How to set up alerts and monitoring in tmux?
Quick Answer
Enable monitoring with Ctrl+b : then setw monitor-activity on to get alerts when background windows have activity. Use monitor-silence 30 to alert after 30 seconds of inactivity.
setw monitor-activity onDetailed Explanation
Tmux can monitor background windows for activity, bell events, and silence periods, showing visual indicators in your status bar. This is useful for tracking build processes, server logs, or any long-running tasks.
Types of Monitoring
# Activity - any output in background windows setw monitor-activity on # Bell events - when programs ring the terminal bell setw monitor-bell on # Silence - alert after X seconds of no activity setw monitor-silence 30
Global Configuration
Enable monitoring for all new windows by adding to ~/.tmux.conf:
# Enable all monitoring types globally set-window-option -g monitor-activity on set-window-option -g monitor-bell on set-window-option -g monitor-silence 60 # Enable visual notifications set-option -g visual-activity on set-option -g visual-bell on
Visual Indicators
When monitoring detects events, tmux highlights the window in your status bar. You can customize these indicators:
# Customize activity highlighting
set-window-option -g window-status-activity-style bg=red,fg=white
# Add symbols to window names
set-window-option -g window-status-format '#I:#W#{?window_activity_flag,!,}'Pro Tip
Use silence monitoring for build processes: setw monitor-silence 30 will alert you when your build finishes and stops producing output.
Common Use Cases
- Development: Monitor test runners, file watchers, dev servers
- System Admin: Watch log files, server processes
- Build Monitoring: Get notified when compilation finishes
- SSH Sessions: Track activity on remote servers