update #2 [2010/05/17]: uploaded my updated config file, now using ` as my prefix key

I gave tmux a try yesterday.

Clean config file, thorough documentation and a few nice touches here and there (i.e. better, persistent window splitting) make it a nice alternative to screen, but the biggest difference lies in memory usage. Screen can easily eat up to 40-50mb with just a few windows open, but tmux has yet to reach the 10mb mark!

You may argue that ram is cheap these days, but when you’re on a 360mb VPS ram matters

I did find a few bugs/annoyances, for instance if you add set-option -g default-terminal “screen-256color” in your config file, tmux stops evaluating the #T variable.

I hacked my way out of this one by adding the following in my .bash_profile instead:

[[ $TERM == "screen" ]] && export -p TERM="screen-256color"

Turns out that’s not tmux’s fault but bash’s, I’ll have to create a patch for that as well If you have the same issue, you can use the above hack as a temporary fix.

Also version 1.2 does not provide a way for you to customize the colors used on window titles with alerts (either monitored or when the bell is active), but I patched that and sent it upstream

You can find an ebuild with the patch in my overlay, wirelay (layman -a wirelay ).

The patch was accepted upstream so it’ll be in the next release.

My tmux looks like this:

and with some split panes:

finally, below is my (updated on 2010/05/17) tmux.conf config file, used in the above screenshots.

I decided to use ` as my prefix key, its really better than hitting ctrl-a all the time

# ` is an interesting key for a prefix
set-option -g prefix `
# set-option -g prefix C-a

unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a last-window
bind-key ` last-window
bind-key a send-prefix

# we might need ` at some point, allow switching
# we can also send the prefix char with `-a
bind-key F11 set-option -g prefix C-a
bind-key F12 set-option -g prefix `

# 0 is too far from `
set -g base-index 1

# set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set-option -g mouse-select-pane on
set-option -g status-keys vi
set-option -g bell-action any
set-option -g set-titles on
set-option -g set-titles-string '#H:#S.#I.#P #W #T' # window number,program name,active (or not)
set-option -g visual-bell on

setw -g mode-keys vi
setw -g mode-mouse on
setw -g monitor-activity on

bind e previous-window
bind f next-window
bind j up-pane
bind k down-pane

set-option -g status-utf8 on
# set-option -g status-justify centre
set-option -g status-justify left
set-option -g status-bg black
set-option -g status-fg white
set-option -g status-left-length 40

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg green
set-option -g pane-active-border-bg black
set-option -g pane-border-fg white
set-option -g pane-border-bg black

set-option -g message-fg black
set-option -g message-bg green

#setw -g mode-bg black

setw -g window-status-bg black
setw -g window-status-current-fg green
setw -g window-status-alert-attr default
setw -g window-status-alert-fg yellow

set -g status-left '#[fg=red]#H#[fg=green]:#[fg=white]#S #[fg=green]][#[default]'

# set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][#[fg=white] #T #[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'
set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'

set -g history-limit 4096

# `+r reloads the configuration, handy
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

I’ve created an ebuild based on the one in portage.

You can find it in my overlay, wirelay, masked.

for instructions on how to add wirelay to layman, check the Documentation in the overlay or this post:

http://www.linuxized.com/2009/04/private-overlay-eyes-only/

Unfortunately this version requires stuff not in the main portage tree, so you’ll have to add the “x11″ overlay

layman -a x11

I’ve also opened a bug in Gentoo’s bugtracker with the ebuild:

bug #270794 [ebuild] awesome-3.3_rc3

Lots of config changes in this version, so in my upcoming awesome+conky how-to I’ll give you two seperate config files =]

awesome 3.3_rc3 with conky-updated panels

For those not familiar with overlays, they are something like a “repository”. They allow you to add and use ebuilds out of the official portage tree.

In my overlay, called “wirelay”, I usually add fixes from bugs.gentoo.org that I need which haven’t reached the tree yet (and maybe never will). I also keep ebuilds of the latest nvidia drivers and other stuff

To browse the overlay, visit http://github.com/wired/wirelay/tree/master

To add the overlay, install layman ( emerge -av layman ) then run:

layman -f -o http://github.com/wired/wirelay/raw/master/Documentation/wirelay.list -a wirelay

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