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Ask HN: Which is better tmux or screen?

9 pointsby archmonkabout 8 years ago
Before you go on pointing me to archives or asking me to google understand that I have done that. The reason for asking is all the comparisons are by now old. I ask now because both might have progressed a long way. I personally use tmux but am not a pro user. I want to know if there is something that tmux has that screen doesn&#x27;t have or vice versa. I would also like to know which is more light weight, more configurable.<p>Also I would really like to know the scenario of how you use either.<p>Thanks,<p>AM

5 comments

dllthomasabout 8 years ago
I use screen, but there&#x27;s no real reason for it but inertia. I don&#x27;t know of anything it does better than tmux (except, perhaps, being available more places).<p>I use it, plus some scripts, to keep my work separated into various contexts. See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dlthomas&#x2F;config-files&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;bin&#x2F;session" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dlthomas&#x2F;config-files&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;bin&#x2F;ses...</a> and <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dlthomas&#x2F;config-files&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;.bash.d&#x2F;session.bashrc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dlthomas&#x2F;config-files&#x2F;blob&#x2F;master&#x2F;.bash.d...</a><p>The single biggest win is keeping a separate bash history per context. But it&#x27;s also very handy to define context specific functions and aliases, cd at start to a relevant directory, etc.<p>Putting it all inside screen means that I can trivially start a new shell in the same context and gives a nice grouping.
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sigjuiceabout 8 years ago
I don&#x27;t think tmux can talk to serial ports. I am primarily a tmux user, but use screen if I need a serial console. e.g.<p><pre><code> screen &#x2F;dev&#x2F;ttyUSB0 115200</code></pre>
modabout 8 years ago
I&#x27;ve never used screen, but I love tmux.<p>I particularly love tmuxinator and using it to set up complex environments, like sourcing a virtualenv in python on all my windows&#x2F;panes.<p>I use tmux for my main development environment, which usually has:<p>Window 1 (2 panes): vim and tests Window 2: bash console, used for git or one-off tasks Window 3: console (python&#x2F;ruby REPL, usually) Window 4: localhost server (running whatever webapp I&#x27;m working on)
caspervonbabout 8 years ago
Use screen mostly, reason is simple, its the one i started using first and it&#x27;s installed by default on most servers.<p>Objectively, I really don&#x27;t know.
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jtchangabout 8 years ago
I&#x27;ve used both. I kinda like how tmux has a bottom bar by default. Both are super stable and I haven&#x27;t had either crash on me ever.<p>Configuring both are kinda of a pain. I can never seem to get scroll to work properly in mac os x. I don&#x27;t think I ever tried in screen. tmux is shorter character wise :)