NAME¶
tmux —
terminal multiplexer
SYNOPSIS¶
tmux |
[-2lCquvV]
[-c shell-command]
[-f file]
[-L socket-name]
[-S socket-path]
[command [flags]] |
DESCRIPTION¶
tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of
terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen.
tmux may be detached from a screen and continue running in
the background, then later reattached.
When
tmux is started it creates a new
session with a single
window and displays
it on screen. A status line at the bottom of the screen shows information on
the current session and is used to enter interactive commands.
A session is a single collection of
pseudo terminals under the
management of
tmux. Each session has one or more windows
linked to it. A window occupies the entire screen and may be split into
rectangular panes, each of which is a separate pseudo terminal (the
pty(4) manual page documents the technical details of pseudo
terminals). Any number of
tmux instances may connect to the
same session, and any number of windows may be present in the same session.
Once all sessions are killed,
tmux exits.
Each session is persistent and will survive accidental disconnection (such as
ssh(1) connection timeout) or intentional detaching (with
the ‘
C-b d
’ key strokes).
tmux may be reattached using:
$ tmux attach
In
tmux, a session is displayed on screen by a
client and all sessions are managed by a single
server. The server and each client are separate processes
which communicate through a socket in
/tmp.
The options are as follows:
- -2
- Force tmux to assume the terminal
supports 256 colours.
- -C
- Start in control mode (see the
CONTROL MODE section). Given twice
(-CC) disables echo.
- -c
shell-command
- Execute shell-command using the
default shell. If necessary, the tmux server will be
started to retrieve the default-shell option. This
option is for compatibility with sh(1) when
tmux is used as a login shell.
- -f
file
- Specify an alternative configuration file. By default,
tmux loads the system configuration file from
/etc/tmux.conf, if present, then looks for a user
configuration file at ~/.tmux.conf.
The configuration file is a set of tmux commands which are
executed in sequence when the server is first started.
tmux loads configuration files once when the server
process has started. The source-file command may be used
to load a file later.
tmux shows any error messages from commands in
configuration files in the first session created, and continues to process
the rest of the configuration file.
- -L
socket-name
- tmux stores the server socket in a
directory under
TMUX_TMPDIR
,
TMPDIR
if it is unset, or /tmp
if both are unset. The default socket is named default.
This option allows a different socket name to be specified, allowing
several independent tmux servers to be run. Unlike
-S a full path is not necessary: the sockets are all
created in the same directory.
If the socket is accidentally removed, the SIGUSR1
signal may be sent to the tmux server process to
recreate it.
- -l
- Behave as a login shell. This flag currently has no effect
and is for compatibility with other shells when using tmux as a login
shell.
- -q
- Set the quiet server option to prevent
the server sending various informational messages.
- -S
socket-path
- Specify a full alternative path to the server socket. If
-S is specified, the default socket directory is not
used and any -L flag is ignored.
- -u
- tmux attempts to guess if the terminal is
likely to support UTF-8 by checking the first of the
LC_ALL
, LC_CTYPE
and
LANG
environment variables to be set for the
string "UTF-8". This is not always correct: the
-u flag explicitly informs tmux that
UTF-8 is supported.
If the server is started from a client passed -u or where
UTF-8 is detected, the utf8 and
status-utf8 options are enabled in the global window and
session options respectively.
- -v
- Request verbose logging. This option may be specified
multiple times for increasing verbosity. Log messages will be saved into
tmux-client-PID.log and
tmux-server-PID.log files in the current directory,
where PID is the PID of the server or client
process.
- -V
- Report the tmux version.
- command
[flags]
- This specifies one of a set of commands used to control
tmux, as described in the following sections. If no
commands are specified, the new-session command is
assumed.
KEY BINDINGS¶
tmux may be controlled from an attached client by using a key
combination of a prefix key, ‘
C-b
’
(Ctrl-b) by default, followed by a command key.
The default command key bindings are:
- C-b
- Send the prefix key (C-b) through to the application.
- C-o
- Rotate the panes in the current window forwards.
- C-z
- Suspend the tmux client.
- !
- Break the current pane out of the window.
- "
- Split the current pane into two, top and bottom.
- #
- List all paste buffers.
- $
- Rename the current session.
- %
- Split the current pane into two, left and right.
- &
- Kill the current window.
- '
- Prompt for a window index to select.
- ,
- Rename the current window.
- -
- Delete the most recently copied buffer of text.
- .
- Prompt for an index to move the current window.
- 0 to 9
- Select windows 0 to 9.
- :
- Enter the tmux command prompt.
- ;
- Move to the previously active pane.
- =
- Choose which buffer to paste interactively from a
list.
- ?
- List all key bindings.
- D
- Choose a client to detach.
- [
- Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history.
- ]
- Paste the most recently copied buffer of text.
- c
- Create a new window.
- d
- Detach the current client.
- f
- Prompt to search for text in open windows.
- i
- Display some information about the current window.
- l
- Move to the previously selected window.
- n
- Change to the next window.
- o
- Select the next pane in the current window.
- p
- Change to the previous window.
- q
- Briefly display pane indexes.
- r
- Force redraw of the attached client.
- s
- Select a new session for the attached client
interactively.
- L
- Switch the attached client back to the last session.
- t
- Show the time.
- w
- Choose the current window interactively.
- x
- Kill the current pane.
- {
- Swap the current pane with the previous pane.
- }
- Swap the current pane with the next pane.
- ~
- Show previous messages from tmux, if
any.
- Page Up
- Enter copy mode and scroll one page up.
- Up, Down
-
- Left, Right
- Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to the
right of the current pane.
- M-1 to M-5
- Arrange panes in one of the five preset layouts:
even-horizontal, even-vertical, main-horizontal, main-vertical, or
tiled.
- M-n
- Move to the next window with a bell or activity
marker.
- M-o
- Rotate the panes in the current window backwards.
- M-p
- Move to the previous window with a bell or activity
marker.
- C-Up, C-Down
-
- C-Left, C-Right
- Resize the current pane in steps of one cell.
- M-Up, M-Down
-
- M-Left, M-Right
- Resize the current pane in steps of five cells.
Key bindings may be changed with the
bind-key and
unbind-key commands.
COMMANDS¶
This section contains a list of the commands supported by
tmux. Most commands accept the optional
-t
argument with one of
target-client,
target-session target-window, or
target-pane. These specify the client, session, window
or pane which a command should affect.
target-client is
the name of the
pty(4) file to which the client is
connected, for example either of
/dev/ttyp1 or
ttyp1 for the client attached to
/dev/ttyp1. If no client is specified, the current client is
chosen, if possible, or an error is reported. Clients may be listed with the
list-clients command.
target-session is the session id prefixed with a $, the
name of a session (as listed by the
list-sessions command),
or the name of a client with the same syntax as
target-client, in which case the session attached to the
client is used. When looking for the session name,
tmux
initially searches for an exact match; if none is found, the session names are
checked for any for which
target-session is a prefix or
for which it matches as an
fnmatch(3) pattern. If a single
match is found, it is used as the target session; multiple matches produce an
error. If a session is omitted, the current session is used if available; if
no current session is available, the most recently used is chosen.
target-window specifies a window in the form
session:
window.
session
follows the same rules as for
target-session, and
window is looked for in order: as a window index, for
example mysession:1; as a window ID, such as @1; as an exact window name, such
as mysession:mywindow; then as an
fnmatch(3) pattern or the
start of a window name, such as mysession:mywin* or mysession:mywin. An empty
window name specifies the next unused index if appropriate (for example the
new-window and
link-window commands)
otherwise the current window in
session is chosen. The
special character ‘
!
’ uses the last
(previously current) window, ‘
^
’ selects
the highest numbered window, ‘
$
’ selects
the lowest numbered window, and ‘
+
’ and
‘
-
’ select the next window or the previous
window by number. When the argument does not contain a colon,
tmux first attempts to parse it as window; if that fails, an
attempt is made to match a session.
target-pane takes a similar form to
target-window but with the optional addition of a period
followed by a pane index, for example: mysession:mywindow.1. If the pane index
is omitted, the currently active pane in the specified window is used. If
neither a colon nor period appears,
tmux first attempts to
use the argument as a pane index; if that fails, it is looked up as for
target-window. A ‘
+
’
or ‘
-
’ indicate the next or previous pane
index, respectively. One of the strings
top,
bottom,
left,
right,
top-left,
top-right,
bottom-left or
bottom-right may be used
instead of a pane index.
