TMUX(1) | General Commands Manual | TMUX(1) |
NAME¶
tmux
— terminal
multiplexer
SYNOPSIS¶
tmux |
[-28lCquvV ]
[-c shell-command]
[-f file]
[-L socket-name]
[-S socket-path]
[command [flags]] |
DESCRIPTION¶
tmux
is a terminal multiplexer: it enables
a number of terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single
screen. tmux
may be detached from a screen and
continue running in the background, then later reattached.
When tmux
is started it creates a new
session with a single window and
displays it on screen. A status line at the bottom of the screen shows
information on the current session and is used to enter interactive
commands.
A session is a single collection of
pseudo terminals
under the management of tmux
. Each session has one
or more windows linked to it. A window occupies the entire screen and may be
split into rectangular panes, each of which is a separate pseudo terminal
(the pty(4) manual page documents the technical details of
pseudo terminals). Any number of tmux
instances may
connect to the same session, and any number of windows may be present in the
same session. Once all sessions are killed, tmux
exits.
Each session is persistent and will survive accidental
disconnection (such as ssh(1) connection timeout) or
intentional detaching (with the ‘C-b
d
’ key strokes). tmux
may be
reattached using:
$ tmux attach
In tmux
, a session is
displayed on screen by a
client and all
sessions are managed by a single server. The server and
each client are separate processes which communicate through a socket in
/tmp.
The options are as follows:
-2
- Force
tmux
to assume the terminal supports 256 colours. -8
- Like
-2
, but indicates that the terminal supports 88 colours. -C
- Start in control mode. 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 thedefault-shell
option. This option is for compatibility with sh(1) whentmux
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. Thesource-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-nametmux
stores the server socket in a directory under /tmp (orTMPDIR
if set); the default socket is named default. This option allows a different socket name to be specified, allowing several independenttmux
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 thetmux
server process to recreate it.-l
- Behave as a login shell. This flag currently has no effect and is for compatibility with other shells when using tmux as a login shell.
-q
- Set the
quiet
server option to prevent the server sending various informational messages. -S
socket-path- Specify a full alternative path to the server socket. If
-S
is specified, the default socket directory is not used and any-L
flag is ignored. -u
tmux
attempts to guess if the terminal is likely to support UTF-8 by checking the first of theLC_ALL
,LC_CTYPE
andLANG
environment variables to be set for the string "UTF-8". This is not always correct: the-u
flag explicitly informstmux
that UTF-8 is supported.If the server is started from a client passed
-u
or where UTF-8 is detected, theutf8
andstatus-utf8
options are enabled in the global window and session options respectively.-v
- Request verbose logging. This option may be specified multiple times for increasing verbosity. Log messages will be saved into tmux-client-PID.log and tmux-server-PID.log files in the current directory, where PID is the PID of the server or client process.
-V
- Report the
tmux
version. - command [flags]
- This specifies one of a set of commands used to control
tmux
, as described in the following sections. If no commands are specified, thenew-session
command is assumed.
KEY BINDINGS¶
tmux
may be controlled from an attached
client by using a key combination of a prefix key,
‘C-b
’ (Ctrl-b) by default, followed by
a command key.
The default command key bindings are:
- C-b
- Send the prefix key (C-b) through to the application.
- C-o
- Rotate the panes in the current window forwards.
- C-z
- Suspend the
tmux
client. - !
- Break the current pane out of the window.
- "
- Split the current pane into two, top and bottom.
- #
- List all paste buffers.
- $
- Rename the current session.
- %
- Split the current pane into two, left and right.
- &
- Kill the current window.
- '
- Prompt for a window index to select.
- ,
- Rename the current window.
- -
- Delete the most recently copied buffer of text.
- .
- Prompt for an index to move the current window.
- 0 to 9
- Select windows 0 to 9.
- :
- Enter the
tmux
command prompt. - ;
- Move to the previously active pane.
- =
- Choose which buffer to paste interactively from a list.
- ?
- List all key bindings.
- D
- Choose a client to detach.
- [
- Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history.
- ]
- Paste the most recently copied buffer of text.
- c
- Create a new window.
- d
- Detach the current client.
- f
- Prompt to search for text in open windows.
- i
- Display some information about the current window.
- l
- Move to the previously selected window.
- n
- Change to the next window.
- o
- Select the next pane in the current window.
- p
- Change to the previous window.
- q
- Briefly display pane indexes.
- r
- Force redraw of the attached client.
- s
- Select a new session for the attached client interactively.
- L
- Switch the attached client back to the last session.
- t
- Show the time.
- w
- Choose the current window interactively.
- x
- Kill the current pane.
- {
- Swap the current pane with the previous pane.
- }
- Swap the current pane with the next pane.
- ~
- Show previous messages from
tmux
, if any. - Page Up
- Enter copy mode and scroll one page up.
- Up, Down
- Left, Right
- Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to the right of the current pane.
- M-1 to M-5
- Arrange panes in one of the five preset layouts: even-horizontal, even-vertical, main-horizontal, main-vertical, or tiled.
- M-n
- Move to the next window with a bell or activity marker.
- M-o
- Rotate the panes in the current window backwards.
- M-p
- Move to the previous window with a bell or activity marker.
- C-Up, C-Down
- C-Left, C-Right
- Resize the current pane in steps of one cell.
- M-Up, M-Down
- M-Left, M-Right
- Resize the current pane in steps of five cells.
Key bindings may be changed with the
bind-key
and unbind-key
commands.
COMMANDS¶
This section contains a list of the commands supported by
tmux
. Most commands accept the optional
-t
argument with one of
target-client, target-session
target-window, or target-pane.
These specify the client, session, window or pane which a command should
affect. target-client is the name of the
pty(4) file to which the client is connected, for example
either of /dev/ttyp1 or
ttyp1 for the client attached to
/dev/ttyp1. If no client is specified, the current
client is chosen, if possible, or an error is reported. Clients may be
listed with the list-clients
command.
target-session is the session id prefixed
with a $, the name of a session (as listed by the
list-sessions
command), or the name of a client with
the same syntax as target-client, in which case the
session attached to the client is used. When looking for the session name,
tmux
initially searches for an exact match; if none
is found, the session names are checked for any for which
target-session is a prefix or for which it matches as
an fnmatch(3) pattern. If a single match is found, it is
used as the target session; multiple matches produce an error. If a session
is omitted, the current session is used if available; if no current session
is available, the most recently used is chosen.
target-window specifies a window in the form
session:window.
session follows the same rules as for
target-session, and window is looked
for in order: as a window index, for example mysession:1; as a window ID,
such as @1; as an exact window name, such as mysession:mywindow; then as an
fnmatch(3) pattern or the start of a window name, such as
mysession:mywin* or mysession:mywin. An empty window name specifies the next
unused index if appropriate (for example the
new-window
and link-window
commands) otherwise the current window in session is
chosen. The special character ‘!
’ uses
the last (previously current) window,
‘^
’ selects the highest numbered
window, ‘$
’ selects the lowest
numbered window, and ‘+
’ and
‘-
’ select the next window or the
previous window by number. When the argument does not contain a colon,
tmux
first attempts to parse it as window; if that
fails, an attempt is made to match a session.
target-pane takes a similar form to
target-window but with the optional addition of a
period followed by a pane index, for example: mysession:mywindow.1. If the
pane index is omitted, the currently active pane in the specified window is
used. If neither a colon nor period appears, tmux
first attempts to use the argument as a pane index; if that fails, it is
looked up as for target-window. A
‘+
’ or
‘-
’ indicate the next or previous pane
index, respectively. One of the strings
top,
bottom,
left,
right,
top-left,
top-right,
bottom-left
or
bottom-right
may be used instead of a pane index.
The special characters ‘+
’
and ‘-
’ may be followed by an offset,
for example:
select-window -t:+2
When dealing with a session that doesn't contain sequential window indexes, they will be correctly skipped.
tmux
also gives each pane created in a
server an identifier consisting of a
‘%
’ and a number, starting from zero.
