TMUX(1) BSD General Commands Manual TMUX(1)
NAME
tmux — terminal multiplexer
SYNOPSIS
tmux [-2CluvV] [-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 cur‐
rent 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 termi‐
nals). 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 commu‐
nicate 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 com‐
mand 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 inde‐
pendent tmux servers to be run. Unlike -S a full path is not neces‐
sary: 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 speci‐
fied, 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 environ‐
ment 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 gener‐
ated 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.
-V Report the tmux version.
command [flags]
This specifies one of a set of commands used to control tmux, as
described in the following sections. If no commands are specified,
the new-session command is assumed.
KEY BINDINGS
tmux may be controlled from an attached client by using a key combination of a pre‐
fix 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.
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:
1. A session ID prefixed with a $.
2. An exact name of a session (as listed by the list-sessions command).
3. The start of a session name, for example ‘mysess’ would match a session
named ‘mysession’.
4. 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 avail‐
able; 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:
1. A special token, listed below.
2. A window index, for example ‘mysession:1’ is window 1 in session
‘mysession’.
3. A window ID, such as @1.
4. An exact window name, such as ‘mysession:mywindow’.
5. The start of a window name, such as ‘mysession:mywin’.
6. As an fnmatch(3) pattern matched against the window name.
Like sessions, a ‘=’ prefix will do an exact match only. An empty window name spec‐
ifies 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:
Token Meaning
{last} ! The last (previously active) pane
{next} + The next pane by number
{previous} - The previous pane by number
{top} The top pane
{bottom} The bottom pane
{left} The leftmost pane
{right} The rightmost pane
{top-left} The top-left pane
{top-right} The top-right pane
{bottom-left} The bottom-left pane
{bottom-right} The bottom-right pane
{up-of} The pane above the active pane
{down-of} The pane below the active pane
{left-of} The pane to the left of the active pane
{right-of} The pane to the right of the active pane
The tokens ‘+’ and ‘-’ may be followed by an offset, for example:
select-window -t:+2
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 pre‐
fixed 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 exe‐
cuted 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 sequen‐
tially 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 creat‐
ing, 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 argu‐
ment may be:
1. the name of an existing group, in which case the new session is
added to that group;
2. the name of an existing session - the new session is added to the
same group as that session, creating a new group if necessary;
3. 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 termi‐
nals.
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 ses‐
sions.
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 ses‐
sion 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 inter‐
preted 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
WINDOWS AND PANES
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:
Command vi emacs
append-selection
append-selection-and-cancel A
back-to-indentation ^ M-m
begin-selection Space C-Space
bottom-line L
cancel q Escape
clear-selection Escape C-g
copy-end-of-line D C-k
copy-line
copy-pipe <command>
copy-pipe-and-cancel <command>
copy-selection
copy-selection-and-cancel Enter M-w
cursor-down j Down
cursor-left h Left
cursor-right l Right
cursor-up k Up
end-of-line $ C-e
goto-line <line> : g
halfpage-down C-d M-Down
halfpage-down-and-cancel
halfpage-up C-u M-Up
history-bottom G M->
history-top g M-<
jump-again ; ;
jump-backward <to> F F
jump-forward <to> f f
jump-reverse , ,
jump-to-backward <to> T
jump-to-forward <to> t
middle-line M M-r
next-paragraph } M-}
next-space W
next-space-end E
next-word w
next-word-end e M-f
other-end o
page-down C-f PageDown
page-down-and-cancel
page-up C-b PageUp
previous-paragraph { M-{
previous-space B
previous-word b M-b
rectangle-toggle v R
scroll-down C-e C-Down
scroll-down-and-cancel
scroll-up C-y C-Up
search-again n n
search-backward <for> ?
search-forward <for> /
search-backward-incremental <for> C-r
search-forward-incremental <for> C-s
search-reverse N N
select-line V
start-of-line 0 C-a
stop-selection
top-line H M-R
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 sepa‐
rator.
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 speci‐
fies 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 win‐
dow. 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 [-NZ] [-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. -Z zooms the pane. 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 com‐
mand works only if at least one client is attached.
choose-tree [-GNswZ] [-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. -Z zooms the pane. 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 ses‐
sions 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 spec‐
ified, 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 sequen‐
tial 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, other‐
wise 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 speci‐
fies 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 pro‐
grams 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 cre‐
ated. 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 [-IOo] [-t target-pane] [shell-command]
(alias: pipep)
Pipe output sent by the program in target-pane to a shell command or vice
versa. A pane may only be connected 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.
-I and -O specify which of the shell-command output streams are connected to
the pane: with -I stdout is connected (so anything shell-command prints is
written to the pane as if it were typed); with -O stdin is connected (so any
output in the pane is piped to shell-command). Both may be used together
and if neither are specified, -O is used.
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 (numeri‐
cally 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 lay‐
out if possible (undoes the most recent layout change). -E spreads the cur‐
rent 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 ses‐
sions; 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 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 (with‐
out -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 com‐
mand.
