipe-based I/O and QTimer polling

3. TerminalView (terminal_view.py): A QPlainTextEdit subclass that displays terminal output and forwards keyboard input to the shell

4. TerminalWidget (terminal_widget.py): Container with toolbar and terminal view, manages the shell lifecycle

Design Decisions

• pty-based terminal (not QProcess): Provides true terminal emulation where shell history, tab completion, and interactive programs work natively
• Read-only QPlainTextEdit + key forwarding: The pty handles echo and line editing; no complex input buffer tracking needed
• No external dependencies: Uses only Python stdlib and PyQt5 from QGIS
• QPlainTextEdit over QTextEdit: Better performance for large output, supports scrollback limiting

Packaging

# Package for QGIS plugin repository
python package_plugin.py

# Custom output path
python package_plugin.py --output /path/to/output.zip

License

This project is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Issue Tracker
• QGIS Plugin Development Documentation
• PyQGIS Developer Cookbook