The special characters ‘
+
’ and
‘
-
’ may be followed by an offset, for
example:
When dealing with a session that doesn't contain sequential window indexes, they
will be correctly skipped.
tmux also gives each pane created in a server an identifier
consisting of a ‘
%
’ and a number, starting
from zero. A pane's identifier is unique for the life of the
tmux server and is passed to the child process of the pane
in the
TMUX_PANE
environment variable. It may be used
alone to target a pane or the window containing it.
shell-command arguments are
sh(1)
commands. These must be passed as a single item, which typically means quoting
them, for example:
new-window 'vi /etc/passwd'
command
[
arguments] refers to a
tmux command, passed with the command and arguments
separately, for example:
bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Or if using
sh(1):
$ tmux bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Multiple commands may be specified together as part of a
command
sequence. Each command should be separated by spaces and a semicolon;
commands are executed sequentially from left to right and lines ending with a
backslash continue on to the next line, except when escaped by another
backslash. A literal semicolon may be included by escaping it with a backslash
(for example, when specifying a command sequence to
bind-key).
Example
tmux commands include:
refresh-client -t/dev/ttyp2
rename-session -tfirst newname
set-window-option -t:0 monitor-activity on
new-window ; split-window -d
bind-key R source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; \
display-message "source-file done"
Or from
sh(1):
$ tmux kill-window -t :1
$ tmux new-window \; split-window -d
$ tmux new-session -d 'vi /etc/passwd' \; split-window -d \; attach
CLIENTS AND SESSIONS¶
The
tmux server manages clients, sessions, windows and panes.
Clients are attached to sessions to interact with them, either when they are
created with the
new-session command, or later with the
attach-session command. Each session has one or more windows
linked into it. Windows may be linked to multiple sessions
and are made up of one or more panes, each of which contains a pseudo
terminal. Commands for creating, linking and otherwise manipulating windows
are covered in the
WINDOWS AND
PANES section.
The following commands are available to manage clients and sessions:
- attach-session
[-dr]
[-c
working-directory]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: attach)
If run from outside tmux, create a new client in the
current terminal and attach it to target-session. If
used from inside, switch the current client. If -d is
specified, any other clients attached to the session are detached.
-r signifies the client is read-only (only keys bound to
the detach-client or switch-client
commands have any effect)
If no server is started, attach-session will attempt to
start it; this will fail unless sessions are created in the configuration
file.
The target-session rules for
attach-session are slightly adjusted: if
tmux needs to select the most recently used session, it
will prefer the most recently used unattached session.
-c will set the session working directory (used for new
windows) to working-directory.
- detach-client
[-P]
[-a]
[-s
target-session]
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: detach)
Detach the current client if bound to a key, the client specified with
-t, or all clients currently attached to the session
specified by -s. The -a option kills
all but the client given with -t. If
-P is given, send SIGHUP to the parent process of the
client, typically causing it to exit.
- has-session
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: has)
Report an error and exit with 1 if the specified session does not exist. If
it does exist, exit with 0.
- kill-server
- Kill the tmux server and clients and
destroy all sessions.
- kill-session
[-a]
[-t
target-session]
- Destroy the given session, closing any windows linked to it
and no other sessions, and detaching all clients attached to it. If
-a is given, all sessions but the specified one is
killed.
- list-clients
[-F format]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: lsc)
List all clients attached to the server. For the meaning of the
-F flag, see the
FORMATS section. If
target-session is specified, list only clients
connected to that session.
- list-commands
-
(alias: lscm)
List the syntax of all commands supported by tmux.
- list-sessions
[-F
format]
-
(alias: ls)
List all sessions managed by the server. For the meaning of the
-F flag, see the
FORMATS section.
- lock-client
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: lockc)
Lock target-client, see the
lock-server command.
- lock-session
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: locks)
Lock all clients attached to target-session.
- new-session
[-AdDP]
[-c
start-directory]
[-F format]
[-n
window-name]
[-s
session-name]
[-t
target-session]
[-x width]
[-y height]
[shell-command]
-
(alias: new)
Create a new session with name session-name.
The new session is attached to the current terminal unless
-d is given. window-name and
shell-command are the name of and shell command to
execute in the initial window. If -d is used,
-x and -y specify the size of the
initial window (80 by 24 if not given).
If run from a terminal, any termios(4) special characters
are saved and used for new windows in the new session.
The -A flag makes new-session behave
like attach-session if
session-name already exists; in the case,
-D behaves like -d to
attach-session.
If -t is given, the new session is
grouped with target-session. This
means they share the same set of windows - all windows from
target-session are linked to the new session and any
subsequent new windows or windows being closed are applied to both
sessions. The current and previous window and any session options remain
independent and either session may be killed without affecting the other.
Giving -n or shell-command are
invalid if -t is used.
The -P option prints information about the new session
after it has been created. By default, it uses the format
‘#{session_name}:
’ but a different
format may be specified with -F.
- refresh-client
[-S]
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: refresh)
Refresh the current client if bound to a key, or a single client if one is
given with -t. If -S is specified,
only update the client's status bar.
- rename-session
[-t
target-session]
new-name
-
(alias: rename)
Rename the session to new-name.
- show-messages
[-IJT]
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: showmsgs)
Show client messages or server information. Any messages displayed on the
status line are saved in a per-client message log, up to a maximum of the
limit set by the message-limit session option for
the session attached to that client. With -t, display
the log for target-client. -I,
-J and -T show debugging information
about the running server, jobs and terminals.
- source-file
path
-
(alias: source)
Execute commands from path.
- start-server
-
(alias: start)
Start the tmux server, if not already running, without
creating any sessions.
- suspend-client
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: suspendc)
Suspend a client by sending SIGTSTP
(tty stop).
- switch-client
[-lnpr]
[-c
target-client]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: switchc)
Switch the current session for client target-client to
target-session. If -l,
-n or -p is used, the client is moved
to the last, next or previous session respectively. -r
toggles whether a client is read-only (see the
attach-session command).
WINDOWS AND PANES¶
A
tmux window may be in one of several modes. The default
permits direct access to the terminal attached to the window. The other is
copy mode, which permits a section of a window or its history to be copied to
a
paste buffer for later insertion into another window. This
mode is entered with the
copy-mode command, bound to
‘
[
’ by default. It is also entered when a
command that produces output, such as
list-keys, is executed
from a key binding.
The keys available depend on whether emacs or vi mode is selected (see the
mode-keys option). The following keys are supported as
appropriate for the mode:
Function |
vi |
emacs |
Back to indentation |
^ |
M-m |
Bottom of history |
G |
M-< |
Clear selection |
Escape |
C-g |
Copy selection |
Enter |
M-w |
Cursor down |
j |
Down |
Cursor left |
h |
Left |
Cursor right |
l |
Right |
Cursor to bottom line |
L |
|
Cursor to middle line |
M |
M-r |
Cursor to top line |
H |
M-R |
Cursor up |
k |
Up |
Delete entire line |
d |
C-u |
Delete/Copy to end of
line |
D |
C-k |
End of line |
$ |
C-e |
Go to line |
: |
g |
Half page down |
C-d |
M-Down |
Half page up |
C-u |
M-Up |
Jump forward |
f |
f |
Jump to forward |
t |
|
Jump backward |
F |
F |
Jump to backward |
T |
|
Jump again |
; |
; |
Jump again in reverse |
, |
, |
Next page |
C-f |
Page down |
Next space |
W |
|
Next space, end of word |
E |
|
Next word |
w |
|
Next word end |
e |
M-f |
Other end of selection |
o |
|
Paste buffer |
p |
C-y |
Previous page |
C-b |
Page up |
Previous word |
b |
M-b |
Previous space |
B |
|
Quit mode |
q |
Escape |
Rectangle toggle |
v |
R |
Scroll down |
C-Down or C-e |
C-Down |
Scroll up |
C-Up or C-y |
C-Up |
Search again |
n |
n |
Search again in reverse |
N |
N |
Search backward |
? |
C-r |
Search forward |
/ |
C-s |
Start of line |
0 |
C-a |
Start selection |
Space |
C-Space |
Top of history |
g |
M-> |
Transpose characters |
|
C-t |
The next and previous word keys use space and the
‘
-
’,
‘
_
’ and
‘
@
’ characters as word delimiters by
default, but this can be adjusted by setting the
word-separators session option. Next word moves to the start
of the next word, next word end to the end of the next word and previous word
to the start of the previous word. The three next and previous space keys work
similarly but use a space alone as the word separator.
The jump commands enable quick movement within a line. For instance, typing
‘
f
’ followed by
‘
/
’ will move the cursor to the next
‘
/
’ character on the current line. A
‘
;
’ will then jump to the next occurrence.
Commands in copy mode may be prefaced by an optional repeat count. With vi key
bindings, a prefix is entered using the number keys; with emacs, the Alt
(meta) key and a number begins prefix entry. For example, to move the cursor
forward by ten words, use ‘
M-1 0 M-f
’ in
emacs mode, and ‘
10w
’ in vi.
When copying the selection, the repeat count indicates the buffer index to
replace, if used.
