I am running a tmux session on a server where I do my development work (this is where I run emacs). I have two monitors - how do I use both of them with the same emacs session? If I join the same tmux session, the monitors just mirror each other. If I am not in the same tmux session (and by extension a different emacs session) I will have to reread from disk everytime a file gets updated, and there can be differences between the different working versions of files. Any thoughts on how to use both monitors here?
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You can start two tmux sessions. In one you run an Emacs and start the "Emacs server" using M-x emacs-server RET
. In the other you can run emacsclient -nw
, this will create a second tty frame.
In fact, you can use emacsclient -nw
to connect to a graphical Emacs, in case one in running on the machine.

Lindydancer
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Is there a way to do that in the same tmux session? Should I care if it is in the same tmux session? – Andrew Feb 25 '16 at 21:43
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Of course, you can use the same tmux session on both monitors. Then you can start Emacs in one tmux window (or pane, I never remember the correct terminology) and
emacsclient
in another. – Lindydancer Feb 26 '16 at 06:06 -
when i attach to the same tmux session, it just mirrors the other monitor - is the some other command i should use? – Andrew Feb 28 '16 at 06:22
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You have to run Emacs in one tmux window and
emacsclient
in another, and display then on the different monitors. – Lindydancer Feb 28 '16 at 08:05 -
sorry, still not following. the steps I was taking were 1. open terminal in left window, ssh and tmux attach 2. open terminal in right window ssh, and tmux attach. When I do that they are mirrrored, so I can't do separate things like only open emacs in one window and emacsclient in the other as the commands are mirrored – Andrew Feb 29 '16 at 18:16
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You will need to create a second
tmux
window using<PREFIX>-c
, and show one tmux window in each terminal. In fact, you don't needtmux
at all to get Emacs up and running on two monitors. – Lindydancer Feb 29 '16 at 20:50 -
was looking at this question http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/24274/attach-to-different-windows-in-session, seems I need to make another tmux session . So back at square one, make two tmux sessions. Thanks for your help! – Andrew Feb 29 '16 at 23:29