A pane's identifier is unique for the life of the
tmux
server and is passed to the child process of
the pane in the TMUX_PANE
environment variable. It
may be used alone to target a pane or the window containing it.
shell-command arguments are sh(1) commands. These must be passed as a single item, which typically means quoting them, for example:
new-window 'vi /etc/passwd'
command [arguments]
refers to a tmux
command, passed with the command
and arguments separately, for example:
bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Or if using sh(1):
$ tmux bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Multiple commands may be specified together as part
of a command
sequence. Each command should be separated by spaces and a
semicolon; commands are executed sequentially from left to right and lines
ending with a backslash continue on to the next line, except when escaped by
another backslash. A literal semicolon may be included by escaping it with a
backslash (for example, when specifying a command sequence to
bind-key
).
Example tmux
commands include:
refresh-client -t/dev/ttyp2 rename-session -tfirst newname set-window-option -t:0 monitor-activity on new-window ; split-window -d bind-key R source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; \ display-message "source-file done"
Or from sh(1):
$ tmux kill-window -t :1 $ tmux new-window \; split-window -d $ tmux new-session -d 'vi /etc/passwd' \; split-window -d \; attach
CLIENTS AND SESSIONS¶
The tmux
server manages clients, sessions,
windows and panes. Clients are attached to sessions to interact with them,
either when they are created with the new-session
command, or later with the attach-session
command.
Each session has one or more windows
linked
into it. Windows may be linked to multiple sessions and are made up of one
or more panes, each of which contains a pseudo terminal. Commands for
creating, linking and otherwise manipulating windows are covered in the
WINDOWS AND PANES section.
The following commands are available to manage clients and sessions:
attach-session
[-dr
] [-t
target-session]-
(alias:) If run from outside
attach
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 thedetach-client
orswitch-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: iftmux
needs to select the most recently used session, it will prefer the most recently used unattached session. detach-client
[-P
] [-a
] [-s
target-session] [-t
target-client]-
(alias:) Detach the current client if bound to a key, the client specified with
detach
-t
, or all clients currently attached to the session specified by-s
. The-a
option kills all but the client given with-t
. If-P
is given, send SIGHUP to the parent process of the client, typically causing it to exit. has-session
[-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Report an error and exit with 1 if the specified session does not exist. If it does exist, exit with 0.
has
kill-server
- Kill the
tmux
server and clients and destroy all sessions. kill-session
- [
-a
] [-t
target-session] Destroy the given session, closing any windows linked to it and no other sessions, and detaching all clients attached to it. If-a
is given, all sessions but the specified one is killed. list-clients
[-F
format] [-t
target-session]-
(alias:) List all clients attached to the server. For the meaning of the
lsc
-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. If target-session is specified, list only clients connected to that session. list-commands
-
(alias:) List the syntax of all commands supported by
lscm
tmux
. list-sessions
[-F
format]-
(alias:) List all sessions managed by the server. For the meaning of the
ls
-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. lock-client
[-t
target-client]-
(alias:) Lock target-client, see the
lockc
lock-server
command. lock-session
[-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Lock all clients attached to target-session.
locks
new-session
[-AdDP
] [-F
format] [-n
window-name] [-s
session-name] [-t
target-session] [-x
width] [-y
height] [shell-command]-
(alias:) Create a new session with name session-name.
new
The new session is attached to the current terminal unless
-d
is given. window-name and shell-command are the name of and shell command to execute in the initial window. If-d
is used,-x
and-y
specify the size of the initial window (80 by 24 if not given).If run from a terminal, any termios(4) special characters are saved and used for new windows in the new session.
The
-A
flag makesnew-session
behave likeattach-session
if session-name already exists; in the case,-D
behaves like-d
toattach-session
.If
-t
is given, the new session is grouped with target-session. This means they share the same set of windows - all windows from target-session are linked to the new session and any subsequent new windows or windows being closed are applied to both sessions. The current and previous window and any session options remain independent and either session may be killed without affecting the other. Giving-n
or shell-command are invalid if-t
is used.The
-P
option prints information about the new session after it has been created. By default, it uses the format ‘#{session_name}:
’ but a different format may be specified with-F
. refresh-client
[-S
] [-t
target-client]-
(alias:) Refresh the current client if bound to a key, or a single client if one is given with
refresh
-t
. If-S
is specified, only update the client's status bar. rename-session
[-t
target-session] new-name-
(alias:) Rename the session to new-name.
rename
show-messages
[-t
target-client]-
(alias:) Any messages displayed on the status line are saved in a per-client message log, up to a maximum of the limit set by the message-limit session option for the session attached to that client. This command displays the log for target-client.
showmsgs
source-file
path-
(alias:) Execute commands from path.
source
start-server
-
(alias:) Start the
start
tmux
server, if not already running, without creating any sessions. suspend-client
[-t
target-client]-
(alias:) Suspend a client by sending
suspendc
SIGTSTP
(tty stop). switch-client
[-lnpr
] [-c
target-client] [-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Switch the current session for client target-client to target-session. If
switchc
-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 theattach-session
command).
WINDOWS AND PANES¶
A tmux
window may be in one of several
modes. The default permits direct access to the terminal attached to the
window. The other is copy mode, which permits a section of a window or its
history to be copied to a paste buffer for later insertion
into another window. This mode is entered with the
copy-mode
command, bound to
‘[
’ by default. It is also entered
when a command that produces output, such as
list-keys
, is executed from a key binding.
The keys available depend on whether emacs or vi mode is selected
(see the mode-keys
option). The following keys are
supported as appropriate for the mode:
Function | vi | emacs |
Back to
indentation |
^ | M-m |
Bottom of
history |
G | M-< |
Clear
selection |
Escape | C-g |
Copy
selection |
Enter | M-w |
Cursor
down |
j | Down |
Cursor
left |
h | Left |
Cursor
right |
l | Right |
Cursor to bottom
line |
L | |
Cursor to middle
line |
M | M-r |
Cursor to top
line |
H | M-R |
Cursor
up |
k | Up |
Delete entire
line |
d | C-u |
Delete/Copy to
end of line |
D | C-k |
End of
line |
$ | C-e |
Go to
line |
: | g |
Half page
down |
C-d | M-Down |
Half page
up |
C-u | M-Up |
Jump
forward |
f | f |
Jump to
forward |
t | |
Jump
backward |
F | F |
Jump to
backward |
T | |
Jump
again |
; | ; |
Jump again in
reverse |
, | , |
Next
page |
C-f | Page down |
Next
space |
W | |
Next space, end of
word |
E | |
Next
word |
w | |
Next word
end |
e | M-f |
Paste
buffer |
p | C-y |
Previous
page |
C-b | Page up |
Previous
word |
b | M-b |
Previous
space |
B | |
Quit
mode |
q | Escape |
Rectangle
toggle |
v | R |
Scroll
down |
C-Down or C-e | C-Down |
Scroll
up |
C-Up or C-y | C-Up |
Search
again |
n | n |
Search again in
reverse |
N | N |
Search
backward |
? | C-r |
Search
forward |
/ | C-s |
Start of
line |
0 | C-a |
Start
selection |
Space | C-Space |
Top of
history |
g | M-> |
Transpose
characters |
C-t |
The next and previous word keys use space and the
‘-
’,
‘_
’ and
‘@
’ characters as word delimiters by
default, but this can be adjusted by setting the
word-separators session option. Next word moves to the
start of the next word, next word end to the end of the next word and
previous word to the start of the previous word. The three next and previous
space keys work similarly but use a space alone as the word separator.
The jump commands enable quick movement within a line. For
instance, typing ‘f
’ followed by
‘/
’ will move the cursor to the next
‘/
’ character on the current line. A
‘;
’ will then jump to the next
occurrence.
Commands in copy mode may be prefaced by an optional repeat count.
