6 ms·

Steps to install tmux in Cygwin

29 points by shawndumas 13y ago

a3voices 13y ago
And people wonder why Linux never became mainstream for consumers.
- techwizrd 13y ago
  This is for installing tmux in Cygwin on Windows. Installing tmux in Ubuntu is as simple as searching and installing tmux from the Ubuntu Software Center (or apt-get install tmux).
- 25cf 13y ago
  But cygwin isn't linux, and on 99% of actual linux distributions you will never have to compile tmux from source. A better statement would be "And people wonder why Windows never became mainstream for developers." Steps to install cygwin on actual linux? "(package manager) (install) tmux". And on OS X? Install brew by copy and pasting a command into terminal, then "brew install tmux". Even if you're an average consumer you could complete both of those steps without a problem. (Then again, why would the average consumer want tmux?) Windows/cygwin is the problem here, not linux.
  - chid 13y ago
    If it were on the default package list if would just be apt-cyg install tmux (if you have apt-cyg installed)
  - csmuk 13y ago
    Windows is mainstream for developers. There are millions of them. Probably more than the open source community. They just suffer more! (Note: I do both 50/50 and certainly don't prefer writing code on windows)
- 616c 13y ago
  I know you're snark is par for the course here, but if you ever do Windows sysadmin work and you need to do some stuff on Windows that is unavoidable, Cygwin makes it much better. Even there terminal app, which can go fullscreen with tail, is worth debugging stuff. Try doing that with PowerShell and get-content -wait YourFileName.txt. I have literally waited minutes after a program exited while PS tries to keep up. But what do I know, I use Cygwin. Also see why Linux != Cygwin below.
  - csmuk 13y ago
    I don't think it makes it any easier. To be honest (as someone who deploys a lot of Windows machines) PowerShell only makes it fractionally easier. There are always packages and bits of software that just don't have a programming interface at all (not even COM) at which point you are, to use the technical term, fucked whether you use PS or Cygwin. The platform as a whole stinks for programmability and I hate working with it.
- weland 13y ago
  Go back to 4chan, kid.
rossy 13y ago
Well, I just installed this. I always assumed tmux wasn't compatible with Cygwin, but I guess it is. Note that you can skip steps 2 and 3 if you install libevent-devel and libncurses-devel in step 1. The Cygwin provided versions of these packages are good enough (in fact, libevent is the same version.) Also, I didn't get any warnings when running autogen.sh, but I have all the available versions of autoconf and automake installed, so that might be why.
- Ives 13y ago
  You were right until very recently. If I recall correctly, tmux used to send file descriptors over sockets, something which isn't supported by cygwin. Pretty recently someone made a patch to tmux that allowed it to work without the unsupported behaviour.
  - rossy 13y ago
    I see. It would have been nice to see the problem fixed on the Cygwin side, but either way, it's great to be able to use tmux on Windows. I missed it.
johnmw 13y ago
I would suggest installing Vagrant instead. (http://www.vagrantup.com/ http://www.vagrantup.com/) For example: Start your new Ubuntu machine... $ vagrant init precise32 http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box $ vagrant up SSH in.. $ vagrant ssh And install tmux $ sudo apt-get install tmux *note: these commands are off the top of my head, please read the getting started guide for proper instructions.
- dmourati 13y ago
  With the current state of virtualization (vagrant/virtualbox for example), I have to wonder why anyone would choose cygwin. Honest question.
  - chris_j 13y ago
    It's been a while since I used Windows so I can't really comment on the current state of Cygwin but the one thing that I still recommend Cygwin for is to use the X server if you want to log on to a *nix box and run something graphical.
    - fuzzix 13y ago
      I appreciate people doing work like this. I've worked in Windows-only environments and used cygwin and some window manager (such as bblite) for my workflow. Good to know if I were still relying on that crutch that I could get tmux working. The supplied hardware at these gigs didn't really have the spec for spinning up VMs - this also spared me from fiddly network and other shared resource setup. I even had a "portable" cygwin install on a USB stick.
    - ygra 13y ago
      I used Xming a while back, which seemed to work just as well as an X server, just without the Cygwin horrors.
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Well one strike against virtualbox that I recently learned is that it bumps the system interrupt from 64Hz to 2048Hz, making it a giant power sink.
xatnys 13y ago
Wow! I didn't know tmux works on Cygwin. Last I checked there was an issue due to Cygwin not supporting proper file descriptors. Apparently tmux has worked under Cygwin for some time now - since July at least. The actual patch appears to originate here, and is a neat little read: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30850840 http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=308508...
Zombieball 13y ago
While this comment may be a bit out of place, I thought I'd throw it in. For any OSX users here, iTerm 2 has fantastic tmux integration. Simply launch tmux with the -CC flag (tmux -CC). iTerm 2 will open a new window for your tmux session. Tabs that are opened, split, etc. are created as tmux windows / panes and can be quickly restored upon resuming a tmux session.
Xophmeister 13y ago
Weird coincidence: I found this yesterday and spent the afternoon compiling it up on my work machine, where I'm forced to use Cygwin for lack of anything better. Open up HN this morning and it's on the front page! Anyway, these steps worked fine for me and I didn't even get any complaints at the autogen stage. It took about 40 minutes to get everything compiled and installed, which I didn't think was too bad on my ancient work machine.
- a3n 13y ago
  Thanks for the "it worked for me," makes me more willing to give it a shot.
J_Darnley 13y ago
Why compile the first two from source? They are available in the package manager.

