tmux —
terminal
multiplexer
| tmux |
[-2Cluv]
[-c shell-command]
[-f file]
[-L socket-name]
[-S socket-path]
[command [flags]] |
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 or
/tmp if it is 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 (note that
this will fail if any parent directories are missing).
-
-
- -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.
-
-
- -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
- When starting, tmux looks for
the
LC_ALL,
LC_CTYPE and
LANG environment variables: if the
first found contains ‘UTF-8’, then
the terminal is assumed to support UTF-8. This is not always correct: the
-u flag explicitly informs
tmux that UTF-8 is supported.
Note that tmux itself always accepts UTF-8;
this controls whether it will send UTF-8 characters to the terminal it is
running (if not, they are replaced by
‘_’).
-
-
- -v
- Request verbose logging. 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.
If -v is specified twice, an additional
tmux-out-PID.log file is generated with a
copy of everything tmux writes to the
terminal.
The
SIGUSR2 signal may be sent to the
tmux server process to toggle logging between
on (as if -v was given) and off.
-
-
- 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.
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.
- (
- Switch the attached client to the previous session.
- )
- Switch the attached client to the next session.
- ,
- 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.
- L
- Switch the attached client back to the last session.
- [
- 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.
- m
- Mark the current pane (see
select-pane
-m).
- M
- Clear the marked pane.
- s
- Select a new session for the attached client
interactively.
- t
- Show the time.
- w
- Choose the current window interactively.
- x
- Kill the current pane.
- z
- Toggle zoom state of 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.
- Space
- Arrange the current window in the next preset layout.
- 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.
This section contains a list of the commands supported by
tmux. Most commands accept the optional
-t (and sometimes
-s) 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 should be the name of the client,
typically 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,
tmux attempts to work out
the client currently in use; if that fails, an error is reported. Clients may
be listed with the
list-clients command.
target-session is tried as, in order:
- A session ID prefixed with a $.
- An exact name of a session (as listed by the
list-sessions command).
- The start of a session name, for example
‘
mysess’ would match a session named
‘mysession’.
- An
fnmatch(3) pattern which is
matched against the session name.
If the session name is prefixed with an
‘
=’, only an exact match is accepted (so
‘
=mysess’ will only match exactly
‘
mysess’, not
‘
mysession’).
If a single session 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 (or
src-window or
dst-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 special token, listed below.
- A window index, for example
‘
mysession:1’ is window 1 in session
‘mysession’.
- A window ID, such as @1.
- An exact window name, such as
‘
mysession:mywindow’.
- The start of a window name, such as
‘
mysession:mywin’.
- As an
fnmatch(3) pattern matched
against the window name.
Like sessions, a ‘
=’ prefix will do an
exact match only. 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 following special tokens are available to indicate particular windows. Each
has a single-character alternative form.
| Token |
|
Meaning |
{start} |
^ |
The lowest-numbered window |
{end} |
$ |
The highest-numbered window |
{last} |
! |
The last (previously current) window |
{next} |
+ |
The next window by number |
{previous} |
- |
The previous window by number |
target-pane (or
src-pane or
dst-pane) may be a pane ID or takes a similar
form to
target-window but with the optional
addition of a period followed by a pane index or pane ID, for example:
‘
mysession:mywindow.1’. If the pane
index is omitted, the currently active pane in the specified window is used.
The following special tokens are available for the pane index:
The tokens ‘
+’ and
‘
-’ may be followed by an offset, for
example:
In addition,
target-session,
target-window or
target-pane may consist entirely of the token
‘
{mouse}’ (alternative form
‘
=’) to specify the most recent mouse
event (see the
MOUSE
SUPPORT section) or ‘
{marked}’
(alternative form ‘
~’) to specify the
marked pane (see
select-pane
-m).
Sessions, window and panes are each numbered with a unique ID; session IDs are
prefixed with a ‘
$’, windows with a
‘
@’, and panes with a
‘
%’. These are unique and are unchanged
for the life of the session, window or pane in the
tmux server. The pane ID is passed to the child
process of the pane in the
TMUX_PANE
environment variable. IDs may be displayed using the
‘
session_id’,
‘
window_id’, or
‘
pane_id’ formats (see the
FORMATS section) and the
display-message,
list-sessions,
list-windows or
list-panes commands.
shell-command arguments are
sh(1) commands. This may be a single
argument passed to the shell, for example:
new-window 'vi /etc/passwd'
Will run:
/bin/sh -c 'vi /etc/passwd'
Additionally, the
new-window,
new-session,
split-window,
respawn-window and
respawn-pane commands allow
shell-command to be given as multiple
arguments and executed directly (without ‘
sh
-c’). This can avoid issues with shell quoting. For example:
$ tmux new-window vi /etc/passwd
Will run
vi(1) directly without
invoking the shell.
