Posts tagged: tmux

tmux push/pull panes

2022-12-04T13:25:54Z

Moving panes between tmux sessions is something that makes tmux a very flexible and powerful tool. I don’t need this feature very often, but it comes in clutch when you need it.

Pull a pane from any other session #

Using choose-window I was able to come up with a way to select any pane withing any other session and join it into my current session.

# Choose a pane to join in horizontally
bind f choose-window -Z 'join-pane -h -s "%%"'

Push/Pull from scratch #

I’ve long had this one in my tmux config, I always have a “scratch” session that I’m running, I often use for looking at things like k9s accross repos within a popup.

This use case puts a pane into the scratch session, then pulls it back out. I will use this to move a pane between sessions in the rare cases I need to do this.

# push the active pane into the scratch session horizonally
bind -n M-f join-pane -ht scratch
# pull the last active pane from the scratch session horizonally into this session
bind -n M-F join-pane -hs scratch

How I Present Markdown Slides from the Terminal

2022-03-21T16:13:39Z

I love the freedom of writing in markdown. It allows me to write content from the comfort of my editor with very little focus on page style. It turns out that markdown is also a fantastic tool for creating slides.

Present from the terminal #

I will most often just present right from the terminal using lookatme. Presenting from the terminal lets me see the results quick right from where I am editing. It also allows me to pop into other terminal applications quickly.

reveal.js #

I sometimes also use reveal.js, but that’s for another post. It is handy that it lives in the browser and is easier to share.

New Slides #

I leverage auto slides when I write my slides in markdown. The largest heading, usually an h2 for me, becomes the new slide marker. Otherwise my process is not much different, It just becomes a shorter writing style.

Installation #

lookatme is a python library that is available on pypi, you can install it with the pip command.

python -m pip install lookatme

Since it’s a command line application it works great with pipx. This prevents the need to manage virtual environments yourself or ending up with packages clashing in your system python environment.

pipx install lookatme

From my terminal #

lookatme {filepath}

I just run it with pipx.

pipx run \
 --spec git+https://github.com/waylonwalker/lookatme \
 lookatme {filepath} \
 --live-reload \
 --style gruvbox-dark

From Neovim #

most often what I do

From Neovim I use a plugin I created for sending out commands to tmux called telegraph. This sends the above command to a new session that I can bounce between quickly.

nnoremap <leader><leader>s <cmd>lua require'telegraph'.telegraph({cmd='pipx run --spec git+https://github.com/waylonwalker/lookatme lookatme {filepath} --live-reload --style gruvbox-dark', how='tmux'})<CR>

Open Files with Nvim Remote

2022-03-06T16:22:49Z

I recently found a really great plugin by mhinz to open files in neovim from a different tmux split, without touching neovim at all.

Installation #

neovim-remote is not a neovim plugin at all, it’s a python cli that you can install with pip. Unlike the repo suggests, I use pipx to install nvr.

pipx install neovim-remote

How I use it #

I have this added to my .envrc that is in every one of my projects. This will tie a neovim session to that directory, and all directories under it.

export NVIM_LISTEN_ADDRESS=/tmp/nvim-$(basename $PWD)

Open neovim #

First open neovim, but with the nvr command. This will open neovim, and look pretty much the same as always.

nvr

If you try to run nvr again in another shell nothing will happen as its already runnin under that address, but if you give it a filename it will open the file in the first instance of neovim that you opened.

nvr readme.md

Links #

GitHub

Textual Popup Hack

2022-02-26T15:41:12Z

As I am toying around with textual, I am wanting some popup user input to take over. Textual is still pretty new and likely to change quite significantly, so I don’t want to overdo the work I put into it, So for now on my personal tuis I am going to shell out to tmux.

The Problem #

The main issue is that when you are in a textual app, it kinda owns the input. So if you try to run another python function that calls for input it just cant get there. There is a textual-inputs library that covers this, and it might work really well for some use cases, but many of my use cases have been for things that are pre-built like copier, and I am trying to throw something together quick.

Part of this comes down to the fact that textual is still very beta and likely to change a lot, so all of the work I have done with it is for quick and dirty, or fun side projects.

