tmux-continuum/docs/systemd_details.md

Systemd automatic start for tmux

The first time tmux starts when @continuum-boot is set to 'on' tmux-continuum will generate a user level systemd unit file which it will save to ${HOME}/.config/systemd/user/tmux.service and enable it. From then on when that user logs in, either through a GUI session or on the console or via ssh, Systemd will start the tmux server.

The command used to start the tmux server is determined via the @continuum-systemd-start-cmd option that can be set in .tmux.conf. (Remember to reload your configuration with tmux source ~/.tmux.conf afterwards.

The default command to use is new-session -d. If you want more control over what sessions get started then you should set up your sessions in tmux.conf and set @continuum-systemd-start-cmd = 'start-server'. As this will be executed as part of systemd's ExecStart statement there will be no shell parsing. See Systemd manual for more details.

To control the tmux service you can use all the standard systemctl commands using the --user argument. eg to see if the tmux server has started:

systemctl --user status tmux.service

Setup Example

To be able to configure systemd user services, make sure the following directories exist: $HOME/.config/systemd/user. If not, just create them:

mkdir ~/.config/systemd
mkdir ~/.config/systemd/user

Create the systemd user service file:

touch ~/.config/systemd/user/tmux.service

The service file can be created from this template:

[Unit]
Description=tmux default session (detached)
Documentation=man:tmux(1)
After=graphical.target

[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=DISPLAY=:1
ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -d

ExecStop=/home/user/.tmux/plugins/tmux-resurrect/scripts/save.sh
ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux kill-server
KillMode=mixed

RestartSec=2

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Now make sure you adapt the service file to your needs:

• Environment: Set the value of your $DISPLAY environment variable (i.e. :1, to find out run echo $DISPLAY)
• ExecStart: If you want to configure the tmux start command, you can do it here
• ExecStop: Enter the full path to the save.sh script of tmux-resurrect, usually in $HOME/.tmux/plugins/tmux-resurrect/scripts/save.sh
• After: Adapt to your needs, waiting for graphical.target helps if you want to open gui applications such as code directly from your resurrected terminals

Now you are ready to enable and start your system service:

systemctl --user enable tmux.service
systemctl --user start tmux.service

• Reboot your machine.
• To check the current status of your tmux service, run this command:

systemctl --user status tmux.service

You should see something along the lines of:

Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-05-27 15:28:36 CEST; 23h ago
  Docs: man:tmux(1)
  Process: 6300 ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux new-session -d (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/tmux.service
          ├─   6306 /usr/bin/tmux new-session -d
          ├─   7735 zsh
  ...