Server, session, window, pane

libtmux models tmux's server, session, window, and pane objects:

Server
├── Session
│   └── Window
│       └── Pane
└── Client (attached view)

A Server contains sessions. Each Session contains links to windows, and each Window contains panes. Commands run inside a Pane, where you send input and capture output. A window can be linked to more than one session.

Stable identity, not name or index¶

tmux assigns a unique ID to each session, window, and pane at creation. The ID remains stable for that object's lifetime even if its name or index changes:

Use stable IDs to identify the same tmux object across reads. Names and indexes can change while a program is running.

Read the hierarchy:

foreach (Session session in await server.GetSessionsAsync())
{
    Console.WriteLine(session.Name);
    foreach (Window window in await session.GetWindowsAsync())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"  {window.Index} {window.Name}");
        foreach (Pane pane in await window.GetPanesAsync())
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"    {pane.Index} {pane.Width}x{pane.Height}");
        }
    }
}

Client: a view, not a child¶

A Client represents a terminal attached to a session. Several clients can view the same server, and each can switch sessions or windows independently. Client fields describe the view at the time of the read.

A control-mode connection is also a client. It appears in list-clients, counts toward session_attached, and affects attachment-dependent behavior such as destroy-unattached. Closing the last attached client can therefore destroy a session configured with that option.