With vi key bindings, a prefix is entered using the number keys; with emacs,
the Alt (meta) key and a number begins prefix entry. For example, to move
the cursor forward by ten words, use ‘M-1 0
M-f
’ in emacs mode, and
‘10w
’ in vi.
When copying the selection, the repeat count indicates the buffer index to replace, if used.
Mode key bindings are defined in a set of named tables:
vi-edit and emacs-edit for keys used
when line editing at the command prompt; vi-choice and
emacs-choice for keys used when choosing from lists (such
as produced by the choose-window
command); and
vi-copy and emacs-copy used in copy
mode. The tables may be viewed with the list-keys
command and keys modified or removed with bind-key
and unbind-key
. One command accepts an argument,
copy-pipe
, which copies the selection and pipes it
to a command. For example the following will bind
‘C-q
’ to copy the selection into
/tmp as well as the paste buffer:
bind-key -temacs-copy C-q copy-pipe "cat >/tmp/out"
The paste buffer key pastes the first line from the top paste buffer on the stack.
The synopsis for the copy-mode
command
is:
copy-mode
[-u
] [-t
target-pane]- Enter copy mode. The
-u
option scrolls one page up.
Each window displayed by tmux
may be split into one or more
panes; each pane
takes up a certain area of the display and is a separate terminal. A window
may be split into panes using the split-window
command. Windows may be split horizontally (with the
-h
flag) or vertically. Panes may be resized with
the resize-pane
command (bound to
‘C-up
’,
‘C-down
’
‘C-left
’ and
‘C-right
’ by default), the current
pane may be changed with the select-pane
command and
the rotate-window
and
swap-pane
commands may be used to swap panes without
changing their position. Panes are numbered beginning from zero in the order
they are created.
A number of preset
layouts are
available. These may be selected with the
select-layout
command or cycled with
next-layout
(bound to
‘Space
’ by default); once a layout is
chosen, panes within it may be moved and resized as normal.
The following layouts are supported:
even-horizontal
- Panes are spread out evenly from left to right across the window.
even-vertical
- Panes are spread evenly from top to bottom.
main-horizontal
- A large (main) pane is shown at the top of the window and the remaining panes are spread from left to right in the leftover space at the bottom. Use the main-pane-height window option to specify the height of the top pane.
main-vertical
- Similar to
main-horizontal
but the large pane is placed on the left and the others spread from top to bottom along the right. See the main-pane-width window option. tiled
- Panes are spread out as evenly as possible over the window in both rows and columns.
In addition, select-layout
may be used to
apply a previously used layout - the list-windows
command displays the layout of each window in a form suitable for use with
select-layout
. For example:
$ tmux list-windows 0: ksh [159x48] layout: bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0} $ tmux select-layout bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
tmux
automatically adjusts the size of the
layout for the current window size. Note that a layout cannot be applied to
a window with more panes than that from which the layout was originally
defined.
Commands related to windows and panes are as follows:
break-pane
[-dP
] [-F
format] [-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Break target-pane off from its containing window to make it the only pane in a new window. If
breakp
-d
is given, the new window does not become the current window. The-P
option prints information about the new window after it has been created. By default, it uses the format ‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}
’ but a different format may be specified with-F
. capture-pane
[-aepPq
] [-b
buffer-index] [-E
end-line] [-S
start-line] [-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Capture the contents of a pane. If
capturep
-p
is given, the output goes to stdout, otherwise to the buffer specified with-b
or a new buffer if omitted. If-a
is given, the alternate screen is used, and the history is not accessible. If no alternate screen exists, an error will be returned unless-q
is given. If-e
is given, the output includes escape sequences for text and background attributes.-C
also escapes non-printable characters as octal \xxx.-J
joins wrapped lines and preserves trailing spaces at each line's end.-P
captures only any output that the pane has received that is the beginning of an as-yet incomplete escape sequence.-S
and-E
specify the starting and ending line numbers, zero is the first line of the visible pane and negative numbers are lines in the history. The default is to capture only the visible contents of the pane. choose-client
[-F
format] [-t
target-window] [template]- Put a window into client choice mode, allowing a client to be selected
interactively from a list. After a client is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the client pty(4) path in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "detach-client -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. choose-list
[-l
items] [-t
target-window] [template]- Put a window into list choice mode, allowing items
to be selected. items can be a comma-separated list
to display more than one item. If an item has spaces, that entry must be
quoted. After an item is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the chosen item in the template and the result is executed as a command. If template is not given, "run-shell '%%'" is used. items also accepts format specifiers. For the meaning of this see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. choose-session
[-F
format] [-t
target-window] [template]- Put a window into session choice mode, where a session may be selected
interactively from a list. When one is chosen,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the session name in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "switch-client -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. choose-tree
[-suw
] [-b
session-template] [-c
window-template] [-S
format] [-W
format] [-t
target-window]- Put a window into tree choice mode, where either sessions or windows may
be selected interactively from a list. By default, windows belonging to a
session are indented to show their relationship to a session.
Note that the
choose-window
andchoose-session
commands are wrappers aroundchoose-tree
.If
-s
is given, will show sessions. If-w
is given, will show windows.By default, the tree is collapsed and sessions must be expanded to windows with the right arrow key. The
-u
option will start with all sessions expanded instead.If
-b
is given, will override the default session command. Note that ‘%%
’ can be used and will be replaced with the session name. The default option if not specified is "switch-client -t '%%'". If-c
is given, will override the default window command. Like-b
, ‘%%
’ can be used and will be replaced with the session name and window index. When a window is chosen from the list, the session command is run before the window command.If
-S
is given will display the specified format instead of the default session format. If-W
is given will display the specified format instead of the default window format. For the meaning of the-s
and-w
options, see the FORMATS section.This command works only if at least one client is attached.
choose-window
[-F
format] [-t
target-window] [template]- Put a window into window choice mode, where a window may be chosen
interactively from a list. After a window is selected,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the session name and window index in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "select-window -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. display-panes
[-t
target-client]-
(alias:Display a visible indicator of each pane shown by target-client. See the
displayp)
display-panes-time
,display-panes-colour
, anddisplay-panes-active-colour
session options. While the indicator is on screen, a pane may be selected with the ‘0
’ to ‘9
’ keys. find-window
[-CNT
] [-F
format] [-t
target-window] match-string-
(alias:) Search for the fnmatch(3) pattern match-string in window names, titles, and visible content (but not history). The flags control matching behavior:
findw
-C
matches only visible window contents,-N
matches only the window name and-T
matches only the window title. The default is-CNT
. If only one window is matched, it'll be automatically selected, otherwise a choice list is shown. For the meaning of the-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. join-pane
[-bdhv
] [-l
size |-p
percentage] [-s
src-pane] [-t
dst-pane]-
(alias:) Like
joinp
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 reversebreak-pane
. The-b
option causes src-pane to be joined to left of or above dst-pane. kill-pane
[-a
] [-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Destroy the given pane. If no panes remain in the containing window, it is also destroyed. The
killp
-a
option kills all but the pane given with-t
. kill-window
[-a
] [-t
target-window]-
(alias:) Kill the current window or the window at target-window, removing it from any sessions to which it is linked. The
killw
-a
option kills all but the window given with-t
. last-pane
[-t
target-window]-
(alias:) Select the last (previously selected) pane.
lastp
last-window
[-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Select the last (previously selected) window. If no target-session is specified, select the last window of the current session.
