Knowledge Nuggets From My Tmux.conf

2017-07-01T00:49:09Z

When I switched from GNU Screen to Tmux, I was just jazzed that Tmux had a status bar. To achieve that same effect in Screen I had a cryptic 115-character hardstatus string that I copy–pasted from someplace lost to the annals of the Internet Archive.

It wasn’t too long after I made the switch until I felt that old hacker itch and began scouring Github for Tmux tips.

You can view my complete tmux.conf on my github

Tmux Tips for the Uninitiated ¶

Ctrl-f Meta is for super stars

I used to always bind Ctrl-a to Meta to make Tmux behave like Screen; however, when you use Screen inside Tmux (as I often do with our AWS servers), hitting Ctrl-a a can get pretty tiresome. Plus, you can’t use Readline very effectively without Ctrl-a
```
unbind-key C-b #no more Ctrl-b
# Switch me to ^f, thanks
set-option -g prefix C-f
bind-key f send-prefix
```
Faster escape

When I first started using Tmux I couldn’t stand the amount of time it took to enter copy-mode. Then I realized—I didn’t have to.
```
set-option -sg escape-time 0
```
Maximize Panes

One of the things I love about Vim splits is that you can hit Ctrl-w | to maximize the current pane and hit Ctrl-w = to bring it back to an even split. Bringing that functionality to Tmux is very powerful and super easy. This line will let you hit Meta | to maximize a single pane and then hit Meta | again to bring it back to the original split.

Warning: this is a tip that will only work with tmux 1.8+ (check your version via tmux -V)
```
bind-key | resize-pane -Z \; display-message "Zoom zoom zoom"
```
Vim-esque system clipboard copy–paste

Sometimes system clipboard support from Vim isn’t enough. It’s convenient to be able to pull whatever is in your Tmux buffer onto your system clipboard (preferably without having to memorize any new keybindings and without overwriting any existing keybindings).

First, I set the window mode-keys to use Vi bindings:
```
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
```
Next, I bind Meta Esc to enter Tmux copy-mode:
```
unbind-key [
bind-key Escape copy-mode
```
After that, I bind visual-selection and copy keys inside vi-copy mode to their Vim equivalents:
```
bind-key -t vi-copy 'v' begin-selection
bind-key -t vi-copy 'y' copy-selection
```
Finally, I bind Meta y to execute a shell command. This should work on either Linux or OSX, although I’ve only tested this on OSX:
```
if-shell 'test "$(uname -s)" = "Darwin"' 'bind-key y run-shell "tmux show-buffer | pbcopy" \; display-message "Copied tmux buffer to system clipboard"'
if-shell 'test "$(uname -s)" = "Linux"' 'bind-key y run-shell "tmux show-buffer | xclip -sel clip -i" \; display-message "Copied tmux buffer to system clipboard"'
```
OSX Specific Tmux file

Even though Tmux and Vim are really popular on OSX—they are, essentially, broken. You have to do the whole reattach-to-user-namespace thing to get Vim’s clipboard to play nicely inside Tmux. This mess makes your tmux.conf look more cluttered and makes your dotfiles a little less portable. To fix this I keep an OSX Specific tmux.conf.
```
#dumb osx
if-shell 'test "$(uname)" = "Darwin"' 'source ~/.tmux-osx.conf'
```

Steve Losh’s Bad Wolf Status Bar

News Flash: Steve Losh makes cool looking stuff. In Steve’s version of this he uses a small script to get his unread email count from his local offlineimap folder. In the version below I use a little bash script I wrote to grab weather info (that I call weathermajig).

# Bad Wolf by Steve Losh
# =====================
set -g status-fg white
set -g status-bg colour234
# set -g status-bg default #set for transparent background
set -g window-status-activity-attr bold
set -g pane-border-fg colour245
set -g pane-active-border-fg colour39
set -g message-fg colour16
set -g message-bg colour221
set -g message-attr bold
# Custom status bar
# Powerline
set -g status-left-length 32
set -g status-right-length 150
set -g status-interval 5
# Lets add the current weather to our status bar—why? Well Why the french-toast not?
set -g status-left '#[fg=colour16,bg=colour254,bold] #S #[fg=colour254,bg=colour238,nobold]#[fg=colour15,bg=colour238,bold] #(weathermajig boulder --short) #[fg=colour238,bg=colour234,nobold]'
set -g status-right '#[fg=colour245]❬ %R ❬ %d %b #[fg=colour254,bg=colour234,nobold]#(rdio-current-track-tmux)#[fg=colour16,bg=colour254,bold] #h '
set -g window-status-format "#[fg=white,bg=colour234] #I #W "
set -g window-status-current-format "#[fg=colour234,bg=colour39]#[fg=colour16,bg=colour39,noreverse,bold] #I ❭ #W #[fg=colour39,bg=colour234,nobold]"

Vim, the OSX clipboard and Tmux

2017-07-01T00:49:09Z

I’ve been an Ubuntu user for 4 years now. Since I started working at Upsync 3 months ago, I’ve found myself a very lonely desktop Linux user. Also, since this job is my first heavy-duty exposure to back-end web development, I’ve found myself a very confused desktop Linux user.

While there are many tools for working on a website backend available in Ubuntu, few are as shiny as those available in OSX (Charles Proxy, usable in Chrome. I want that. I want it hard.). Also, want to do any iOS work? (you know I do)—then you must have a mac.

On the flip side there is my natural inclination to be a bit of a contrarian and principles and such…

##…but it’s so shiny!

I’ve caved. I’m a sell-out. I’m not the cool hardcore ideologue I once believed myself to be. You know those hypothetical, which-side-of-history-would-you-be-on-type, questions? Well, I can now safely say that I would not have been in the French Resistance.

I’m typing this on the beautiful back-lit keyboard of a brand-new, core-i7-having, 8GB-RAM-possesing, 256GB-SSD-not-spinning monster that is a 13″ MacBook Air.

##I thought this was supposed to be easy

The first thing I did was get iTerm 2 up and running and then install Homebrew. After removing the dumb “Natural” scrolling and using PCKeyboard hack to remap some keys, I’m working exactly as I was before. I really can’t tell a difference. Which is a little anti-climactic for a computer that cost as much as my first car (oh, how I miss that purple Taurus!).

It was really easy to get everything set up as it was before, except…Vim…my clipboard…Tmux…they didn’t work together and that was CRIPPLING! Seriously, I depend on those things working together.

This post is written as a little reminder to myself of how I got it all up and running again.

##The process

Install Homebrew:
Instructions are available on Github but really all it boils down to is: ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)”
Install MacVim:
And make sure it overrides the system default Vim, which is pre-7.3 Vim and sucks (or it was last week when my MacBook got here) use: brew install macvim –override-system-vim
Install Tmux:
Easy peesy lemon squeezy: brew install tmux
Thank the good, sweet lord for Paul Hinze:
Install Paul’s reattach-to-user-namespace hack via homebrew: brew install reattach-to-user-namespace –wrap-pbcopy-and-pbpaste
Append your ~/.tmux.conf file:
With this lovely gem: set-option -g default-command “reattach-to-user-namespace -l zsh” or you can use bash, I guess, I don’t know because I use ZSH. That should be a step somewhere…chsh -s /bin/zsh. Done.

Now if only OSX Mountain Lion possessed the awesome power of moving windows between workspaces using keyboard shortcuts. Someday… someday.

Tyler Cipriani: pages tagged tmux

Knowledge Nuggets From My Tmux.conf

Tmux Tips for the Uninitiated ¶

Vim, the OSX clipboard and Tmux