Using Tmux and Screen for Persistent Terminal in VSCode Remote Session

The solution is to set the default terminal provider on the remote settings to be tmux, and have it attach to either an existing session named main, or create a new one if it doesn’t exist.
linux
tmux
screen
Author

Guorui Zhong

Published

Monday, April 10, 2023

Modified

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Tmux

shortcuts

Advanced commands & shortcodes

Sessions

tmux list-sessions
tmux attach-session -t target-session
Ctrl + B + (     # Cycle through all the available sessions and switch to the lastest active one
Ctrl + B + (     # Cycle through all the available sessions and switch to the lastest active one
Ctrl + B + L     # Switch to the lastest session, regardless of whether it was detached or attached
Ctrl + B + D     # Detach from linux screen session

Windows

Ctrl + B + W     # List all windows (the current window is marked with "*") .
Ctrl + B + N     # Switch to the next window.                                
Ctrl + B + P     # Switch to the previous window.                            
Ctrl + B + C     # create a new window (with shell).                         
Ctrl + B + 0-9   # go to a window numbered 0-9 .                             
Ctrl + B + K     # kill the current window.

Panes

Ctrl + B + Q     # List all the panes and theri number
Ctrl + B + ↑     # Switch to the pane above the current one
Ctrl + B + ↓     # Switch to the pane below the current one
Ctrl + B + ←     # Switch to the pane left of the current one
Ctrl + B + →     # Switch to the pane right of the current one

Workflow

  1. Create session
  2. Setup session
  3. Work
  4. Detach
  5. Attach
  6. Work
  7. To 4

Useful Aliases

alias t="tmux"
alias ta="t a -t"
alias tls="t ls"
alias tn="t new -t"

Now we can run any tmux commands by just typing t (saved 3 characters and much cognitive load! Yeah!), create a new session with t {session-name}, attach to an existing session with ta {session-name} and list all your sessions with tls.

Single session

  • Add the below snippet to your remote settings in VSCode.
{
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
    "tmux": {
      "path": "/usr/bin/tmux",
      "args": [
        "new-session",
        "-A",
        "-s",
        "main"
      ],
    },
  },
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "tmux",
}

Session Per Workspace

  • Use vscode variables to make one tmux-session per project,
{
  "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
    "tmux": {
      "path": "/usr/bin/tmux",
      "args": [
        "new-session",
        "-A",
        "-s",
        "vscode-${workspaceFolderBasename}"
      ],
    },
  },
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "tmux",
}

Remote setting

// 2023-04-10 updated
{
    "r.rterm.linux": "/home/zhonggr/.local/bin/radian",
    // "r.rterm.linux": "/bin/R",
    "r.rpath.linux": "/bin/R",
    "r.alwaysUseActiveTerminal": true,
    "r.bracketedPaste": true,
    "r.sessionWatcher": true,
    // "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "R Terminal",
    // "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash",
    "r.plot.useHttpgd": true,
    "editor.tabCompletion": "on",
    "editor.acceptSuggestionOnEnter": "off",
    "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
        "tmux": {
            "path": "/usr/bin/tmux",
            "args": [
                "new-session",
                "-A",
                "-s",
                "main"
            ],
        },
    },
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "tmux"
}
source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Screen

General commands

screen                   # start a screen session
screen -S session_name   # start a named session
screen -r                # reattach to a linux screen
screen -ls               # list the current running screen session

Common commands for managing Linux Screen Windows:

Ctrl + A + C            # create a new window (with shell).
Ctrl + A + K            # kill the current window.
Ctrl + A + W            # list all windows (the current window is marked with "*") .
Ctrl + A + 0-9          # go to a window numbered 0-9 .
Ctrl + A + N            # go to the next window.
Ctrl + A  Ctrl + A      # toggle between the current and previous window.
Ctrl + A + A            # rename the current window.
Ctrl + A + S            # split current region horizontally into two regions.
Ctrl + A + |            # split current region vertically into two regions.
Ctrl + A + Tab          # switch the input focus to the next region.
Ctrl + A + Ctrl + A     # toggle between the current and previous windows
Ctrl + A + Q            # close all regions but the current one.
Ctrl + A + X            # close the current region.
Ctrl + A + D            # detach from linux screen session
Ctrl + A + [            # start copy mode
Ctrl + A + ]            # paste copied text
Ctrl + A + ?            # help, display  a list commands
Ctrl + A + Ctrl + \     # quit screen
screen -ls
## Output
There are screens on:
    10835.pts-0.linuxize-desktop   (Detached)
    10366.pts-0.linuxize-desktop   (Detached)
2 Sockets in /run/screens/S-linuxize.

If want to restore screen 10835.pts-0, then

screen -r 10835

Press the Spacebar or Enter to end a command.

To copy a block

To get into copy mode, press Ctrl-a [ .

To move the cursor, press the h, j, k, and l (the letter l) keys. The 0 (the number 0) or ^ (the caret) moves to the start of the line and $ (the dollar sign) moves to the end of the line. Ctrl-b scrolls the cursor back one page and Ctrl-f scrolls forward one page. To set the left and right margins of copy, press c and C (Shift-c). The Spacebar starts selecting the text and ends selecting the text. To abort copy mode, press Ctrl-g.

To paste a block

To paste the copied text to the current window (as many times as you want), press Ctrl-a ].

Reference