last
link-window
[-dk
] [-s
src-window] [-t
dst-window]-
(alias:) Link the window at src-window to the specified dst-window. If dst-window is specified and no such window exists, the src-window is linked there. If
linkw
-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:) If
lsp
-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:) If
lsw
-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:) Like
movep
join-pane
, but src-pane and dst-pane may belong to the same window. move-window
[-rdk
] [-s
src-window] [-t
dst-window]-
(alias:) This is similar to
movew
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 thebase-index
option. new-window
[-adkP
] [-c
start-directory] [-F
format] [-n
window-name] [-t
target-window] [shell-command]-
(alias:) Create a new window. With
neww
-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 thedefault-command
option is used.-c
specifies the working directory in which the new window is created. It may have an absolute path or one of the following values (or a subdirectory):Empty string
Current pane's directory ~
User's home directory -
Where session was started . Where server was started When the shell command completes, the window closes. See the
remain-on-exit
option to change this behaviour.The
TERM
environment variable must be set to “screen” for all programs running insidetmux
. 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:) Move a window to the next layout and rearrange the panes to fit.
nextl
next-window
[-a
] [-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Move to the next window in the session. If
next
-a
is used, move to the next window with an alert. pipe-pane
[-o
] [-t
target-pane] [shell-command]-
(alias:) 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
pipep
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:) Move to the previous layout in the session.
prevl
previous-window
[-a
] [-t
target-session]-
(alias:) Move to the previous window in the session. With
prev
-a
, move to the previous window with an alert. rename-window
[-t
target-window] new-name-
(alias:) Rename the current window, or the window at target-window if specified, to new-name.
renamew
resize-pane
[-DLRUZ
] [-t
target-pane] [-x
width] [-y
height] [adjustment]-
(alias:) Resize a pane, up, down, left or right by adjustment with
resizep
-U
,-D
,-L
or-R
, or to an absolute size with-x
or-y
. The adjustment is given in lines or cells (the default is 1).With
-Z
, the active pane is toggled between zoomed (occupying the whole of the window) and unzoomed (its normal position in the layout). respawn-pane
[-k
] [-t
target-pane] [shell-command]-
(alias:) Reactivate a pane in which the command has exited (see the
respawnp
remain-on-exit
window option). If shell-command is not given, the command used when the pane was created is executed. The pane must be already inactive, unless-k
is given, in which case any existing command is killed. respawn-window
[-k
] [-t
target-window] [shell-command]-
(alias:) Reactivate a window in which the command has exited (see the
respawnw
remain-on-exit
window option). If shell-command is not given, the command used when the window was created is executed. The window must be already inactive, unless-k
is given, in which case any existing command is killed. rotate-window
[-DU
] [-t
target-window]-
(alias:) Rotate the positions of the panes within a window, either upward (numerically lower) with
rotatew
-U
or downward (numerically higher). select-layout
[-np
] [-t
target-window] [layout-name]-
(alias:) Choose a specific layout for a window. If layout-name is not given, the last preset layout used (if any) is reapplied.
selectl
-n
and-p
are equivalent to thenext-layout
andprevious-layout
commands. select-pane
[-lDLRU
] [-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Make pane target-pane the active pane in window target-window. If one of
selectp
-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 thelast-pane
command. select-window
[-lnpT
] [-t
target-window]-
(alias:) Select the window at target-window.
selectw
-l
,-n
and-p
are equivalent to thelast-window
,next-window
andprevious-window
commands. If-T
is given and the selected window is already the current window, the command behaves likelast-window
. split-window
[-dhvP
] [-c
start-directory] [-l
size |-p
percentage] [-t
target-pane] [shell-command] [-F
format]-
(alias:) Create a new pane by splitting target-pane:
splitw
-h
does a horizontal split and-v
a vertical split; if neither is specified,-v
is assumed. The-l
and-p
options specify the size of the new pane in lines (for vertical split) or in cells (for horizontal split), or as a percentage, respectively. All other options have the same meaning as for thenew-window
command. swap-pane
[-dDU
] [-s
src-pane] [-t
dst-pane]-
(alias:) Swap two panes. If
swapp
-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
instructstmux
not to change the active pane. swap-window
[-d
] [-s
src-window] [-t
dst-window]-
(alias:) This is similar to
swapw
link-window
, except the source and destination windows are swapped. It is an error if no window exists at src-window. unlink-window
[-k
] [-t
target-window]-
(alias:) Unlink target-window. Unless
unlinkw
-k
is given, a window may be unlinked only if it is linked to multiple sessions - windows may not be linked to no sessions; if-k
is specified and the window is linked to only one session, it is unlinked and destroyed.
KEY BINDINGS¶
tmux
allows a command to be bound to most
keys, with or without a prefix key. When specifying keys, most represent
themselves (for example ‘A
’ to
‘Z
’). Ctrl keys may be prefixed with
‘C-
’ or
‘^
’, and Alt (meta) with
‘M-
’. In addition, the following
special key names are accepted:
Up,
Down,
Left,
Right,
BSpace,
BTab,
DC (Delete),
End,
Enter,
Escape,
F1 to
F20,
Home,
IC (Insert),
NPage/PageDown/PgDn,
PPage/PageUp/PgUp,
Space,
and Tab.
Note that to bind the ‘"
’ or
‘'
’ keys, quotation marks are
necessary, for example:
bind-key '"' split-window bind-key "'" new-window
Commands related to key bindings are as follows:
bind-key
[-cnr
] [-t
key-table] key command [arguments]-
(alias:) Bind key key to command. By default (without
bind
-t
) the primary key bindings are modified (those normally activated with the prefix key); in this case, if-n
is specified, it is not necessary to use the prefix key, command is bound to key alone. The-r
flag indicates this key may repeat, see therepeat-time
option.If
-t
is present, key is bound in key-table: the binding for command mode with-c
or for normal mode without. To view the default bindings and possible commands, see thelist-keys
command. list-keys
[-t
key-table]-
(alias:) List all key bindings. Without
lsk
-t
the primary key bindings - those executed when preceded by the prefix key - are printed.With
-t
, the key bindings in key-table are listed; this may be one of: vi-edit, emacs-edit, vi-choice, emacs-choice, vi-copy or emacs-copy. send-keys
[-lR
] [-t
target-pane] key ...-
(alias:) Send a key or keys to a window. Each argument key is the name of the key (such as ‘
send
C-a
’ or ‘npage
’ ) to send; if the string is not recognised as a key, it is sent as a series of characters. The-l
flag disables key name lookup and sends the keys literally. All arguments are sent sequentially from first to last. The-R
flag causes the terminal state to be reset. send-prefix
[-2
] [-t
target-pane]- Send the prefix key, or with
-2
the secondary prefix key, to a window as if it was pressed. unbind-key
[-acn
] [-t
key-table] key-
(alias:) Unbind the command bound to key. Without
unbind
-t
the primary key bindings are modified; in this case, if-n
is specified, the command bound to key without a prefix (if any) is removed. If-a
is present, all key bindings are removed.If
-t
is present, key in key-table is unbound: the binding for command mode with-c
or for normal mode without.
OPTIONS¶
The appearance and behaviour of tmux
may
be modified by changing the value of various options. There are three types
of option: server options, session
options and window options.
The tmux
server has a set of global
options which do not apply to any particular window or session. These are
altered with the set-option
-s
command, or displayed with the
show-options
-s
command.
In addition, each individual session may have a set of session
options, and there is a separate set of global session options. Sessions
which do not have a particular option configured inherit the value from the
global session options. Session options are set or unset with the
set-option
command and may be listed with the
show-options
command. The available server and
session options are listed under the set-option
command.
Similarly, a set of window options is attached to each window, and
there is a set of global window options from which any unset options are
inherited. Window options are altered with the
set-window-option
command and can be listed with the
show-window-options
command. All window options are
documented with the set-window-option
command.
tmux
also supports user options which are
prefixed with a ‘@
’. User options may
have any name, so long as they are prefixed with
‘@
’, and be set to any string. For
example
$ tmux setw -q @foo "abc123" $ tmux showw -v @foo abc123
Commands which set options are as follows:
set-option
[-agoqsuw
] [-t
target-session | target-window] option value-
(alias:) Set a window option with
set
-w
(equivalent to theset-window-option
command), a server option with-s
, otherwise a session option.If
-g
is specified, the global session or window option is set. With-a
, and if the option expects a string, value is appended to the existing setting. The-u
flag unsets an option, so a session inherits the option from the global options. It is not possible to unset a global option.The
-o
flag prevents setting an option that is already set.The
-q
flag suppresses the informational message (as if thequiet
server option was set).Available window options are listed under
set-window-option
.value depends on the option and may be a number, a string, or a flag (on, off, or omitted to toggle).
