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bash script for installing tmux without root access
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tmux_local_install.sh
#!/bin/bash
# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.
# exit on error
set -e
TMUX_VERSION=1.8
# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp
# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz http://sourceforge.net/projects/tmux/files/tmux/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz/download
wget https://github.com/downloads/libevent/libevent/libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.9.tar.gz
# extract files, configure, and compile
############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.0.19-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make
make install
cd ..
############
# ncurses #
############
tar xvzf ncurses-5.9.tar.gz
cd ncurses-5.9
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make
make install
cd ..
############
# tmux #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..
# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp
echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."
@MeteoBoy4
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MeteoBoy4 commented May 31, 2017 •
edited

Thanks a lot for your codes! I would like to ask why sometimes there is 'prefix' when configure tmux and sometimes not? If not, where do we indicate tmux should be installed? And why there are two LDFLAGS (almost the same) when configuring tmux? @dexhunter @thinki @xapple @ryin @crobicha

@ablueday
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ablueday commented Aug 29, 2017 •
edited

Thank you for your script, it helps me a lot. However, it must be better to update download link of latest sources of tmux, ncurses and libevent.

I replace them in "# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses" section by the following:

wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz wget https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-2.1.8-stable/libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz wget http://invisible-island.net/datafiles/release/ncurses.tar.gz

and tmux version should be changed firstly:
TMUX_VERSION=2.5

@yogeshpv
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yogeshpv commented Sep 1, 2017

Edited the script to have right folder path, based on @ZhouYL0213 comment,

#!/bin/bash

# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.5

# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz 
wget https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-2.1.8-stable/libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz 
wget http://invisible-island.net/datafiles/release/ncurses.tar.gz

# extract files, configure, and compile

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.1.8-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses.tar.gz
cd ncurses-5.9
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

@junieroliva
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junieroliva commented Sep 5, 2017

@smilesun run
export CPPFLAGS="-P"
before the script as per https://stackoverflow.com/a/37475223/130152

@dajuno
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dajuno commented Sep 20, 2017 •
edited

I have trouble with configuring tmux: libevent is not found. Executing the above scripts gives:

...
checking for LIBEVENT... no
checking for library containing event_init... no
checking event.h usability... yes
checking event.h presence... no
configure: WARNING: event.h: accepted by the compiler, rejected by the preprocessor!
configure: WARNING: event.h: proceeding with the compiler's result
checking for event.h... yes
configure: error: "libevent not found"

edit: the LDFLAGS was missing $HOME/local/lib64 for libevent. adding -L$HOME/local/lib64 to LDFLAGS in the tmux ./configure and make calls fixed this.

@eva-n27
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eva-n27 commented Oct 11, 2017

I use script of @yogeshpv, and it works now.
Thanks all of you.

@thinki
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thinki commented Oct 16, 2017

@smilesun
Compile error is caused by GCC Version equaling 5.X which is too higher.
https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/19749

Modify ncurses source code as below:

--- a/meta/recipes-core/ncurses/ncurses.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/ncurses/ncurses.inc
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ ENABLE_WIDEC ?= "true"
 # _GNU_SOURCE is required for widec stuff and is detected automatically
 # for target objects.  But it must be set manually for native and sdk
 # builds.
-BUILD_CPPFLAGS += "-D_GNU_SOURCE"
+BUILD_CPPFLAGS += "-D_GNU_SOURCE -P"

 # natives don't generally look in base_libdir
 base_libdir_class-native = "${libdir}"

@parth126
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parth126 commented Jan 31, 2018

Thanks a lot mate. You are a life saver.

@d3v-null
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d3v-null commented Feb 9, 2018 •
edited

Hey there, I tried to run this but https://sourceforge.net/projects/tmux/files/tmux/tmux-1.8/tmux-1.8.tar.gz/download is 404'ing for me :(
And then when I search for tmux on SourceForge, the project doesn't exist: https://sourceforge.net/directory/os:linux/?q=tmux
Any ideas?
EDIT: Solution is in @ZhouYL0213 's comment

@mukahraman
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mukahraman commented Mar 17, 2018

Just updated the links and it is working perfectly. Thanks a lot for saving a lot of my time!