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
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
[-dEr]
[-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.
If -E is used, the
update-environment option will not be
applied.
-
-
- detach-client
[-aP]
[-E
shell-command]
[-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. With -E, run
shell-command to replace the client.
-
-
- 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
[-aC]
[-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. The -C flag clears alerts
(bell, activity, or silence) in all windows linked to the session.
-
-
- 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
[-F
format]
-
(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
[-AdDEP]
[-c
start-directory]
[-F
format]
[-n
window-name]
[-s
session-name]
[-t
group-name]
[-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. With
-d, the initial size is 80 x 24;
-x and -y can be
used to specify a different size.
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 this
case, -D behaves like
-d to
attach-session.
If -t is given, it specifies a
session group. Sessions in the same group
share the same set of windows - new windows are linked to all sessions in
the group and any windows closed removed from all sessions. The current
and previous window and any session options remain independent and any
session in a group may be killed without affecting the others. The
group-name argument may be:
- the name of an existing group, in which case the new
session is added to that group;
- the name of an existing session - the new session is
added to the same group as that session, creating a new group if
necessary;
- the name for a new group containing only the new
session.
-n and
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.
If -E is used, the
update-environment option will not be
applied.
-
-
- refresh-client
[-C
width,height]
[-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 line.
-C sets the width and height of a control
client.
-
-
- rename-session
[-t
target-session]
new-name
-
(alias: rename)
Rename the session to new-name.
-
-
- show-messages
[-JT]
[-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 server
option. With -t, display the log for
target-client.
-J and -T show
debugging information about jobs and terminals.
-
-
- source-file
[-q]
path
-
(alias: source)
Execute commands from path (which may be a
glob(3) pattern). If
-q is given, no error will be returned if
path does not exist.
Within a configuration file, commands may be made conditional by surrounding
them with %if and
%endif lines. Additional
%elif and %else
lines may also be used. The argument to %if
and %elif is expanded as a format and if it
evaluates to false (zero or empty), subsequent lines are ignored until the
next %elif,
%else or %endif.
For example:
%if #{==:#{host},myhost}
set -g status-style bg=red
%elif #{==:#{host},myotherhost}
set -g status-style bg=green
%else
set -g status-style bg=blue
%endif
Will change the status line to red if running on
‘myhost’, green if running on
‘myotherhost’, or blue if running on
another host.
-
-
- 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
[-Elnpr]
[-c
target-client]
[-t
target-session]
[-T
key-table]
-
(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).
If -E is used,
update-environment option will not be
applied.
-T sets the client's key table; the next key
from the client will be interpreted from
key-table. This may be used to configure
multiple prefix keys, or to bind commands to sequences of keys. For
example, to make typing ‘abc’ run
the list-keys command:
bind-key -Ttable2 c list-keys
bind-key -Ttable1 b switch-client -Ttable2
bind-key -Troot a switch-client -Ttable1
A
tmux window may be in one of two 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.
Commands are sent to copy mode using the
-X flag to
the
send-keys command. When a key is pressed,
copy mode automatically uses one of two key tables, depending on the
mode-keys option:
copy-mode for emacs, or
copy-mode-vi for vi. Key tables may be viewed
with the
list-keys command.
The following commands are supported in copy mode:
The ‘
-and-cancel’ variants of some
commands exit copy mode after they have completed (for copy commands) or when
the cursor reaches the bottom (for scrolling commands).
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.
The synopsis for the
copy-mode command is:
-
-
- copy-mode
[-Meu]
[-t
target-pane]
- Enter copy mode. The -u option
scrolls one page up. -M begins a mouse drag
(only valid if bound to a mouse key binding, see
MOUSE SUPPORT).
-e specifies that scrolling to the bottom of
the history (to the visible screen) should exit copy mode. While in copy
mode, pressing a key other than those used for scrolling will disable this
behaviour. This is intended to allow fast scrolling through a pane's
history, for example with:
bind PageUp copy-mode -eu
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]
[-n
window-name]
[-s
src-pane]
[-t
dst-window]
-
(alias: breakp)
Break src-pane off from its containing
window to make it the only pane in
dst-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
[-aepPqCJ]
[-b
buffer-name]
[-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.
‘-’ to
-S is the start of the history and to
-E the end of the visible pane. The default
is to capture only the visible contents of the pane.