Mode key bindings are defined in a set of named tables:
vi-edit and
emacs-edit for keys used when
line editing at the command prompt;
vi-choice and
emacs-choice for keys used when choosing from lists (such as
produced by the
choose-window command); and
vi-copy and
emacs-copy used in copy mode.
The tables may be viewed with the
list-keys command and keys
modified or removed with
bind-key and
unbind-key. One command accepts an argument,
copy-pipe, which copies the selection and pipes it to a
command. For example the following will bind
‘
C-q
’ to copy the selection into
/tmp as well as the paste buffer:
bind-key -temacs-copy C-q copy-pipe "cat >/tmp/out"
The paste buffer key pastes the first line from the top paste buffer on the
stack.
The synopsis for the
copy-mode command is:
- copy-mode
[-u]
[-t
target-pane]
- Enter copy mode. The -u option scrolls
one page up.
Each window displayed by
tmux may be split into one or more
panes; each pane takes up a certain area of the display and
is a separate terminal. A window may be split into panes using the
split-window command. Windows may be split horizontally
(with the
-h flag) or vertically. Panes may be resized with
the
resize-pane command (bound to
‘
C-up
’,
‘
C-down
’
‘
C-left
’ and
‘
C-right
’ by default), the current pane
may be changed with the
select-pane command and the
rotate-window and
swap-pane commands may
be used to swap panes without changing their position. Panes are numbered
beginning from zero in the order they are created.
A number of preset
layouts are available. These may be
selected with the
select-layout command or cycled with
next-layout (bound to
‘
Space
’ by default); once a layout is
chosen, panes within it may be moved and resized as normal.
The following layouts are supported:
- even-horizontal
- Panes are spread out evenly from left to right across the
window.
- even-vertical
- Panes are spread evenly from top to bottom.
- main-horizontal
- A large (main) pane is shown at the top of the window and
the remaining panes are spread from left to right in the leftover space at
the bottom. Use the main-pane-height window option to
specify the height of the top pane.
- main-vertical
- Similar to main-horizontal but the large
pane is placed on the left and the others spread from top to bottom along
the right. See the main-pane-width window option.
- tiled
- Panes are spread out as evenly as possible over the window
in both rows and columns.
In addition,
select-layout may be used to apply a previously
used layout - the
list-windows command displays the layout
of each window in a form suitable for use with
select-layout. For example:
$ tmux list-windows
0: ksh [159x48]
layout: bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
$ tmux select-layout bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
tmux automatically adjusts the size of the layout for the
current window size. Note that a layout cannot be applied to a window with
more panes than that from which the layout was originally defined.
Commands related to windows and panes are as follows:
- break-pane
[-dP]
[-F format]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: breakp)
Break target-pane off from its containing window to
make it the only pane in a new window. If -d is given,
the new window does not become the current window. The
-P option prints information about the new window after
it has been created. By default, it uses the format
‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}
’ but
a different format may be specified with -F.
- capture-pane
[-aepPq]
[-b
buffer-index]
[-E
end-line]
[-S
start-line]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: capturep)
Capture the contents of a pane. If -p is given, the output
goes to stdout, otherwise to the buffer specified with
-b or a new buffer if omitted. If -a
is given, the alternate screen is used, and the history is not accessible.
If no alternate screen exists, an error will be returned unless
-q is given. If -e is given, the
output includes escape sequences for text and background attributes.
-C also escapes non-printable characters as octal \xxx.
-J joins wrapped lines and preserves trailing spaces at
each line's end. -P captures only any output that the
pane has received that is the beginning of an as-yet incomplete escape
sequence.
-S and -E specify the starting and
ending line numbers, zero is the first line of the visible pane and
negative numbers are lines in the history. The default is to capture only
the visible contents of the pane.
- choose-client
[-F format]
[-t
target-window]
[template]
- Put a window into client choice mode, allowing a client to
be selected interactively from a list. After a client is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the client
pty(4) path in template and the
result executed as a command. If template is not
given, "detach-client -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the
-F flag, see the
FORMATS section. This command works only
if at least one client is attached.
- choose-list
[-l items]
[-t
target-window]
[template]
- Put a window into list choice mode, allowing
items to be selected. items
can be a comma-separated list to display more than one item. If an item
has spaces, that entry must be quoted. After an item is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the chosen item in
the template and the result is executed as a
command. If template is not given, "run-shell
'%%'" is used. items also accepts format
specifiers. For the meaning of this see the
FORMATS section. This command works only
if at least one client is attached.
- choose-session
[-F format]
[-t
target-window]
[template]
- Put a window into session choice mode, where a session may
be selected interactively from a list. When one is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the session name
in template and the result executed as a command. If
template is not given, "switch-client -t
'%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see
the FORMATS section. This command works
only if at least one client is attached.
- choose-tree
[-suw]
[-b
session-template]
[-c
window-template]
[-S format]
[-W format]
[-t
target-window]
- Put a window into tree choice mode, where either sessions
or windows may be selected interactively from a list. By default, windows
belonging to a session are indented to show their relationship to a
session.
Note that the choose-window and
choose-session commands are wrappers around
choose-tree.
If -s is given, will show sessions. If
-w is given, will show windows.
By default, the tree is collapsed and sessions must be expanded to windows
with the right arrow key. The -u option will start with
all sessions expanded instead.
If -b is given, will override the default session command.
Note that ‘
%%
’ can be used and will be
replaced with the session name. The default option if not specified is
"switch-client -t '%%'". If -c is given, will
override the default window command. Like -b,
‘%%
’ can be used and will be replaced
with the session name and window index. When a window is chosen from the
list, the session command is run before the window command.
If -S is given will display the specified format instead
of the default session format. If -W is given will
display the specified format instead of the default window format. For the
meaning of the -s and -w options, see
the FORMATS section.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
- choose-window
[-F format]
[-t
target-window]
[template]
- Put a window into window choice mode, where a window may be
chosen interactively from a list. After a window is selected,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the session name
and window index in template and the result executed
as a command. If template is not given,
"select-window -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the
-F flag, see the
FORMATS section. This command works only
if at least one client is attached.
- display-panes
[-t
target-client]
-
(alias: displayp)
Display a visible indicator of each pane shown by
target-client. See the
display-panes-time,
display-panes-colour, and
display-panes-active-colour session options. While the
indicator is on screen, a pane may be selected with the
‘0
’ to
‘9
’ keys.
- find-window
[-CNT]
[-F format]
[-t
target-window]
match-string
-
(alias: findw)
Search for the fnmatch(3) pattern
match-string in window names, titles, and visible
content (but not history). The flags control matching behavior:
-C matches only visible window contents,
-N matches only the window name and -T
matches only the window title. The default is -CNT. If
only one window is matched, it'll be automatically selected, otherwise a
choice list is shown. For the meaning of the -F flag,
see the FORMATS section. This command
works only if at least one client is attached.
- join-pane
[-bdhv]
[-l size |
-p percentage]
[-s
src-pane]
[-t
dst-pane]
-
(alias: joinp)
Like split-window, but instead of splitting
dst-pane and creating a new pane, split it and move
src-pane into the space. This can be used to reverse
break-pane. The -b option causes
src-pane to be joined to left of or above
dst-pane.
- kill-pane
[-a]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: killp)
Destroy the given pane. If no panes remain in the containing window, it is
also destroyed. The -a option kills all but the pane
given with -t.
- kill-window
[-a]
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: killw)
Kill the current window or the window at
target-window, removing it from any sessions to
which it is linked. The -a option kills all but the
window given with -t.
- last-pane
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: lastp)
Select the last (previously selected) pane.
- last-window
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: last)
Select the last (previously selected) window. If no
target-session is specified, select the last window
of the current session.
- link-window
[-dk]
[-s
src-window]
[-t
dst-window]
-
(alias: linkw)
Link the window at src-window to the specified
dst-window. If dst-window is
specified and no such window exists, the src-window
is linked there. If -k is given and
dst-window exists, it is killed, otherwise an error
is generated. If -d is given, the newly linked window is
not selected.
- list-panes
[-as]
[-F format]
[-t
target]
-
(alias: lsp)
If -a is given, target is ignored
and all panes on the server are listed. If -s is given,
target is a session (or the current session). If
neither is given, target is a window (or the current
window). For the meaning of the -F flag, see the
FORMATS section.
- list-windows
[-a]
[-F format]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: lsw)
If -a is given, list all windows on the server. Otherwise,
list windows in the current session or in
target-session. For the meaning of the
-F flag, see the
FORMATS section.
- move-pane
[-bdhv]
[-l size |
-p percentage]
[-s
src-pane]
[-t
dst-pane]
-
(alias: movep)
Like join-pane, but src-pane and
dst-pane may belong to the same window.
