Show HN: Shpool, a Lightweight Tmux Alternative

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

A new tool called Shpool aims to provide SSH session persistence without the complexity of full terminal multiplexers like tmux or GNU screen. Commenters weigh its trade-offs: it preserves native terminal scrollback and copy‑paste, avoids window/pane management, and can be simpler for users who only need reconnectable sessions, but lacks advanced layout features and multi-client sharing that many rely on in tmux-based workflows. Comparisons also surface with alternatives such as dtach, abduco, mosh, EternalTerminal, and Zellij, alongside practical concerns like installation on stable Linux distros and memory usage under heavy workloads.

Purpose and Positioning of Shpool

  • Designed as a session persistence tool rather than a full terminal multiplexer.
  • Intended to be “lightweight” mainly in cognitive/feature terms: minimal setup, solve dropped-connection and long-running-job problems, then get out of the way.
  • Philosophy: window/layout management should be handled by the OS/window manager or terminal emulator, not by the persistence layer.

Comparisons to tmux, screen, and related tools

  • Many see it as closer to screen/dtach/abduco/diss than to full tmux, since it doesn’t do panes, splits, or window tiling.
  • Some users mostly want persistence and consider tmux’s layout features “bloat” for that purpose; others rely heavily on panes/windows and don’t see shpool as a real alternative.
  • GNU screen and tmux are noted as roughly equivalent today; shpool omits multiplexing but competes on simplicity.

Scrollback, copy-paste, and performance

  • Key selling point: does not interfere with native terminal scrollback and mouse-based copy-paste, which tmux/screen often alter.
  • Internally keeps an in-memory VT100 terminal state to redraw after reconnect without losing scrollback.
  • Some argue tmux’s separate scrollback is a feature; others find tmux’s mouse/clipboard behavior and latency frustrating.

Networking and session robustness

  • Compared to mosh and EternalTerminal: those operate at the network layer and handle roaming/UDP/TCP; shpool runs only on the remote host.
  • Some people currently stack mosh + tmux and see shpool as a way to reduce duplication.

Installation and platform notes

  • Rust-based; some concern about compatibility with older distro toolchains (e.g., Debian stable), though static binaries or local builds are suggested as workarounds.
  • Systemd user units and Debian packaging are discussed; one user shares build steps.
  • macOS support is not yet available but is mentioned as being worked on.

Limitations, bugs, and edge cases

  • Currently oriented toward reconnecting from the same terminal type; TERM/terminfo changes across clients are described as hard/“unclear” to solve.
  • Does not yet support multiple simultaneous attachments to one session; several commenters want this for pairing or multi-device workflows.
  • One report of severe memory usage (~1.4 GB) after repeated find + detach/attach cycles.
  • Some text-mode-only users note that, for them, tmux alone is still lighter than running a GUI/window manager plus shpool.