Available server options are:
buffer-limit
number- Set the number of buffers; as new buffers are added to the top of the stack, old ones are removed from the bottom if necessary to maintain this maximum length.
escape-time
time- Set the time in milliseconds for which
tmux
waits after an escape is input to determine if it is part of a function or meta key sequences. The default is 500 milliseconds. exit-unattached
[on
|off
]- If enabled, the server will exit when there are no attached clients.
quiet
[on
|off
]- Enable or disable the display of various informational messages (see
also the
-q
command line flag). set-clipboard
[on
|off
]- Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the \e]52;...\007
xterm(1) escape sequences. This option is on by
default if there is an Ms entry in the
terminfo(5) description for the client terminal.
Note that this feature needs to be enabled in
xterm(1) by setting the resource:
disallowedWindowOps: 20,21,SetXprop
Or changing this property from the xterm(1) interactive menu when required.
Available session options are:
assume-paste-time
milliseconds- If keys are entered faster than one in
milliseconds, they are assumed to have been
pasted rather than typed and
tmux
key bindings are not processed. The default is one millisecond and zero disables. base-index
index- Set the base index from which an unused index should be searched when a new window is created. The default is zero.
bell-action
[any
|none
|current
]- Set action on window bell.
any
means a bell in any window linked to a session causes a bell in the current window of that session,none
means all bells are ignored andcurrent
means only bells in windows other than the current window are ignored. bell-on-alert
[on
|off
]- If on, ring the terminal bell when an alert occurs.
default-command
shell-command- Set the command used for new windows (if not specified when the window
is created) to shell-command, which may be any
sh(1) command. The default is an empty string, which
instructs
tmux
to create a login shell using the value of thedefault-shell
option. default-path
path- Set the default working directory for new panes. If empty (the
default), the working directory is determined from the process running
in the active pane, from the command line environment or from the
working directory where the session was created. Otherwise the same
options are available as for the
-c
flag tonew-window
. 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 startedtmux
tries to set a default value from the first suitable of theSHELL
environment variable, the shell returned by getpwuid(3), or /bin/sh. This option should be configured whentmux
is used as a login shell. default-terminal
terminal- Set the default terminal for new windows created in this session - the
default value of the
TERM
environment variable. Fortmux
to work correctly, this must be set to ‘screen
’ or a derivative of it. destroy-unattached
[on
|off
]- If enabled and the session is no longer attached to any clients, it is destroyed.
detach-on-destroy
[on
|off
]- If on (the default), the client is detached when the session it is attached to is destroyed. If off, the client is switched to the most recently active of the remaining sessions.
display-panes-active-colour
colour- Set the colour used by the
display-panes
command to show the indicator for the active pane. display-panes-colour
colour- Set the colour used by the
display-panes
command to show the indicators for inactive panes. display-panes-time
time- Set the time in milliseconds for which the indicators shown by the
display-panes
command appear. display-time
time- Set the amount of time for which status line messages and other on-screen indicators are displayed. time is in milliseconds.
history-limit
lines- Set the maximum number of lines held in window history. This setting applies only to new windows - existing window histories are not resized and retain the limit at the point they were created.
lock-after-time
number- Lock the session (like the
lock-session
command) after number seconds of inactivity, or the entire server (all sessions) if thelock-server
option is set. The default is not to lock (set to 0). lock-command
shell-command- Command to run when locking each client. The default is to run
lock(1) with
-np
. lock-server
[on
|off
]- If this option is
on
(the default), instead of each session locking individually as each has been idle forlock-after-time
, the entire server will lock after all sessions would have locked. This has no effect as a session option; it must be set as a global option. message-attr
attributes- Set status line message attributes, where
attributes is either
none
or a comma-delimited list of one or more of:bright
(orbold
),dim
,underscore
,blink
,reverse
,hidden
, oritalics
. message-bg
colour- Set status line message background colour, where
colour is one of:
black
,red
,green
,yellow
,blue
,magenta
,cyan
,white
, aixterm bright variants (if supported:brightred
,brightgreen
, and so on),colour0
tocolour255
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. message-command-attr
attributes- Set status line message attributes when in command mode.
message-command-bg
colour- Set status line message background colour when in command mode.
message-command-fg
colour- Set status line message foreground colour when in command mode.
message-fg
colour- Set status line message foreground colour.
message-limit
number- Set the number of error or information messages to save in the message log for each client. The default is 20.
mouse-resize-pane
[on
|off
]- If on,
tmux
captures the mouse and allows panes to be resized by dragging on their borders. mouse-select-pane
[on
|off
]- If on,
tmux
captures the mouse and when a window is split into multiple panes the mouse may be used to select the current pane. The mouse click is also passed through to the application as normal. mouse-select-window
[on
|off
]- If on, clicking the mouse on a window name in the status line will select that window.
mouse-utf8
[on
|off
]- If enabled, request mouse input as UTF-8 on UTF-8 terminals.
pane-active-border-bg
colourpane-active-border-fg
colour- Set the pane border colour for the currently active pane.
pane-border-bg
colourpane-border-fg
colour- Set the pane border colour for panes aside from the active pane.
prefix
key- Set the key accepted as a prefix key.
prefix2
key- Set a secondary key accepted as a prefix key.
renumber-windows
[on
|off
]- If on, when a window is closed in a session, automatically renumber
the other windows in numerical order. This respects the
base-index
option if it has been set. If off, do not renumber the windows. repeat-time
time- Allow multiple commands to be entered without pressing the prefix-key
again in the specified time milliseconds (the
default is 500). Whether a key repeats may be set when it is bound
using the
-r
flag tobind-key
. Repeat is enabled for the default keys bound to theresize-pane
command. set-remain-on-exit
[on
|off
]- Set the
remain-on-exit
window option for any windows first created in this session. When this option is true, windows in which the running program has exited do not close, instead remaining open but inactivate. Use therespawn-window
command to reactivate such a window, or thekill-window
command to destroy it. set-titles
[on
|off
]- Attempt to set the client terminal title using the
tsl
and
fsl
terminfo(5) entries if they exist.
tmux
automatically sets these to the \e]2;...\007 sequence if the terminal appears to be an xterm. This option is off by default. Note that elinks will only attempt to set the window title if the STY environment variable is set. set-titles-string
string- String used to set the window title if
set-titles
is on. Character sequences are replaced as for thestatus-left
option. status
[on
|off
]- Show or hide the status line.
status-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes.
status-bg
colour- Set status line background colour.
status-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour.
status-interval
interval- Update the status bar every interval seconds. By default, updates will occur every 15 seconds. A setting of zero disables redrawing at interval.
status-justify
[left
|centre
|right
]- Set the position of the window list component of the status line: left, centre or right justified.
status-keys
[vi
|emacs
]- Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line, for example at
the command prompt. The default is emacs, unless the
VISUAL
orEDITOR
environment variables are set and contain the string ‘vi
’. status-left
string- Display string to the left of the status bar.
string will be passed through
strftime(3) before being used. By default, the
session name is shown. string may contain any of
the following special character sequences:
Character pair Replaced with #(shell-command)
First line of the command's output #[attributes]
Colour or attribute change #H
Hostname of local host #h
Hostname of local host without the domain name #F
Current window flag #I
Current window index #D
Current pane unique identifier #P
Current pane index #S
Session name #T
Current pane title #W
Current window name ##
A literal ‘ #
’The #(shell-command) form executes ‘
shell-command
’ and inserts the first line of its output. Note that shell commands are only executed once at the interval specified by thestatus-interval
option: if the status line is redrawn in the meantime, the previous result is used. Shell commands are executed with thetmux
global environment set (see the ENVIRONMENT section).For details on how the names and titles can be set see the NAMES AND TITLES section.
