tmux two separate panes with some process

Question

I am working with another developer on the same dedicated server. Currently we have one tmux session with one tmux window and multiple panes on that window. This allows us to have a nice workspace setup for viewing and managing any currently running programs

+-----------+-----------+
| Process A | PA files  |
| Process B | PB files  |
| Process D | Process E |
+-----------+-----------+

The issue occurs when we both need to do maintenance at once. Since the cursor can only be in one panel at a time, we can only work one at a time — even though Processes A-E are decoupled enough for different people to work on them at the same time.

Is there a better solution to this? Perhaps there is some way of us both having tmux sessions and then each process would be run by some middle-man service which forwards stdin and stdout. Then, we could connect to this middle man in our separate tmux sessions. This would also be nice as it would allow us to have our own workspaces.

Possible duplicate of What are other ways to share a tmux session between two users? — igal, Mar 24 '19 at 21:39
@igal this does not accomplish what I am trying to do. The solution allows for independent windows, not panels. — andrewgazelka, Mar 24 '19 at 22:54
@AndrewGazelka change the title to something different if you want to keep the kneejerk close votes off. — , Mar 26 '19 at 12:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '19 at 21:41

There is no builtin way to do what you want, each pane can be present in only one window and each window can have only one active pane.

One solution would be to run the applications in each pane inside separate tmux servers, so for example:

tmux -Lone new "program one"

tmux -Ltwo new "program two"

Then each of you and your colleague create your own tmux servers with the two other tmux running in them.

tmux -LpersonA new -d "tmux -Lone attach"

tmux -LpersonA splitw "tmux -Ltwo attach"

tmux -LpersonA attach

And similarly for personB. Then you can both put the two applications (and their containing tmux servers) in different places and type in them individually.

However, you are trading one tmux for four.

tmux two separate panes with some process

1 Answers1