8 ms·

use tmux for multiple screens and ditch that xorg garbage.

by Derpsec 14y ago

Dru89 14y ago
that first screenshot is actually just pulled from the internet. the third one (it was broken at first, then I fixed it) is from my laptop. My desktop, however, doesn't use tmux right now. May be something that I look into in the near future because it looks interesting.
- jameyc 14y ago
  Since you're on osx, you might look into iTerm2, which wraps tmux nicely and brings a few bells and whistles to the table.
richo 14y ago
Calling Xorg garbage is naive. Even if you only use terminals, and you have to have a framebuffer that supports that native resolution of your screen, you'll find that Xorg is nearly always more performant. If you have issues with X11's security model that's a different story, I'd suggest trying http://wayland.freedesktop.org/ http://wayland.freedesktop.org/
- jlgreco 14y ago
  Using tmux in an X terminal emulator really gets you the best of all worlds. Good mouse support, performant as you mention, and if X really starts to give you hassle for some reason you can always seamlessly continue working in a VT or with putty if you really want to.
- crazydiamond 14y ago
  Could someone elaborate how x11/xterm compares to iTerm2? I've been using tmux in iTerm. After reading this discussion, i installed x11 and quartz-wm. Why would I switch to X11 ? (I do notice that within tmux on iterm, i can use the mouse for selection (using Alt), but the mouse does not work in tmux in xterm.)
__david__ 14y ago
I don't understand why I'd want to use tmux locally. I'm a huge believer in tmux on remote machines though. Why would I want to use it on my local laptop?
- mats_rauhala 14y ago
  Assuming you spend a lot of time in terminals, you can use it to group your tasks. For example I have tmux sessions for my bachelor's thesis which contains two windows, either of which contains two split panes. The left pane is for vim (which are split further) and the right pane are for ghci and terminal. If I change from writing the thesis to for example doing work I can just change the tmux session. The layout and content are just like I left them.
- h2s 14y ago
  It can be useful to be able to open vertical splits running things like "watch jslint" or "watch rspec" while you code.
- irahul 14y ago
  Say I am working on a rails project. I need vim open with root; I need rails server, console, dbconsole; I need one window at project root for misc task; and I prefer not to navigate with the mouse to different tabs. Personally, I vastly prefer tmux terminal multiplexing over terminal tabs. Also, it doesn't happen frequently, but I have closed terminals which I didn't mean to. tmux/screen means that causes only minor inconvenience, compared to closing the terminal, opening it again, opening all tabs, dealing with swap files, re-running servers, dbconsoles etc.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  In addition to the obvious multiplexing/windowing/paning, I find it great for creating named "work sessions". I have a short script that creates or attaches (with zsh autocompletion in the case of attaching) tmux sessions while creating a standardized filesystem tree that I use for units of "work", checking out things I need, etc. This allows me to basically just type at any point `work foobar` and I'll either have a clean slate to start working on foobar, or I will be dropped into an existing tmux session 'foobar' that is exactly where I left off last time. Same 'tail -f'/'watch'es, same Vim sessions, same everything. Besides regular units of work I usually keep a tmux session around just for database connections or the like, and another for messing around with environment stuff (dotfiles, ~/bin/, etc). Most of this organization is stuff I used to do with virtual desktops, but I find tmux is wildly better suited for it.
irahul 14y ago
> use tmux for multiple screens and ditch that xorg garbage. tmux for multiple screens instead of Xorg garbage? I think you don't know what Xorg is. That doesn't make any sense. If you are referring to the screenshot, that's gnome-terminal's tabs.
derleth 14y ago
tmux and Xorg don't even begin to attempt to try to solve the same kinds of problems.
rat87 14y ago
These days II mostly use tmux windows/panes instead of yakuake, but yakuake is still useful)terminal dropdown/retract or when my copy/paste breaks in tmux again(doesn't work well with mouse options).

use tmux for multiple screens and ditch that xorg garbage.

by Derpsec 14y ago

use tmux for multiple screens and ditch that xorg garbage.