-
-
- choose-client
[-N]
[-F
format]
[-f
filter]
[-O
sort-order]
[-t
target-pane]
[template]
- Put a pane into client mode, allowing a client to be
selected interactively from a list. The following keys may be used in
client mode:
| Key |
Function |
Enter |
Choose selected client |
Up |
Select previous client |
Down |
Select next client |
C-s |
Search by name |
n |
Repeat last search |
t |
Toggle if client is tagged |
T |
Tag no clients |
C-t |
Tag all clients |
d |
Detach selected client |
D |
Detach tagged clients |
x |
Detach and HUP selected client |
X |
Detach and HUP tagged clients |
z |
Suspend selected client |
Z |
Suspend tagged clients |
f |
Enter a format to filter items |
O |
Change sort order |
v |
Toggle preview |
q |
Exit mode |
After a client is chosen, ‘%%’ is
replaced by the client name in template
and the result executed as a command. If
template is not given,
"detach-client -t '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of
‘name’,
‘size’,
‘creation’, or
‘activity’.
-f specifies an initial filter: the filter is
a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list is not shown,
otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is
ignored. -F specifies the format for each
item in the list. -N starts without the
preview. This command works only if at least one client is attached.
-
-
- choose-tree
[-GNsw]
[-F
format]
[-f
filter]
[-O
sort-order]
[-t
target-pane]
[template]
- Put a pane into tree mode, where a session, window or pane
may be chosen interactively from a list. -s
starts with sessions collapsed and -w with
windows collapsed. The following keys may be used in tree mode:
| Key |
Function |
Enter |
Choose selected item |
Up |
Select previous item |
Down |
Select next item |
< |
Scroll list of previews left |
> |
Scroll list of previews right |
C-s |
Search by name |
n |
Repeat last search |
t |
Toggle if item is tagged |
T |
Tag no items |
C-t |
Tag all items |
: |
Run a command for each tagged item |
f |
Enter a format to filter items |
O |
Change sort order |
v |
Toggle preview |
q |
Exit mode |
After a session, window or pane is chosen,
‘%%’ is replaced by the target in
template and the result executed as a
command. If template is not given,
"switch-client -t '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of
‘index’,
‘name’, or
‘time’.
-f specifies an initial filter: the filter is
a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list is not shown,
otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is
ignored. -F specifies the format for each
item in the tree. -N starts without the
preview. -G includes all sessions in any
session groups in the tree rather than only the first. This command works
only if at least one client is attached.
-
-
- display-panes
[-d
duration]
[-t
target-client]
[template]
-
(alias: displayp)
Display a visible indicator of each pane shown by
target-client. See the
display-panes-colour and
display-panes-active-colour session options.
The indicator is closed when a key is pressed or
duration milliseconds have passed. If
-d is not given,
display-panes-time is used. A duration of
zero means the indicator stays until a key is pressed. While the indicator
is on screen, a pane may be chosen with the
‘0’ to
‘9’ keys, which will cause
template to be executed as a command with
‘%%’ substituted by the pane ID. The
default template is "select-pane -t
'%%'".
-
-
- find-window
[-CNT]
[-t
target-pane]
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.
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.
If -s is omitted and a marked pane is present
(see select-pane
-m), the marked pane is used rather than the
current 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
[-de]
[-t
target-window]
-
(alias: lastp)
Select the last (previously selected) pane. -e
enables or -d disables input to the
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
[-adk]
[-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. With -a, the window is moved to the
next index up (following windows are moved if necessary). 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
[-ardk]
[-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’ or
‘tmux’ 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
[-DLMRUZ]
[-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).
-M begins mouse resizing (only valid if bound
to a mouse key binding, see
MOUSE SUPPORT).
-
-
- respawn-pane
[-c
start-directory]
[-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. -c specifies
a new working directory for the pane.
-
-
- respawn-window
[-c
start-directory]
[-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. -c specifies
a new working directory for the window.
-
-
- 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
[-Enop]
[-t
target-pane]
[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.
-o applies the last set layout if possible
(undoes the most recent layout change). -E
spreads the current pane and any panes next to it out evenly.
-
-
- select-pane
[-DdegLlMmRU]
[-P
style]
[-T
title]
[-t
target-pane]
-
(alias: selectp)
Make pane target-pane the active pane in
window target-window, or set its style
(with -P). 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.
-e enables or -d
disables input to the pane.
-m and -M are used
to set and clear the marked pane. There is
one marked pane at a time, setting a new marked pane clears the last. The
marked pane is the default target for -s to
join-pane,
swap-pane and
swap-window.
Each pane has a style: by default the
window-style and
window-active-style options are used,
select-pane -P
sets the style for a single pane. For example, to set the pane 1
background to red:
select-pane -t:.1 -P 'bg=red'
-g shows the current pane style.
-T sets the pane title.
-
-
- 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
[-bdfhvP]
[-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. The
-b option causes the new pane to be created
to the left of or above target-pane. The
-f option creates a new pane spanning the
full window height (with -h) or full window
width (with -v), instead of splitting the
active pane. 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.
If -s is omitted and a marked pane is present
(see select-pane
-m), the marked pane is used rather than the
current 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.
Like swap-pane, if
-s is omitted and a marked pane is present
(see select-pane
-m), the window containing the marked pane is
used rather than the current 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.
