Organize multiple local and remote Emacs shell buffers.

Multishell is available via Emacs package manager, in ELPA. Install "multishell" from the M-x package-list-packages listing.

I sometimes have almost as many emacs shell buffers going as I do tabs in my browser: one for each project I have going, one for each remote host or sudo shell (and remote sudo shells), one for doing maintenance chores that go across projects, and so on. Multishell makes it easy to organize my use of them all with distinct names for each, tramp syntax for remote and / or sudo shells, a roster of them all that can be saved between emacs sessions (preserving remote and sudo specifications), and a single key binding to access and manage my use of it all.

With a customizable master keybinding, multishell makes it easy to:

• Get to the input point from wherever you are in a shell buffer, or to any of your shell buffers, from anywhere inside emacs.

• Use universal arguments and name completion to launch a new or choose among existing shell buffers, and change which is the current default.

• Easily restart exited shells, or shells from prior emacs sessions.

• Specify an initial path for the shell. By using Emacs tramp syntax you can launch a sudo and/or remote shell.

  For example, specifying the following at the multishell buffer name prompt will:

  • #root/sudo:root@localhost:/etc launch a shell in a buffer named "#root" with a root shell starting in /etc.

  • /ssh:example.net: launch a shell buffer in your homedir on example.net. The buffer will be named "example.net".

  • #ex/ssh:example.net|sudo:[email protected]:/etc launch a root shell starting in /etc on example.net named "#ex".

  • interior/ssh:gateway.corp.com|ssh:interior.corp.com: via gateway.corp.com launch a shell in your homedir on interior.corp.com. The buffer will be named "interior". You could append a sudo hop, and so on.

• Thanks to tramp, file visits initiated in remote shell buffers will seamlessly be on the hosts where the shells are running, in the auspices of the account being used.

• Manage your list of shells, current and past, as a collection.

• Of course, emacs completion makes it easy to switch to an already existing shell buffer, or one in your history roster, by name.

See the multishell-pop-to-shell docstring (in multishell.el) for details, and getting-to-a-shell.md for the nitty-gritty decision tree that determines where the keybinding goes according to the various conditions.

Customize-group multishell' to select and activate a keybinding and set various behaviors. Customize-group savehist' to preserve buffer names/paths across emacs restarts.

Please use the multishell repository issue tracker to report problems, suggestions, etc.

See the multishell.el file commentary for a change log and Todo list.