The Solution #

So the solution that was easiest for me… shell out to a tmux popup. The application I am working on wants to create new documents using copier templates. copier has a fantastic cli that walks throught he template variables and asks the user to fill them in, so I just shell out to that with Popen. Make sure that you wait for this process to finish otherwise there will be bit of jank in your textual app.

async def action_new_post(self) -> None:
    proc = subprocess.Popen(
        'tmux popup "copier copy plugins/todo-template tasks"', shell=True
    )
    proc.wait()

example #

Here is what the running todo application looks like with the copier popup over it.

tmux popups

Links #

A better copy-mode bind for Tmux

2022-02-13T17:05:23Z

The default keybinding for copy-mode <prefix>-[ is one that is just so awkward for me to hit that I end up not using it at all. I was on a call with my buddy Nic this week and saw him just fluidly jump into copy-mode in an effortless fashion, so I had to ask him for his keybinding and it just made sense. Enter, that’s it. So I have addedt his to my ~/.tmux.conf along with one for alt-enter and have found myself using it way more so far.

Setting copy-mode to enter #

To do this I just popped open my ~/.tmux.conf and added the following. Now I can get to copy-mode with <prefix>-Enter which is control-b Enter, or alt-enter.

bind Enter copy-mode
bind -n M-Enter copy-mode

More on copy-mode #

I have a full video on copy-mode you can find here.

tmux copy-mode

Tmux and Vim Clipboard for Ubuntu

2022-01-26T02:50:56Z

One of the first things I noticed broken in my terminal based workflow moving from Windows wsl to ubuntu was that my clipboard was all messed up and not working with my terminal apps. Luckily setting tmux and neovim to work with the system clipboard was much easier than it was on windows.

First off you need to get xclip if you don’t already have it provided by your distro. I found it in the apt repositories. I have used it between Ubuntu 18.04 and 21.10 and they all work flawlessly for me.

I have tmux setup to automatically copy any selection I make to the clipboard by setting the following in my ~/.tmux.conf. While I have neovim open I need to be in insert mode for this to pick up.

# ~/tmux.conf
bind -T copy-mode-vi Enter send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -i -f -selection primary | xclip -i -selection clipboard"
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -selection clipboard -i"

To get my yanks to go to the system clipboard in neovim, I just added unnamedplus to my existing clipboard variable.

# ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
set clipboard+=unnamedplus

If you need to copy something right from the terminal you can use xclip directly. I do this semi-often to send someone a message in chat.

cat file.txt | clip -sel copy

I set up some alias’s for doing this a bit more efficiently, but don’t find myself using them very often. This helps me grab commands from history and copy them.

alias hclip="history | tail -n1 | cut -c 8- | xclip -sel clip"
alias fclip="history -n 1000 | fzf | cut -c 8- | xclip -sel clip"
alias fclip="history -n 1000 | fzf | xclip -sel clip"

Tmux hotkey for copier templates

2022-01-24T02:22:53Z

I have added a hotkey to my copier template setup to quickly access all my templates at any time from tmux. At any point I can hit <c-b><c-b>, thats holding control and hitting bb, and I will get a popup list of all of my templates directory names. Its an fzf list, which means that I can fuzzy search through it for the template I want, or arrow key to the one I want if I am feeling insane. I even setup it up so that the preview is a list of the files that come with the template in tree view.

bind-key c-b popup -E -w 80% -d '#{pane_current_path}' "\
    pipx run copier copy ~/.copier-templates/`ls ~/.copier-templates |\
    fzf --header $(pwd) --preview='tree ~/.copier-templates/{} |\
    lolcat'` . \
    "

I’ve had this on my systems for a few weeks now and I am constantly using it for my tils, blogs, and my .envrc file that goes into all of my projects to make sure that I have a virtual environment installed and running any time I open it.

Tmux Pop size

2022-01-05T17:37:26Z

tmux popups can be sized how you like based on the % width of the terminal on creation by using the flags (h, w, x, y) for height, width, and position.

# normal popup
tmux popup figlet "Hello"
# fullscreen popup
tmux popup -h 100% -w 100% figlet "Hello"
# 75% centered popup
tmux popup -h 100% -w 75% figlet "Hello"
# 75% popup on left side
tmux popup -h 100% -w 75% -x 0% figlet "Hello"

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.

