Fix: Consistent fzf-tmux Handling and Option Passing

[zyoNoob]

Fix: Consistent fzf-tmux Handling and Option Passing

Problem

At present the plugin doesn't work properly with fzf installations that lack the fzf-tmux binary, and the fzf --tmux support is not working.

Replicating the problem

Environment

• system-details :

zyon@zyon-ubuntu
----------------
OS: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS x86_64
Kernel: 6.11.0-21-generic
Uptime: 3 hours, 14 mins
Packages: 2702 (dpkg), 7 (flatpak), 13 (snap)
Shell: zsh 5.9
Resolution: 2880x1620, 3840x2160
WM: i3
Theme: catppuccin-mocha-blue-standard+default [GTK2/3]
Icons: Papirus-Dark [GTK2/3]
Terminal: tmux
CPU: 11th Gen Intel i5-11600K (12) @ 4.900GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Lite Hash Rate
GPU: Intel RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 750]
Memory: 7580MiB / 31853MiB

• fzf = 0.60.0 (built from source with default options)
• fzf-tmux = None (as fzf supports --tmux)
• zoxide = 0.9.7
• tmux = 3.4
• bat = 0.25.0

.config/tmux/tmux.conf

set-window-option -g mode-keys vi

# List of plugins
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'

#set -g @plugin '/home/zyon/workspace/dev/tmux-sessionx'
set -g @plugin 'omerxx/tmux-sessionx'
set -g @plugin 'omerxx/tmux-floax'

set -g @sessionx-bind 'o'
set -g @sessionx-fzf-builtin-tmux 'on'

# Other examples:
# set -g @plugin 'github_username/plugin_name'
# set -g @plugin 'github_username/plugin_name#branch'
# set -g @plugin '[email protected]:user/plugin'
# set -g @plugin '[email protected]:user/plugin'

# Initialize TMUX plugin manager (keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf)
run '~/.config/tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'

Expected Behavior

When the user presses the hotkey in a tmux session - in my case <tmux-prefix>+o a tmux-sessionx window should open

Actual Behavior

Nothing happens, no tmux-sessionx window spawns and no errors get logged in tmux log file either.

How error was traced

modified run_plugin() insessionx.sh to print out the args

run_plugin() {
	LOG_FILE="${CURRENT_DIR}/sessionx_debug.log"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') ======= run_plugin started =======" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Current session: $CURRENT" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Z_MODE: $Z_MODE" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Evaluating tmux options..." >> "$LOG_FILE"
	eval $(tmux show-option -gqv @sessionx-_built-args)
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Built args evaluated" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	
	eval $(tmux show-option -gqv @sessionx-_built-extra-options)
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Built extra options evaluated" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Calling handle_input..." >> "$LOG_FILE"
	handle_input
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') handle_input completed" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') BACK value: $BACK" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	
	args+=(--bind "$BACK")
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') args after adding BACK: ${args[*]}" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') fzf_opts: ${fzf_opts[*]}" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') INPUT value: $INPUT" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') FZF_BUILTIN_TMUX: $FZF_BUILTIN_TMUX" >> "$LOG_FILE"

	if [[ "$FZF_BUILTIN_TMUX" == "on" ]]; then
		echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Using built-in fzf..." >> "$LOG_FILE"
		RESULT=$(echo -e "${INPUT}" | sed -E 's/✗/ /g' | fzf "${fzf_opts[@]}" "${args[@]}" | tail -n1)
		echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') fzf completed with exit code: $?" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	else
		echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') Using fzf-tmux..." >> "$LOG_FILE"
		RESULT=$(echo -e "${INPUT}" | sed -E 's/✗/ /g' | fzf-tmux "${fzf_opts[@]}" "${args[@]}" | tail -n1)
		echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') fzf-tmux completed with exit code: $?" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	fi
	
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') RESULT: $RESULT" >> "$LOG_FILE"
	echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') ======= run_plugin ended =======" >> "$LOG_FILE"
}

