I would definitely use tmux on my servers, but I’m wondering about why I’d use it for the desktop. Your use-case of needing commands/output beyond the need of a graphical interface is interesting (would like to know a couple of examples), I should probably consider that.
I can do the splitting with a window manager though, wouldn’t need tmux for that. I agree with the program GUI part.
Examples of local commands I might run in tmux could include anything long-running which is started from the command line. A virtual machine (qemu), perhaps, or a video encode (ffmpeg). Then if I need to log out or restart my GUI session for any reason—or something goes wrong with the session manager—it won’t take the long-running process with it. While the same could be done with nohup or systemd-run, using tmux allows me to interact with the process after it’s started.
I also have systems which are accessed both locally and remotely, so sometimes (not often) I’ll start a program on a local terminal through tmux so I can later interact with it through SSH without resorting to x11vnc.
I would definitely use
tmuxon my servers, but I’m wondering about why I’d use it for the desktop. Your use-case of needing commands/output beyond the need of a graphical interface is interesting (would like to know a couple of examples), I should probably consider that.I can do the splitting with a window manager though, wouldn’t need
tmuxfor that. I agree with the program GUI part.Examples of local commands I might run in
tmuxcould include anything long-running which is started from the command line. A virtual machine (qemu), perhaps, or a video encode (ffmpeg). Then if I need to log out or restart my GUI session for any reason—or something goes wrong with the session manager—it won’t take the long-running process with it. While the same could be done withnohuporsystemd-run, usingtmuxallows me to interact with the process after it’s started.I also have systems which are accessed both locally and remotely, so sometimes (not often) I’ll start a program on a local terminal through
tmuxso I can later interact with it through SSH without resorting tox11vnc.Thanks for the comment. Long-running commands make a lot of sense.
Do you happen to run your GUI session inside of a
tmuxsession? If you log in and out, wouldn’t thetmuxsession inside of the user-session terminate?The
tmuxserver is run as asystemduser service. Alsosystemdis configured for persistent sessions so logging out doesn’t terminate user services.