Uses

2021-11-20T10:38:00Z

This is a listing of all the things that I use on a daily basis to build data pipelines, lead my team, and build this website.

older editions #

[[ uses-2021 ]]

Installation #

Everything installed on my machines is done through ansible-playbooks. It’s been a long transformation to get here, but its so satisfying to boot a brand new system, run a single command a have every single thing cofigured exactly to my liking.

# GET is available by default on Ubuntu
GET waylonwalker.com/bootstrap | bash

# For debian based systems without GET by default
sudo apt install curl
curl -F https://waylonwalker.com/bootstrap | bash

OS #

I run Ubuntu, it works well for me without too much fuss. For me the distribution does not really matter too much, I’m more interested in what’s inside.

Window Manager #

I use awesome wm. Awesome is a tiling window manager that alows me to navigate through 9 workspaces (technically called tags in awesomewm). I can script out certain applications to open in a certain tag, move it to different tags, and join tags super easy. I really dont see myself going back to a floating window manager where you have to place all your windows with the mouse by hand. This is probably one of the biggest selling points for me to move to a Linux desktop.

Terminal #

gnome-terminal #

For the longest time I just used gnome-terminal. It works, for the most part it gets out of the way and lets me do what I want. I just want a terminal that runs tmux properly, runs without titltbars or scrollbars, and lets me theme it without much effort.

kitty #

Kitty is my main terminal, these days, it’s nice, its easy to configure how I want it, but most of its fancier features do not work inside of tmux. It does render incredibly fast, If I accidently cat out a massive file, it typically just handles it, compared to other terminals that will be printing for 30s or so.

Windows Terminal #

When I am on a windows terminal I use the new Terminal. It’s a massive improvement over any other terminal that I have ever tired on windows. Text looks good, the built in themese look good, I use the One-Half-Dark Theme, and the built in Cascadia Code font. Also things like system clipboards, copy, and paste just seem to work better, and integrate well with wsl.

Shell #

The shell is the interpreter that interprets the commands that you send to it from the command line, unlike the terminal that displays the text.

zsh #

I use zsh as my shell of choice. I don’t run oh-my-zsh, I just need a few plugins for things like autosuggestions syntax-highlighting history-substring-search.

Tmux #

Text Editor #

Presentation / Slides #

Video Recording / Streaming #

Video Editing #

Image Editor #

Virtual Environments #

node #

Desk #

Monitor #

Keyboard #

Desktop PC #

Keyboard #

Microphone #

Audio Interface #

Headphones #

Chair #

tmux targeted session

2021-08-02T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/5KE7Il7SOEk

This is something that I made up but use every single day, this is what keeps much of what is on my blog or my teams private work wiki going. I have a few very important directories that I have assigned directly to a hotkey for fast session switching.

bind -n M-i new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com "cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim"
bind i popup -E -h 95% -w 95% -x 100% "tmux new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com 'cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim'"
bind -n M-I popup -E "tmux new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com 'cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim'"

tmux new-session

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux detach

2021-08-01T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/A1qx3tNKDdA

tmux detach is a handy tmux command that will quit your current session while keeping it running. The full name of the comamnd is detach-client, detach is a shorthand.

default keybinding

bind-key          d detach-client

I have mine bound to mod+d where mod is alt.

bind -n M-d detach-client

https://waylonwalker.com/tmux-nav-2021/

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux attach

2021-07-31T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/JQ0yDCVu44E

attach is one of the most useful features of tmux. If you have no interest in tmux for pane and window management, you should use tmux for this. It can be a life saver if you ever get disconnected from the host machine or accidently close your terminal you can connect right back into the session you were just in using attach.

attach #

tmux attach

If you ever run long running tasks on a remote machine by sshing into this you should be doing it inside tmux, or something like tmux so that you do not loose your work.

attach to a specific session #

If you have multiple sessions running you can select the session that you want to attach to by passing -t <name-of-session>.

tmux attach -t scratch

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux ls

2021-07-30T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/LY41GLn_DGg

tmux ls will list the sessions that you have running within the tmux server if tmux is currently running. This is handy to combine with commands such as attach.

tmux ls

tmux attach

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux command line

2021-07-29T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/SNu-4IrkjAs

So far we have covered a lot of tmux commands and how they map to keybindings but these same commands can be executed at the command line.

