TMUX(1) BSD General Commands Manual TMUX(1)
tmux — terminal multiplexer
tmux [-2CDluvV] [-c shell-command] [-f file] [-L socket-name]
[-S socket-path] [-T features] [command [flags]]
tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals to
be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. tmux
may be detached from a screen and continue running in the
background, then later reattached.
When tmux is started it creates a new session with a single window
and displays it on screen. A status line at the bottom of the
screen shows information on the current session and is used to
enter interactive commands.
A session is a single collection of pseudo terminals under the
management of tmux. Each session has one or more windows linked to
it. A window occupies the entire screen and may be split into
rectangular panes, each of which is a separate pseudo terminal (the
pty(4) manual page documents the technical details of pseudo
terminals). Any number of tmux instances may connect to the same
session, and any number of windows may be present in the same
session. Once all sessions are killed, tmux exits.
Each session is persistent and will survive accidental
disconnection (such as ssh(1) connection timeout) or intentional
detaching (with the ‘C-b d’ key strokes). tmux may be reattached
using:
$ tmux attach
In tmux, a session is displayed on screen by a client and all
sessions are managed by a single server. The server and each
client are separate processes which communicate through a socket in
/tmp.
The options are as follows:
-2 Force tmux to assume the terminal supports 256
colours. This is equivalent to -T 256.
-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.
-D Do not start the tmux server as a daemon. This also
turns the exit-empty option off. With -D, command
may not be specified.
-f file Specify an alternative configuration file. By
default, tmux loads the system configuration file
from @SYSCONFDIR@/tmux.conf, if present, then looks
for a user configuration file at ~/.tmux.conf.
The configuration file is a set of tmux commands
which are executed in sequence when the server is
first started. tmux loads configuration files once
when the server process has started. The source-file
command may be used to load a file later.
tmux shows any error messages from commands in
configuration files in the first session created, and
continues to process the rest of the configuration
file.
-L socket-name
tmux stores the server socket in a directory under
TMUX_TMPDIR or /tmp if it is unset. The default
socket is named default. This option allows a
different socket name to be specified, allowing
several independent tmux servers to be run. Unlike
-S a full path is not necessary: the sockets are all
created in a directory tmux-UID under the directory
given by TMUX_TMPDIR or in /tmp. The tmux-UID
directory is created by tmux and must not be world
readable, writable or executable.
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.
-N Do not start the server even if the command would
normally do so (for example new-session or
start-server).
-S socket-path
Specify a full alternative path to the server socket.
If -S is specified, the default socket directory is
not used and any -L flag is ignored.
-u Write UTF-8 output to the terminal even if the first
environment variable of LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG
that is set does not contain "UTF-8" or "UTF8". This
is equivalent to -T UTF-8.
-T features Set terminal features for the client. This is a
comma-separated list of features. See the
terminal-features option.
-v Request verbose logging. Log messages will be saved
into tmux-client-PID.log and tmux-server-PID.log
files in the current directory, where PID is the PID
of the server or client process. If -v is specified
twice, an additional tmux-out-PID.log file is
generated with a copy of everything tmux writes to
the terminal.
The SIGUSR2 signal may be sent to the tmux server
process to toggle logging between on (as if -v was
given) and off.
-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.
tmux may be controlled from an attached client by using a key
combination of a prefix key, ‘C-b’ (Ctrl-b) by default, followed by
a command key.
The default command key bindings are:
C-b Send the prefix key (C-b) through to the
application.
C-o Rotate the panes in the current window forwards.
C-z Suspend the tmux client.
! Break the current pane out of the window.
" Split the current pane into two, top and bottom.
# List all paste buffers.
$ Rename the current session.
% Split the current pane into two, left and right.
& Kill the current window.
' Prompt for a window index to select.
( Switch the attached client to the previous
session.
) Switch the attached client to the next session.
, Rename the current window.
- Delete the most recently copied buffer of text.
. Prompt for an index to move the current window.
0 to 9 Select windows 0 to 9.
: Enter the tmux command prompt.
; Move to the previously active pane.
= Choose which buffer to paste interactively from a
list.
? List all key bindings.
D Choose a client to detach.
