# Restoring programs - [General instructions](#general-instructions) - [Clarifications](#clarifications) - [Working with NodeJS](#nodejs) - [Restoring Mosh](#mosh) ### General instructions Only a conservative list of programs is restored by default:
`vi vim nvim emacs man less more tail top htop irssi weechat mutt`. This can be configured with `@resurrect-processes` option in `.tmux.conf`. It contains space-separated list of additional programs to restore. - Example restoring additional programs: set -g @resurrect-processes 'ssh psql mysql sqlite3' - Programs with arguments should be double quoted: set -g @resurrect-processes 'some_program "git log"' - Start with tilde to restore a program whose process contains target name: set -g @resurrect-processes 'irb pry "~rails server" "~rails console"' - Use `->` to specify a command to be used when restoring a program (useful if the default restore command fails ): set -g @resurrect-processes 'some_program "grunt->grunt development"' - Don't restore any programs: set -g @resurrect-processes 'false' - Restore **all** programs (be careful with this!): set -g @resurrect-processes ':all:' ### Clarifications > I don't understand tilde `~`, what is it and why is it used when restoring programs? Let's say you use `rails server` command often. You want `tmux-resurrect` to save and restore it automatically. You might try adding `rails server` to the list of programs that will be restored: set -g @resurrect-processes '"rails server"' # will NOT work Upon save, `rails server` command will actually be saved as this command: `/Users/user/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p481/bin/ruby script/rails server` (if you wanna see how is any command saved, check it yourself in `~/.tmux/resurrect/last` file). When programs are restored, the `rails server` command will NOT be restored because it does not **strictly** match the long `/Users/user/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p481/bin/ruby script/rails server` string. The tilde `~` at the start of the string relaxes process name matching. set -g @resurrect-processes '"~rails server"' # OK The above option says: "restore full process if `rails server` string is found ANYWHERE in the process name". If you check long process string, there is in fact a `rails server` string at the end, so now the process will be successfully restored. > What is arrow `->` and why is is used? (Please read the above clarification about tilde `~`). Continuing with our `rails server` example, when the process is finally restored correctly it might not look pretty as you'll see the whole `/Users/user/.rbenv/versions/2.0.0-p481/bin/ruby script/rails server` string in the command line. Naturally, you'd rather want to see just `rails server` (what you initially typed), but that information is now unfortunately lost. To aid this, you can use arrow `->`: (**note**: there is no space before and after `->`) set -g @resurrect-processes '"~rails server->rails server"' # OK This option says: "when this process is restored use `rails server` as the command name". Full (long) process name is now ignored and you'll see just `rails server` in the command line when the program is restored. > Now I understand the tilde and the arrow, but things still don't work for me Here's the general workflow for figuring this out: - Set up your whole tmux environment manually.
In our example case, we'd type `rails server` in a pane where we want it to run. - Save tmux env (it will get saved to `~/.tmux/resurrect/last`). - Open `~/.tmux/resurrect/last` file and try to find full process string for your program.
Unfortunately this is a little vague but it should be easy. A smart thing to do for our example is to search for string `rails` in the `last` file. - Now that you know the full and the desired process string use tilde `~` and arrow `->` in `.tmux.conf` to make things work. ### Working with NodeJS If you are working with NodeJS, you may get some troubles with configuring restoring programs. Particularly, some programs like `gulp`, `grunt` or `npm` are not saved with parameters so tmux-resurrect cannot restore it. This is actually **not tmux-resurrect's issue** but more likely, those programs' issues. For example if you run `gulp watch` or `npm start` and then try to look at `ps` or `pgrep`, you will only see `gulp` or `npm`. To deal with these issues, one solution is to use [yarn](https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install) which a package manager for NodeJS and an alternative for `npm`. It's nearly identical to `npm` and very easy to use. Therefore you don't have to do any migration, you can simply use it immediately. For example: - `npm test` is equivalent to `yarn test`, - `npm run watch:dev` is equivalent to `yarn watch:dev` - more interestingly, `gulp watch:dev` is equivalent to `yarn gulp watch:dev` Before continuing, please ensure that you understand the [clarifications](#clarifications) section about `~` and `->` #### yarn It's fairly straight forward if you have been using `yarn` already. set -g @resurrect-processes '"~yarn watch"' set -g @resurrect-processes '"~yarn watch->yarn watch"' #### npm Instead of set -g @resurrect-processes '"~npm run watch"' # will NOT work we use set -g @resurrect-processes '"~yarn watch"' # OK #### gulp Instead of set -g @resurrect-processes '"~gulp test"' # will NOT work we use set -g @resurrect-processes '"~yarn gulp test"' # OK #### nvm If you use `nvm` in your project, here is how you could config tmux-resurrect: set -g @resurrect-processes '"~yarn gulp test->nvm use && gulp test"' #### Another problem Let take a look at this example set -g @resurrect-processes '\ "~yarn gulp test->gulp test" \ "~yarn gulp test-it->gulp test-it" \ ' **This will not work properly**, only `gulp test` is run, although you can see the command `node /path/to/yarn gulp test-it` is added correctly in `.tmux/resurrect/last` file. The reason is when restoring program, the **command part after the dash `-` is ignored** so instead of command `gulp test-it`, the command `gulp test` which will be run. A work around, for this problem until it's fixed, is: - the config should be like this: set -g @resurrect-processes '\ "~yarn gulp test->gulp test" \ "~yarn gulp \"test-it\"->gulp test-it" \ - and in `.tmux/resurrect/last`, we should add quote to `test-it` word ... node:node /path/to/yarn gulp "test-it" ### Restoring Mosh Mosh spawns a `mosh-client` process, so we need to specify that as the process to be resurrected. set -g @resurrect-processes 'mosh-client' Additionally a mosh-client strategy is provided to handle extracting the original arguments and re-run Mosh.