From the command line #

Let’s make a popup that displays our git status for 5s or until we close it manually. We can run the following command at the command line, in a split.

tmux display-popup -E -d '#{pane_current_path}' 'git status && sleep 5'

From the tmux command line #

Or we can open the tmux command line and run it from tmux’s built in command line, which is very similar to bim EX mode. By default the tmux command line can be opened with prefix+[.

display-popup -E -d '#{pane_current_path}' 'git status && sleep 5'

Make it a keybinding #

Finally we can make it a keybinding by adding a bind command ahead of our tmux command, then we can execute this in the tmux command line or add it to our ~/.tmux.conf.

bind s display-popup -E -d '#{pane_current_path}' 'git status && sleep 5'

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux copy-mode

2021-07-28T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/-ypY_-VmBKk

tmux copy-mode is a tmux mode that lets you scroll, search, copy, and jump your way through a pane. There are a ton of keybindings for copy-mode, the main ones you will need to know are / for searching down ? for searching up, n for next item, space for starting a selection, and enter to copy the selection. Arrow keys will be used for navigation unless you have specified vi mode, then it will be hjkl.

Default keybinding to get into copy mode is prefix+[.

bind-key          [ copy-mode

If you are a vim user you will likely want to use vi style keys, add this to your ~/.tmux.conf file to enable vi mode.

setw -g mode-keys vi

full list of copy-mode keybindings from the man page.

  Command                                      vi              emacs
           append-selection
           append-selection-and-cancel                  A
           back-to-indentation                          ^               M-m
           begin-selection                              Space           C-Space
           bottom-line                                  L
           cancel                                       q               Escape
           clear-selection                              Escape          C-g
           copy-end-of-line [<prefix>]                  D               C-k
           copy-line [<prefix>]
           copy-pipe [<command>] [<prefix>]
           copy-pipe-no-clear [<command>] [<prefix>]
           copy-pipe-and-cancel [<command>] [<prefix>]
           copy-selection [<prefix>]
           copy-selection-no-clear [<prefix>]
           copy-selection-and-cancel [<prefix>]         Enter           M-w
           cursor-down                                  j               Down
           cursor-down-and-cancel
           cursor-left                                  h               Left
           cursor-right                                 l               Right
           cursor-up                                    k               Up
           end-of-line                                  $               C-e
           goto-line <line>                             :               g
           halfpage-down                                C-d             M-Down
           halfpage-down-and-cancel
           halfpage-up                                  C-u             M-Up
           history-bottom                               G               M->
           history-top                                  g               M-<
           jump-again                                   ;               ;
           jump-backward <to>                           F               F
           jump-forward <to>                            f               f
           jump-reverse                                 ,               ,
           jump-to-backward <to>                        T
           jump-to-forward <to>                         t
           jump-to-mark                                 M-x             M-x
           middle-line                                  M               M-r
           next-matching-bracket                        %               M-C-f
           next-paragraph                               }               M-}
           next-space                                   W
           next-space-end                               E
           next-word                                    w
           next-word-end                                e               M-f
           other-end                                    o
           page-down                                    C-f             PageDown
           page-down-and-cancel
           page-up                                      C-b             PageUp
           pipe [<command>] [<prefix>]
           pipe-no-clear [<command>] [<prefix>]
           pipe-and-cancel [<command>] [<prefix>]
           previous-matching-bracket                                    M-C-b
           previous-paragraph                           {               M-{
           previous-space                               B
           previous-word                                b               M-b
           rectangle-on
           rectangle-off
           rectangle-toggle                             v               R
           refresh-from-pane                            r               r
           scroll-down                                  C-e             C-Down
           scroll-down-and-cancel
           scroll-up                                    C-y             C-Up
           search-again                                 n               n
           search-backward <for>                        ?
           search-backward-incremental <for>                            C-r
           search-backward-text <for>
           search-forward <for>                         /
           search-forward-incremental <for>                             C-s
           search-forward-text <for>
           search-reverse                               N               N
           select-line                                  V
           select-word
           set-mark                                     X               X
           start-of-line                                0               C-a
           stop-selection
           top-line                                     H               M-R

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux join-pane

2021-07-27T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/Vm5rRtcVXLw

Join-pane allows you to join panes that you have broken away from your window, or created in a different window to the window you want it in. As far as I know there is not a default keybinding for it.

