1. Introduction

IT operations often require remote login to servers for maintenance. A well-designed management tool can significantly boost efficiency. Popular options include Xshell, SecureCRT, and PuTTY, but some of these are commercial software. For Arch-based systems like Manjaro, Xshell is not available. Fortunately, there are excellent Linux alternatives such as Asbru-CM, GNOME Connection Manager, and the Linux version of SecureCRT (which requires purchase or a workaround). This article introduces Tabby, an open-source terminal emulator with over 10,000 stars on GitHub. It stands out as a productive tool on Linux, though it does have some issues (as evidenced by the number of open issues on GitHub, where users can report problems and seek help from developers).

2. Installation

Tabby supports Linux, macOS, and Windows. Installation is straightforward: visit the GitHub releases page and download the appropriate package for your system. For Manjaro, choose the .pacman file.

sudo pacman -U /path/to/tabby-1.0.167-linux.pacman

Once installed, you can launch Tabby from the system menu (Utilities) or via the command line:

tabby

The interface is modern and visually appealing:

3. Configuration and Usage

Click the Settings button on the home page to open the settings panel. The UI is web-based, so you can customize it with CSS. The Application menu shows information and includes an Open DevTools button for debugging display issues.

• Appearance: Configure terminal font, size, background color (theme or custom), cursor style, and custom CSS for the overall UI.
• Profiles & Connections: Manage your remote connections.
• Terminal: Adjust local terminal behavior, such as clipboard actions (e.g., "Copy on select"). Other options include opening a terminal on startup or restoring the previous session (note: the latter may have a bug on some system where keyboard input becomes unresponsive).
• Color Scheme: Choose from many built-in color schemes or create custom ones.
• Config Sync: Synchronize settings via GitHub or Gitee.
• Hotkeys: Set keyboard shortcuts.
• Plugins: Manage plugins.
• Save Output: Save terminal output to a file (requires a plugin).
• SSH: SSH remote connection management (required plugin).
• Vault: Password management.
• Window: Window style and theme settings.

4. Installing Plugins

The SSH plugin is essential for remote management. Go to Settings → Plugins → Available, find SSH, and click Get. After installation, restart Tabby. Explore the plugin list to find others that suit your needs.

Once the SSH plugin is installed, manage your remote connections via Settings → Profiles & Connections or by clicking the "+" button and selecting Manage profiles.

Click New profile → SSH connection to create a new SSH connection. Fill in the details: name, group (existing or new), host, port, username, and authentication method. For two-factor authentication, "Auto" usually works.

Under the Advanced or Login scripts tabs, you can configure further options. The Ready Timeout (default 20 seconds) can be increased if you need more time for two-factor code entry. Click Save to finish.

5. Split Screen Feature

Similar to SecureCRT's "Send command to all" functionality:

1. Right-click within a session, choose Split, and select the split direction.
2. Continue splitting windows as needed.
3. In any split pane, right-click and choose Switch profile to open another SSH session.
4. Use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I to select all panes and execute commands simultaneously.

6. Custom CSS

After installing Tabby, you might encounter two common issues:

1. On high-resolution displays (e.g., 2K), the interface font may be too small.
2. Layout elements may appear unbalanced after adjusting font size.

These can be fixed using Custom CSS and the Open DevTools tool.

Fixing Font Size

In the Custom CSS field, add:

html { 
    font-size: 28px;
}

Adjust the pixel value as needed.

Fixing Layout

Click Open DevTools (similar to browser developer tools) and use the element selector to pick the UI component you want to adjust. DevTools will highlight the corresponding HTML element. Right-click the element, choose Copy → Copy selector, and then style it with CSS. For example, to adjust the width of the left menu:

body > app-root > div > div.content > tab-body > settings-tab > div > ul {
    /* your styles */
}

With some customization, Tabby's appearance becomes much more polished.

Note: This process required some trial and error since official documentation is sparse, especially in Chinese. If you encounter issues, consider opening an issue on GitHub or exploring the code yourself.