CODEWITHSUNDEEP
zshtmuxtmuxinator
iconoclast
iconoclast

Reputation: 22670

How can I determine why this `test` does not match for tmux's session_name?

I'm trying to give my tmux panes individual titles. Since there is nothing built into tmux to assign titles, I'm using a function that will receive various properties of the pane and then lookup the title that I want based on those properties, and echo it out.

However, the test inside the function is not working as expected. Even when the session_name "portal" is passed in, it does not match the string "portal", even though the output is always exactly "portal".

I've removed all irrelevant code from the function to show just exactly the failing match:

tmux_pane_title() {
  local session_name=$1
  # ...
  if [[ "$session_name" = "portal" ]] && echo ".${session_name}." || echo "-${session_name}-"
  # ...
}

tmux set pane-border-format "#P: `tmux_pane_title \"#{session_name}\" \"#{pane_current_command}\" \"#{pane_current_path}\"` "

It always echos out "-portal-", showing the $1 is in fact "portal", but it does not match "portal" in the test.

I have tried using sed to remove newlines, but it made no difference.

However if I hard-code "portal" into the tmux format for pane-border-format it will suddenly work, suggesting there's some weird control character hidden in the name preventing it from working when I pass in session_name

tmux set pane-border-format "#P: `tmux_pane_title \"portal\" \"#{pane_current_command}\" \"#{pane_current_path}\"` "

If that's the case, how can I find and eliminate the control character? (And why would it be there? I did not enter anything weird into my tmuxinator.yml file for the session name.)

I've already tried removing control characters like this:

local session_name=$(echo $1 | tr -d "[:cntrl:]")

If that's not the case, how can I figure out what is breaking this function?

P.S. I'm on tmux 3.1b.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 88

Answers (1)

iconoclast
iconoclast

Reputation: 22670

This is NOT an answer to the question, but it is a step in the direction of a solution to the problem that led me to ask the question. If you have the same problem, this may be helpful.

Although I'm still interested in solving the mystery related to the failing test, I found a way to set my pane titles more easily1.

There is a pane_title property that can be used in your pane-border-format:

tmux set pane-border-format "#{pane_title}"

If you set this format, then you can set the title with printf and escape sequences:

printf '\033]2;%s\033\\' 'your desired title'

(I had read about the printf technique elsewhere, both on and off SO, but it fails if you don't have the proper format including pane_title. No where else did I see these two things mentioned together. Without the combination, it fails. Assuming that the default format is set is not a safe assumption.)

A complete answer is still useful, so I could do things like this:

tmux set pane-border-format " #P: #{?pane_title,#{pane_title},`tmux_pane_title \"#{session_name}\" \"#{pane_current_command}\" \"#{pane_current_path}\"`} "

That would choose an explicit title if one were set, and default to the function to choose one. So please don't close this question as a duplicate of others that relate to setting tmux pane titles. IT IS DIFFERENT.

1In other words, I solved the problem but I didn't answer the question. Many people think SO is a problem-solving site, but it describes itself as a question & answer site. I doubt if many people have given this distinction much thought, but they are very different things.

Upvotes: 0

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