29 points by shawndumas 13y ago

a3voices 13y ago

And people wonder why Linux never became mainstream for consumers.

techwizrd 13y ago
This is for installing tmux in Cygwin on Windows. Installing tmux in Ubuntu is as simple as searching and installing tmux from the Ubuntu Software Center (or apt-get install tmux).
25cf 13y ago
But cygwin isn't linux, and on 99% of actual linux distributions you will never have to compile tmux from source. A better statement would be "And people wonder why Windows never became mainstream for developers." Steps to install cygwin on actual linux? "(package manager) (install) tmux". And on OS X? Install brew by copy and pasting a command into terminal, then "brew install tmux". Even if you're an average consumer you could complete both of those steps without a problem. (Then again, why would the average consumer want tmux?) Windows/cygwin is the problem here, not linux.
- chid 13y ago
  If it were on the default package list if would just be apt-cyg install tmux (if you have apt-cyg installed)
- csmuk 13y ago
  Windows is mainstream for developers. There are millions of them. Probably more than the open source community. They just suffer more! (Note: I do both 50/50 and certainly don't prefer writing code on windows)
616c 13y ago
I know you're snark is par for the course here, but if you ever do Windows sysadmin work and you need to do some stuff on Windows that is unavoidable, Cygwin makes it much better. Even there terminal app, which can go fullscreen with tail, is worth debugging stuff. Try doing that with PowerShell and get-content -wait YourFileName.txt. I have literally waited minutes after a program exited while PS tries to keep up. But what do I know, I use Cygwin. Also see why Linux != Cygwin below.
- csmuk 13y ago
  I don't think it makes it any easier. To be honest (as someone who deploys a lot of Windows machines) PowerShell only makes it fractionally easier. There are always packages and bits of software that just don't have a programming interface at all (not even COM) at which point you are, to use the technical term, fucked whether you use PS or Cygwin. The platform as a whole stinks for programmability and I hate working with it.
weland 13y ago
Go back to 4chan, kid.

rossy 13y ago

Well, I just installed this. I always assumed tmux wasn't compatible with Cygwin, but I guess it is. Note that you can skip steps 2 and 3 if you install libevent-devel and libncurses-devel in step 1. The Cygwin provided versions of these packages are good enough (in fact, libevent is the same version.) Also, I didn't get any warnings when running autogen.sh, but I have all the available versions of autoconf and automake installed, so that might be why.

Ives 13y ago
You were right until very recently. If I recall correctly, tmux used to send file descriptors over sockets, something which isn't supported by cygwin. Pretty recently someone made a patch to tmux that allowed it to work without the unsupported behaviour.
- rossy 13y ago
  I see. It would have been nice to see the problem fixed on the Cygwin side, but either way, it's great to be able to use tmux on Windows. I missed it.

johnmw 13y ago

I would suggest installing Vagrant instead. (http://www.vagrantup.com/ http://www.vagrantup.com/) For example: Start your new Ubuntu machine... $ vagrant init precise32 http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box $ vagrant up SSH in.. $ vagrant ssh And install tmux $ sudo apt-get install tmux *note: these commands are off the top of my head, please read the getting started guide for proper instructions.

dmourati 13y ago
With the current state of virtualization (vagrant/virtualbox for example), I have to wonder why anyone would choose cygwin. Honest question.
- chris_j 13y ago
  It's been a while since I used Windows so I can't really comment on the current state of Cygwin but the one thing that I still recommend Cygwin for is to use the X server if you want to log on to a *nix box and run something graphical.
  - fuzzix 13y ago
    I appreciate people doing work like this. I've worked in Windows-only environments and used cygwin and some window manager (such as bblite) for my workflow. Good to know if I were still relying on that crutch that I could get tmux working. The supplied hardware at these gigs didn't really have the spec for spinning up VMs - this also spared me from fiddly network and other shared resource setup. I even had a "portable" cygwin install on a USB stick.
  - ygra 13y ago
    I used Xming a while back, which seemed to work just as well as an X server, just without the Cygwin horrors.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Well one strike against virtualbox that I recently learned is that it bumps the system interrupt from 64Hz to 2048Hz, making it a giant power sink.

xatnys 13y ago

Wow! I didn't know tmux works on Cygwin. Last I checked there was an issue due to Cygwin not supporting proper file descriptors. Apparently tmux has worked under Cygwin for some time now - since July at least. The actual patch appears to originate here, and is a neat little read: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30850840 http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=308508...

Zombieball 13y ago

While this comment may be a bit out of place, I thought I'd throw it in. For any OSX users here, iTerm 2 has fantastic tmux integration. Simply launch tmux with the -CC flag (tmux -CC). iTerm 2 will open a new window for your tmux session. Tabs that are opened, split, etc. are created as tmux windows / panes and can be quickly restored upon resuming a tmux session.

Xophmeister 13y ago

Weird coincidence: I found this yesterday and spent the afternoon compiling it up on my work machine, where I'm forced to use Cygwin for lack of anything better. Open up HN this morning and it's on the front page! Anyway, these steps worked fine for me and I didn't even get any complaints at the autogen stage. It took about 40 minutes to get everything compiled and installed, which I didn't think was too bad on my ancient work machine.

a3n 13y ago
Thanks for the "it worked for me," makes me more willing to give it a shot.

J_Darnley 13y ago

Why compile the first two from source? They are available in the package manager.