Hacker News Reader

Comment by andyl | Hacker News Reader

What is the simplest way to install tmux 1.8 on Ubuntu 12.04?? Running `sudo apt-get install tmux` puts tmux 1.6 on my system...

View on HN

    pushd /tmp && \
    wget 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/tmux/tmux/tmux-1.8/tmux-1.8.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Ftmux.sourceforge.net%2F&ts=1364579710&use_mirror=garr' && \
    gunzip < tmux-1.8.tar.gz | tar -vx && \
    cd tmux-1.8 && \
    ./configure --prefix=~/installs/tmux-1.8 && \
    mkdir ~/installs && \
    make && \
    make install && \
    popd

A simple `tar -xvf` can replace the separate `gunzip` and `tar` processes.

You can bypass writing the archive to disk, as well:

    pushd /tmp && \
    curl 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/tmux/tmux/tmux-1.8/tmux-1.8.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Ftmux.sourceforge.net%2F&ts=1364579710&use_mirror=garr'| tar xvf && \
    cd tmux-1.8 && \
    ./configure --prefix=~/installs/tmux-1.8 && \
    mkdir ~/installs && \
    make && \
    make install && \
    popd

Do you mean `tar -xzvf`?

Yes, formally. You don't have to specify -z in GNU tar today, you can just say -x and it'll add -z or -j for you -- it figures out on the fly if the archive's been compressed and how. Very convenient.

You can also leave off the dash: `tar xvf`

And you may skip verbose too: `tar xf`

instead of make install, consider checkinstall or fpm so that you are properly integrated into ubuntu's native package manager (dpkg). Doing so will save you headaches when you want to uninstall tmux or upgrade later.

Shouldn't you be using checkinstall instead of 'make install' to make removal of the package easier in the future?

Not if you do local installs. You can remove the package simply by:

    rm -rf ~/installs/tmux-1.8

thanks @pkrumins - the download/compile/install cycle took about 30 seconds - the compiled executable seems to work perfectly.

Well the easiest way is either to wait for it to appear in the repos or wait for someone to package it and put it into a PPA. However, it doesn't have that many dependencies, so building it yourself is another not too stressful option.

I wouldn't suggest a questionable .deb somewhere...so you best just download source and ./configure then make then make install as described in the README: http://sourceforge.net/p/tmux/tmux-code/ci/master/tree/READM....

You might need: 'apt-get install libevent-dev' as a prerequisite.

Until it is packaged, it is fairly easy to build yourself. You just need libevent and ncurses.

Any PPAs?

I continue to be amazed by the people who install "random binaries" via PPA.

I guess I assume that if you want cutting-edge packages you'll use a cutting-edge release/distribution. If you don't, and you want something more recent then it seems to make sense to make your own packages, or install locally via gnu-stow, or similar.

Debian/Ubuntu packaging is far too difficult and thus creates bad incentives for people to install software from untrusted sources.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com