Is there a way to create a script to have tmux open with 4 panes and each of those panes opens into a specific directory?
Both tmux new-window and tmux split-window come with a -c option that can specify a start-directory. So you can do a new-window followed by three consecutive split-windows to get your four pane window. You can also provide an additional tmux select-layout command to setup the wanted layout of those four panes.
example
tmux new-window -c ~
tmux split-window -h -c /tmp
tmux split-window -v -c /
tmux select-pane -t 1
tmux split-window -v -c /home
tmux select-pane -t 1
I have a simple bash script that creates a new tmux session and does some layout:
#!/usr/local/bin/bash
tmux new-session -s $1
tmux split-window -h -p 50 -t 1
tmux new-window
tmux split-window -h -p 50 -t 1
The contents are in an executable script. When i execute the script with the name of the session as the argument, I get a new tmux session but there is only one un-split window, instead of the two [split] windows that I am telling it to create. If I run the scripts one by one on the shell prompt then I do get the desired outcome. So why is this not working in the script?
The problem is that first command starts tmux and wait for it to finish before continue. What you need to do is write custom tmux.conf file and add pass it through -f filename.conf with first command.
the other possible way is use tmux -d
#!/bin/bash
tmux new-session -d -s $1
tmux split-window -h -p 50 -t $1
tmux new-window -t $1
tmux split-window -h -p 50 -t $1
tmux attach -t $1
I ran into problem when tried to start tmux inside of bash-script.
The following script is sample of the problem.
tmux new-session -d -s main
tmux send-keys -t main 'ls ~/' C-m
tmux attach-session -d -t main
This script works correct - it started tmux with list of ~/ directory.
Then I tried to start same command (ls ~/) as a variable
tmux new-session -d -s main
foo="'ls ~/'"
tmux send-keys -t main "$foo" C-m
tmux attach-session -d -t main
However, It didn't work. I have got the following message
'ls ~/'
$ 'ls ~/'
-bash: ls ~/: No such file or directory
What is the reason of this problem and how to fix it?
You can't stick quotes inside quotes and have the shell remove them for you correctly.
See mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/050 for a full discussion on this.
Drop one set of the quotes there.
Either foo="ls ~/" or foo='ls ~/' but not both.
I have a script like so that I'd like to create a tmux session with windows with various server connections:
tmux new-session -d -s server-connections
tmux new-window -t server-connections:0 -n 't-u14-nickpl' 'ssh T-U14-NickPL'
tmux new-window -t server-connections:1 -n 't-u12-dev1' 'ssh T-U12-Dev1'
tmux attach -t server-connections
When I run that file, I get create window failed: index in use: 0. At first I thought maybe the script was executing so quickly it attached to the window at index 0 faster than the command could be run, so I introduced a sleep just to be sure.
tmux new-session -d -s server-connections
tmux new-window -t server-connections:0 -n 't-u14-nickpl' 'ssh T-U14-NickPL'
tmux new-window -t server-connections:1 -n 't-u12-dev1' 'ssh T-U12-Dev1'
sleep 4
tmux attach -t server-connections
But still I get create window failed: index in use: 0 and then the sleep would happen.
What do I need to change to bind to that window at index 0?
chepner's answer is correct, but you can also avoid specifying window numbers by appending windows with the -a option:
tmux new-window -a -t server-connections -n 't-u14-nickpl' 'ssh T-U14-NickPL'
tmux new-window -a -t server-connections -n 't-u12-dev1' 'ssh T-U12-Dev1'
A new session always has an initial window, so window index 0 is already taken as soon as new-session completes. Instead of an explicit new-window command, just specify the information with the new-session command itself.
