tmux - detach, kill, hide - suggested tweaks

[David Rees]

I am using tmux -CC with "Automatically bury the tmux client session after connecting".

I connect by running my "connect command" of `ssh servername -t tmux -CC a -t myname`. That command does the following:

• ssh's to the server
• closes the current/controlling iterm window
• opens the tmux iterm window for session myname.
  

I would like to be able to be able to exit the tmux window and then come back to the tmux session again later by doing the connect command again.

It seems like there are three ways to close the window and all of them have a complication:

1 - detach - close via window red button

• I click on the tmux iterm window's red close button
• iterm tmux window closes
• I am returned to the controlling iterm window with tmux/ssh exited
• I then need to close that controlling window also.
• The iterm tmux dashboard shows that the tmux session still exists
  

I can then use the connect command above to reconnect from a different iterm window and everything works fine.

2 - kill:

• I press Cmd-W. I am them asked if I want to "kill or hide".
• I choose "kill".
• Both the tmux iterm window and control iterm window are closed. The underlying tmux and ssh are closed also I assume.
• The tmux session is killed.
• The iterm tmux dashboard no longer shows the tmux session.
  

When I do the connect command I get a new session. So my session has been lost (as expected with a term like kill).

3 - hide:

• I do Cmd-W and choose hide.
• The iterm tmux window is hidden and the iterm control window remains hidden also.
• The iterm tmux dashboard shows the session and its window.
  

When I do the connect command again in a 2nd iterm window I get a dialog box that says "This instance of iterm2 is already attached to this session.". When I click OK I see in the 2nd iterm control window that the tmux command has ended and therefore the ssh session has ended.

I would like to suggest a couple tweaks.

That when Cmd-W is pressed, there should be a "detach" option also that works the same as #1 (pressing the red button).

That the close button works the same as Cmd-W. So a user would have a choice of detach, kill, or hide.

That when a existing session myname is hidden and the user tries to attach to it (tmux -CC a -t myname). That the session is unhidden. The 2nd controlling iterm tmux window can still exit tmux, but it does so with a warning message to make it clear what happened.

Provide command line or applescript API for interacting with the iterm tmux Dashboard. This will allow users to script checking what sessions exist. I personally would like to see iterm tmux session management added to Quicksilver for example :). I know this last one is non-trivial :).

Thanks!

dave

[George Nachman]

You can already choose between detach or hide when doing cmd-w or clicking the red button. There's a prompt which shows by default but can be permanently suppressed. If you'd like it back, turn off Prefs > Advanced > Suppress kill/hide dialog when closing a tmux tab. There's another similarly named advanced pref for tmux windows.

It sounds to me like what's missing is a way to easily detach since the tmux dashboard is kind of a hassle to open.

One thing you can do is bind a keystroke to detach. Go to Prefs > Keys and add a new key binding. For the action, choose Select Menu Item… (it's the last one). Then you can pick a menu item in the lower select list. Scroll down until you find Detach.

As for scripting, this is coming along nicely in the nightly build. I need people to bang on it, so you're invited :). You can see the docs here: https://iterm2.com/python-api

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[David Rees]

Note, you said "You can already choose between detach or hide when doing cmd-w or clicking the red button.", but actually the only options are kill/cancel/hide. I think the rest of your text implies you know/meant it is kill/hide.

Thanks for the tip on setting a key. There actually is a key for tmux/detach (Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-D), but it is kind of hard to remember/press. I added Cmd-Opt-W so I can quickly use it after I first try Cmd-W and get the dialog.

Is there a reason detach can't also be one of the dialog options with option to make it the default? I personally would always like Cmd-W to be detach when it is a tmux CC window (and have Cmd-W be normal close when it isn't a tmux window).

API looks really powerful! I didn't see anything for walking the tmux sessions and windows though?

Thanks!

dave

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[George Nachman]

Oh, you mean to detach from the tmux session altogether? That's a good idea. I haven't exposed any tmux stuff in the API yet, but I will.

[George Nachman]

If you want to detach from a tmux session, you can actually do that already by using Shell>Tmux>Detach, which can be invoked from an API using app.async_select_menu_item("tmux.Detach") when a tmux session from the connection in question is active.

If you'd like more power, I've added some tmux APIs documented here: https://iterm2.com/python-api/tmux.html

They'll be available in tomorrow's nightly build.