#[attributes] allows a comma-separated list of attributes to be specified, these may be ‘
fg=colour
’ to set the foreground colour, ‘bg=colour
’ to set the background colour, the name of one of the attributes (listed under themessage-attr
option) to turn an attribute on, or an attribute prefixed with ‘no
’ to turn one off, for examplenobright
. Examples are:#(sysctl vm.loadavg) #[fg=yellow,bold]#(apm -l)%%#[default] [#S]
Where appropriate, special character sequences may be prefixed with a number to specify the maximum length, for example ‘
#24T
’.By default, UTF-8 in string is not interpreted, to enable UTF-8, use the
status-utf8
option. status-left-attr
attributes- Set the attribute of the left part of the status line.
status-left-bg
colour- Set the background colour of the left part of the status line.
status-left-fg
colour- Set the foreground colour of the left part of the status line.
status-left-length
length- Set the maximum length of the left component of the status bar. The default is 10.
status-position
[top
|bottom
]- Set the position of the status line.
status-right
string- Display string to the right of the status bar.
By default, the current window title in double quotes, the date and
the time are shown. As with
status-left
, string will be passed to strftime(3), character pairs are replaced, and UTF-8 is dependent on thestatus-utf8
option. status-right-attr
attributes- Set the attribute of the right part of the status line.
status-right-bg
colour- Set the background colour of the right part of the status line.
status-right-fg
colour- Set the foreground colour of the right part of the status line.
status-right-length
length- Set the maximum length of the right component of the status bar. The default is 40.
status-utf8
[on
|off
]- Instruct
tmux
to treat top-bit-set characters in thestatus-left
andstatus-right
strings as UTF-8; notably, this is important for wide characters. This option defaults to off. terminal-overrides
string- Contains a list of entries which override terminal descriptions read
using terminfo(5). string is a
comma-separated list of items each a colon-separated string made up of
a terminal type pattern (matched using fnmatch(3))
and a set of
name=value
entries.
For example, to set the ‘
clear
’ terminfo(5) entry to ‘\e[H\e[2J
’ for all terminal types and the ‘dch1
’ entry to ‘\e[P
’ for the ‘rxvt
’ terminal type, the option could be set to the string:"*:clear=\e[H\e[2J,rxvt:dch1=\e[P"
The terminal entry value is passed through strunvis(3) before interpretation. The default value forcibly corrects the ‘
colors
’ entry for terminals which support 88 or 256 colours:"*88col*:colors=88,*256col*:colors=256,xterm*:XT"
update-environment
variables- Set a space-separated string containing a list of environment
variables to be copied into the session environment when a new session
is created or an existing session is attached. Any variables that do
not exist in the source environment are set to be removed from the
session environment (as if
-r
was given to theset-environment
command). The default is "DISPLAY SSH_ASKPASS SSH_AUTH_SOCK SSH_AGENT_PID SSH_CONNECTION WINDOWID XAUTHORITY". visual-activity
[on
|off
]- If on, display a status line message when activity occurs in a window
for which the
monitor-activity
window option is enabled. visual-bell
[on
|off
]- If this option is on, a message is shown on a bell instead of it being
passed through to the terminal (which normally makes a sound). Also
see the
bell-action
option. visual-content
[on
|off
]- Like
visual-activity
, display a message when content is present in a window for which themonitor-content
window option is enabled. visual-silence
[on
|off
]- If
monitor-silence
is enabled, prints a message after the interval has expired on a given window. word-separators
string- Sets the session's conception of what characters are considered word
separators, for the purposes of the next and previous word commands in
copy mode. The default is
‘
-_@
’.
set-window-option
[-agqu
] [-t
target-window] option value-
(alias:) Set a window option. The
setw
-a
,-g
,-q
and-u
flags work similarly to theset-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 supportSIGWINCH
and poor for interactive programs such as shells. allow-rename
[on
|off
]- Allow programs to change the window name using a terminal escape sequence (\033k...\033\\). The default is on.
alternate-screen
[on
|off
]- This option configures whether programs running inside
tmux
may use the terminal alternate screen feature, which allows the smcup and rmcup terminfo(5) capabilities. The alternate screen feature preserves the contents of the window when an interactive application starts and restores it on exit, so that any output visible before the application starts reappears unchanged after it exits. The default is on. automatic-rename
[on
|off
]- Control automatic window renaming. When this setting is enabled,
tmux
will attempt - on supported platforms - to rename the window to reflect the command currently running in it. This flag is automatically disabled for an individual window when a name is specified at creation withnew-window
ornew-session
, or later withrename-window
, or with a terminal escape sequence. It may be switched off globally with:set-window-option -g automatic-rename off
c0-change-interval
intervalc0-change-trigger
trigger- These two options configure a simple form of rate limiting for a pane.
If
tmux
sees more than trigger C0 sequences that modify the screen (for example, carriage returns, linefeeds or backspaces) in one millisecond, it will stop updating the pane immediately and instead redraw it entirely every interval milliseconds. This helps to prevent fast output (such as yes(1) overwhelming the terminal). The default is a trigger of 250 and an interval of 100. A trigger of zero disables the rate limiting. clock-mode-colour
colour- Set clock colour.
clock-mode-style
[12
|24
]- Set clock hour format.
force-height
heightforce-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
heightmain-pane-width
width- Set the width or height of the main (left or top) pane in the
main-horizontal
ormain-vertical
layouts. mode-attr
attributes- Set window modes attributes.
mode-bg
colour- Set window modes background colour.
mode-fg
colour- Set window modes foreground colour.
mode-keys
[vi
|emacs
]- Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in copy and choice modes. As with
the
status-keys
option, the default is emacs, unlessVISUAL
orEDITOR
contains ‘vi
’. mode-mouse
[on
|off
|copy-mode
]- Mouse state in modes. If on, the mouse may be used to enter copy mode and copy a selection by dragging, to enter copy mode and scroll with the mouse wheel, or to select an option in choice mode. If set to copy-mode, the mouse behaves as set to on, but cannot be used to enter copy mode.
monitor-activity
[on
|off
]- Monitor for activity in the window. Windows with activity are highlighted in the status line.
monitor-content
match-string- Monitor content in the window. When fnmatch(3) pattern match-string appears in the window, it is highlighted in the status line.
monitor-silence
[interval
]- Monitor for silence (no activity) in the window within
interval
seconds. Windows that have been silent for the interval are highlighted in the status line. An interval of zero disables the monitoring. other-pane-height
height- Set the height of the other panes (not the main pane) in the
main-horizontal
layout. If this option is set to 0 (the default), it will have no effect. If both themain-pane-height
andother-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 themain-vertical
layout. pane-base-index
index- Like
base-index
, but set the starting index for pane numbers. remain-on-exit
[on
|off
]- A window with this flag set is not destroyed when the program running
in it exits. The window may be reactivated with the
respawn-window
command. synchronize-panes
[on
|off
]- Duplicate input to any pane to all other panes in the same window (only for panes that are not in any special mode).
utf8
[on
|off
]- Instructs
tmux
to expect UTF-8 sequences to appear in this window. window-status-bell-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for windows which have a bell alert.
window-status-bell-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for windows with a bell alert.
window-status-bell-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for windows with a bell alert.
window-status-content-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for windows which have a content alert.
window-status-content-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for windows with a content alert.
window-status-content-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for windows with a content alert.
window-status-activity-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for windows which have an activity (or silence) alert.
window-status-activity-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for windows with an activity alert.
window-status-activity-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for windows with an activity alert.
window-status-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for a single window.
window-status-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for a single window.
window-status-current-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for the currently active window.
window-status-current-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for the currently active window.
window-status-current-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for the currently active window.
window-status-current-format
string- Like window-status-format, but is the format used when the window is the current window.
window-status-last-attr
attributes- Set status line attributes for the last active window.
window-status-last-bg
colour- Set status line background colour for the last active window.
window-status-last-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for the last active window.
window-status-fg
colour- Set status line foreground colour for a single window.
