The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source tmux, dotfiles, and Text Mode (Interview)
Feb 17, 2012
Brian Hogan, author and trainer who wrote a practical tmux guide, and Josh Clayton, ThoughtBot developer and dotfiles maintainer, talk tmux, Vim, and dotfiles workflows. They dive into tmux use cases, tmuxinator project setups, macOS clipboard and color tricks, iTerm2 pairing, syncing dotfiles, terminal apps, and plugins that streamline editing and testing.
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Keep One Session Per Project
- Create separate tmux sessions per project and reattach to them to switch contexts without losing state.
- Brian says he keeps sessions detached so he can move between projects and reattach from the same terminal window.
Enable macOS Clipboard With Reattach Tool
- Install reattach-to-user-namespace (Homebrew) to enable pbcopy/pbpaste from tmux on macOS.
- Josh explains tmux lacks native access to the macOS pasteboard and this wrapper restores system clipboard integration.
Make Terminal Vim Look Like MacVim
- Configure your terminal and tmux for 256 colors and use tools like Palette to compile true color and 256-color Vim themes.
- Josh wrote Palette to convert hex themes into 256-color values so terminal Vim matches MacVim.