L Switch the attached client back to the last
session.
[ Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history.
] Paste the most recently copied buffer of text.
c Create a new window.
d Detach the current client.
f Prompt to search for text in open windows.
i Display some information about the current
window.
l Move to the previously selected window.
m Mark the current pane (see select-pane -m).
M Clear the marked pane.
n Change to the next window.
o Select the next pane in the current window.
p Change to the previous window.
q Briefly display pane indexes.
r Force redraw of the attached client.
s Select a new session for the attached client
interactively.
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.
tmux supports a large number of commands which can be used to
control its behaviour. Each command is named and can accept zero
or more flags and arguments. They may be bound to a key with the
bind-key command or run from the shell prompt, a shell script, a
configuration file or the command prompt. For example, the same
set-option command run from the shell prompt, from ~/.tmux.conf and
bound to a key may look like:
$ tmux set-option -g status-style bg=cyan
set-option -g status-style bg=cyan
bind-key C set-option -g status-style bg=cyan
Here, the command name is ‘set-option’, ‘-g’ is a flag and
‘status-style’ and ‘bg=cyan’ are arguments.
tmux distinguishes between command parsing and execution. In order
to execute a command, tmux needs it to be split up into its name
and arguments. This is command parsing. If a command is run from
the shell, the shell parses it; from inside tmux or from a
configuration file, tmux does. Examples of when tmux parses
commands are:
- in a configuration file;
- typed at the command prompt (see command-prompt);
- given to bind-key;
- passed as arguments to if-shell or confirm-before.
To execute commands, each client has a ‘command queue’. A global
command queue not attached to any client is used on startup for
configuration files like ~/.tmux.conf. Parsed commands added to
the queue are executed in order. Some commands, like if-shell and
confirm-before, parse their argument to create a new command which
is inserted immediately after themselves. This means that
arguments can be parsed twice or more - once when the parent
command (such as if-shell) is parsed and again when it parses and
executes its command. Commands like if-shell, run-shell and
display-panes stop execution of subsequent commands on the queue
until something happens - if-shell and run-shell until a shell
command finishes and display-panes until a key is pressed. For
example, the following commands:
new-session; new-window
if-shell "true" "split-window"
kill-session
Will execute new-session, new-window, if-shell, the shell command
true(1), split-window and kill-session in that order.
The COMMANDS section lists the tmux commands and their arguments.
This section describes the syntax of commands parsed by tmux, for
example in a configuration file or at the command prompt. Note
that when commands are entered into the shell, they are parsed by
the shell - see for example ksh(1) or csh(1).
Each command is terminated by a newline or a semicolon (;).
Commands separated by semicolons together form a ‘command sequence’
- if a command in the sequence encounters an error, no subsequent
commands are executed.
It is recommended that a semicolon used as a command separator
should be written as an individual token, for example from sh(1):
$ tmux neww \; splitw
Or:
$ tmux neww ';' splitw
Or from the tmux command prompt:
neww ; splitw
However, a trailing semicolon is also interpreted as a command
separator, for example in these sh(1) commands:
$ tmux neww\\; splitw
Or:
$ tmux 'neww;' splitw
As in these examples, when running tmux from the shell extra care
must be taken to properly quote semicolons:
1. Semicolons that should be interpreted as a command
separator should be escaped according to the shell
conventions. For sh(1) this typically means quoted
(such as ‘neww ';' splitw’) or escaped (such as ‘neww
\\\\; splitw’).
2. Individual semicolons or trailing semicolons that should
be interpreted as arguments should be escaped twice:
once according to the shell conventions and a second
time for tmux; for example:
$ tmux neww 'foo\\;' bar
$ tmux neww foo\\\\; bar
3. Semicolons that are not individual tokens or trailing
another token should only be escaped once according to
shell conventions; for example:
$ tmux neww 'foo-;-bar'
$ tmux neww foo-\\;-bar
Comments are marked by the unquoted # character - any remaining
text after a comment is ignored until the end of the line.
If the last character of a line is \, the line is joined with the
following line (the \ and the newline are completely removed).
This is called line continuation and applies both inside and
outside quoted strings and in comments, but not inside braces.
