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MajorLinux 4f3e5877ae wiki: add dev-tools section with tmux, screen, and rsync articles

Add three new articles to 03-opensource/dev-tools/:
- tmux: persistent terminal sessions, background jobs, capture-pane
- screen: lightweight alternative, comparison table
- rsync: flags reference, resumable transfers, SSH usage

Update all indexes (SUMMARY, section index, main index, README).
Article count: 28 → 31. Remove tmux from writing backlog.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-03-13 23:33:38 -04:00

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tmux — Persistent Terminal Sessions

Problem

SSH sessions die when your connection drops, your laptop closes, or you walk away. Long-running jobs — storage migrations, file scans, downloads — get killed mid-run. You need a way to detach from a session, come back later, and pick up exactly where you left off.

Solution

tmux is a terminal multiplexer. It runs sessions that persist independently of your SSH connection. You can detach, disconnect, reconnect from a different machine, and reattach to find everything still running.

Installation (Fedora)

sudo dnf install tmux

Core Workflow

# Start a named session
tmux new-session -s mysession

# Detach from a session (keeps it running)
Ctrl+b, d

# List running sessions
tmux ls

# Reattach to a session
tmux attach -t mysession

# Kill a session when done
tmux kill-session -t mysession

Start a Background Job Directly

Skip the interactive session entirely — start a job in a new detached session in one command:

tmux new-session -d -s rmlint2 "rmlint /majorstorage// /mnt/usb// /majorRAID 2>&1 | tee /majorRAID/rmlint_scan2.log"

The job runs immediately in the background. Attach later to check progress:

tmux attach -t rmlint2

Capture Output Without Attaching

Read the current state of a session without interrupting it:

tmux capture-pane -t rmlint2 -p

Split Panes

Monitor multiple things in one terminal window:

# Horizontal split (top/bottom)
Ctrl+b, "

# Vertical split (left/right)
Ctrl+b, %

# Switch between panes
Ctrl+b, arrow keys

Real-World Use

On majorhome, all long-running storage operations run inside named tmux sessions so they survive SSH disconnects:

tmux new-session -d -s rmlint2 "rmlint ..."   # dedup scan
tmux new-session -d -s rsync-migrate "rsync ..."  # file migration
tmux ls  # check what's running

tmux vs screen

Both work. tmux has better split-pane support and scripting. screen is simpler and more universally installed. I use both — tmux for new jobs, screen for legacy ones. See the screen article for reference.

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