Tmux Logging

Features:

1. Logging of all output in the current pane
   After you start logging, everything that's typed and all the output will be saved to a file. Convenient for keeping track of your work.
2. Current pane "Screen Capture"
   All the text visible in the current pane is saved to a file. Like a screenshot, but textual.
3. Save a complete history of current pane
   Everything that has been typed and all the output since the creation of the current pane can be saved to a file.
4. Clear pane history with prefix + alt + c

Tested and working on Linux, OSX and Cygwin.

1. Logging

Toggle (start/stop) logging in the current pane.

• Key binding: prefix + shift + p
• File name format: tmux-#{session_name}-#{window_index}-#{pane_index}-%Y%m%dT%H%M%S.log
• File path: $HOME (user home dir)
  • Example file: ~/tmux-my-session-0-1-20140527T165614.log

2. "Screen Capture"

Save visible text, in the current pane. Equivalent of a "textual screenshot".

• Key binding: prefix + alt + p
• File name format: tmux-screen-capture-#{session_name}-#{window_index}-#{pane_index}-%Y%m%dT%H%M%S.log
• File path: $HOME (user home dir)
  • Example file: tmux-screen-capture-my-session-0-1-20140527T165614.log

3. Save complete history

Save complete pane history to a file. Convenient if you retroactively remember you need to log/save all the work.

• Key binding: prefix + alt + shift + p
• File name format: tmux-history-#{session_name}-#{window_index}-#{pane_index}-%Y%m%dT%H%M%S.log
• File path: $HOME (user home dir)
  • Example file: tmux-history-my-session-0-1-20140527T165614.log

4. Save complete history and continue logging to same file

Save complete pane history to a file then continue logging to it. Convenient if you retroactively remember you need to log/save all the work, including what follows.

• Key binding: prefix + ctrl + P
• File name format: tmux-#{session_name}-#{window_index}-#{pane_index}-%Y%m%dT%H%M%S.log
• File path: $HOME (user home dir)
  • Example file: ~/tmux-my-session-0-1-20140527T165614.log

NOTE: the last 2 features functionality depends on the value of history-limit - the number of lines Tmux keeps in the scrollback buffer. Only what Tmux kept will also be saved, to a file.

Use set -g history-limit 50000 in .tmux.conf, with modern computers it is ok to set this option to a high number.

4. Clear pane history

Key binding: prefix + alt + c

This is just a convenience key binding.

Installation with Tmux Plugin Manager (recommended)

Add plugin to the list of TPM plugins in .tmux.conf:

set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-logging'

Hit prefix + I to fetch the plugin and source it.

You should now have all tmux-logging key bindings defined.

Manual Installation

Clone the repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-logging ~/clone/path

Add this line to the bottom of .tmux.conf:

run-shell ~/clone/path/logging.tmux

Reload TMUX environment:

# type this in terminal
$ tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

You should now have all tmux-logging key bindings defined.

Installing ansifilter (recommended for OSX users)

If you're on OSX, it is recommeneded to install ansifilter: $ brew install ansifilter

ansifilter is a program specialized for removing (or working with) ANSI codes.

It helps with removing ANSI codes from the log. If ansifilter is not present, ANSI codes are removed with sed.

This feature improves the default pipe-pane logging mechanism by stripping ANSI codes. This is how the plain pipe-pane log output looks like if you're using terminal with coloring:

Garbled characters are called ANSI codes. They enable colors in terminal, but are just making 'noise' in the textual log output.

A user will probably want to filter ANSI codes out of the log. Here's the same log as above when this plugin is used:

Other plugins

You might also find these useful:

• resurrect - restore tmux environment after system restart
• pain control - useful standard bindings for controlling panes
• sessionist - lightweight tmux utils for switching and creating sessions

License

MIT