How to open a new tab in GNOME Terminal from command line?

You can also have each tab run a set command.

gnome-terminal --tab -e "tail -f somefile" --tab -e "some_other_command"

A bit more elaborate version (to use from another window):

#!/bin/bash

DELAY=3

TERM_PID=$(echo `ps -C gnome-terminal -o pid= | head -1`) # get first gnome-terminal's PID
WID=$(wmctrl -lp | awk -v pid=$TERM_PID '$3==pid{print $1;exit;}') # get window id

xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key alt+t # my key map
xdotool sleep $DELAY # it may take a while to start new shell :(
xdotool type --delay 1 --clearmodifiers "$@"
xdotool key Return

wmctrl -i -a $WID # go to that window (WID is numeric)

# vim:ai
# EOF #

I found the simplest way:

gnome-terminal --tab -e 'command 1' --tab -e 'command 2'

I use tmux instead of using terminal directly. So what I want is really a single and simple command/shell file to build the development env with several tmux windows. The shell code is as below:

#!/bin/bash
tabs="adb ana repo"
gen_params() {

    local params=""
    for tab in ${tabs}
    do  
        params="${params} --tab -e 'tmux -u attach-session -t ${tab}'"
    done
    echo "${params}"
}
cmd="gnome-terminal $(gen_params)"
eval $cmd

#!/bin/sh

WID=$(xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)"| awk '{print $5}')
xdotool windowfocus $WID
xdotool key ctrl+shift+t
wmctrl -i -a $WID

This will auto determine the corresponding terminal and opens the tab accordingly.