- move-window
[-rdk]
[-s
src-window]
[-t
dst-window]
-
(alias: movew)
This is similar to link-window, except the window at
src-window is moved to
dst-window. With -r, all windows
in the session are renumbered in sequential order, respecting the
base-index option.
- new-window
[-adkP]
[-c
start-directory]
[-F format]
[-n
window-name]
[-t
target-window]
[shell-command]
-
(alias: neww)
Create a new window. With -a, the new window is inserted
at the next index up from the specified
target-window, moving windows up if necessary,
otherwise target-window is the new window location.
If -d is given, the session does not make the new window
the current window. target-window represents the
window to be created; if the target already exists an error is shown,
unless the -k flag is used, in which case it is
destroyed. shell-command is the command to execute.
If shell-command is not specified, the value of the
default-command option is used. -c
specifies the working directory in which the new window is created.
When the shell command completes, the window closes. See the
remain-on-exit option to change this behaviour.
The TERM
environment variable must be set to
“screen” for all programs running inside
tmux. New windows will automatically have
“TERM=screen” added to their environment, but care must be
taken not to reset this in shell start-up files.
The -P option prints information about the new window
after it has been created. By default, it uses the format
‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}
’ but
a different format may be specified with -F.
- next-layout
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: nextl)
Move a window to the next layout and rearrange the panes to fit.
- next-window
[-a]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: next)
Move to the next window in the session. If -a is used,
move to the next window with an alert.
- pipe-pane
[-o]
[-t
target-pane]
[shell-command]
-
(alias: pipep)
Pipe any output sent by the program in target-pane to
a shell command. A pane may only be piped to one command at a time, any
existing pipe is closed before shell-command is
executed. The shell-command string may contain the
special character sequences supported by the status-left
option. If no shell-command is given, the current
pipe (if any) is closed.
The -o option only opens a new pipe if no previous pipe
exists, allowing a pipe to be toggled with a single key, for example:
bind-key C-p pipe-pane -o 'cat >>~/output.#I-#P'
- previous-layout
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: prevl)
Move to the previous layout in the session.
- previous-window
[-a]
[-t
target-session]
-
(alias: prev)
Move to the previous window in the session. With -a, move
to the previous window with an alert.
- rename-window
[-t
target-window]
new-name
-
(alias: renamew)
Rename the current window, or the window at
target-window if specified, to
new-name.
- resize-pane
[-DLRUZ]
[-t
target-pane]
[-x width]
[-y height]
[adjustment]
-
(alias: resizep)
Resize a pane, up, down, left or right by adjustment
with -U, -D, -L or
-R, or to an absolute size with -x or
-y. The adjustment is given in
lines or cells (the default is 1).
With -Z, the active pane is toggled between zoomed
(occupying the whole of the window) and unzoomed (its normal position in
the layout).
- respawn-pane
[-k]
[-t
target-pane]
[shell-command]
-
(alias: respawnp)
Reactivate a pane in which the command has exited (see the
remain-on-exit window option). If
shell-command is not given, the command used when
the pane was created is executed. The pane must be already inactive,
unless -k is given, in which case any existing command
is killed.
- respawn-window
[-k]
[-t
target-window]
[shell-command]
-
(alias: respawnw)
Reactivate a window in which the command has exited (see the
remain-on-exit window option). If
shell-command is not given, the command used when
the window was created is executed. The window must be already inactive,
unless -k is given, in which case any existing command
is killed.
- rotate-window
[-DU]
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: rotatew)
Rotate the positions of the panes within a window, either upward
(numerically lower) with -U or downward (numerically
higher).
- select-layout
[-np]
[-t
target-window]
[layout-name]
-
(alias: selectl)
Choose a specific layout for a window. If layout-name
is not given, the last preset layout used (if any) is reapplied.
-n and -p are equivalent to the
next-layout and previous-layout
commands.
- select-pane
[-lDLRU]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: selectp)
Make pane target-pane the active pane in window
target-window. If one of -D,
-L, -R, or -U is
used, respectively the pane below, to the left, to the right, or above the
target pane is used. -l is the same as using the
last-pane command.
- select-window
[-lnpT]
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: selectw)
Select the window at target-window.
-l, -n and -p are
equivalent to the last-window,
next-window and previous-window
commands. If -T is given and the selected window is
already the current window, the command behaves like
last-window.
- split-window
[-dhvP]
[-c
start-directory]
[-l size |
-p percentage]
[-t
target-pane]
[shell-command]
[-F
format]
-
(alias: splitw)
Create a new pane by splitting target-pane:
-h does a horizontal split and -v a
vertical split; if neither is specified, -v is assumed.
The -l and -p options specify the size
of the new pane in lines (for vertical split) or in cells (for horizontal
split), or as a percentage, respectively. All other options have the same
meaning as for the new-window command.
- swap-pane
[-dDU]
[-s
src-pane]
[-t
dst-pane]
-
(alias: swapp)
Swap two panes. If -U is used and no source pane is
specified with -s, dst-pane is
swapped with the previous pane (before it numerically);
-D swaps with the next pane (after it numerically).
-d instructs tmux not to change the
active pane.
- swap-window
[-d]
[-s
src-window]
[-t
dst-window]
-
(alias: swapw)
This is similar to link-window, except the source and
destination windows are swapped. It is an error if no window exists at
src-window.
- unlink-window
[-k]
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: unlinkw)
Unlink target-window. Unless -k is
given, a window may be unlinked only if it is linked to multiple sessions
- windows may not be linked to no sessions; if -k is
specified and the window is linked to only one session, it is unlinked and
destroyed.
KEY BINDINGS¶
tmux allows a command to be bound to most keys, with or
without a prefix key. When specifying keys, most represent themselves (for
example ‘
A
’ to
‘
Z
’). Ctrl keys may be prefixed with
‘
C-
’ or
‘
^
’, and Alt (meta) with
‘
M-
’. In addition, the following special
key names are accepted:
Up,
Down,
Left,
Right,
BSpace,
BTab,
DC (Delete),
End,
Enter,
Escape,
F1 to
F20,
Home,
IC (Insert),
NPage/PageDown/PgDn,
PPage/PageUp/PgUp,
Space, and
Tab. Note that to bind the
‘
"
’ or
‘
'
’ keys, quotation marks are necessary,
for example:
bind-key '"' split-window
bind-key "'" new-window
Commands related to key bindings are as follows:
- bind-key
[-cnr]
[-t
key-table] key
command
[arguments]
-
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to command. By
default (without -t) the primary key bindings are
modified (those normally activated with the prefix key); in this case, if
-n is specified, it is not necessary to use the prefix
key, command is bound to key
alone. The -r flag indicates this key may repeat, see
the repeat-time option.
If -t is present, key is bound in
key-table: the binding for command mode with
-c or for normal mode without. To view the default
bindings and possible commands, see the list-keys
command.
- list-keys
[-t
key-table]
-
(alias: lsk)
List all key bindings. Without -t the primary key bindings
- those executed when preceded by the prefix key - are printed.
With -t, the key bindings in
key-table are listed; this may be one of:
vi-edit, emacs-edit,
vi-choice, emacs-choice,
vi-copy or emacs-copy.
- send-keys
[-lR]
[-t
target-pane] key
...
-
(alias: send)
Send a key or keys to a window. Each argument key is
the name of the key (such as ‘C-a
’ or
‘npage
’ ) to send; if the string is
not recognised as a key, it is sent as a series of characters. The
-l flag disables key name lookup and sends the keys
literally. All arguments are sent sequentially from first to last. The
-R flag causes the terminal state to be reset.
- send-prefix
[-2]
[-t
target-pane]
- Send the prefix key, or with -2 the
secondary prefix key, to a window as if it was pressed.
- unbind-key
[-acn]
[-t
key-table] key
-
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the command bound to key. Without
-t the primary key bindings are modified; in this case,
if -n is specified, the command bound to
key without a prefix (if any) is removed. If
-a is present, all key bindings are removed.
If -t is present, key in
key-table is unbound: the binding for command mode
with -c or for normal mode without.
OPTIONS¶
The appearance and behaviour of
tmux may be modified by
changing the value of various options. There are three types of option:
server options,
session options and
window options.
The
tmux server has a set of global options which do not apply
to any particular window or session. These are altered with the
set-option -s command, or displayed with
the
show-options -s command.
In addition, each individual session may have a set of session options, and
there is a separate set of global session options. Sessions which do not have
a particular option configured inherit the value from the global session
options. Session options are set or unset with the
set-option command and may be listed with the
show-options command. The available server and session
options are listed under the
set-option command.
Similarly, a set of window options is attached to each window, and there is a
set of global window options from which any unset options are inherited.
