tmux-helper-filetransfer

Transfer files to filesystem of host accessible via tmux.

Usage

In tmux.conf:

bind-key Q run-shell " \
    /path/to/.venv/bin/python \
    -m tmux_helper_filetransfer \
    --pane-id '#{pane_id}' \
    --tmux-exe /proc/#{pid}/exe \
    --tmux-socket '#{socket_path}' \
    --quiet \
    /path/to/dotfiles"

This transfers /path/to/dotfiles to the current directory in the remote shell. To take other actions (like cding to a specific directory before transferring files), then run a shell script that executes the helper inside.

Requirements

The target pane can be hosting a terminal on the local host or on a remote host (accessed via e.g. ssh).

The target pane's shell must be able to successfully execute uudecode | gunzip -c - | tar xf -.

The target pane's shell must be in insert mode (not vi-command mode).

Limitations

Some or all of these may be possible to overcome.

1. Currently the local file processing requires that the entire file be held in memory at the same time, plus extra when both the tar and compressed objects are in scope - we would need streaming for the tar creation the compression and uuencoding.
2. uuencode expands the compressed bytes at least 33%.
3. Tmux itself is not responsive while executing the subprocess. - we could run a background process instead of blocking.
4. No progress indication - a periodic display-message would be the first thing to try.
5. No ability to cancel an in-progress transfer - if spawning a background process then giving the cli the ability to communicate via e.g. unix socket could be a good way to go.

Releasing

python setup.py sdist
# for testing
twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*
twine upload --repository pypi dist/*