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
F12,
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
[-nr]
[-T
key-table]
key
command
[arguments]
-
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to
command. Keys are bound in a key table.
By default (without -T), the key is bound in the
prefix key table. This table is used for keys
pressed after the prefix key (for example, by default
‘c’ is bound to
new-window in the
prefix table, so ‘C-b
c’ creates a new window). The
root table is used for keys pressed without
the prefix key: binding ‘c’ to
new-window in the
root table (not recommended) means a plain
‘c’ will create a new window.
-n is an alias for
-T root.
Keys may also be bound in custom key tables and the
switch-client -T
command used to switch to them from a key binding. The
-r flag indicates this key may repeat, see
the repeat-time option.
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 all key
tables are printed. With -T only
key-table.
-
-
- send-keys
[-lMRX]
[-N
repeat-count]
[-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.
-M passes through a mouse event (only valid if
bound to a mouse key binding, see
MOUSE SUPPORT).
-X is used to send a command into copy mode -
see the WINDOWS AND
PANES section. -N specifies a repeat
count.
-
-
- 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
[-an]
[-T
key-table]
key
-
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the command bound to key.
-n and -T are
the same as for bind-key. If
-a is present, all key bindings are
removed.
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
[-aFgoqsuw]
[-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 given, the global session or window
option is set. -F expands formats in the
option value. The -u flag unsets an option,
so a session inherits the option from the global options (or with
-g, restores a global option to the default).
The -o flag prevents setting an option that is
already set and the -q flag suppresses errors
about unknown or ambiguous options.
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.
-
-
- command-alias[]
name=value
- This is an array of custom aliases for commands. If an
unknown command matches name, it is
replaced with value. For example,
after:
set -s command-alias[100]
zoom='resize-pane -Z'
Using:
zoom -t:.1
Is equivalent to:
resize-pane -Z -t:.1
Note that aliases are expanded when a command is parsed rather than when
it is executed, so binding an alias with
bind-key will bind the expanded
form.
-
-
- 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’,
‘tmux’ or a derivative of
them.
-
-
- 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.
-
-
- history-file
path
- If not empty, a file to which
tmux will write command prompt history on
exit and load it from on start.
-
-
- message-limit
number
- Set the number of error or information messages to save
in the message log for each client. The default is 100.
-
-
- set-clipboard
[on |
external |
off]
- Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the
xterm(1) escape sequence,
if there is an Ms entry in the
terminfo(5)
description (see the
TERMINFO
EXTENSIONS section).
If set to on,
tmux will both accept the escape sequence
to create a buffer and attempt to set the terminal clipboard. If set
to external,
tmux will attempt to set the terminal
clipboard but ignore attempts by applications to set
tmux buffers. If
off, tmux
will neither accept the clipboard escape sequence nor attempt to set
the clipboard.
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.
-
-
- terminal-overrides[]
string
- Allow terminal descriptions read using
terminfo(5) to be
overridden. Each entry is 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 matching ‘rxvt*’:
rxvt*:clear=\e[H\e[2J
The terminal entry value is passed through
strunvis(3) before
interpretation.
Available session options are:
-
-
- activity-action
[any |
none | current
| other]
- Set action on window activity when
monitor-activity is on.
any means activity in any window linked
to a session causes a bell or message (depending on
visual-activity) in the current window of
that session, none means all activity is
ignored (equivalent to monitor-activity
being off), current means only activity
in windows other than the current window are ignored and
other means activity in the current
window is ignored but not those in other windows.
-
-
- 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
| other]
- Set action on a bell in a window when
monitor-bell is on. The values are the
same as those for activity-action.
-
-
- 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.
-
-
- 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. If set to 0, messages
and indicators are displayed until a key is pressed.
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.
-
-
- key-table
key-table
- Set the default key table to
key-table instead of
root.
-
-
- lock-after-time
number
- Lock the session (like the
lock-session command) after
number seconds of inactivity. 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.
-
-
- 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,
italics, or
strikethrough 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-style
style
- Set status line message style. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option.
-
-
- mouse
[on |
off]
- If on, tmux captures the
mouse and allows mouse events to be bound as key bindings. See the
MOUSE SUPPORT
section for details.
-
-
- prefix
key
- Set the key accepted as a prefix key. In addition to
the standard keys described under
KEY BINDINGS,
prefix can be set to the special key
‘
None’ to set no prefix.
-
-
- prefix2
key
- Set a secondary key accepted as a prefix key. Like
prefix,
prefix2 can be set to
‘
None’.
-
-
- 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-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]0;...\007 sequence if the terminal appears to be
xterm(1). This option is
off by default.
-
-
- set-titles-string
string
- String used to set the window title if
set-titles is on. Formats are expanded,
see the FORMATS
section.