Command arguments may be specified as strings surrounded by single
(') quotes, double quotes (") or braces ({}). This is required
when the argument contains any special character. Single and
double quoted strings cannot span multiple lines except with line
continuation. Braces can span multiple lines.
Outside of quotes and inside double quotes, these replacements are
performed:
- Environment variables preceded by $ are replaced with
their value from the global environment (see the GLOBAL
AND SESSION ENVIRONMENT section).
- A leading ~ or ~user is expanded to the home directory of
the current or specified user.
- \uXXXX or \uXXXXXXXX is replaced by the Unicode codepoint
corresponding to the given four or eight digit
hexadecimal number.
- When preceded (escaped) by a \, the following characters
are replaced: \e by the escape character; \r by a
carriage return; \n by a newline; and \t by a tab.
- \ooo is replaced by a character of the octal value ooo.
Three octal digits are required, for example \001. The
largest valid character is \377.
- Any other characters preceded by \ are replaced by
themselves (that is, the \ is removed) and are not
treated as having any special meaning - so for example \;
will not mark a command sequence and \$ will not expand
an environment variable.
Braces are parsed as a configuration file (so conditions such as
‘%if’ are processed) and then converted into a string. They are
designed to avoid the need for additional escaping when passing a
group of tmux commands as an argument (for example to if-shell).
These two examples produce an identical command - note that no
escaping is needed when using {}:
if-shell true {
display -p 'brace-dollar-foo: }$foo'
}
if-shell true "display -p 'brace-dollar-foo: }\$foo'"
Braces may be enclosed inside braces, for example:
bind x if-shell "true" {
if-shell "true" {
display "true!"
}
}
Environment variables may be set by using the syntax ‘name=value’,
for example ‘HOME=/home/user’. Variables set during parsing are
added to the global environment. A hidden variable may be set with
‘%hidden’, for example:
%hidden MYVAR=42
Hidden variables are not passed to the environment of processes
created by tmux. See the GLOBAL AND SESSION ENVIRONMENT section.
Commands may be parsed conditionally by surrounding them with
‘%if’, ‘%elif’, ‘%else’ and ‘%endif’. The argument to ‘%if’ and
‘%elif’ is expanded as a format (see FORMATS) and if it evaluates
to false (zero or empty), subsequent text is ignored until the
closing ‘%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.
Conditionals may be given on one line, for example:
%if #{==:#{host},myhost} set -g status-style bg=red %endif
This section describes 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 available; if no current session is
available, the most recently used is chosen.
target-window (or src-window or dst-window) specifies a window in
the form session:window. session follows the same rules as for
target-session, and window is looked for in order as:
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 specifies the next unused index if appropriate (for
example the new-window and link-window commands) otherwise the
current window in session is chosen.
The following special tokens are available to indicate particular
windows. Each has a single-character alternative form.
Token Meaning
{start} ^ The lowest-numbered window
{end} $ The highest-numbered window
{last} ! The last (previously current) window
{next} + The next window by number
{previous} - The previous window by number
target-pane (or src-pane or dst-pane) may be a pane ID or takes a
similar form to target-window but with the optional addition of a
period followed by a pane index or pane ID, for example:
‘mysession:mywindow.1’. If the pane index is omitted, the
currently active pane in the specified window is used. The
following special tokens are available for the pane index:
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 session, window or pane where the most recent mouse
event occurred (see the MOUSE SUPPORT section) or ‘{marked}’
(alternative form ‘~’) to specify the marked pane (see select-pane
-m).
Sessions, window and panes are each numbered with a unique ID;
session IDs are prefixed with a ‘$’, windows with a ‘@’, and panes
with a ‘%’. These are unique and are unchanged for the life of the
session, window or pane in the tmux server. The pane ID is passed
to the child process of the pane in the TMUX_PANE environment
variable. IDs may be displayed using the ‘session_id’,
‘window_id’, or ‘pane_id’ formats (see the FORMATS section) and the
display-message, list-sessions, list-windows or list-panes
commands.
