aleclearmind/nested-tmux

A simple tmux configuration for nested tmux sessions

Nested tmux

This is a simple tmux configuration enabling to have arbitrarily many nested tmux sessions.

Demo

Quick start

mkdir ~/.tmux.conf.d/
cd ~/.tmux.conf.d/
git clone https://github.com/aleclearmind/nested-tmux.git
mv ~/.tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf.backup
echo "source ~/.tmux.conf.d/nested-tmux/active-row.conf" > ~/.tmux.conf
tmux

Shortcuts

• Ctrl + a, Ctrl + c or Ctrl + t: create a new window
• Ctrl + a, Ctrl + s: create a new nested tmux session and ask a name for it
• Ctrl + a, Ctrl + A: switch to last window
• Ctrl + a, A: rename current window
• Alt + Right: move to the next window of the current row
• Alt + Left: move to the previous window of the current row
• Alt + Up: move to the inner tmux session
• Alt + Down: move to the outer tmux session

FAQ

• Q: Why do we need this?

  A: When working with many projects it's useful to have a dedicated tmux session with three windows per-project: one with a text editor, one for git and one for the build directory. This is why this project was born. However, nested tmux sessions are addictive and quickly become in-terminal workspaces that can be used for any purpose.

• Q: Does it support multiple nested layers of tmux sessions?

  A: Yes.

• Q: Has it been tested with other configuration X?

  A: No.

• Q: How is this implemented?

  A: The idea is two have two configurations, active-row.conf and inactive-row.conf. The former is for the currently active row in the nested tmux tree, the second for the inactive rows. Each session know who its parent is through the TMUX_PARENT environment variable (set in the new-tmux script). When Alt + Up is pressed, the Alt + F12 combination is sent to the active window. If the active window is a nested tmux session, it will load active-row.conf and forces loading inactive-row.conf in its parent (i.e., the row that originally received the Alt + Up key combination. When Alt + Down is pressed, the current row loads inactive-row.conf and forces loading active-row.conf in its parent.

nested-tmux's Issues

Nested tmux session over ssh

Hi, first of all, this is pretty sweet. One question I have is about nesting over ssh. In my client, I have tmux and I want to be able to ssh over to a server, run tmux and switch between the two. Is this something that is possible? I'm not very competent with tmux to know if we can even achieve this but it would be pretty cool if we can. If not, I can live with two terminals.

Looses focus on shell exit

Hello, I'm trying nested-tmux here

Everything seems to work, but when I exit one shell it looses focus to any pane and then all shortcuts stops working!

Maybe it is related to my custom configuration?

When running the suggested command twice, .tmux.conf is lost

Create a Tmux plugin => easier to install

Hello,

That seems awesome.
Have you considered making your conf as a tmux plugin, that would require only one line of code (for users) to maintain in their conf ?

Thanks.

Compatibility with tmux-ressurect

Hi, I'm also trying tmux-ressurect and noticed nested panes don't get restored. Also, the prefix C-s conflict with tmux-ressurect save shortcut.

Is there a quick fix for the first issue?