Window options are altered with the
set-window-option
command and can be listed with the
show-window-options
command. All window options are documented with the
set-window-option command.
tmux also supports user options which are prefixed with a
‘
@
’. User options may have any name, so
long as they are prefixed with ‘
@
’, and be
set to any string. For example
$ tmux setw -q @foo "abc123"
$ tmux showw -v @foo
abc123
Commands which set options are as follows:
- set-option
[-agoqsuw]
[-t target-session
| target-window] option
value
-
(alias: set)
Set a window option with -w (equivalent to the
set-window-option command), a server option with
-s, otherwise a session option.
If -g is specified, the global session or window option is
set. The -u flag unsets an option, so a session inherits
the option from the global options. It is not possible to unset a global
option.
The -o flag prevents setting an option that is already
set.
The -q flag suppresses the informational message (as if
the quiet server option was set).
With -a, and if the option expects a string or a style,
value is appended to the existing setting. For
example:
set -g status-left "foo"
set -ag status-left "bar"
Will result in ‘foobar
’. And:
set -g status-style "bg=red"
set -ag status-style "fg=blue"
Will result in a red background and blue foreground.
Without -a, the result would be the default background
and a blue foreground.
Available window options are listed under
set-window-option.
value depends on the option and may be a number, a
string, or a flag (on, off, or omitted to toggle).
Available server options are:
- buffer-limit
number
- Set the number of buffers; as new buffers are added to
the top of the stack, old ones are removed from the bottom if
necessary to maintain this maximum length.
- escape-time
time
- Set the time in milliseconds for which
tmux waits after an escape is input to determine if
it is part of a function or meta key sequences. The default is 500
milliseconds.
- exit-unattached
[on |
off]
- If enabled, the server will exit when there are no
attached clients.
- focus-events
[on |
off]
- When enabled, focus events are requested from the
terminal if supported and passed through to applications running in
tmux. Attached clients should be detached and
attached again after changing this option.
- quiet
[on |
off]
- Enable or disable the display of various informational
messages (see also the -q command line flag).
- set-clipboard
[on |
off]
- Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the
\e]52;...\007 xterm(1) escape sequences. This option
is on by default if there is an Ms entry in the
terminfo(5) description for the client terminal.
Note that this feature needs to be enabled in
xterm(1) by setting the resource:
disallowedWindowOps: 20,21,SetXprop
Or changing this property from the xterm(1)
interactive menu when required.
Available session options are:
- assume-paste-time
milliseconds
- If keys are entered faster than one in
milliseconds, they are assumed to have been
pasted rather than typed and tmux key bindings are
not processed. The default is one millisecond and zero disables.
- base-index
index
- Set the base index from which an unused index should be
searched when a new window is created. The default is zero.
- bell-action
[any | none |
current]
- Set action on window bell. any means
a bell in any window linked to a session causes a bell in the current
window of that session, none means all bells are
ignored and current means only bells in windows
other than the current window are ignored.
- bell-on-alert
[on |
off]
- If on, ring the terminal bell when an alert
occurs.
- default-command
shell-command
- Set the command used for new windows (if not specified
when the window is created) to shell-command,
which may be any sh(1) command. The default is an
empty string, which instructs tmux to create a login
shell using the value of the default-shell
option.
- default-shell
path
- Specify the default shell. This is used as the login
shell for new windows when the default-command
option is set to empty, and must be the full path of the executable.
When started tmux tries to set a default value from
the first suitable of the
SHELL
environment
variable, the shell returned by getpwuid(3), or
/bin/sh. This option should be configured when
tmux is used as a login shell.
- default-terminal
terminal
- Set the default terminal for new windows created in
this session - the default value of the
TERM
environment variable. For tmux to work correctly,
this must be set to
‘screen
’ or a derivative of
it.
- destroy-unattached
[on |
off]
- If enabled and the session is no longer attached to any
clients, it is destroyed.
- detach-on-destroy
[on |
off]
- If on (the default), the client is detached when the
session it is attached to is destroyed. If off, the client is switched
to the most recently active of the remaining sessions.
- display-panes-active-colour
colour
- Set the colour used by the
display-panes command to show the indicator for the
active pane.
- display-panes-colour
colour
- Set the colour used by the
display-panes command to show the indicators for
inactive panes.
- display-panes-time
time
- Set the time in milliseconds for which the indicators
shown by the display-panes command appear.
- display-time
time
- Set the amount of time for which status line messages
and other on-screen indicators are displayed.
time is in milliseconds.
- history-limit
lines
- Set the maximum number of lines held in window history.
This setting applies only to new windows - existing window histories
are not resized and retain the limit at the point they were
created.
- lock-after-time
number
- Lock the session (like the
lock-session command) after
number seconds of inactivity, or the entire
server (all sessions) if the lock-server option is
set. The default is not to lock (set to 0).
- lock-command
shell-command
- Command to run when locking each client. The default is
to run lock(1) with -np.
- lock-server
[on |
off]
- If this option is on (the default),
instead of each session locking individually as each has been idle for
lock-after-time, the entire server will lock after
all sessions would have locked. This has no effect
as a session option; it must be set as a global option.
- message-command-style
style
- Set status line message command style, where
style is a comma-separated list of
characteristics to be specified.
These may be ‘
bg=colour
’ to set the
background colour, ‘fg=colour
’ to
set the foreground colour, and a list of attributes as specified
below.
The colour is one of: black, red,
green, yellow,
blue, magenta,
cyan, white, aixterm bright
variants (if supported: brightred,
brightgreen, and so on), colour0
to colour255 from the 256-colour set,
default, or a hexadecimal RGB string such as
‘#ffffff
’, which chooses the
closest match from the default 256-colour set.
The attributes is either none or a comma-delimited
list of one or more of: bright (or
bold), dim,
underscore, blink,
reverse, hidden, or
italics, to turn an attribute on, or an attribute
prefixed with ‘no
’ to turn one
off.
Examples are:
fg=yellow,bold,underscore,blink
bg=black,fg=default,noreverse
With the -a flag to the set-option
command the new style is added otherwise the existing style is
replaced.
- message-limit
number
- Set the number of error or information messages to save
in the message log for each client. The default is 20.
- message-style
style
- Set status line message style. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option.
- mouse-resize-pane
[on |
off]
- If on, tmux captures the mouse and
allows panes to be resized by dragging on their borders.
- mouse-select-pane
[on |
off]
- If on, tmux captures the mouse and
when a window is split into multiple panes the mouse may be used to
select the current pane. The mouse click is also passed through to the
application as normal.
- mouse-select-window
[on |
off]
- If on, clicking the mouse on a window name in the
status line will select that window.
- mouse-utf8
[on |
off]
- If enabled, request mouse input as UTF-8 on UTF-8
terminals.
- pane-active-border-style
style
- Set the pane border style for the currently active
pane. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option. Attributes are
ignored.
- pane-border-style
style
- Set the pane border style for paneas aside from the
active pane. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option. Attributes are
ignored.
- prefix
key
- Set the key accepted as a prefix key.
- prefix2
key
- Set a secondary key accepted as a prefix key.
- renumber-windows
[on |
off]
- If on, when a window is closed in a session,
automatically renumber the other windows in numerical order. This
respects the base-index option if it has been set.
If off, do not renumber the windows.
- repeat-time
time
- Allow multiple commands to be entered without pressing
the prefix-key again in the specified time
milliseconds (the default is 500). Whether a key repeats may be set
when it is bound using the -r flag to
bind-key. Repeat is enabled for the default keys
bound to the resize-pane command.
- set-remain-on-exit
[on |
off]
- Set the remain-on-exit window option
for any windows first created in this session. When this option is
true, windows in which the running program has exited do not close,
instead remaining open but inactivate. Use the
respawn-window command to reactivate such a window,
or the kill-window command to destroy it.
- set-titles
[on |
off]
- Attempt to set the client terminal title using the
tsl and fsl
terminfo(5) entries if they exist.
tmux automatically sets these to the \e]2;...\007
sequence if the terminal appears to be an xterm. This option is off by
default. Note that elinks will only attempt to set the window title if
the STY environment variable is set.
- set-titles-string
string
- String used to set the window title if
set-titles is on. Character sequences are replaced
as for the status-left option.
- status
[on |
off]
- Show or hide the status line.
- status-interval
interval
- Update the status bar every
interval seconds. By default, updates will occur
every 15 seconds. A setting of zero disables redrawing at
interval.
- status-justify
[left | centre |
right]
- Set the position of the window list component of the
status line: left, centre or right justified.
- status-keys
[vi |
emacs]
- Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line,
for example at the command prompt. The default is emacs, unless the
VISUAL
or EDITOR
environment variables are set and contain the string
‘vi
’.