Log Output

Invoking the sessionx plugin via the hotkey defined in configuration file generated this output in the logfile -

2025-03-29 16:28:31 ======= run_plugin started =======
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Current session: default
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Z_MODE: off
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Evaluating tmux options...
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Built args evaluated
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Built extra options evaluated
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Calling handle_input...
2025-03-29 16:28:31 handle_input completed
2025-03-29 16:28:31 BACK value: ctrl-b:reload(echo -e "")+change-preview(/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/preview.sh {1})
2025-03-29 16:28:31 args after adding BACK: --bind ctrl-t:change-preview(/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/preview.sh -t {1}) --bind ctrl-x:reload(find /home/zyon/.config -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -o -type l)+change-preview(ls {}) --bind ctrl-w:reload(tmux list-windows -a -F '#{session_name}:#{window_name}')+change-preview(/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/preview.sh -w {1}) --bind ctrl-e:reload(find /home/zyon -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -o -type l)+change-preview(ls {}) --bind ctrl-f:reload(zoxide query -l)+change-preview(ls {}) --bind alt-bspace:execute-silent(tmux kill-session -t {})+reload(/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/reload_sessions.sh) --bind bspace:backward-delete-char --bind esc:abort --bind ctrl-n:up --bind ctrl-p:down --bind enter:replace-query+print-query --bind ctrl-u:preview-half-page-up --bind ctrl-d:preview-half-page-down --bind ctrl-r:execute(bash -c ' printf >&2 "New name: ";read name; tmux rename-session -t {1} "\"; ')+reload(bash -c ' tmux list-sessions | sed -E "s/:.*$//"; ') --bind ?:toggle-preview --bind change:first --exit-0 --header=enter=󰿄  alt-bspace=󱂧  ctrl-r=󰑕  ctrl-x=󱃖  ctrl-w=  ctrl-e=󰇘  ctrl-b=󰌍  ctrl-t=󰐆  ctrl-u=  ctrl-d= / ctrl-f= --preview=/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/preview.sh {} --preview-window=top,75%,, --layout=default --pointer=▶ --tmux 75%,75% --prompt   --print-query --tac --scrollbar ▌▐ --border-label Current session: ""  --bind focus:transform-preview-label:echo [ {} ] --bind ctrl-b:reload(echo -e "")+change-preview(/home/zyon/.config/tmux/plugins/tmux-sessionx/scripts/preview.sh {1})
2025-03-29 16:28:31 fzf_opts: 
2025-03-29 16:28:31 INPUT value: 
2025-03-29 16:28:31 FZF_BUILTIN_TMUX: 
2025-03-29 16:28:31 Using fzf-tmux...
2025-03-29 16:28:31 fzf-tmux completed with exit code: 0
2025-03-29 16:28:31 RESULT: 
2025-03-29 16:28:31 ======= run_plugin ended =======

Conclusion

As can be seen from above log, for some reason args set in the sessionx.tmux are not passed to the sessionx.sh script. This is a bug, and since my gripe was with how the fzf call was being handled, I have opened this PR to fix the issue. There may still be some issues with other args, not that I ran into them given this is my first time even using this plugin.

This PR fixes the usage of args in the fzf calls.

Major Change:

Refactors the handling of fzf-tmux vs. fzf --tmux calls. Instead of setting size parameters in sessionx.tmux, the size parameters and the fzf-builtin-tmux setting are now passed through to sessionx.sh via extra_options array. The sessionx.sh script then uses these options to correctly execute either fzf with the --tmux parameter or fzf-tmux with the -p

Fixes:

Resolves inconsistencies in how the user can configure sessionx to plain fzf in tmux rather than fzf-tmux. This provides more flexibility better handles scenarios where older versions of fzf are present.

[LucaZulberti]

This is needed, is the plugin not maintained anymore?

[zyoNoob]

Looks like it's still being maintained but only on life support mode.