CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythontmux
Sukumar Ghorai
Sukumar Ghorai

Reputation: 61

Python: how to invoke tmux in background

I was trying to invoke tmux and to control the tmux from the same python script. It's stuck in tmux process creation and never returns. How do I create the process (tmux)?

#!/usr/bin/python
import time
import sys
import os
import subprocess

class Tmux(object):

    WAIT_SECS = 5

    def __init__(self, session_name, param):
        self.name = session_name
#       os.system('tmux new -s %s &' % session_name)
        subprocess.Popen(['/bin/bash', '-c', 'tmux new -s %s' % session_name])
#       subprocess.check_call('tmux new -s %s' % session_name, shell=True, close_fds=True)
# ======NOT return here, unless exit from tmux==========

    def execute(self, cmd, wait_secs=WAIT_SECS):
        time.sleep(wait_secs)
        os.system('tmux send-keys -t %s ls Enter' % self.name)

    def horizontal_split(self):
        time.sleep(1)
        os.system('tmux split-window -v -t %s' % self.name)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print 'tmux test............'
    tmux = Tmux("tmux-test", 999)
    tmux.horizontal_split()
    tmux.execute('ls')

Upvotes: 0

Views: 6872

Answers (2)

Guangyang Li
Guangyang Li

Reputation: 2821

Module libtmux is perfect for your case, so you can manipulate tmux in Python directly. https://github.com/tony/libtmux

For example, you can do 

import libtmux
server = libtmux.Server()
session = server.find_where({"session_name": "session_test"})

session = server.new_session(session_name="session_test", kill_session=True, attach=False)
window = session.new_window(attach=True, window_name="session_test")
pane1 = window.attached_pane
pane2 = window.split_window(vertical=False)
window.select_layout('even-horizontal')
pane1.send_keys('ls -al')
pane2.send_keys('ls -al')

server.attach_session(target_session="session_test")

Upvotes: 3

chepner
chepner

Reputation: 531175

Part of the problem is that you are attaching to the session as soon as you create it (which requires a terminal; perhaps that is why you are trying to run bash rather than tmux directly). You should be able to simply start the session with the -d option to avoid attaching to it.

def __init__(self, session_name, param):
    self.name = session_name
    self.p = subprocess.Popen(['tmux', 'new', '-d', '-s', session_name])

You should also use subprocess for the other methods instead of os.system.

Upvotes: 2

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