shell-command arguments are sh(1) commands. This may be a single
argument passed to the shell, for example:
new-window 'vi ~/.tmux.conf'
Will run:
/bin/sh -c 'vi ~/.tmux.conf'
Additionally, the new-window, new-session, split-window,
respawn-window and respawn-pane commands allow shell-command to be
given as multiple arguments and executed directly (without ‘sh
-c’). This can avoid issues with shell quoting. For example:
$ tmux new-window vi ~/.tmux.conf
Will run vi(1) directly without invoking the shell.
command [arguments] refers to a tmux command, either passed with
the command and arguments separately, for example:
bind-key F1 set-option status off
Or passed as a single string argument in .tmux.conf, for example:
bind-key F1 { set-option status off }
Example tmux commands include:
refresh-client -t/dev/ttyp2
rename-session -tfirst newname
set-option -wt: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 ~/.tmux.conf' \; split-window -d \; attach
The tmux server manages clients, sessions, windows and panes.
Clients are attached to sessions to interact with them, either when
they are created with the new-session command, or later with the
attach-session command. Each session has one or more windows
linked into it. Windows may be linked to multiple sessions and are
made up of one or more panes, each of which contains a pseudo
terminal. Commands for creating, linking and otherwise
manipulating windows are covered in the WINDOWS AND PANES section.
The following commands are available to manage clients and
sessions:
attach-session [-dErx] [-c working-directory] [-f flags] [-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. If -x is given, send SIGHUP to the parent
process of the client as well as detaching the client,
typically causing it to exit. -f sets a comma-separated
list of client flags. The flags are:
active-pane
the client has an independent active pane
ignore-size
the client does not affect the size of other
clients
no-output
the client does not receive pane output in control
mode
pause-after=seconds
output is paused once the pane is seconds behind in
control mode
read-only
the client is read-only
wait-exit
wait for an empty line input before exiting in
control mode
A leading ‘!’ turns a flag off if the client is already
attached. -r is an alias for -f read-only,ignore-size.
When a client is read-only, only keys bound to the
detach-client or switch-client commands have any effect. A
client with the active-pane flag allows the active pane to
be selected independently of the window's active pane used
by clients without the flag. This only affects the cursor
position and commands issued from the client; other
features such as hooks and styles continue to use the
window's active pane.
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] [command]
(alias: lscm)
List the syntax of command or - if omitted - of all
commands supported by tmux.
list-sessions [-F format] [-f filter]
(alias: ls)
List all sessions managed by the server. -F specifies the
format of each line and -f a filter. Only sessions for
which the filter is true are shown. 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 [-AdDEPX] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-f
flags] [-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 comes from the global default-size
option; -x and -y can be used to specify a different size.
‘-’ uses the size of the current client if any. If -x or
-y is given, the default-size option is set for the
session. -f sets a comma-separated list of client flags
(see attach-session).
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, and -X behaves like -x to
attach-session.
If -t is given, it specifies a session group. Sessions in
the same group share the same set of windows - new windows
are linked to all sessions in the group and any windows
closed removed from all sessions. The current and previous
window and any session options remain independent and any
session in a group may be killed without affecting the
others. The group-name argument may be:
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. -e takes the form ‘VARIABLE=value’ and sets an
environment variable for the newly created session; it may
be specified multiple times.
refresh-client [-cDlLRSU] [-A pane:state] [-B name:what:format] [-C
XxY] [-f flags] [-t target-client] [adjustment]
(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.
The -U, -D, -L -R, and -c flags allow the visible portion
of a window which is larger than the client to be changed.
-U moves the visible part up by adjustment rows and -D
down, -L left by adjustment columns and -R right. -c
returns to tracking the cursor automatically. If
adjustment is omitted, 1 is used. Note that the visible
position is a property of the client not of the window,
changing the current window in the attached session will
reset it.
-C sets the width and height of a control mode client. -A
allows a control mode client to trigger actions on a pane.
The argument is a pane ID (with leading ‘%’), a colon, then
one of ‘on’, ‘off’, ‘continue’ or ‘pause’. If ‘off’, tmux
will not send output from the pane to the client and if all
clients have turned the pane off, will stop reading from
the pane. If ‘continue’, tmux will return to sending
output to the pane if it was paused (manually or with the
pause-after flag). If ‘pause’, tmux will pause the pane.
