If you are a user of tmux, you probably find yourself re-creating the same session structure every time when you start a tmux. Although there are some projects meant to provide a way to write a configuration file & recreate a session base on it, such as:

both of them are Ruby-based, and if you are not a ruby developer it can feel like too much of a hassle to get a language interpreter & a package manager for such a task.

In this article, I will show you how to create a tmux window with tmux CLI commands, so you can enjoy the same window structure without having to create everything yourself manually.

Working example

The example script works like this:

Code and explanation

First create the tmux-start.sh file & make it executable:

$ touch tmux-start.sh
$ chmod +x tmux-start.sh

Then set the file content as follows:

#!/bin/bash

Make the file executable with bash shell.

session="webpack-ts"

tmux new-session -d -s $session

Creates a new session, and gives it a name. You cannot use spaces here and use the same name twice. Especially with nested sessions name collisions can end up weird - with windows nesting one another in an infinite loop.

window=0
tmux rename-window -t $session:$window 'git'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'git fetch --prune --all' C-m

window 0 is special because it's already created with a session - that's why we rename it, and not create it as all the other windows in the example. The second is sending some command to the window & execute it immediately - thanks to adding C-m after the command.

I call it git, because I like having all the preview git commands on the screen when I run a new one.

window=1
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'vim'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'vim package.json'

Creates a new window called vim, and type the command to start the editor. I don't call it automatically - after getting to the window, I'll have to press enter myself.

window=2
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'run'

window=3
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'serve'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'npm run serve'

just creates two other windows

tmux attach-session -t $session

Attaches the session to the current window.

The complete file ./tmux-start.sh:

#!/bin/bash

session="webpack-ts"

tmux new-session -d -s $session

window=0
tmux rename-window -t $session:$window 'git'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'git fetch --prune --all' C-m

window=1
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'vim'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'vim package.json'

window=2
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'run'

window=3
tmux new-window -t $session:$window -n 'serve'
tmux send-keys -t $session:$window 'npm run serve'

tmux attach-session -t $session

Thanks

Many thanks to the author of Scripting A Tmux Work-space Start-up. The approach I'm presenting here I have it from there, plus I had to tweak it a bit to make sure it's always producing the same results even if I start multiple windows a the same time.

Summary

In this article, we have seen how to create a script that starts a tmux session for us. If you want, you can even chain few scripts like this to create nested windows.

How to create tmux session with a script

Comments

Tmux

How to run nested tmux session

More from this blog

Changes in programming made possible with AI

Advantages of unit testing—with examples in Jasmine

Pure functions and basic tests in Jasmine

How to prepare for a job interview

How to build a demo project

Working example

Code and explanation

Thanks

Summary

Command Palette

Comments

Tmux

How to run nested tmux session

More from this blog

Working example

Code and explanation

Thanks

Summary