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Tmux is slightly nicer than GNU Screen is some respects but I still use GNU Screen. For one, Screen is everywhere. I can go from system to system and it'll be

Tmux is slightly nicer than GNU Screen is some respects but I still use GNU Screen. For one, Screen is everywhere. I can go from system to system and it'll be there. Also, I use a Mac and Tmux doesn't work with the Mac's clipboard; probably the biggest reason I can't use Tmux. Screen has had vertical splitting for sometime now, just get a beta release or build from source (https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=screen https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=screen). That's what I use and find very stable.

voyvf 15y ago
> For one, Screen is everywhere. I can go from system to system and it'll be there. And that would be why I still use screen, for the most part. Tmux is nice, but it isn't prevalent (yet.)
- CountHackulus 15y ago
  Exactly. I need something that'll let me move from linux, to AIX, to z/OS, to even RHEL on Z. Screen lets me do that. Tmux doesn't come close.
  - pyre 15y ago
    Learning two products is too hard. This is why I would never use Linux at home since I need to use Windows at work.
wizard_2 15y ago
OSX clipboard integration? Can you elaborate?
- spatten 15y ago
  Yes, I'd like to hear more about this too. Does screen integrate with the OS X copy / paste buffer?
  - mfontani 15y ago
    You can select stuff with the mouse in the terminal and whatever you select is then available to be pasted with CMD+V. What the parent refers to is the ability to press C-b to enter the buffer scroll, then select text there and unfortunately -- not -- having that available to OSX's paste buffer, but only internally inside tmux. This means that if you want to copy that stuff to OSX's paste buffer you have to go through the intermediate step of pasting it inside a new buffer (say, Vim) inside tmux, then select it again with the standard terminal selection feature and only then it will be available to OSX's CMD+V. hope that clears it up.
- bretthoerner 15y ago
  screen and tmux have a copy mode (this is "inside" of the terminal emulator, I'm not talking about using your mouse to select text in Terminal.app) that allow you to copy text. I assume he wants copy there to yank the text to the OS X clipboard. It's possible in tmux, but kind of annoying (the best solution I've found requires another key combo press to push your copy into the system clipboard).
pyre 15y ago
This: > Screen has had vertical splitting for > sometime now, just get a beta release > or build from source and this: > Screen is everywhere. I can go from > system to system and it'll be there. Seem to be opposing ideas. Seems to me like 'vertical screen splitting' isn't available everywhere. It's much more likely that old builds of tmux have the function, while old builds of GNU screen don't.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
sigil 15y ago
> Also, I use a Mac and Tmux doesn't work with the Mac's clipboard. Same story on Linux. Integrating the tmux or screen clipboards with the X clipboard is DIY. I get that it's annoying if you're frequently moving data back and forth between these worlds, but I personally do this less and less as the years go by, and spend more and more time in the terminal. tmux has made this pretty pleasant. I have my editor (vim), mail (mutt), chat (irssi+bitlbee), and a browser for reading documentation (w3m), all at fixed window assignments. Copy and paste between these programs using the keyboard for text selection is nice. Reliable activity notifications for the mail and chat windows are something I can't live without anymore (and something screen lacks).
- pandeiro 15y ago
  So you avoid X altogether? How would there be updates without X? And if using X, why not use apps that have desktop update functionality (where that is important)? I'm legitimately curious as I've been experimenting with the same cli apps and found some worth it (vim, weechat) and others a regression. Is it just for the ability to use these programs on a remote server? Or do they improve workflow even on a local machine?
  - sigil 15y ago
    So you avoid X altogether? How would there be updates without X? And if using X, why not use apps that have desktop update functionality (where that is important)? Not sure what you're asking here. I use X but switch between a fullscreen terminal running tmux and fullscreen Chrome. With tmux, you can multiplex a bunch of terminal windows, monitoring some of them for activity. For instance, if new mail arrives, mutt will repaint and its window will be flagged as active in the status bar at bottom. I also use this as an ad-hoc notifications system: for example, kick off a long build, redirecting output to a file, and monitor its tmux window. When the process exits your shell prompt is printed again (activity!) and voila, you get a "build is complete" notification. Is it just for the ability to use these programs on a remote server? Or do they improve workflow even on a local machine? YMMV of course, but... I use both remote and local tmux sessions. Reattaching to remote sessions and picking up where you left off is obviously useful, but it also comes in handy locally if X crashes, or if you need to remote in from a different machine. I build up a fair amount of "working state" inside a tmux session: an editor with tens or hundreds of files open, sql prompts, chat logs, shells with important history, etc. With suspend / resume you can go for months without having to tear down and rebuild that state. If I entrusted all that state to a gui, it certainly wouldn't live as long. As for workflow, the world of text and text manipulation really has advantages once you get comfortable in it. Random access to programs is O(1) fast: in my setup, "^A 0" for editor, "^A 4" for mail, etc and it's obvious what number to hit for other ones. Compare to Alt-Tab style switching which is more like O(n) as you cycle through the list. I find the fine-grain motor control of mouse-based copy and paste cognitively wasteful and annoying. Keyboard-based selection of text lets you use your favorite editor bindings to jump to word boundaries, end of sentence, end of line etc and is much more pleasant. Searching any terminal output via "/" or "?" is handy. You get the drift. ;)
r080 15y ago
> Tmux doesn't work with the Mac's clipboard I don't use OSX but in linux you press Shift then select with mouse...

voyvf 15y ago

> For one, Screen is everywhere. I can go from system to system and it'll be there. And that would be why I still use screen, for the most part. Tmux is nice, but it isn't prevalent (yet.)

