Plugins -> Console -> Console displays the console window. This window is floating by default, but can be made to dock into the view in the Docking pane of the Global Options dialog box.
The console window consists of a popup for choosing the current shell, a series of icon buttons, and a shell input/output area that occupies the remaining space of the window.
The Console plugin allows arbitrary shells to be plugged in; one shell included with the plugin is called the "System" shell and it runs external programs and commands; another built-in shell is the "BeanShell" shell, which runs commands in jEdit's BeanShell interpreter. Some plugins add their own shells; for example, the JCompiler plugin adds a shell for running the javac Java compiler within the jEdit process.
Each button shows a tooltip if the mouse pointer is held over it long enough. Here is a description of each button:
Run last command - runs the most recently entered command.
Run - runs the currently-entered command. This has the same effect as pressing Enter in the text field.
Run to buffer - runs the currently-entered command, but shows the output in a new buffer, instead of in the console window. This has the same effect as pressing Ctrl-Enter from the text field.
Stop - stops the currently running process, if any.
Clear - clears the console window's output area.
The "BeanShell" shell and plugin shells will not be discussed further here; general BeanShell documentation can be found in the jEdit user's guide, and documentation on plugin shells can be found in the documentation for the appropriate plugin. The remainder of this guide concerns itself with the system shell only.
A quick way to switch between shells from the keyboard is by entering the shell name prefixed with ":". For example, ":BeanShell" or ":System".