[reedlaw]

Could you elaborate? I'd love to try that.

[merlincorey]

; Open a terminal

M-x ansi-term

; Rename the buffer (escaping shell mode first)

C-c C-j M-x rename-buffer

; Shell responds to keyboard again

C-c C-k

; Split window in half horizontally

C-x 2

-----

I stole this (possibly from Steve Yegge or another source) long ago to somewhat automate the process of renaming terminal buffers:

  (global-set-key (kbd "<f2>") 'visit-ansi-term)

  ;; Terminal awesomeness
  (require 'term)
  (defun visit-ansi-term ()
    "If the current buffer is:
       1) a running ansi-term named *ansi-term*, rename it.
       2) a stopped ansi-term, kill it and create a new one.
       3) a non ansi-term, go to an already running ansi-term
          or start a new one while killing a defunt one"
    (interactive)
    (let ((is-term (string= "term-mode" major-mode))
          (is-running (term-check-proc (buffer-name)))
          (term-cmd "/usr/local/bin/zsh")
          (anon-term (get-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
      (if is-term
          (if is-running
              (if (string= "*ansi-term*" (buffer-name))
                  (call-interactively 'rename-buffer)
                (if anon-term
                    (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*")
                  (ansi-term term-cmd)))
            (kill-buffer (buffer-name))
            (ansi-term term-cmd))
        (if anon-term
            (if (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")
                (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*")
              (kill-buffer "*ansi-term*")
              (ansi-term term-cmd))
          (ansi-term term-cmd)))))

[abecedarius]

Hey, I found that code hard to follow, with the if-then-elses nested 4 deep. A refactor, pretty much untested since I don't use ansi-term:

    (defun visit-ansi-term ()
      "If the current buffer is:
         1) a running ansi-term named *ansi-term*, rename it.
         2) a stopped ansi-term, kill it and create a new one.
         3) a non ansi-term, go to an already running ansi-term
            or start a new one while killing a defunct one."
      (interactive)
      (let ((is-term      (string= "term-mode" major-mode))
            (is-ansi-term (string= "*ansi-term*" (buffer-name)))
            (is-running   (term-check-proc (buffer-name)))
            (anon-term    (get-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
        (cond
         ((and is-term is-running is-ansi-term)
          (call-interactively 'rename-buffer))
         ((and anon-term (if is-term
                             (and is-running (not is-ansi-term))
                           (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")))
          (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*"))
         (t
          (cond ((and is-term (not is-running))
                 (kill-buffer (buffer-name)))
                ((and anon-term (not (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")))
                 (kill-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
          (ansi-term "/usr/local/bin/zsh")))))

[BCM43]

M+x ansi-term should do it. I'm not sure how well that scales to many terminals though. M+x term also works. There is also eshell.

[easytiger]

ansi-term and term are massively buggy.

I've never been able to get it to deal well with vast amounts of output well. Constant overwriting issues etc. Definitely prefer to use tmux + emacs considering the huge amount of stuff i end up throwing at my term.

[Derbasti]

Just open several terminal buffers in Emacs.

[emidln]

This isn't very useful if what you want to run in your terminal buffer needs to constantly update its screen while you're working in a different buffer (e.g. irc, tailing log files, etc)

[cbsmith]

Umm.. why is it not useful? Emacs will allow multiple buffers to update at once, and you can work in a third while watching them... That's kind of the idea.

[cbsmith]

shell mode + emacs --daemon + emacsclient = all the multiplexing a growing engineer might need.