@hmm34
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hmm34 commented Mar 29, 2018

I used the solution in @yogeshpv 's comment. It worked with only one modification: cd to new version of ncurses (as of right now it is ncurses-6.1). Thanks!

@congyh
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congyh commented Jun 12, 2018

Thank you so much!

@YoungForest
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YoungForest commented Jul 1, 2018 

#!/bin/bash

# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.5

# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz 
wget https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-2.1.8-stable/libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz 
wget http://invisible-island.net/datafiles/release/ncurses.tar.gz

# extract files, configure, and compile

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.1.8-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses.tar.gz
cd ncurses-6.1
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

thanks @yogeshpv and @hmm34 's comments.

@musically-ut
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musically-ut commented Aug 16, 2018 •
edited

The links to libevent and ncurses redirect and wget tries to save them with a different filename.

Have fixed them (i.e. hardcoded) to the correct filenames. Also, bumped tmux version from 2.5 to 2.7.

#!/bin/bash

# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.7

# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz 
wget -O libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-2.1.8-stable/libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz 
wget -O ncurses.tar.gz http://invisible-island.net/datafiles/release/ncurses.tar.gz

# extract files, configure, and compile

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.1.8-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.1.8-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses.tar.gz
cd ncurses-6.1
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

@danellecline
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danellecline commented Sep 5, 2018

Thanks @musically-ut . Your fixes worked for me.

@jdhao
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jdhao commented Oct 25, 2018

@musically-ut, I see that you put some include dir for LDFLAGS. AFAIK, the LDFLAGS are for library files, not header files. Is there anything that I am missing here? Or because Tmux is different in that it requires us to do so? It seems I can not find some official guide.

@abalhomaid
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abalhomaid commented Nov 7, 2018

@musically-ut script works. Thanks a lot!

@StevenShi-23
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StevenShi-23 commented Nov 12, 2018

To use the latest tmux release v2.8, the following works for me (notice you need to do autogen.sh before using ./configure, and use make -j can speed up the build process):

#!/bin/bash

# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.8

# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/archive/${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz 
wget https://github.com/downloads/libevent/libevent/libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.9.tar.gz

# extract files, configure, and compile

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.0.19-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make -j
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses-5.9.tar.gz
cd ncurses-5.9
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make -j
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./autogen.sh
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

@JoyHuYY1412
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JoyHuYY1412 commented Dec 27, 2018

Everything is right But when I runtmux
it says -bash: tmux: command not found
what can I do ?

@todeschini-felipe
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todeschini-felipe commented Jan 8, 2019 •
edited

@StevenShi-23 script is breaking in
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make

with
make: *** No rule to make target 'compat/forkpty-linux.c', needed by 'compat/forkpty-linux.o'. Stop.

I am using CentOS 6.10. Any ideas?

@amlestin
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amlestin commented Jan 15, 2019 •
edited

To use the latest tmux release v2.8, the following works for me (notice you need to do autogen.sh before using ./configure, and use make -j can speed up the build process):

#!/bin/bash

# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.8

# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download source files for tmux, libevent, and ncurses
wget -O tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz https://github.com/tmux/tmux/archive/${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz 
wget https://github.com/downloads/libevent/libevent/libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.9.tar.gz

# extract files, configure, and compile

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-2.0.19-stable.tar.gz
cd libevent-2.0.19-stable
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make -j
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses-5.9.tar.gz
cd ncurses-5.9
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make -j
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./autogen.sh
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

Thanks for the help. This worked for me on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.9 (Santiago).

My ~/.bashrc also contains export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/local/bin" to make tmux accessible everywhere.

@hypan599
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hypan599 commented Jan 17, 2019

Just updated links of latest tmux and it worked perfectly. Thanks!