-
-
- silence-action
[any |
none | current
| other]
- Set action on window silence when
monitor-silence is on. The values are the
same as those for activity-action.
-
-
- status
[on |
off]
- Show or hide the status line.
-
-
- status-interval
interval
- Update the status line 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 line.
string will be passed through
strftime(3) and
formats (see FORMATS)
will be expanded. It may also contain the special character sequence
#[] to change the colour or attributes, for example
‘
#[fg=red,bright]’ to set a
bright red foreground. See the
message-command-style option for a
description of colours and attributes.
For details on how the names and titles can be set see the
NAMES AND TITLES
section.
Examples are:
#(sysctl vm.loadavg)
#[fg=yellow,bold]#(apm -l)%%#[default] [#S]
The default is ‘[#S] ’.
-
-
- status-left-length
length
- Set the maximum length
of the left component of the status line. 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 line. By default, the current pane title in double
quotes, the date and the time are shown. As with
status-left,
string will be passed to
strftime(3) and
character pairs are replaced.
-
-
- status-right-length
length
- Set the maximum length
of the right component of the status line. 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.
-
-
- update-environment[]
variable
- Set 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).
-
-
- user-keys[]
key
- Set list of user-defined key escape sequences. Each
item is associated with a key named
‘
User0’,
‘User1’, and so on.
For example:
set -s user-keys[0] "\e[5;30012~"
bind User0 resize-pane -L 3
-
-
- visual-activity
[on |
off |
both]
- If on, display a message instead of sending a bell when
activity occurs in a window for which the
monitor-activity window option is
enabled. If set to both, a bell and a message are produced.
-
-
- visual-bell
[on |
off |
both]
- If on, a message is shown on a bell in a window for
which the monitor-bell window option is
enabled instead of it being passed through to the terminal (which
normally makes a sound). If set to both, a bell and a message are
produced. Also see the bell-action
option.
-
-
- visual-silence
[on |
off |
both]
- If monitor-silence is
enabled, prints a message after the interval has expired on a given
window instead of sending a bell. If set to both, a bell and a message
are produced.
-
-
- 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
[-aFgoqu]
[-t
target-window]
option
value
-
(alias: setw)
Set a window option. The -a,
-F, -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 (\ek...\e\\). The default is off.
- 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.
- 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 mode. The
default is emacs, unless
VISUAL or
EDITOR contains
‘vi’.
- 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-bell
[on |
off]
- Monitor for a bell in the window. Windows with a bell
are 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-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-base-index
index
- Like base-index, but set
the starting index for pane numbers.
- pane-border-format
format
- Set the text shown in pane border status lines.
- pane-border-status
[off |
top |
bottom]
- Turn pane border status lines off or set their
position.
- pane-border-style
style
- Set the pane border style for panes aside from the
active pane. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option. Attributes
are ignored.
- 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).
- window-active-style
style
- Set the style for the window's active pane. For how to
specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
- 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-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.
- window-style
style
- Set the default window style. For how to specify
style, see the
message-command-style option.
- wrap-search
[on |
off]
- If this option is set, searches will wrap around the
end of the pane contents. The default is on.
- 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.
-
-
- 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.
tmux allows commands to run on various triggers,
called
hooks. Most
tmux commands have an
after hook and there are a number of hooks not
associated with commands.
A command's after hook is run after it completes, except when the command is run
as part of a hook itself. They are named with an
‘
after-’ prefix. For example, the
following command adds a hook to select the even-vertical layout after every
split-window:
set-hook after-split-window "selectl even-vertical"
All the notifications listed in the
CONTROL MODE section are
hooks (without any arguments), except
%exit. The
following additional hooks are available:
-
-
- alert-activity
- Run when a window has activity. See
monitor-activity.
-
-
- alert-bell
- Run when a window has received a bell. See
monitor-bell.
-
-
- alert-silence
- Run when a window has been silent. See
monitor-silence.
-
-
- client-attached
- Run when a client is attached.
-
-
- client-detached
- Run when a client is detached
-
-
- client-resized
- Run when a client is resized.
-
-
- client-session-changed
- Run when a client's attached session is changed.
-
-
- pane-died
- Run when the program running in a pane exits, but
remain-on-exit is on so the pane has not
closed.
-
-
- pane-exited
- Run when the program running in a pane exits.
-
-
- pane-set-clipboard
- Run when the terminal clipboard is set using the
xterm(1) escape
sequence.
-
-
- session-created
- Run when a new session created.
-
-
- session-closed
- Run when a session closed.
-
-
- session-renamed
- Run when a session is renamed.
-
-
- window-linked
- Run when a window is linked into a session.
-
-
- window-renamed
- Run when a window is renamed.
-
-
- window-unlinked
- Run when a window is unlinked from a session.