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-separator
string- Sets the separator drawn between windows in the status line. The default is a single space character.
xterm-keys
[on
|off
]- If this option is set,
tmux
will generate xterm(1) -style function key sequences; these have a number included to indicate modifiers such as Shift, Alt or Ctrl. The default is off. wrap-search
[on
|off
]- If this option is set, searches will wrap around the end of the pane contents. The default is on.
show-options
[-gqsvw
] [-t
target-session | target-window] [option]-
(alias:) Show the window options (or a single window option if given) with
show
-w
(equivalent toshow-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:) List the window options or a single option for target-window, or the global window options if
showw
-g
is used.-v
shows only the option value, not the name.
FORMATS¶
Certain commands accept the -F
flag with a
format argument. This is a string which controls the
output format of the command. Special character sequences are replaced as
documented under the status-left
option and an
additional long form is accepted. Replacement variables are enclosed in
‘#{
’ and
‘}
’, for example
‘#{session_name}
’ is equivalent to
‘#S
’. Conditionals are also accepted
by prefixing with ‘?
’ and separating
two alternatives with a comma; if the specified variable exists and is not
zero, the first alternative is chosen, otherwise the second is used. For
example ‘#{?session_attached,attached,not
attached}
’ will include the string
‘attached
’ if the session is attached
and the string ‘not attached
’ if it is
unattached.
The following variables are available, where appropriate:
Variable name | Replaced with |
alternate_on |
If pane is in alternate screen |
alternate_saved_x |
Saved cursor X in alternate screen |
alternate_saved_y |
Saved cursor Y in alternate screen |
buffer_sample |
First 50 characters from the specified buffer |
buffer_size |
Size of the specified buffer in bytes |
client_activity |
Integer time client last had activity |
client_activity_string |
String time client last had activity |
client_created |
Integer time client created |
client_created_string |
String time client created |
client_cwd |
Working directory of client |
client_height |
Height of client |
client_last_session |
Name of the client's last session |
client_prefix |
1 if prefix key has been pressed |
client_readonly |
1 if client is readonly |
client_session |
Name of the client's session |
client_termname |
Terminal name of client |
client_tty |
Pseudo terminal of client |
client_utf8 |
1 if client supports utf8 |
client_width |
Width of client |
cursor_flag |
Pane cursor flag |
cursor_x |
Cursor X position in pane |
cursor_y |
Cursor Y position in pane |
history_bytes |
Number of bytes in window history |
history_limit |
Maximum window history lines |
history_size |
Size of history in bytes |
host |
Hostname of local host |
insert_flag |
Pane insert flag |
keypad_cursor_flag |
Pane keypad cursor flag |
keypad_flag |
Pane keypad flag |
line |
Line number in the list |
mouse_any_flag |
Pane mouse any flag |
mouse_button_flag |
Pane mouse button flag |
mouse_standard_flag |
Pane mouse standard flag |
mouse_utf8_flag |
Pane mouse UTF-8 flag |
pane_active |
1 if active pane |
pane_current_command |
Current command if available |
pane_current_path |
Current path if available |
pane_dead |
1 if pane is dead |
pane_height |
Height of pane |
pane_id |
Unique pane ID |
pane_in_mode |
If pane is in a mode |
pane_index |
Index of pane |
pane_pid |
PID of first process in pane |
pane_start_command |
Command pane started with |
pane_start_path |
Path pane started with |
pane_tabs |
Pane tab positions |
pane_title |
Title of pane |
pane_tty |
Pseudo terminal of pane |
pane_width |
Width of pane |
saved_cursor_x |
Saved cursor X in pane |
saved_cursor_y |
Saved cursor Y in pane |
scroll_region_lower |
Bottom of scroll region in pane |
scroll_region_upper |
Top of scroll region in pane |
session_attached |
1 if session attached |
session_created |
Integer time session created |
session_created_string |
String time session created |
session_group |
Number of session group |
session_grouped |
1 if session in a group |
session_height |
Height of session |
session_id |
Unique session ID |
session_name |
Name of session |
session_width |
Width of session |
session_windows |
Number of windows in session |
window_active |
1 if window active |
window_find_matches |
Matched data from the find-window command if available |
window_flags |
Window flags |
window_height |
Height of window |
window_id |
Unique window ID |
window_index |
Index of window |
window_layout |
Window layout description |
window_name |
Name of window |
window_panes |
Number of panes in window |
window_width |
Width of window |
wrap_flag |
Pane wrap flag |
NAMES AND TITLES¶
tmux
distinguishes between names and
titles. Windows and sessions have names, which may be used to specify them
in targets and are displayed in the status line and various lists: the name
is the tmux
identifier for a window or session. Only
panes have titles. A pane's title is typically set by the program running
inside the pane and is not modified by tmux
. It is
the same mechanism used to set for example the xterm(1)
window title in an X(7) window manager. Windows themselves
do not have titles - a window's title is the title of its active pane.
tmux
itself may set the title of the terminal in
which the client is running, see the set-titles
option.
A session's name is set with the
new-session
and
rename-session
commands. A window's name is set with
one of:
- A command argument (such as
-n
fornew-window
ornew-session
). - An escape sequence:
$ printf '\033kWINDOW_NAME\033\\'
- Automatic renaming, which sets the name to the active command in the
window's active pane. See the
automatic-rename
option.
When a pane is first created, its title is the hostname. A pane's title can be set via the OSC title setting sequence, for example:
$ printf '\033]2;My Title\033\\'
ENVIRONMENT¶
When the server is started, tmux
copies
the environment into the
global
environment; in addition, each session has a session
environment. When a window is created, the session and global
environments are merged. If a variable exists in both, the value from the
session environment is used. The result is the initial environment passed to
the new process.
The update-environment
session option may
be used to update the session environment from the client when a new session
is created or an old reattached. tmux
also
initialises the TMUX
variable with some internal
information to allow commands to be executed from inside, and the
TERM
variable with the correct terminal setting of
‘screen
’.
Commands to alter and view the environment are:
set-environment
[-gru
] [-t
target-session] name [value]-
(alias:) Set or unset an environment variable. If
setenv
-g
is used, the change is made in the global environment; otherwise, it is applied to the session environment for target-session. The-u
flag unsets a variable.-r
indicates the variable is to be removed from the environment before starting a new process. show-environment
[-g
] [-t
target-session] [variable]-
(alias:) Display the environment for target-session or the global environment with
showenv
-g
. If variable is omitted, all variables are shown. Variables removed from the environment are prefixed with ‘-
’.
STATUS LINE¶
tmux
includes an optional status line
which is displayed in the bottom line of each terminal. By default, the
status line is enabled (it may be disabled with the
status
session option) and contains, from
left-to-right: the name of the current session in square brackets; the
window list; the title of the active pane in double quotes; and the time and
date.
The status line is made of three parts: configurable left and
right sections (which may contain dynamic content such as the time or output
from a shell command, see the status-left
,
status-left-length
,
status-right
, and
status-right-length
options below), and a central
window list. By default, the window list shows the index, name and (if any)
flag of the windows present in the current session in ascending numerical
order. It may be customised with the
window-status-format and
window-status-current-format options. The flag is one
of the following symbols appended to the window name:
Symbol | Meaning |
* |
Denotes the current window. |
- |
Marks the last window (previously selected). |
# |
Window is monitored and activity has been detected. |
! | A bell has occurred in the window. |
+ |
Window is monitored for content and it has appeared. |
~ |
The window has been silent for the monitor-silence interval. |
Z |
The window's active pane is zoomed. |
The # symbol relates to the
monitor-activity
and + to the
monitor-content
window options. The window name is
printed in inverted colours if an alert (bell, activity or content) is
present.