Dru89 14y ago

that first screenshot is actually just pulled from the internet. the third one (it was broken at first, then I fixed it) is from my laptop. My desktop, however, doesn't use tmux right now. May be something that I look into in the near future because it looks interesting.

jameyc 14y ago
Since you're on osx, you might look into iTerm2, which wraps tmux nicely and brings a few bells and whistles to the table.

richo 14y ago

Calling Xorg garbage is naive. Even if you only use terminals, and you have to have a framebuffer that supports that native resolution of your screen, you'll find that Xorg is nearly always more performant. If you have issues with X11's security model that's a different story, I'd suggest trying http://wayland.freedesktop.org/ http://wayland.freedesktop.org/

jlgreco 14y ago
Using tmux in an X terminal emulator really gets you the best of all worlds. Good mouse support, performant as you mention, and if X really starts to give you hassle for some reason you can always seamlessly continue working in a VT or with putty if you really want to.
crazydiamond 14y ago
Could someone elaborate how x11/xterm compares to iTerm2? I've been using tmux in iTerm. After reading this discussion, i installed x11 and quartz-wm. Why would I switch to X11 ? (I do notice that within tmux on iterm, i can use the mouse for selection (using Alt), but the mouse does not work in tmux in xterm.)

__david__ 14y ago

I don't understand why I'd want to use tmux locally. I'm a huge believer in tmux on remote machines though. Why would I want to use it on my local laptop?

mats_rauhala 14y ago
Assuming you spend a lot of time in terminals, you can use it to group your tasks. For example I have tmux sessions for my bachelor's thesis which contains two windows, either of which contains two split panes. The left pane is for vim (which are split further) and the right pane are for ghci and terminal. If I change from writing the thesis to for example doing work I can just change the tmux session. The layout and content are just like I left them.
h2s 14y ago
It can be useful to be able to open vertical splits running things like "watch jslint" or "watch rspec" while you code.
irahul 14y ago
Say I am working on a rails project. I need vim open with root; I need rails server, console, dbconsole; I need one window at project root for misc task; and I prefer not to navigate with the mouse to different tabs. Personally, I vastly prefer tmux terminal multiplexing over terminal tabs. Also, it doesn't happen frequently, but I have closed terminals which I didn't mean to. tmux/screen means that causes only minor inconvenience, compared to closing the terminal, opening it again, opening all tabs, dealing with swap files, re-running servers, dbconsoles etc.
jlgreco 14y ago
In addition to the obvious multiplexing/windowing/paning, I find it great for creating named "work sessions". I have a short script that creates or attaches (with zsh autocompletion in the case of attaching) tmux sessions while creating a standardized filesystem tree that I use for units of "work", checking out things I need, etc. This allows me to basically just type at any point `work foobar` and I'll either have a clean slate to start working on foobar, or I will be dropped into an existing tmux session 'foobar' that is exactly where I left off last time. Same 'tail -f'/'watch'es, same Vim sessions, same everything. Besides regular units of work I usually keep a tmux session around just for database connections or the like, and another for messing around with environment stuff (dotfiles, ~/bin/, etc). Most of this organization is stuff I used to do with virtual desktops, but I find tmux is wildly better suited for it.

irahul 14y ago

> use tmux for multiple screens and ditch that xorg garbage. tmux for multiple screens instead of Xorg garbage? I think you don't know what Xorg is. That doesn't make any sense. If you are referring to the screenshot, that's gnome-terminal's tabs.

derleth 14y ago

tmux and Xorg don't even begin to attempt to try to solve the same kinds of problems.

rat87 14y ago

These days II mostly use tmux windows/panes instead of yakuake, but yakuake is still useful)terminal dropdown/retract or when my copy/paste breaks in tmux again(doesn't work well with mouse options).