tmux new-session -d -s server-connections -n 't-u14-nickpl' 'ssh T-U14-NickPL'
tmux new-window -t server-connections:1 -n 't-u12-dev1' 'ssh T-U12-Dev1'
tmux attach -t server-connections
Can anyone help explain what's going on with tmux, bash, and exec? I'm trying to set up a tmux session with a 4-pane window. Ideally, I want to run a command in 3 of the panes: e.g. a Ruby Thin server and a couple of Ruby daemons. This is what I have so far:
~/.bin/tmux-foo:
#!/bin/sh
tmux new-session -d -s foo 'exec pfoo "bundle exec thin start"'
tmux rename-window 'Foo'
tmux select-window -t foo:0
tmux split-window -h 'exec pfoo "bundle exec compass watch"'
tmux split-window -v -t 0 'exec pfoo "rake ts:start"'
tmux split-window -v -t 1 'exec pfoo'
tmux -2 attach-session -t foo
~/.bin/pfoo:
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/projects/foo
rvm use ree
# here I want to execute command1 2 3 or 4...
exec $SHELL
It all works... but when I ctlr-c in the first pane that is running the thin server, it stops the thin server and returns to the shell. However, the command is not in the history; i.e. if I hit the up key I don't get the bundle exec thin start command... I get some other command from my bash history. I'm wondering if there's any way to arrange these scripts so that I get the commands in the bash history.
Also... I've tried many combinations of exec, exec $SHELL -s ..., and exec $SHELL -s ... -I and I'm not quite sure what is going on...
Can anyone help explain the general idea of what is going on with tmux and bash and exec here?
As others have mentioned, your commands are being run by the shell script before launching your $SHELL; there is no general way the instance of $SHELL can know what its parent ran before starting it.
To get the “initial command” into the shell history, you need to feed the command keystrokes directly to the instance of $SHELL itself (after it has been started, of course). In other contexts I might suggest using a small Expect program to spawn an instance of $SHELL, feed it the keystrokes, then use interact to tie the tty to the expect-spawned $SHELL.
But in the context of tmux, we can just use send-keys:
#!/bin/sh
tmux new-session -d -s foo 'exec pfoo'
tmux send-keys 'bundle exec thin start' 'C-m'
tmux rename-window 'Foo'
tmux select-window -t foo:0
tmux split-window -h 'exec pfoo'
tmux send-keys 'bundle exec compass watch' 'C-m'
tmux split-window -v -t 0 'exec pfoo'
tmux send-keys 'rake ts:start' 'C-m'
tmux split-window -v -t 1 'exec pfoo'
tmux -2 attach-session -t foo
tmuxinator lets you specify this with a nice yaml file. For your case you could have:
# ~/.tmuxinator/foo.yml
# you can make as many tabs as you wish...
project_name: foo
project_root: ~/projects/foo
rvm: ree
tabs:
- main:
layout: tiled
panes:
- bundle exec thin start
- bundle exec compass watch
- #empty, will just run plain bash
- rake ts:start
You can of course have extra windows etc.
Place the following into the command prompt [all as one line], it will open 4 tmux panels automatically (I know this wasn't the question, but this looks somewhat easier than what I saw posted):
tmux new-session \; \split-window -v \; \split-window -h \; \select-pane -t 0 \; \split-window -h
Now you can take that command and use it with whatever scripting language you like [you need to double the escape characters {backslash characters} if using perl...and probably other languages].
This runs the subsequent command in the newer tmux panel, reverting to the first and splitting it at the end.
You are running the command and then entering the interactive shell; the command run from the script, not being in an interactive shell, doesn't get recorded in the history. You really want a way to stuff (that's a technical term :) once upon a time it was TIOCSTI for "terminal ioctl(): stuff input") input for the shell into the window.
With tmux, it looks like you use buffers for this. Something along the lines of (untested)
#! /bin/bash
cd ~/projects/foo
rvm use ree
if [[ $# != 0 ]]; then
tmux set-buffer "$(printf '%s\n' "$*")" \; paste-buffer -d
fi
exec ${SHELL:-/bin/sh}
You can create a bash script like this.
#!/bin/sh
tmux new-session -d -s mysession
tmux send-keys -t mysession "cd ~" Enter
tmux split-window -h -t mysession
tmux send-keys -t mysession "watch -n 1 df -H" Enter
tmux split-window -v -p 50 -t mysession
tmux send-keys -t mysession "htop" Enter
tmux select-pane -t mysession:0.0
tmux split-window -v -p 50 -t mysession
tmux send-keys -t mysession "cd ~" Enter
tmux select-pane -t mysession:0.0
# Attach to session
tmux attach -t mysession
You can change commands inside "" in each send-keys command as per your preference.