40

My current workflow is:

  1. CTRL+SHIFT+T to launch a new terminal window. That starts a new zsh terminal.
  2. Type tmux to start tmux.

How can I have tmux load by default with a new terminal window?

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7 Answers 7

Reset to default
59

There are at least two ways:

  1. Write something like

    if [ "$TMUX" = "" ]; then tmux; fi

    at the beginning of ~/.zshrc. Note the conditional test to a possible loop when tmux spawns its own zsh.

  2. Modify terminal launching command to something like

    xterm -e tmux

I prefer the second way, because sometimes I need to launch a terminal without tmux (for example when I need to reconnect to an existing session).

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8
  • 2
    Or have different shortcuts for xterm -e tmux and plain xterm. Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 13:37
  • Yes, actually I meant it under "I prefer the second way" =) Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 13:39
  • 1
    Executing tmux at the end of .zshrc will cause an endless loop of zsh starting tmux starting zsh starting tmux ... Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 14:56
  • 1
    How would one go about "modifying terminal launching command"? Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 9:04
  • @eoinoc it depends on your environment. For example, I'm using awesome wm, therefore I just need to modify string in my config file. In kde you need to edit hotkeys. And so on. Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 9:11
25

There is actually a default plugin tmux for oh_my_zsh.

  • Add it to your plugins list, then set ZSH_TMUX_AUTOSTART=true in your .zshrc
  • Note that you have to add this assignment before the line 
    source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh
    (cf. this comment on GitHub).

For more reference, go here

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3
  • Out of curiosity are you using that now? Doesnt work for me. Have that env set and it doesnt start. tmux definitely added to plugin array, Commented Aug 8, 2020 at 5:20
  • 2
    you have to add the ZSH...=... assignment before the line source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh, from github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/issues/3676#issuecomment-77806736 Commented Feb 6, 2021 at 2:42
  • 1
    also add tmux to the list of your plugins in .zshrc: plugins=(... tmux) Commented Jan 17, 2022 at 11:23
18

add it to your .zshrc

if [ -z "$TMUX" ]
then
    tmux attach -t TMUX || tmux new -s TMUX
fi

then tmux will automatically connect to a session called TMUX when you launch your terminal.

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0
8

Be careful with the echo tmux >> ~/.zshrc solution though, I remember that simply throwing a bash in a .cshrc file caused me trouble over SSH.

IIRC the problem occurred with non-interactive shells, so you should test for that.

case $- in *i*)
  if [ -z "$TMUX" ]; then exec tmux; fi;;
esac
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1
  • 1
    You're missing a space between " and ]. Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 1:17
2

My compromise is to automatically start tmux if no sessions are running.

This way, only the first terminal window starts tmux. A following windows do not start tmux and you can decide to attach to a session or to not use tmux at all there.

To do so add the following at the beginning of ~/.zshrc:

if [[ ! $(tmux list-sessions) ]]; then 
  tmux
fi
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2

Add this in your ~/.zshrc:

if [ -z $TMUX ]; then; tmux -t TMUX || tmux new -s TMUX; fi
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0

Add "tmux" to your .zshrc file, which gets executed every time you start zsh. The quick way:

echo tmux >> ~/.zshrc
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1
  • 1
    The thing with this, is that it starts a new session in every new instance and it bloats tmux with sessions that you've never exited (also tmux will complain about it). Not a good solution. Commented May 12, 2019 at 18:16

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