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 sec‐
tion. -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.
OPTIONS
The appearance and behaviour of tmux may be modified by changing the value of vari‐
ous 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 com‐
mand 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-empty [on | off]
If enabled (the default), the server will exit when there are no
active sessions.
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 sup‐
ported 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 mes‐
sage 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) descrip‐
tion (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 inter‐
pretation.
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 dis‐
ables.
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 val‐
ues are the same as those for activity-action.
default-command shell-command
Set the command used for new windows (if not specified when the win‐
dow 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 vari‐
able, 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 indica‐
tor for the active pane.
display-panes-colour colour
Set the colour used by the display-panes command to show the indica‐
tors 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 indica‐
tors 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 set‐
ting 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 sec‐
onds 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-sepa‐
rated 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 sta‐
tus 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 exam‐
ple ‘#[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 spec‐
ify 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 associ‐
ated 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 pre‐
serves 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 high‐
lighted in the status line.
monitor-bell [on | off]
Monitor for a bell in the window. Windows with a bell are high‐
lighted in the status line.
monitor-silence [interval]
Monitor for silence (no activity) in the window within interval sec‐
onds. Windows that have been silent for the interval are high‐
lighted in the status line. An interval of zero disables the moni‐
toring.
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 run‐
ning 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 spec‐
ify 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 (equiv‐
alent 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.
HOOKS
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.
MOUSE SUPPORT
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:
WheelUp WheelDown
MouseDown1 MouseUp1 MouseDrag1 MouseDragEnd1
MouseDown2 MouseUp2 MouseDrag2 MouseDragEnd2
MouseDown3 MouseUp3 MouseDrag3 MouseDragEnd3
DoubleClick1 DoubleClick2 DoubleClick3
TripleClick1 TripleClick2 TripleClick3
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.
FORMATS
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 alterna‐
tive 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 char‐
acters 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 for‐
mats, 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_current_path Current path 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
version Server version
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
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 var‐
ious 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 win‐
dow's name is set with one of:
1. A command argument (such as -n for new-window or new-session).
2. An escape sequence:
$ printf '\033kWINDOW_NAME\033\\'
3. Automatic renaming, which sets the name to the active command in the win‐
dow'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.
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 ini‐
tialises 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 vari‐
able 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.
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 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 inter‐
val 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:
Function vi emacs
Cancel command prompt Escape Escape
Delete current word C-w
Delete entire command d C-u
Delete from cursor to end D C-k
Execute command Enter Enter
Get next command from history Down
Get previous command from history Up
Insert top paste buffer p C-y
Look for completions Tab Tab
Move cursor left h Left
Move cursor right l Right
Move cursor to end $ C-e
Move cursor to next word w M-f
Move cursor to previous word b M-b
Move cursor to start 0 C-a
Transpose characters C-t
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, other‐
wise 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 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 sub‐
ject 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 [-NZ] [-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. -Z zooms the pane. 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-buf‐
fer -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 automati‐
cally 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 spec‐
ified, 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 con‐
trol 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
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 nei‐
ther 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 speci‐
fied by -t or the current pane if omitted). If the command doesn't return
success, the exit status is also displayed.
wait-for [-L | -S | -U] channel
(alias: wait)
When used without options, prevents the client from exiting until woken
using wait-for -S with the same channel. When -L is used, the channel is
locked and any clients that try to lock the same channel are made to wait
until the channel is unlocked with wait-for -U. This command only works
from outside tmux.
TERMINFO EXTENSIONS
tmux understands some 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:
$ printf '\033[4 q'
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.
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 stan‐
dard 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.
"none"-changed session-id name
The client is now attached to the session with ID session-id, which is named
name.
"none"-renamed name
The current session was renamed to name.
"none"-window-changed session-id window-id
The session with ID session-id changed its active window to the window with
ID window-id.
"none"s-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.
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 fol‐
lowed 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 win‐
dow 1), and so on; ‘C-b n’ to select the next window; and ‘C-b p’ to select the pre‐
vious window.
A session may be detached using ‘C-b d’ (or by an external event such as ssh(1) dis‐
connection) and reattached with:
$ tmux attach-session
Typing ‘C-b ?’ lists the current key bindings in the current window; up and down may
be used to navigate the list or ‘q’ to exit from it.
Commands to be run when the tmux server is started may be placed in the ~/.tmux.conf
configuration file. Common examples include:
Changing the default prefix key:
set-option -g prefix C-a
unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a send-prefix
Turning the status line off, or changing its colour:
set-option -g status off
set-option -g status-style bg=blue
Setting other options, such as the default command, or locking after 30 minutes of
inactivity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh"
set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status
bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
SEE ALSO
pty(4)
AUTHORS
Nicholas Marriott <nicholas.marriott@gmail.com>
BSD March 25, 2013 BSD