The Tao of tmux

ISC-licensed terminal multiplexer.

tmux is geared for developers and admins who interact regularly with CLI (text-only interfaces)

In the world of computers, there are 2 realms:

1. The text realm

2. The graphical realm

tmux resides in the text realm. This is about fixed-width fonts and that old fashioned black terminal.

tmux is to the console what a desktop is to gui apps. It’s a world inside the text dimension. Inside tmux you can:

• multitask inside the terminal, run multiple applications.

• have multiple command lines (pane) in the same window

• have multiple windows (window) in the workspace (session)

• switch between multiple workspaces, like virtual desktops

Thinking tmux

Text-based window manager

tmux	“Desktop”-Speak	Plain English
Multiplexer	Multi-tasking	Multiple applications simultaneously.
Session	Desktop	Applications are visible here
Window	Virtual Desktop or applications	A desktop that stores it own screen
Pane	Application	Performs operations

• 1 Server.

  • has 1 or more Session.

    • has 1 or more Window.

      • has 1 or more Pane.

See also

Glossary has a dictionary of tmux words.

CLI Power Tool

Multiple applications or terminals to run on the same screen by splitting up 1 terminal into multiple.

One screen can be used to edit a file, and another may be used to $ tail -F a logfile.

tmux supports as manys terminals as you want.

You can switch between the windows you create.

Resume everything later

You can leave tmux and all applications running (detach), log out, make a sandwich, and re-(attach), all applications are still running!

Manage workflow

• System administrators monitor logs and services.

• Programmers like to have an editor open with a CLI nearby.

Applications running on a remote server can be launched inside of a tmux session, detached, and reattached next timeyour “train of thought” and work.

Multitasking. Preserving the thinking you have.

Installing tmux

tmux is packaged on most Linux and BSD systems.

For the freshest results on how to get tmux installed on your system, “How to install tmux on <my distro>” will do, as directions change and are slightly different between distributions.

This documentation is written for version 1.8. It’s important that you have the latest stable release of tmux. The latest stable version is viewable on the tmux homepage.

Mac OS X users may install that latest stable version of tmux through MacPorts, fink or Homebrew (aka brew).

If compiling from source, the dependencies are libevent and ncurses.

Using tmux

Start a new session

$ tmux

That’s all it takes to launch yourself into a tmux session.

Common pitfall

Running $ tmux list-sessions or any other command for listing tmux entities (such as $ tmux list-windows or $ tmux list-panes). This can generate the error “failed to connect to server”.

This could be because:

• tmux server has killed its’ last session, killing the server.

• tmux server has encountered a crash. (tmux is highly stable, this will rarely happen)

• tmux has not be launched yet at all.

The prefix key

Tmux hot keys have to be pressed in a special way. Read this carefully, then try it yourself.

First, you press the prefix key. This is C-b by default.

Release. Then pause. For less than second. Then type what’s next.

C-b o means: Press Ctrl and b at the same time. Release, Then press o.

Remember, prefix + short cut! C is Ctrl key.

Session Name

Sessions can be named upon creation.

$ tmux new-session [-s session-name]

Sessions can be renamed after creation.

Command	$ tmux rename-session <session-name>
Short cut	Prefix + $

Window Name

Windows can be named upon creation.

$ tmux new-window [-n window-name]

Windows can be renamed after creation.

Command	$ tmux rename-window <new-name>
Short cut	Prefix + ,

Creating new windows

Command	$ tmux new-window [-n window-name]
Short cut	Prefix + c You may then rename window.

Traverse windows

By number

$ tmux select-window

Next

$ tmux next-window

Previous

$ tmux previous-window

Last-window

$ tmux last-window

Short cut	Action
n	Change to the next window.
p	Change to the previous window.
w	Choose the current window interactively.
0 to 9	Select windows 0 to 9.
M-n	Move to the next window with a bell or activity marker.
M-p	Move to the previous window with a bell or activity marker.

Move windows

Move window

$ tmux move-window [-t dst-window]

Swap the window

$ tmux swap-window [-t dst-window]

Short cut	Action
.	Prompt for an index to move the current window.

Move panes

$ tmux move-pane [-t dst-pane]

Short cut	Action
C-o	Rotate the panes in the current window forwards.
{	Swap the current pane with the previous pane.
}	Swap the current pane with the next pane.

Traverse panes

Shortcut to move between panes.

$ tmux last-window

$ tmux next-window

Short cut	Action
Up, Down	Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to
Left, Right	the right of the current pane.

Recipe: tmux conf to hjkl commands, add this to your ~/.tmux.conf:

# hjkl pane traversal
bind h select-pane -L
bind j select-pane -D
bind k select-pane -U
bind l select-pane -R

Kill window

$ tmux kill-window [-t target-window]

Short cut	Action
&	Kill the current window.

Kill pane

$ tmux kill-pane [-t target-pane]

Short cut	Action
x	Kill the current pane.

Splitting windows into panes

$ tmux split-window [-c start-directory] <shell-command>

Tmux windows can be split into multiple panes.

Short cut	Action
%	Split the current pane into two, left and right.
"	Split the current pane into two, top and bottom.

Configuring tmux

Tmux can be configured via a tmux(1) configuration at ~/.tmux.conf.

Depending on your tmux version, there is different options available.

Vi-style copy and paste

# Vi copypaste mode
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
bind-key -t vi-copy 'v' begin-selection
bind-key -t vi-copy 'y' copy-selection

Aggressive resizing for clients

setw -g aggressive-resize on

Reload config

<Prefix> + r.

bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display-message "Config reloaded."

Status lines

Tmux allows configuring a status line that displays system information, window list, and even pipe in the stdout of an application.

You can use tmux-mem-cpu-load to get stats (requires compilation) and basic-cpu-and-memory.tmux. You can pipe in a bash command to a tmux status line like:

$(shell-command)

So if /usr/local/bin/tmux-mem-cpu-load outputs stats to stdout, then $(tmux-mem-cpu-load) is going to output the first line to the status line. The interval is determined by the status-interval:

set -g status-interval 1

Examples

• https://github.com/tony/tmux-config - works with tmux 1.5+. Supports screen’s ctrl-a Prefix key. Support for system cpu, memory, uptime stats.

• Add yours, edit this page on github.

Reference

Short cuts

Tip

The prefix key is pressed before a short cut!

Short cut	Action
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	Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to
Left, Right	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.

Source: tmux manpage[1].

To get the text documentation of a .1 manual file:

$ nroff -mdoc tmux.1|less

For more information on how to export and differentiate tmux between versions, see https://github.com/tmux-python/tmux-manuals.

The Book

The Tao of tmux is available on Leanpub and Kindle (Amazon).

Read and browse the book for free on the web.

License

This page is licensed Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.