tmux: How to automatically open sessions, windows, and panes

Question

I'm new to tmux and would like to configure it such that when I run tmux, my customized windows/panes are immediately accessible.

For example, here's a basic ~/.tmux.conf:

new -s main -n workspace
neww

When I run tmux, I get dumped into a plain old session. When I do a list-sessions, I can see the workspace session specified in the conf file, but in order to use it, I have to switch to it.

How can I just go ahead and make the "workspace" session the session I'm dumped into when I open tmux so that I don't have to switch to it every time?

Answer 1

Not sure I understood the question, but I use tmuxinator to quickly launch sessions pre-populated with windows, panes and processes.

Answer 2

I've create this script. It does not need tmuxinator, ruby or others. It is just a bash script, configurable:

A file named config should contains something like this:

combo=()
combo+=('logs' 'cd /var/log; clear; pwd')
combo+=('home' 'cd ~; clear; pwd')

and the bash code should be:

#!/bin/bash

if [ -r config ]; then
    echo ""
    echo "Loading custom file"
    . config
else
    . config.dist
fi

tmux start-server

window=0
windownumber=-1

for i in "${combo[@]}"; do

    if [ $((window%2)) == 0 ]; then
        name=${i}
        ((windownumber++))
    else
        command=${i}
    fi

    if [ ${combo[0]} == "${i}" ]; then
        tmux new-session -d -s StarTmux -n "${name}"
    else
        if [ $((window%2)) == 0 ]; then
            tmux new-window -tStarTmux:$windownumber -n "${name}"
        fi
    fi

    if [ $((window%2)) == 1 ]; then
        tmux send-keys -tStarTmux:$windownumber "${command}" C-m
    fi

    ((window++))
done

tmux select-window -tStarTmux:0
tmux attach-session -d -tStarTmux

Answer 3

You can attach to the last used session (which will be the one your conf file created if applicable) by running tmux attach instead of just tmux.

If you have more than one session setup in your config, you can choose which one you land on by using the session name target flag like: tmux attach -t <session_name>.

Answer 4

You create a session in your .tmux.conf file, but you never attach to it. When you just run

tmux

there is no command specified, so it defaults to running new-session and attaching to the resulting session.

It's a little cleaner to limit your .tmux.conf file to various settings, and reserve session creation and management to a separate script.

#!/bin/bash

tmux new -s main -n workspace
tmux neww  # Creates a 2nd window, in addition to the new session's first window
tmux attach -t main

Answer 5

Use my script. IniTmux. You can easyly describe you sessions, windows and panes with simple YAML files.

---
name: AK-Math 
root: /i/project/LibAK/feature/Math
windows:
- Matrix  : feature
- Vector  : feature
- Number  : feature
- Complex : feature
- Real    : feature
- Integer : feature
- Bool    : feature

- Math:
    layout : tiled
    dir    : branch
    panes  :
    - 'ranger'
    - ''

models:
    feature:
        layout: "40fd,113x31,0,0[113x22,0,0{22x22,0,0,0,90x22,23,0,1},113x9,0,23,2]"
        dir: <WName>
        panes:
        - loop "tree obj" 0.5
        - vim -c VWSLoadWorkSpace
        - ''