Hooks are managed with these commands:
-
-
- set-hook
[-gu]
[-t
target-session]
hook-name
command
- Sets (or with -u unsets) hook
hook-name to
command. If
-g is given,
hook-name is added to the global list of
hooks, otherwise it is added to the session hooks (for
target-session with
-t). Like options, session hooks inherit from
the global ones.
-
-
- show-hooks
[-g]
[-t
target-session]
- Shows the global list of hooks with
-g, otherwise the session hooks.
If the
mouse option is on (the default is off),
tmux allows mouse events to be bound as keys. The
name of each key is made up of a mouse event (such as
‘
MouseUp1’) and a location suffix (one
of ‘
Pane’ for the contents of a pane,
‘
Border’ for a pane border or
‘
Status’ for the status line). The
following mouse events are available:
Each should be suffixed with a location, for example
‘
MouseDown1Status’.
The special token ‘
{mouse}’ or
‘
=’ may be used as
target-window or
target-pane in commands bound to mouse key
bindings. It resolves to the window or pane over which the mouse event took
place (for example, the window in the status line over which button 1 was
released for a ‘
MouseUp1Status’ binding,
or the pane over which the wheel was scrolled for a
‘
WheelDownPane’ binding).
The
send-keys -M flag
may be used to forward a mouse event to a pane.
The default key bindings allow the mouse to be used to select and resize panes,
to copy text and to change window using the status line. These take effect if
the
mouse option is turned on.
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}’. The possible
variables are listed in the table below, or the name of a
tmux option may be used for an option's value.
Some variables have a shorter alias such as
‘
#S’, and
‘
##’ is replaced by a single
‘
#’.
Conditionals are available 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, or
‘
#{?automatic-rename,yes,no}’ will
include ‘
yes’ if
automatic-rename is enabled, or
‘
no’ if not.
Comparisons may be expressed by prefixing two comma-separated alternatives by
‘
==’ or
‘
!=’ and a colon. For example
‘
#{==:#{host},myhost}’ will be replaced
by ‘
1’ if running on
‘
myhost’, otherwise by
‘
0’. An
‘
m’ specifies an
fnmatch(3) comparison where the
first argument is the pattern and the second the string to compare, for
example ‘
#{m:*foo*,#{host}}’.
‘
||’ and
‘
&&’ evaluate to true if either
or both of two comma-separated alternatives are true, for example
‘
#{||,#{pane_in_mode},#{alternate_on}}’.
A ‘
C’ performs a search for an
fnmatch(3) pattern in the pane
content and evaluates to zero if not found, or a line number if found.
A limit may be placed on the length of the resultant string by prefixing it by
an ‘
=’, a number and a colon. Positive
numbers count from the start of the string and negative from the end, so
‘
#{=5:pane_title}’ will include at most
the first 5 characters of the pane title, or
‘
#{=-5:pane_title}’ the last 5
characters. Prefixing a time variable with
‘
t:’ will convert it to a string, so if
‘
#{window_activity}’ gives
‘
1445765102’,
‘
#{t:window_activity}’ gives
‘
Sun Oct 25 09:25:02 2015’. The
‘
b:’ and
‘
d:’ prefixes are
basename(3) and
dirname(3) of the variable
respectively. A prefix of the form
‘
s/foo/bar/:’ will substitute
‘
foo’ with
‘
bar’ throughout.
In addition, the first line of a shell command's output may be inserted using
‘
#()’. For example,
‘
#(uptime)’ will insert the system's
uptime. When constructing formats,
tmux does not
wait for ‘
#()’ commands to finish;
instead, the previous result from running the same command is used, or a
placeholder if the command has not been run before. If the command hasn't
exited, the most recent line of output will be used, but the status line will
not be updated more than once a second. Commands are executed with the
tmux global environment set (see the
ENVIRONMENT section).