The colour and attributes of the status line may be configured,
the entire status line using the status-attr
,
status-fg
and status-bg
session options and individual windows using the
window-status-attr
,
window-status-fg
and
window-status-bg
window options.
The status line is automatically refreshed at interval if it has
changed, the interval may be controlled with the
status-interval
session option.
Commands related to the status line are as follows:
command-prompt
[-I
inputs] [-p
prompts] [-t
target-client] [template]- Open the command prompt in a client. This may be used from inside
tmux
to execute commands interactively.If template is specified, it is used as the command. If present,
-I
is a comma-separated list of the initial text for each prompt. If-p
is given, prompts is a comma-separated list of prompts which are displayed in order; otherwise a single prompt is displayed, constructed from template if it is present, or ‘:
’ if not.Both inputs and prompts may contain the special character sequences supported by the
status-left
option.Before the command is executed, the first occurrence of the string ‘
%%
’ and all occurrences of ‘%1
’ are replaced by the response to the first prompt, the second ‘%%
’ and all ‘%2
’ are replaced with the response to the second prompt, and so on for further prompts. Up to nine prompt responses may be replaced (‘%1
’ to ‘%9
’). confirm-before
[-p
prompt] [-t
target-client] command-
(alias:) Ask for confirmation before executing command. If
confirm
-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 thestatus-left
option.This command works only from inside
tmux
. display-message
[-p
] [-c
target-client] [-t
target-pane] [message]-
(alias:) Display a message. If
display
-p
is given, the output is printed to stdout, otherwise it is displayed in the target-client status line. The format of message is described in the FORMATS section; information is taken from target-pane if-t
is given, otherwise the active pane for the session attached to target-client.
BUFFERS¶
tmux
maintains a stack of
paste buffers. Up to the value of the
buffer-limit
option are kept; when a new buffer is
added, the buffer at the bottom of the stack is removed. Buffers may be
added using copy-mode
or the
set-buffer
command, and pasted into a window using
the paste-buffer
command.
A configurable history buffer is also maintained for each window.
By default, up to 2000 lines are kept; this can be altered with the
history-limit
option (see the
set-option
command above).
The buffer commands are as follows:
choose-buffer
[-F
format] [-t
target-window] [template]- Put a window into buffer choice mode, where a buffer may be chosen
interactively from a list. After a buffer is selected,
‘
%%
’ is replaced by the buffer index in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "paste-buffer -b '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached. clear-history
[-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Remove and free the history for the specified pane.
clearhist
delete-buffer
[-b
buffer-index]-
(alias:) Delete the buffer at buffer-index, or the top buffer if not specified.
deleteb
list-buffers
[-F
format]-
(alias:) List the global buffers. For the meaning of the
lsb
-F
flag, see the FORMATS section. load-buffer
[-b
buffer-index] path-
(alias:) Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from path.
loadb
paste-buffer
[-dpr
] [-b
buffer-index] [-s
separator] [-t
target-pane]-
(alias:) Insert the contents of a paste buffer into the specified pane. If not specified, paste into the current one. With
pasteb
-d
, also delete the paste buffer from the stack. When output, any linefeed (LF) characters in the paste buffer are replaced with a separator, by default carriage return (CR). A custom separator may be specified using the-s
flag. The-r
flag means to do no replacement (equivalent to a separator of LF). If-p
is specified, paste bracket control codes are inserted around the buffer if the application has requested bracketed paste mode. save-buffer
[-a
] [-b
buffer-index] path-
(alias:) Save the contents of the specified paste buffer to path. The
saveb
-a
option appends to rather than overwriting the file. set-buffer
[-b
buffer-index] data-
(alias:) Set the contents of the specified buffer to data.
setb
show-buffer
[-b
buffer-index]-
(alias:) Display the contents of the specified buffer.
showb
MISCELLANEOUS¶
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
clock-mode
[-t
target-pane]- Display a large clock.
if-shell
[-b
] [-t
target-pane] shell-command command [command]-
(alias:) 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
if
-b
, shell-command is run in the background. lock-server
-
(alias:) Lock each client individually by running the command specified by the
lock
lock-command
option. run-shell
-b
[-t
target-pane] shell-command-
(alias:) 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
run
-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. server-info
-
(alias:) Show server information and terminal details.
info
wait-for
-LSU
channel-
(alias:) When used without options, prevents the client from exiting until woken using
wait
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 withwait-for
-U
. This command only works from outsidetmux
.
TERMINFO EXTENSIONS¶
tmux
understands some extensions to
terminfo(5):
- Cc, 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\\'
- Cs, Csr
- Change the cursor style. If set, a sequence such as this may be used to
change the cursor to an underline:
$ printf '\033[4 q'
If Csr is set, it will be used to reset the cursor style instead of Cs.
- Ms
- This sequence can be used by
tmux
to store the current buffer in the host terminal's selection (clipboard). See the set-clipboard option above and the xterm(1) man page.
CONTROL MODE¶
tmux
offers a textual interface called
control
mode. This allows applications to communicate with
tmux
using a simple text-only protocol.
In control mode, a client sends tmux
commands or command sequences terminated by newlines on standard input. Each
command will produce one block of output on standard output. An output block
consists of a %begin line followed by the output (which
may be empty). The output block ends with a %end or
%error. %begin and matching
%end or %error have two arguments: an
integer time (as seconds from epoch) and command number. For example:
%begin 1363006971 2 0: ksh* (1 panes) [80x24] [layout b25f,80x24,0,0,2] @2 (active) %end 1363006971 2
In control mode, tmux
outputs
notifications. A notification will never occur inside an output block.
The following notifications are defined:
%exit
[reason]- The
tmux
client is exiting immediately, either because it is not attached to any session or an error occurred. If present, reason describes why the client exited. %layout-change
window-id window-layout- The layout of a window with ID window-id changed. The new layout is window-layout.
%output
pane-id value- A window pane produced output. value escapes non-printable characters and backslash as octal \xxx.
%session-changed
session-id name- The client is now attached to the session with ID session-id, which is named name.
%session-renamed
name- The current session was renamed to name.
%sessions-changed
- A session was created or destroyed.
%unlinked-window-add
window-id- The window with ID window-id was created but is not linked to the current session.
%window-add
window-id- The window with ID window-id was linked to the current session.
%window-close
window-id- The window with ID window-id closed.
%window-renamed
window-id name- The window with ID window-id was renamed to name.
FILES¶
- ~/.tmux.conf
- Default
tmux
configuration file. - /etc/tmux.conf
- System-wide configuration file.
EXAMPLES¶
To create a new tmux
session running
vi(1):
$ tmux new-session vi
Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For
new-session, this is new
:
$ tmux new vi
Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is accepted. If there are several options, they are listed:
$ tmux n ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing
‘C-b c
’ (Ctrl followed by the
‘b
’ key followed by the
‘c
’ key).
Windows may be navigated with: ‘C-b
0
’ (to select window 0), ‘C-b
1
’ (to select window 1), and so on;
‘C-b n
’ to select the next window; and
‘C-b p
’ to select the previous
window.
A session may be detached using ‘C-b
d
’ (or by an external event such as ssh(1)
disconnection) and reattached with:
$ tmux attach-session
Typing ‘C-b ?
’ lists the
current key bindings in the current window; up and down may be used to
navigate the list or ‘q
’ to exit from
it.
Commands to be run when the tmux
server is
started may be placed in the ~/.tmux.conf
configuration file. Common examples include:
Changing the default prefix key:
set-option -g prefix C-a unbind-key C-b bind-key C-a send-prefix
Turning the status line off, or changing its colour:
set-option -g status off set-option -g status-bg blue
Setting other options, such as the default command, or locking after 30 minutes of inactivity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh" set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'" bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
SEE ALSO¶
AUTHORS¶
Nicholas Marriott ⟨nicm@users.sourceforge.net⟩
March 25, 2013 | Linux 5.14.0-427.18.1.el9_4.x86_64 |