Before you can join a pane you must first have a pane marked to join. Once you mark a pane, go back to the window you want to join it to and join-pane.

My keybindings, you must add this to your ~/.tmux.conf file to use them.

# Mark and swap panes
#――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
bind -n M-m select-pane -m # mark
bind -n M-M select-pane -M # unmark

bind -n M-< join-pane

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Also check out the full YouTube tmux-playlist to see all of the videos in this series.

tmux break-pane

2021-07-26T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/ICL609F2xnc

Break-pane is a handy tmux command when your layout gets too cramped and you want to just move a split into its own window. Calling break-pane does exactly that, it creates a new-window for you and moves your currently selected split into that window

Default key binding for break-pane

bind-key          ! break-pane

How I navigate tmux in 2021

tmux zoom

2021-07-25T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/Rn6mOarCQ-Y

Zooming into the current split in tmux is a valuable tool to give yourself some screen real estate. These days I am almost always presenting, streaming, or pairing up with a co-worker over a video call. Since I am always sharing my screen I am generally zoomed in to a level that is just a bit uncomfortable, so anytime I make a split it is really uncomfortable, being able to zoom into the split I am focused on is a big help, and also help anyone watching follow where I am currently working.

Default key bindings for zooming the current split

bind-key          z resize-pane -Z

I have rebound this to match the default binding with mod+z rather so that I get that single keystroke experience.

bind -n M-z resize-pane -Z

How I navigate tmux in 2021

tmux new-window

2021-07-24T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/YRPZBv-iYyE

New window as it sounds makes new windows in tmux. Windows are kind of like tabs. They are another screen within your sessions that you can name and make new panes in.

Default key bindings for creating and navigating windows in tmux.

bind-key          c new-window
bind-key          p previous-window
bind-key          n next-window

As always I have rebound these keys because I generally prefer a single keystroke over the prefix plus keybinding approach that tmux gives by default.

#――windows――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
bind -n M-c new-window -c '#{pane_current_path}'
bind -n M-p previous-window
bind -n M-n next-window

When I started using tmux I did almost everything in one giant session with many panes and windows. It became a nightmare to manage and quickly get between two sets work efficiently. This year I leaned in on sessions quite heavily. Checkout this 👇 post to see that workflow in depth.

How I navigate tmux in 2021

tmux slect-pane

2021-07-23T23:51:21Z

https://youtu.be/CPZJZjN9YTY

These are my MOST often used keybindings that I use in tmux. They allow me to jump between splits with ease with a vim style layout. I can hold mod and jump between panes with a familiar arrow key.

bind -n M-h select-pane -L
bind -n M-l select-pane -R
bind -n M-k select-pane -U
bind -n M-j select-pane -D

How I navigate tmux in 2021

Posts tagged: tmux

tmux push/pull panes

Pull a pane from any other session #

Push/Pull from scratch #

How I Present Markdown Slides from the Terminal

Present from the terminal #

reveal.js #

New Slides #

Installation #

From my terminal #

From Neovim #

Open Files with Nvim Remote

Installation #

How I use it #

Open neovim #

Links #

Textual Popup Hack

The Problem #

The Solution #

example #

Links #

A better copy-mode bind for Tmux

Setting copy-mode to enter #

More on copy-mode #

Tmux and Vim Clipboard for Ubuntu

Tmux hotkey for copier templates

Tmux Pop size

Uses

older editions #

Installation #

OS #

Window Manager #

Terminal #

gnome-terminal #

kitty #

Windows Terminal #

Shell #

zsh #

Tmux #

Text Editor #

Presentation / Slides #

Video Recording / Streaming #

Video Editing #

pager #

Image Editor #

Virtual Environments #

node #

Desk #

Monitor #

Keyboard #

Desktop PC #

Keyboard #

Microphone #

Audio Interface #

Headphones #

Chair #

tmux targeted session

tmux detach

tmux attach

attach #

attach to a specific session #

tmux ls

tmux command line

From the command line #

From the tmux command line #

Make it a keybinding #

tmux copy-mode

tmux join-pane

tmux break-pane

tmux zoom

tmux new-window

tmux slect-pane