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_created |
|
Time buffer created |
buffer_name |
|
Name of buffer |
buffer_sample |
|
Sample of start of buffer |
buffer_size |
|
Size of the specified buffer in bytes |
client_activity |
|
Time client last had activity |
client_created |
|
Time client created |
client_control_mode |
|
1 if client is in control mode |
client_discarded |
|
Bytes discarded when client behind |
client_height |
|
Height of client |
client_key_table |
|
Current key table |
client_last_session |
|
Name of the client's last session |
client_name |
|
Name of client |
client_pid |
|
PID of client process |
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_termtype |
|
Terminal type of client |
client_tty |
|
Pseudo terminal of client |
client_utf8 |
|
1 if client supports utf8 |
client_width |
|
Width of client |
client_written |
|
Bytes written to client |
command |
|
Name of command in use, if any |
command_list_name |
|
Command name if listing commands |
command_list_alias |
|
Command alias if listing commands |
command_list_usage |
|
Command usage if listing commands |
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 lines |
hook |
|
Name of running hook, if any |
hook_pane |
|
ID of pane where hook was run, if any |
hook_session |
|
ID of session where hook was run, if any |
hook_session_name |
|
Name of session where hook was run, if any |
hook_window |
|
ID of window where hook was run, if any |
hook_window_name |
|
Name of window where hook was run, if any |
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_all_flag |
|
Pane mouse all flag |
pane_active |
|
1 if active pane |
pane_at_bottom |
|
1 if pane is at the bottom of window |
pane_at_left |
|
1 if pane is at the left of window |
pane_at_right |
|
1 if pane is at the right of window |
pane_at_top |
|
1 if pane is at the top of window |
pane_bottom |
|
Bottom of pane |
pane_current_command |
|
Current command if available |
pane_dead |
|
1 if pane is dead |
pane_dead_status |
|
Exit status of process in dead pane |
pane_format |
|
1 if format is for a pane (not assuming the
current) |
pane_height |
|
Height of pane |
pane_id |
#D |
Unique pane ID |
pane_in_mode |
|
If pane is in a mode |
pane_input_off |
|
If input to pane is disabled |
pane_index |
#P |
Index of pane |
pane_left |
|
Left of pane |
pane_mode |
|
Name of pane mode, if any. |
pane_pid |
|
PID of first process in pane |
pane_pipe |
|
1 if pane is being piped |
pane_right |
|
Right of pane |
pane_search_string |
|
Last search string in copy mode |
pane_start_command |
|
Command pane started with |
pane_synchronized |
|
If pane is synchronized |
pane_tabs |
|
Pane tab positions |
pane_title |
#T |
Title of pane |
pane_top |
|
Top of pane |
pane_tty |
|
Pseudo terminal of pane |
pane_width |
|
Width of pane |
pid |
|
Server PID |
scroll_region_lower |
|
Bottom of scroll region in pane |
scroll_region_upper |
|
Top of scroll region in pane |
scroll_position |
|
Scroll position in copy mode |
selection_present |
|
1 if selection started in copy mode |
session_alerts |
|
List of window indexes with alerts |
session_attached |
|
Number of clients session is attached to |
session_activity |
|
Time of session last activity |
session_created |
|
Time session created |
session_format |
|
1 if format is for a session (not assuming the
current) |
session_last_attached |
|
Time session last attached |
session_group |
|
Name of session group |
session_group_size |
|
Size of session group |
session_group_list |
|
List of sessions in group |
session_grouped |
|
1 if session in a group |
session_height |
|
Height of session |
session_id |
|
Unique session ID |
session_many_attached |
|
1 if multiple clients attached |
session_name |
#S |
Name of session |
session_stack |
|
Window indexes in most recent order |
session_width |
|
Width of session |
session_windows |
|
Number of windows in session |
socket_path |
|
Server socket path |
start_time |
|
Server start time |
window_activity |
|
Time of window last activity |
window_activity_flag |
|
1 if window has activity |
window_active |
|
1 if window active |
window_bell_flag |
|
1 if window has bell |
window_flags |
#F |
Window flags |
window_format |
|
1 if format is for a window (not assuming the
current) |
window_height |
|
Height of window |
window_id |
|
Unique window ID |
window_index |
#I |
Index of window |
window_last_flag |
|
1 if window is the last used |
window_layout |
|
Window layout description, ignoring zoomed window
panes |
window_linked |
|
1 if window is linked across sessions |
window_name |
#W |
Name of window |
window_panes |
|
Number of panes in window |
window_silence_flag |
|
1 if window has silence alert |
window_stack_index |
|
Index in session most recent stack |
window_visible_layout |
|
Window layout description, respecting zoomed window
panes |
window_width |
|
Width of window |
window_zoomed_flag |
|
1 if window is zoomed |
wrap_flag |
|
Pane wrap flag |
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 using an escape sequence (like it would set the
xterm(1) window title in
X(7)). 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\\'
It can also be modified with the
select-pane
-T command.
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
[-gs]
[-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
‘-’. If
-s is used, the output is formatted as a set
of Bourne shell commands.
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 activity is monitored and activity has been
detected. |
! |
Window bells are monitored and a bell has occurred in
the window. |
~ |
The window has been silent for the monitor-silence
interval. |
M |
The window contains the marked pane. |
Z |
The window's active pane is zoomed. |
The # symbol relates to the
monitor-activity window
option. The window name is printed in inverted colours if an alert (bell,
activity or silence) 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
[-1i]
[-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.
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, 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’).
‘%%%’ is like
‘%%’ but any quotation marks are
escaped.
-1 makes the prompt only accept one key press,
in this case the resulting input is a single character.
-i executes the command every time the prompt
input changes instead of when the user exits the command prompt.
