tmux-start

tmux-start is a terminal-based utility that enhances working with tmux sessions. It provides an interactive menu to list, navigate, and attach to tmux sessions, or create new ones, with a user-friendly interface.

It's really not much of a utility, but it works well with my current workflow. I currently use tmux-start as the default application for guake, so when I create a new guake tab, it will launch tmux-start. This way, I can use tmux for the vast majority of features, but still have guake tabs and visibility.

If you've never tried it, just a shout-out to a great project: Give guake a try if you've never tried it. I suggest changing the toggle hotkey to something such as `Alt+``.

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Features

• Displays all existing tmux sessions with detailed information.
• Navigate using arrow keys, Vim-style keys (j/k), or type the session number for quick selection.
• Create new sessions with optional session name prompts.
• Compatible with tmux as a dependency.

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Installation

Prerequisites

• Ensure you have tmux installed on your system, and if you are planning on building it, you will need gcc or clang, and cmake.
  • Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S tmux base-devel cmake
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install tmux build-essential cmake

From Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/abcarroll/tmux-start.git
   cd tmux-start
   
   cmake .
   make
   sudo make install  

2. This installs the tmux-start binary to /usr/local/bin.

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Usage

Run tmux-start from your terminal:

tmux-start

Command-Line Options

• --no-ask-session-name: Disables the prompt for entering a session name when creating a new tmux session. If no name is provided, the session defaults to default_session.
• --no-ask-session-name-when-first: Disables the prompt for entering a session name, but only if it's the first session. That is, this allows you to use tmux-start, and if no existing sessions are found, then it will act as if you just launched tmux normally. If existing sessions exist, however, normal behavior is used, and you will be prompted for an attachment, and for a session name if new.
• --new-session-last: Moves the new session option to the last option, below attachable sessions.

Packaging Support

This project includes scaffolding to package it for various Linux distributions. Ensure tmux is listed as a dependency for all package managers. The packages/ directory contains packaging files for Arch Linux (PKGBUILD), Debian-based distributions (deb), and RHEL-based distributions (rpm).

These, however, don't necessarily work -- yet.

Bugs

• If the session ID has more than two digits, there is no way to access it via numeric shortcut. It will always assume one digit is being typed. To fix this, I would like to check for this condition and if it occurs, then require the enter key be pressed after entering the session number.

License

This project is dual-licensed under the MIT License and BSD License.

(C) Copyright 2025 A.B. Carroll III <[email protected]>

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software under the terms of either license.