- status-left
string
- Display string (by default the
session name) to the left of the status bar.
string will be passed through
strftime(3) and formats (see
FORMATS) will be expanded. It may
also contain any of the following special character sequences:
Character pair |
Replaced with |
#(shell-command) |
First line of the command's output |
#[attributes] |
Colour or attribute change |
## |
A literal
‘# ’ |
The #(shell-command) form executes
‘shell-command
’ and inserts the
first line of its output. Note that shell commands are only executed
once at the interval specified by the
status-interval option: if the status line is
redrawn in the meantime, the previous result is used. Shell commands
are executed with the tmux global environment set
(see the ENVIRONMENT section).
For details on how the names and titles can be set see the
NAMES AND TITLES section.
For a list of allowed attributes see the
message-command-style option.
Examples are:
#(sysctl vm.loadavg)
#[fg=yellow,bold]#(apm -l)%%#[default] [#S]
Where appropriate, special character sequences may be prefixed with a
number to specify the maximum length, for example
‘#24T
’.
By default, UTF-8 in string is not interpreted, to
enable UTF-8, use the status-utf8 option.
- status-left-length
length
- Set the maximum length of the
left component of the status bar. The default is 10.
- status-left-style
style
- Set the style of the left part of the status line. For
how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- status-position
[top |
bottom]
- Set the position of the status line.
- status-right
string
- Display string to the right of
the status bar. By default, the current window title in double quotes,
the date and the time are shown. As with
status-left, string will be
passed to strftime(3), character pairs are replaced,
and UTF-8 is dependent on the status-utf8
option.
- status-right-length
length
- Set the maximum length of the
right component of the status bar. The default is 40.
- status-right-style
style
- Set the style of the right part of the status line. For
how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- status-style
style
- Set status line style. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option.
- status-utf8
[on |
off]
- Instruct tmux to treat top-bit-set
characters in the status-left and
status-right strings as UTF-8; notably, this is
important for wide characters. This option defaults to off.
- terminal-overrides
string
- Contains a list of entries which override terminal
descriptions read using terminfo(5).
string is a comma-separated list of items each a
colon-separated string made up of a terminal type pattern (matched
using fnmatch(3)) and a set of
name=value entries.
For example, to set the ‘
clear
’
terminfo(5) entry to
‘\e[H\e[2J
’ for all terminal types
and the ‘dch1
’ entry to
‘\e[P
’ for the
‘rxvt
’ terminal type, the option
could be set to the string:
"*:clear=\e[H\e[2J,rxvt:dch1=\e[P"
The terminal entry value is passed through strunvis(3)
before interpretation. The default value forcibly corrects the
‘colors
’ entry for terminals which
support 256 colours:
"*256col*:colors=256,xterm*:XT"
- update-environment
variables
- Set a space-separated string containing a list of
environment variables to be copied into the session environment when a
new session is created or an existing session is attached. Any
variables that do not exist in the source environment are set to be
removed from the session environment (as if -r was
given to the set-environment command). The default
is "DISPLAY SSH_ASKPASS SSH_AUTH_SOCK SSH_AGENT_PID
SSH_CONNECTION WINDOWID XAUTHORITY".
- visual-activity
[on |
off]
- If on, display a status line message when activity
occurs in a window for which the monitor-activity
window option is enabled.
- visual-bell
[on |
off]
- If this option is on, a message is shown on a bell
instead of it being passed through to the terminal (which normally
makes a sound). Also see the bell-action
option.
- visual-content
[on |
off]
- Like visual-activity, display a
message when content is present in a window for which the
monitor-content window option is enabled.
- visual-silence
[on |
off]
- If monitor-silence is enabled, prints
a message after the interval has expired on a given window.
- word-separators
string
- Sets the session's conception of what characters are
considered word separators, for the purposes of the next and previous
word commands in copy mode. The default is
‘
-_@
’.
- set-window-option
[-agoqu]
[-t
target-window] option
value
-
(alias: setw)
Set a window option. The -a, -g,
-o, -q and -u flags
work similarly to the set-option command.
Supported window options are:
- aggressive-resize
[on |
off]
- Aggressively resize the chosen window. This means that
tmux will resize the window to the size of the
smallest session for which it is the current window, rather than the
smallest session to which it is attached. The window may resize when
the current window is changed on another sessions; this option is good
for full-screen programs which support
SIGWINCH
and poor for interactive programs
such as shells.
- allow-rename
[on |
off]
- Allow programs to change the window name using a
terminal escape sequence (\033k...\033\\). The default is on.
- alternate-screen
[on |
off]
- This option configures whether programs running inside
tmux may use the terminal alternate screen feature,
which allows the smcup and rmcup
terminfo(5) capabilities. The alternate screen
feature preserves the contents of the window when an interactive
application starts and restores it on exit, so that any output visible
before the application starts reappears unchanged after it exits. The
default is on.
- automatic-rename
[on |
off]
- Control automatic window renaming. When this setting is
enabled, tmux will rename the window automatically
using the format specified by
automatic-rename-format. This flag is automatically
disabled for an individual window when a name is specified at creation
with new-window or new-session, or
later with rename-window, or with a terminal escape
sequence. It may be switched off globally with:
set-window-option -g automatic-rename off
- automatic-rename-format
format
- The format (see
FORMATS) used when the
automatic-rename option is enabled.
- c0-change-interval
interval
-
- c0-change-trigger
trigger
- These two options configure a simple form of rate
limiting for a pane. If tmux sees more than
trigger C0 sequences that modify the screen (for
example, carriage returns, linefeeds or backspaces) in one
millisecond, it will stop updating the pane immediately and instead
redraw it entirely every interval milliseconds.
This helps to prevent fast output (such as yes(1))
overwhelming the terminal. The default is a trigger of 250 and an
interval of 100. A trigger of zero disables the rate limiting.
- clock-mode-colour
colour
- Set clock colour.
- clock-mode-style
[12 |
24]
- Set clock hour format.
- force-height
height
-
- force-width
width
- Prevent tmux from resizing a window
to greater than width or
height. A value of zero restores the default
unlimited setting.
- main-pane-height
height
-
- main-pane-width
width
- Set the width or height of the main (left or top) pane
in the main-horizontal or
main-vertical layouts.
- mode-keys
[vi |
emacs]
- Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in copy and choice
modes. As with the status-keys option, the default
is emacs, unless
VISUAL
or
EDITOR
contains
‘vi
’.
- mode-mouse
[on | off |
copy-mode]
- Mouse state in modes. If on, the mouse may be used to
enter copy mode and copy a selection by dragging, to enter copy mode
and scroll with the mouse wheel, or to select an option in choice
mode. If set to copy-mode, the mouse behaves as set
to on, but cannot be used to enter copy mode.
- mode-style
style
- Set window modes style. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option.
- monitor-activity
[on |
off]
- Monitor for activity in the window. Windows with
activity are highlighted in the status line.
- monitor-content
match-string
- Monitor content in the window. When
fnmatch(3) pattern
match-string appears in the window, it is
highlighted in the status line.
- monitor-silence
[interval]
- Monitor for silence (no activity) in the window within
interval seconds. Windows that have been silent for
the interval are highlighted in the status line. An interval of zero
disables the monitoring.
- other-pane-height
height
- Set the height of the other panes (not the main pane)
in the main-horizontal layout. If this option is set
to 0 (the default), it will have no effect. If both the
main-pane-height and
other-pane-height options are set, the main pane
will grow taller to make the other panes the specified height, but
will never shrink to do so.
- other-pane-width
width
- Like other-pane-height, but set the
width of other panes in the main-vertical layout.
- pane-base-index
index
- Like base-index, but set the starting
index for pane numbers.
- remain-on-exit
[on |
off]
- A window with this flag set is not destroyed when the
program running in it exits. The window may be reactivated with the
respawn-window command.
- synchronize-panes
[on |
off]
- Duplicate input to any pane to all other panes in the
same window (only for panes that are not in any special mode).
- utf8
[on |
off]
- Instructs tmux to expect UTF-8
sequences to appear in this window.
- window-status-activity-style
style
- Set status line style for windows with an activity
alert. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- window-status-bell-style
style
- Set status line style for windows with a bell alert.
For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- window-status-content-style
style
- Set status line style for windows with a content alert.
For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- window-status-current-format
string
- Like window-status-format, but is
the format used when the window is the current window.
- window-status-current-style
style
- Set status line style for the currently active window.
For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- window-status-format
string
- Set the format in which the window is displayed in the
status line window list. See the status-left
option for details of special character sequences available. The
default is ‘
#I:#W#F
’.
- window-status-last-style
style
- Set status line style for the last active window. For
how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- window-status-separator
string
- Sets the separator drawn between windows in the status
line. The default is a single space character.
- window-status-style
style
- Set status line style for a single window. For how to
specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- xterm-keys
[on |
off]
- If this option is set, tmux will
generate xterm(1) -style function key sequences;
these have a number included to indicate modifiers such as Shift, Alt
or Ctrl. The default is off.