CountHackulus 15y ago
Exactly. I need something that'll let me move from linux, to AIX, to z/OS, to even RHEL on Z. Screen lets me do that. Tmux doesn't come close.
- pyre 15y ago
  Learning two products is too hard. This is why I would never use Linux at home since I need to use Windows at work.

wizard_2 15y ago

OSX clipboard integration? Can you elaborate?

spatten 15y ago
Yes, I'd like to hear more about this too. Does screen integrate with the OS X copy / paste buffer?
- mfontani 15y ago
  You can select stuff with the mouse in the terminal and whatever you select is then available to be pasted with CMD+V. What the parent refers to is the ability to press C-b to enter the buffer scroll, then select text there and unfortunately -- not -- having that available to OSX's paste buffer, but only internally inside tmux. This means that if you want to copy that stuff to OSX's paste buffer you have to go through the intermediate step of pasting it inside a new buffer (say, Vim) inside tmux, then select it again with the standard terminal selection feature and only then it will be available to OSX's CMD+V. hope that clears it up.
bretthoerner 15y ago
screen and tmux have a copy mode (this is "inside" of the terminal emulator, I'm not talking about using your mouse to select text in Terminal.app) that allow you to copy text. I assume he wants copy there to yank the text to the OS X clipboard. It's possible in tmux, but kind of annoying (the best solution I've found requires another key combo press to push your copy into the system clipboard).

pyre 15y ago

This: > Screen has had vertical splitting for > sometime now, just get a beta release > or build from source and this: > Screen is everywhere. I can go from > system to system and it'll be there. Seem to be opposing ideas. Seems to me like 'vertical screen splitting' isn't available everywhere. It's much more likely that old builds of tmux have the function, while old builds of GNU screen don't.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

sigil 15y ago

> Also, I use a Mac and Tmux doesn't work with the Mac's clipboard. Same story on Linux. Integrating the tmux or screen clipboards with the X clipboard is DIY. I get that it's annoying if you're frequently moving data back and forth between these worlds, but I personally do this less and less as the years go by, and spend more and more time in the terminal. tmux has made this pretty pleasant. I have my editor (vim), mail (mutt), chat (irssi+bitlbee), and a browser for reading documentation (w3m), all at fixed window assignments. Copy and paste between these programs using the keyboard for text selection is nice. Reliable activity notifications for the mail and chat windows are something I can't live without anymore (and something screen lacks).

pandeiro 15y ago
So you avoid X altogether? How would there be updates without X? And if using X, why not use apps that have desktop update functionality (where that is important)? I'm legitimately curious as I've been experimenting with the same cli apps and found some worth it (vim, weechat) and others a regression. Is it just for the ability to use these programs on a remote server? Or do they improve workflow even on a local machine?
- sigil 15y ago
  So you avoid X altogether? How would there be updates without X? And if using X, why not use apps that have desktop update functionality (where that is important)? Not sure what you're asking here. I use X but switch between a fullscreen terminal running tmux and fullscreen Chrome. With tmux, you can multiplex a bunch of terminal windows, monitoring some of them for activity. For instance, if new mail arrives, mutt will repaint and its window will be flagged as active in the status bar at bottom. I also use this as an ad-hoc notifications system: for example, kick off a long build, redirecting output to a file, and monitor its tmux window. When the process exits your shell prompt is printed again (activity!) and voila, you get a "build is complete" notification. Is it just for the ability to use these programs on a remote server? Or do they improve workflow even on a local machine? YMMV of course, but... I use both remote and local tmux sessions. Reattaching to remote sessions and picking up where you left off is obviously useful, but it also comes in handy locally if X crashes, or if you need to remote in from a different machine. I build up a fair amount of "working state" inside a tmux session: an editor with tens or hundreds of files open, sql prompts, chat logs, shells with important history, etc. With suspend / resume you can go for months without having to tear down and rebuild that state. If I entrusted all that state to a gui, it certainly wouldn't live as long. As for workflow, the world of text and text manipulation really has advantages once you get comfortable in it. Random access to programs is O(1) fast: in my setup, "^A 0" for editor, "^A 4" for mail, etc and it's obvious what number to hit for other ones. Compare to Alt-Tab style switching which is more like O(n) as you cycle through the list. I find the fine-grain motor control of mouse-based copy and paste cognitively wasteful and annoying. Keyboard-based selection of text lets you use your favorite editor bindings to jump to word boundaries, end of sentence, end of line etc and is much more pleasant. Searching any terminal output via "/" or "?" is handy. You get the drift. ;)

r080 15y ago

> Tmux doesn't work with the Mac's clipboard I don't use OSX but in linux you press Shift then select with mouse...