@zeeshansayyed
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zeeshansayyed commented Feb 13, 2019

Thank you @mnsmar

@hoosierEE
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hoosierEE commented Mar 31, 2019

The above from @StevenShi-23 and @amlestin (including the part about adding to $PATH) worked for me on Centos 7.6. Thanks!

@acanakoglu
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acanakoglu commented May 1, 2019

I updated for 2.9a.


# Script for installing tmux on systems where you don't have root access.
# tmux will be installed in $HOME/local/bin.
# It's assumed that wget and a C/C++ compiler are installed.

# exit on error
set -e

TMUX_VERSION=2.9a
LIBEVENT_VERSION=2.1.8-stable
NCURSES_VERSION=6.1


# create our directories
mkdir -p $HOME/local $HOME/tmux_tmp
cd $HOME/tmux_tmp

# download all the files
wget https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/${TMUX_VERSION}/tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
wget https://github.com/libevent/libevent/releases/download/release-${LIBEVENT_VERSION}/libevent-${LIBEVENT_VERSION}.tar.gz
wget https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-${NCURSES_VERSION}.tar.gz

############
# libevent #
############
tar xvzf libevent-${LIBEVENT_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd libevent-${LIBEVENT_VERSION}
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --disable-shared
make
make install
cd ..

############
# ncurses  #
############
tar xvzf ncurses-${NCURSES_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd ncurses-${NCURSES_VERSION}
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make 
make install
cd ..

############
# tmux     #
############
tar xvzf tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd tmux-${TMUX_VERSION}
./configure CFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/local/lib -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/include"
CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/local/include -I$HOME/local/include/ncurses" LDFLAGS="-static -L$HOME/local/include -L$HOME/local/include/ncurses -L$HOME/local/lib" make
cp tmux $HOME/local/bin
cd ..

cd $HOME

# cleanup
rm -rf $HOME/tmux_tmp

echo "$HOME/local/bin/tmux is now available. You can optionally add $HOME/local/bin to your PATH."

# for the in order to add to the .bashrc (for /sh/bash) comment-in below line
# echo 'export PATH="$HOME/local/bin:$PATH"' >> $HOME/.bashrc

@flakrat
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flakrat commented Nov 4, 2019

Curious, why not use make install after compiling Tmux rather than cp tmux $HOME/local/bin?

Not a big difference, but you are missing the man page:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/flakrat/sources/tmux-2.9a'
 /usr/bin/mkdir -p '/home/flakrat/local/bin'
  /usr/bin/install -c tmux '/home/flakrat/local/bin'
make  install-exec-hook
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/flakrat/sources/tmux-2.9a'
if test xmdoc = xmdoc; then \
	sed -e "s|@SYSCONFDIR@|/etc|g" ./tmux.1 \
		>./tmux.1.mdoc; \
else \
	sed -e "s|@SYSCONFDIR@|/etc|g" ./tmux.1| \
		gawk -f ./mdoc2man.awk >./tmux.1.man; \
fi
/usr/bin/mkdir -p /home/flakrat/local/share/man/man1
/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 ./tmux.1.mdoc \
	/home/flakrat/local/share/man/man1/tmux.1

@jrwrigh
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jrwrigh commented Mar 26, 2020

Note: The latest version of tmux (3.0a) is distributed as an Appimage. So you can simply download the Appimage and either:

  1. Put the Appimage somewhere on your path (and thus call tmux.Appimage directly) or
  2. Extract out the Appimage. This may be necessary depending on whether your machine can directly run Appimages.

@Derryxu
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Derryxu commented May 21, 2021

Thank you so much!

@Zemke
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Zemke commented May 29, 2021

For anyone looking to do this for Windows. Installing Tmux in Git Bash for instance without admin privileges.

You can grab the file from https://packages.msys2.org/package/tmux?repo=msys&variant=x86_64 and it contains tmux.exe along with appendices.

https://github.com/msys2/MSYS2-packages/blob/master/tmux/PKGBUILD is how they build it.

@nodswal
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nodswal commented Jan 24, 2022

Wow this is an older version of my build script, I will have to look through the commits for suggestions
https://github.com/nodswal/tmux-install

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