- wrap-search
[on |
off]
- If this option is set, searches will wrap around the
end of the pane contents. The default is on.
- show-options
[-gqsvw]
[-t target-session
| target-window]
[option]
-
(alias: show)
Show the window options (or a single window option if given) with
-w (equivalent to
show-window-options), the server options with
-s, otherwise the session options for
target session. Global session or window options are
listed if -g is used. -v shows only
the option value, not the name. If -q is set, no error
will be returned if option is unset.
- show-window-options
[-gv]
[-t
target-window]
[option]
-
(alias: showw)
List the window options or a single option for
target-window, or the global window options if
-g is used. -v shows only the option
value, not the name.
Certain commands accept the
-F flag with a
format argument. This is a string which controls the
output format of the command. Replacement variables are enclosed in
‘
#{
’ and
‘
}
’, for example
‘
#{session_name}
’. Some variables also
have an shorter alias such as ‘
#S
’.
‘
##
’ is replaced by a single
‘
#
’. Conditionals are also accepted by
prefixing with ‘
?
’ and separating two
alternatives with a comma; if the specified variable exists and is not zero,
the first alternative is chosen, otherwise the second is used. For example
‘
#{?session_attached,attached,not
attached}
’ will include the string
‘
attached
’ if the session is attached and
the string ‘
not attached
’ if it is
unattached. A limit may be placed on the length of the resultant string by
prefixing it by an ‘
=
’, a number and a
colon, so ‘
#{=10:pane_title}
’ will include
at most the first 10 characters of the pane title.
The following variables are available, where appropriate:
Variable name |
Alias |
Replaced with |
alternate_on |
|
If pane is in alternate screen |
alternate_saved_x |
|
Saved cursor X in alternate screen |
alternate_saved_y |
|
Saved cursor Y in alternate screen |
buffer_sample |
|
First 50 characters from buffer |
buffer_size |
|
Size of the specified buffer in bytes |
client_activity |
|
Integer time client last had activity |
client_activity_string |
|
String time client last had activity |
client_created |
|
Integer time client created |
client_created_string |
|
String time client created |
client_height |
|
Height of client |
client_last_session |
|
Name of the client's last session |
client_prefix |
|
1 if prefix key has been pressed |
client_readonly |
|
1 if client is readonly |
client_session |
|
Name of the client's session |
client_termname |
|
Terminal name of client |
client_tty |
|
Pseudo terminal of client |
client_utf8 |
|
1 if client supports utf8 |
client_width |
|
Width of client |
cursor_flag |
|
Pane cursor flag |
cursor_x |
|
Cursor X position in pane |
cursor_y |
|
Cursor Y position in pane |
history_bytes |
|
Number of bytes in window history |
history_limit |
|
Maximum window history lines |
history_size |
|
Size of history in bytes |
host |
#H |
Hostname of local host |
host_short |
#h |
Hostname of local host (no domain name) |
insert_flag |
|
Pane insert flag |
keypad_cursor_flag |
|
Pane keypad cursor flag |
keypad_flag |
|
Pane keypad flag |
line |
|
Line number in the list |
mouse_any_flag |
|
Pane mouse any flag |
mouse_button_flag |
|
Pane mouse button flag |
mouse_standard_flag |
|
Pane mouse standard flag |
mouse_utf8_flag |
|
Pane mouse UTF-8 flag |
pane_active |
|
1 if active pane |
pane_current_command |
|
Current command if available |
pane_current_path |
|
Current path if available |
pane_dead |
|
1 if pane is dead |
pane_height |
|
Height of pane |
pane_id |
#D |
Unique pane ID |
pane_in_mode |
|
If pane is in a mode |
pane_synchronized |
|
If pane is synchronized |
pane_index |
#P |
Index of pane |
pane_pid |
|
PID of first process in pane |
pane_start_command |
|
Command pane started with |
pane_start_path |
|
Path pane started with |
pane_tabs |
|
Pane tab positions |
pane_title |
#T |
Title of pane |
pane_tty |
|
Pseudo terminal of pane |
pane_width |
|
Width of pane |
saved_cursor_x |
|
Saved cursor X in pane |
saved_cursor_y |
|
Saved cursor Y in pane |
scroll_region_lower |
|
Bottom of scroll region in pane |
scroll_region_upper |
|
Top of scroll region in pane |
session_attached |
|
1 if session attached |
session_created |
|
Integer time session created |
session_created_string |
|
String time session created |
session_group |
|
Number of session group |
session_grouped |
|
1 if session in a group |
session_height |
|
Height of session |
session_id |
|
Unique session ID |
session_name |
#S |
Name of session |
session_width |
|
Width of session |
session_windows |
|
Number of windows in session |
window_active |
|
1 if window active |
window_activity_flag |
|
1 if window has activity alert |
window_bell_flag |
|
1 if window has bell |
window_content_flag |
|
1 if window has content alert |
window_find_matches |
|
Matched data from the find-window |
window_flags |
#F |
Window flags |
window_height |
|
Height of window |
window_id |
|
Unique window ID |
window_index |
#I |
Index of window |
window_layout |
|
Window layout description |
window_name |
#W |
Name of window |
window_panes |
|
Number of panes in window |
window_silence_flag |
|
1 if window has silence alert |
window_width |
|
Width of window |
wrap_flag |
|
Pane wrap flag |
NAMES AND TITLES¶
tmux distinguishes between names and titles. Windows and
sessions have names, which may be used to specify them in targets and are
displayed in the status line and various lists: the name is the
tmux identifier for a window or session. Only panes have
titles. A pane's title is typically set by the program running inside the pane
and is not modified by
tmux. It is the same mechanism used
to set for example the
xterm(1) window title in an
X(7) window manager. Windows themselves do not have titles -
a window's title is the title of its active pane.
tmux
itself may set the title of the terminal in which the client is running, see
the
set-titles option.
A session's name is set with the
new-session and
rename-session commands. A window's name is set with one of:
- A command argument (such as -n for
new-window or new-session).
- An escape sequence:
$ printf '\033kWINDOW_NAME\033\\'
- Automatic renaming, which sets the name to the active
command in the window's active pane. See the
automatic-rename option.
When a pane is first created, its title is the hostname. A pane's title can be
set via the OSC title setting sequence, for example:
$ printf '\033]2;My Title\033\\'
ENVIRONMENT¶
When the server is started,
tmux copies the environment into
the
global environment; in addition, each session has a
session environment. When a window is created, the session
and global environments are merged. If a variable exists in both, the value
from the session environment is used. The result is the initial environment
passed to the new process.
The
update-environment session option may be used to update
the session environment from the client when a new session is created or an
old reattached.
tmux also initialises the
TMUX
variable with some internal information to allow
commands to be executed from inside, and the
TERM
variable with the correct terminal setting of
‘
screen
’.
Commands to alter and view the environment are:
- set-environment
[-gru]
[-t
target-session] name
[value]
-
(alias: setenv)
Set or unset an environment variable. If -g is used, the
change is made in the global environment; otherwise, it is applied to the
session environment for target-session. The
-u flag unsets a variable. -r
indicates the variable is to be removed from the environment before
starting a new process.
- show-environment
[-g]
[-t
target-session]
[variable]
-
(alias: showenv)
Display the environment for target-session or the
global environment with -g. If
variable is omitted, all variables are shown.
Variables removed from the environment are prefixed with
‘-
’.
STATUS LINE¶
tmux includes an optional status line which is displayed in
the bottom line of each terminal. By default, the status line is enabled (it
may be disabled with the
status session option) and
contains, from left-to-right: the name of the current session in square
brackets; the window list; the title of the active pane in double quotes; and
the time and date.
The status line is made of three parts: configurable left and right sections
(which may contain dynamic content such as the time or output from a shell
command, see the
status-left,
status-left-length,
status-right, and
status-right-length options below), and a central window
list. By default, the window list shows the index, name and (if any) flag of
the windows present in the current session in ascending numerical order. It
may be customised with the
window-status-format and
window-status-current-format options. The flag is one of
the following symbols appended to the window name:
Symbol |
Meaning |
* |
Denotes the current window. |
- |
Marks the last window (previously selected). |
# |
Window is monitored and activity has been
detected. |
! |
A bell has occurred in the window. |
+ |
Window is monitored for content and it has
appeared. |
~ |
The window has been silent for the monitor-silence
interval. |
Z |
The window's active pane is zoomed. |
The # symbol relates to the
monitor-activity and + to the
monitor-content window options. The window name is printed
in inverted colours if an alert (bell, activity or content) is present.
The colour and attributes of the status line may be configured, the entire
status line using the
status-style session option and
individual windows using the
window-status-style window
option.
