Create new tmux session from inside a tmux session
How to create the script
This script will check if a session exists. If session does not exist create new session and attach to it. If session does exist nothing happens and we attach to that session. Feel free to replace `~/development' with project name.
$ touch ~/development && chmod +x ~/development
# ~/development
tmux has-session -t development
if [ $? != 0 ]
then
tmux new-session -s development
fi
tmux attach -t development
New session from terminal
Let's create two detached sessions, list them, attach to one and then from within tmux cycle through sessions.
tmux new -s name -d
works from inside tmux because we're creating a new detached session. Otherwise you'll get a nesting error.
$ tmux new -s development -d
$ tmux new -s foo -d
$ tmux ls
> development: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54]
> foo: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54]
$ tmux attach -t
$ tmux ls
> development: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54] (attached)
> foo: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54]
New session from within tmux
We are now inside or better known as attached to our target session. If we try to create a new session while attached it will result in a nesting error.
$ tmux new -s bar
> sessions should be nested with care, unset $TMUX to force
To solve this we create a new detached session. e.g.,
$ tmux new -s bar -d
$ tmux ls
> development: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54] (attached)
> foo: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 11:31:38 2016) [204x54]
> bar: 1 windows (created Wed Jan 13 17:19:35 2016) [204x54]
Cycle (switch) Sessions
Prefix
(
previous sessionPrefix
)
next session
note: Prefix
is Ctrl-b
by default. You can bind Prefix
to Ctrl-a
and in Mac OSX you can change Caps Lock to ctrl system preferences > keyboard > modifier keys
Attach to a session using command mode while inside tmux
Trying to attach to a session without detaching will result in an error.
$ tmux attach -t development
> sessions should be nested with care, unset $TMUX to force
Instead use command mode Prefix
:
then type attach -t session_name
and hit enter.
The quickest way (assuming you use ctrl-b
as your command prefix) is:
ctrl-b :new
To create a new session, then
ctrl-b s
to interactively select and attach to the session.