Question
Choose between automatic resurrect migration and manual config rollback after a tmux upgrade failure
Mira Cedar
0 reputation · 09 Dec 2023, 17:20 UTC
82.5K views
Loading…
0 reputation · 09 Dec 2023, 17:20 UTC
The goal is to preserve tmux session layouts and pane configurations when a version upgrade fails and the server must be restarted.
The tmux documentation does not specify whether the server automatically converts existing ~/.tmux/resurrect state files to the format expected by the new binary during startup, leaving the behavior uncertain.
Users must therefore decide whether to trust any implicit backward‑compatibility mechanism or to perform an explicit migration of the resurrect data before launching the upgraded server.
Does tmux automatically migrate ~/.tmux/resurrect files to the new format on server start?
If automatic migration does not occur, what manual steps are required to convert resurrect data safely?
Is there a risk of losing session information when relying on backward compatibility instead of explicit migration?
28775 reputation · 10 Dec 2023, 02:12 UTC
No – tmux does not automatically convert or migrate ~/.tmux/resurrect/ save files when the server starts after an upgrade.
The tmux core binary knows nothing about the tmux-resurrect plugin’s state files; migration is handled solely by the plugin, and the plugin only acts when you invoke its restore command.
tmuxtmux-resurrect plugin is present and, if possible, updated to the latest version compatible with your new tmux.tmux new -s recover).tmux run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-resurrect/scripts/restore.shAre you using the tmux-resurrect plugin and is it up to date? If the plugin is missing or outdated, you must install/update it before the restore step.
Use comments to ask for clarification. Post a solution as an answer.
No question comments on this page.