The status line is automatically refreshed at interval if it has changed, the
interval may be controlled with the
status-interval session
option.
Commands related to the status line are as follows:
- command-prompt
[-I inputs]
[-p prompts]
[-t
target-client]
[template]
- Open the command prompt in a client. This may be used from
inside tmux to execute commands interactively.
If template is specified, it is used as the command.
If present, -I is a comma-separated list of the initial
text for each prompt. If -p is given,
prompts is a comma-separated list of prompts which
are displayed in order; otherwise a single prompt is displayed,
constructed from template if it is present, or
‘
:
’ if not.
Both inputs and prompts may
contain the special character sequences supported by the
status-left option.
Before the command is executed, the first occurrence of the string
‘%%
’ and all occurrences of
‘%1
’ are replaced by the response to
the first prompt, the second ‘%%
’ and
all ‘%2
’ are replaced with the
response to the second prompt, and so on for further prompts. Up to nine
prompt responses may be replaced (‘%1
’
to ‘%9
’).
- confirm-before
[-p prompt]
[-t
target-client]
command
-
(alias: confirm)
Ask for confirmation before executing command. If
-p is given, prompt is the prompt
to display; otherwise a prompt is constructed from
command. It may contain the special character
sequences supported by the status-left option.
This command works only from inside tmux.
- display-message
[-p]
[-c
target-client]
[-t
target-pane]
[message]
-
(alias: display)
Display a message. If -p is given, the output is printed
to stdout, otherwise it is displayed in the
target-client status line. The format of
message is described in the
FORMATS section; information is taken
from target-pane if -t is given,
otherwise the active pane for the session attached to
target-client.
BUFFERS¶
tmux maintains a stack of
paste buffers. Up
to the value of the
buffer-limit option are kept; when a new
buffer is added, the buffer at the bottom of the stack is removed. Buffers may
be added using
copy-mode or the
set-buffer
command, and pasted into a window using the
paste-buffer
command.
A configurable history buffer is also maintained for each window. By default, up
to 2000 lines are kept; this can be altered with the
history-limit option (see the
set-option
command above).
The buffer commands are as follows:
- choose-buffer
[-F format]
[-t
target-window]
[template]
- Put a window into buffer choice mode, where a buffer may be
chosen interactively from a list. After a buffer is selected,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the buffer index
in template and the result executed as a command. If
template is not given, "paste-buffer -b
'%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see
the FORMATS section. This command works
only if at least one client is attached.
- clear-history
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: clearhist)
Remove and free the history for the specified pane.
- delete-buffer
[-b
buffer-index]
-
(alias: deleteb)
Delete the buffer at buffer-index, or the top buffer
if not specified.
- list-buffers
[-F
format]
-
(alias: lsb)
List the global buffers. For the meaning of the -F flag,
see the FORMATS section.
- load-buffer
[-b
buffer-index] path
-
(alias: loadb)
Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from
path.
- paste-buffer
[-dpr]
[-b
buffer-index]
[-s
separator]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: pasteb)
Insert the contents of a paste buffer into the specified pane. If not
specified, paste into the current one. With -d, also
delete the paste buffer from the stack. When output, any linefeed (LF)
characters in the paste buffer are replaced with a separator, by default
carriage return (CR). A custom separator may be specified using the
-s flag. The -r flag means to do no
replacement (equivalent to a separator of LF). If -p is
specified, paste bracket control codes are inserted around the buffer if
the application has requested bracketed paste mode.
- save-buffer
[-a]
[-b
buffer-index] path
-
(alias: saveb)
Save the contents of the specified paste buffer to
path. The -a option appends to
rather than overwriting the file.
- set-buffer
[-b
buffer-index] data
-
(alias: setb)
Set the contents of the specified buffer to data.
- show-buffer
[-b
buffer-index]
-
(alias: showb)
Display the contents of the specified buffer.
MISCELLANEOUS¶
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
- clock-mode
[-t
target-pane]
- Display a large clock.
- if-shell
[-b]
[-t
target-pane] shell-command
command [command]
-
(alias: if)
Execute the first command if
shell-command returns success or the second
command otherwise. Before being executed,
shell-command is expanded using the rules specified in the
FORMATS section, including those
relevant to target-pane. With -b,
shell-command is run in the background.
- lock-server
-
(alias: lock)
Lock each client individually by running the command specified by the
lock-command option.
- run-shell
[-b]
[-t
target-pane]
shell-command
-
(alias: run)
Execute shell-command in the background without
creating a window. Before being executed, shell-command is expanded using
the rules specified in the FORMATS
section. With -b, the command is run in the background.
After it finishes, any output to stdout is displayed in copy mode (in the
pane specified by -t or the current pane if omitted). If
the command doesn't return success, the exit status is also
displayed.
- wait-for
[-L | -S |
-U] channel
-
(alias: wait)
When used without options, prevents the client from exiting until woken
using wait-for -S with the same
channel. When -L is used, the channel is locked and any
clients that try to lock the same channel are made to wait until the
channel is unlocked with wait-for -U.
This command only works from outside tmux.
TERMINFO EXTENSIONS¶
tmux understands some extensions to
terminfo(5):
- Cs,
Cr
- Set the cursor colour. The first takes a single string
argument and is used to set the colour; the second takes no arguments and
restores the default cursor colour. If set, a sequence such as this may be
used to change the cursor colour from inside tmux:
$ printf '\033]12;red\033\\'
- Ss,
Se
- Change the cursor style. If set, a sequence such as this
may be used to change the cursor to an underline:
If Csr is set, it will be used to reset the cursor style
instead of Cs.
- Ms
- This sequence can be used by tmux to
store the current buffer in the host terminal's selection (clipboard). See
the set-clipboard option above and the
xterm(1) man page.
CONTROL MODE¶
tmux offers a textual interface called
control
mode. This allows applications to communicate with
tmux
using a simple text-only protocol.
In control mode, a client sends
tmux commands or command
sequences terminated by newlines on standard input. Each command will produce
one block of output on standard output. An output block consists of a
%begin line followed by the output (which may be empty). The
output block ends with a
%end or
%error.
%begin and matching
%end or
%error have two arguments: an integer time (as seconds from
epoch) and command number. For example:
%begin 1363006971 2
0: ksh* (1 panes) [80x24] [layout b25f,80x24,0,0,2] @2 (active)
%end 1363006971 2
In control mode,
tmux outputs notifications. A notification
will never occur inside an output block.
The following notifications are defined:
- %exit
[reason]
- The tmux client is exiting immediately,
either because it is not attached to any session or an error occurred. If
present, reason describes why the client
exited.
- %layout-change
window-id window-layout
- The layout of a window with ID
window-id changed. The new layout is
window-layout.
- %output
pane-id value
- A window pane produced output. value
escapes non-printable characters and backslash as octal \xxx.
- %session-changed
session-id name
- The client is now attached to the session with ID
session-id, which is named
name.
- %session-renamed
name
- The current session was renamed to
name.
- %sessions-changed
- A session was created or destroyed.
- %unlinked-window-add
window-id
- The window with ID window-id was
created but is not linked to the current session.
- %window-add
window-id
- The window with ID window-id was
linked to the current session.
- %window-close
window-id
- The window with ID window-id
closed.
- %window-renamed
window-id name
- The window with ID window-id was
renamed to name.
FILES¶
- ~/.tmux.conf
- Default tmux configuration file.
- /etc/tmux.conf
- System-wide configuration file.
EXAMPLES¶
To create a new
tmux session running
vi(1):
$ tmux new-session vi
Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For new-session, this is
new:
$ tmux new vi
Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is accepted. If there
are several options, they are listed:
$ tmux n
ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing
‘
C-b c
’ (Ctrl followed by the
‘
b
’ key followed by the
‘
c
’ key).
Windows may be navigated with: ‘
C-b 0
’ (to
select window 0), ‘
C-b 1
’ (to select
window 1), and so on; ‘
C-b n
’ to select
the next window; and ‘
C-b p
’ to select the
previous window.
A session may be detached using ‘
C-b d
’ (or
by an external event such as
ssh(1) disconnection) and
reattached with:
$ tmux attach-session
Typing ‘
C-b ?
’ lists the current key
bindings in the current window; up and down may be used to navigate the list
or ‘
q
’ to exit from it.
Commands to be run when the
tmux server is started may be
placed in the
~/.tmux.conf configuration file. Common
examples include:
Changing the default prefix key:
set-option -g prefix C-a
unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a send-prefix
Turning the status line off, or changing its colour:
set-option -g status off
set-option -g status-style bg=blue
Setting other options, such as the default command, or locking after 30 minutes
of inactivity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh"
set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status
bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
SEE ALSO¶
pty(4)
AUTHORS¶
Nicholas Marriott
<
nicm@users.sourceforge.net>