The following keys have a special meaning in the command prompt, depending
on the value of the status-keys option:
-
-
- 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.
tmux maintains a set of named
paste buffers. Each buffer may be either
explicitly or automatically named. Explicitly named buffers are named when
created with the
set-buffer or
load-buffer commands, or by renaming an
automatically named buffer with
set-buffer
-n. Automatically named buffers are given a name
such as ‘
buffer0001’,
‘
buffer0002’ and so on. When the
buffer-limit option is reached, the oldest
automatically named buffer is deleted. Explicitly named buffers are not
subject to
buffer-limit and may be deleted with
delete-buffer command.
Buffers may be added using
copy-mode or the
set-buffer and
load-buffer commands, and pasted into a window
using the
paste-buffer command. If a buffer
command is used and no buffer is specified, the most recently added
automatically named buffer is assumed.
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
[-N]
[-F
format]
[-f
filter]
[-O
sort-order]
[-t
target-pane]
[template]
- Put a pane into buffer mode, where a buffer may be chosen
interactively from a list. The following keys may be used in buffer mode:
| Key |
Function |
Enter |
Paste selected buffer |
Up |
Select previous buffer |
Down |
Select next buffer |
C-s |
Search by name or content |
n |
Repeat last search |
t |
Toggle if buffer is tagged |
T |
Tag no buffers |
C-t |
Tag all buffers |
p |
Paste selected buffer |
P |
Paste tagged buffers |
d |
Delete selected buffer |
D |
Delete tagged buffers |
f |
Enter a format to filter items |
O |
Change sort order |
v |
Toggle preview |
q |
Exit mode |
After a buffer is chosen, ‘%%’ is
replaced by the buffer name in template
and the result executed as a command. If
template is not given, "paste-buffer
-b '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of
‘time’,
‘name’ or
‘size’.
-f specifies an initial filter: the filter is
a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list is not shown,
otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is
ignored. -F specifies the format for each
item in the list. -N starts without the
preview. 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-name]
-
(alias: deleteb)
Delete the buffer named buffer-name, or the
most recently added automatically named 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-name]
path
-
(alias: loadb)
Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from
path.
-
-
- paste-buffer
[-dpr]
[-b
buffer-name]
[-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. 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-name]
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
[-a]
[-b
buffer-name]
[-n
new-buffer-name]
data
-
(alias: setb)
Set the contents of the specified buffer to
data. The -a
option appends to rather than overwriting the buffer. The
-n option renames the buffer to
new-buffer-name.
-
-
- show-buffer
[-b
buffer-name]
-
(alias: showb)
Display the contents of the specified buffer.
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
-
-
- clock-mode
[-t
target-pane]
- Display a large clock.
-
-
- if-shell
[-bF]
[-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.
If -F is given,
shell-command is not executed but
considered success if neither empty nor zero (after formats are
expanded).
-
-
- 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.
tmux understands some unofficial 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
- Set or reset the cursor style. If set, a sequence such as
this may be used to change the cursor to an underline:
If Se is not set, Ss with argument 0 will be
used to reset the cursor style instead.
-
-
- Tc
- Indicate that the terminal supports the
‘
direct colour’ RGB escape sequence
(for example, \e[38;2;255;255;255m).
If supported, this is used for the OSC initialize colour escape sequence
(which may be enabled by adding the
‘initc’ and
‘ccc’ capabilities to the
tmux
terminfo(5) entry).
-
-
- Ms
- Store the current buffer in the host terminal's selection
(clipboard). See the set-clipboard option
above and the xterm(1) man
page.
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
The
refresh-client -C
command may be used to set the size of a client in control mode.
In control mode,
tmux outputs notifications. A
notification will never occur inside an output block.
The following notifications are defined:
-
-
- %client-session-changed
client
session-id
name
- The client is now attached to the session with ID
session-id, which is named
name.
-
-
- %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
window-visible-layout
window-flags
- The layout of a window with ID
window-id changed. The new layout is
window-layout. The window's visible
layout is window-visible-layout and the
window flags are window-flags.
-
-
- %output
pane-id
value
- A window pane produced output.
value escapes non-printable characters
and backslash as octal \xxx.
-
-
- %pane-mode-changed
pane-id
- The pane with ID pane-id
has changed mode.
-
-
- %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.
-
-
- %session-window-changed
session-id
window-id
- The session with ID
session-id changed its active window to
the window with ID window-id.
-
-
- %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-pane-changed
window-id
pane-id
- The active pane in the window with ID
window-id changed to the pane with ID
pane-id.
-
-
- %window-renamed
window-id
name
- The window with ID
window-id was renamed to
name.
- ~/.tmux.conf
- Default tmux configuration
file.
- /etc/tmux.conf
- System-wide configuration file.
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'"
pty(4)
Nicholas Marriott
<
nicholas.marriott@gmail.com>