alt Hacker NewsI had my tmux customized to the point I forgot how to use it on a clean install which is a problem when I'm sshing into a server.
I wish it had better defaults but now I run it as is. After a while you get used to it. The only thing I always have to change is the mouse scroll and my brain cannot retain the exact command.
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Total opposite. I adapt to the defaults meaning I almost never customize anything. Tmux? Game controls? UI look? Default. I am almost never met with surprise unless I am sitting in front of someones OCD config.
I think of this as the curse of Emacs. Infinitely configurable, thereafter entirely unique in the universe, which can be a double edged sword. See too (maybe it's the same thing) The Lisp Curse.[0]
I've hit this problem multiple times. The approach which finally eased this pain point for me was to take care to not overwrite any tmux defaults with my config, and only add non-conflicting configs (new shortcuts, styling changes, etc.) That way, if I need to use tmux on a new or unfamiliar machine, the core functionality is still present, and I just miss the candy that comes with customization.
For example, leave the existing prefix binding (ctrl-b), but also add something nicer for day-to-day use (ctrl-space or similar).
> I had my tmux customized to the point I forgot how to use it on a clean install which is a problem when I'm sshing into a server.
I had the same issue with gnu emacs… but at some point i lost my very custom configuration when the disk broke… i resorted to use a mostly-vanilla emacs :)
"Claude, scp my tmux config over to that box"
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Do you have a "dot files" repo? It would contain things like this, config files for tmux, zsh, <other tools>, etc.