-A may be given multiple times for different panes.
-B sets a subscription to a format for a control mode
client. The argument is split into three items by colons:
name is a name for the subscription; what is a type of item
to subscribe to; format is the format. After a
subscription is added, changes to the format are reported
with the %subscription-changed notification, at most once a
second. If only the name is given, the subscription is
removed. what may be empty to check the format only for
the attached session, or one of: a pane ID such as ‘%0’;
‘%*’ for all panes in the attached session; a window ID
such as ‘@0’; or ‘@*’ for all windows in the attached
session.
-f sets a comma-separated list of client flags, see
attach-session.
-l requests the clipboard from the client using the
xterm(1) escape sequence and stores it in a new paste
buffer.
-L, -R, -U and -D move the visible portion of the window
left, right, up or down by adjustment, if the window is
larger than the client. -c resets so that the position
follows the cursor. See the window-size option.
rename-session [-t target-session] new-name
(alias: rename)
Rename the session to new-name.
show-messages [-JT] [-t target-client]
(alias: showmsgs)
Show server messages or information. Messages are stored,
up to a maximum of the limit set by the message-limit
server option. -J and -T show debugging information about
jobs and terminals.
source-file [-Fnqv] path ...
(alias: source)
Execute commands from one or more files specified by path
(which may be glob(7) patterns). If -F is present, then
path is expanded as a format. If -q is given, no error
will be returned if path does not exist. With -n, the file
is parsed but no commands are executed. -v shows the
parsed commands and line numbers if possible.
start-server
(alias: start)
Start the tmux server, if not already running, without
creating any sessions.
Note that as by default the tmux server will exit with no
sessions, this is only useful if a session is created in
~/.tmux.conf, exit-empty is turned off, or another command
is run as part of the same command sequence. For example:
$ tmux start \; show -g
suspend-client [-t target-client]
(alias: suspendc)
Suspend a client by sending SIGTSTP (tty stop).
switch-client [-ElnprZ] [-c target-client] [-t target-session] [-T
key-table]
(alias: switchc)
Switch the current session for client target-client to
target-session. As a special case, -t may refer to a pane
(a target that contains ‘:’, ‘.’ or ‘%’), to change
session, window and pane. In that case, -Z keeps the
window zoomed if it was zoomed. If -l, -n or -p is used,
the client is moved to the last, next or previous session
respectively. -r toggles the client read-only and
ignore-size flags (see the attach-session command).
If -E is used, update-environment option will not be
applied.
-T sets the client's key table; the next key from the
client will be interpreted from key-table. This may be
used to configure multiple prefix keys, or to bind commands
to sequences of keys. For example, to make typing ‘abc’
run the list-keys command:
bind-key -Ttable2 c list-keys
bind-key -Ttable1 b switch-client -Ttable2
bind-key -Troot a switch-client -Ttable1
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.
By default, a tmux pane permits direct access to the terminal
contained in the pane. A pane may also be put into one of several
modes:
- 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. Copied
text can be pasted with the paste-buffer command, bound
to ‘]’.
- View mode, which is like copy mode but is entered when a
command that produces output, such as list-keys, is
executed from a key binding.
- Choose mode, which allows an item to be chosen from a
list. This may be a client, a session or window or pane,
or a buffer. This mode is entered with the
choose-buffer, choose-client and choose-tree commands.
In copy mode an indicator is displayed in the top-right corner of
the pane with the current position and the number of lines in the
history.
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 [<prefix>]
copy-end-of-line-and-cancel [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-end-of-line [<command>] [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-end-of-line-and-cancel [<command>]
[<prefix>] D C-k
copy-line [<prefix>]
copy-line-and-cancel [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-line [<command>] [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-line-and-cancel [<command>]
[<prefix>]
copy-pipe [<command>] [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-no-clear [<command>] [<prefix>]
copy-pipe-and-cancel [<command>] [<prefix>]
copy-selection [<prefix>]
copy-selection-no-clear [<prefix>]
copy-selection-and-cancel
[<prefix>] Enter M-w
cursor-down j Down
cursor-down-and-cancel
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
jump-to-mark M-x M-x
middle-line M M-r
next-matching-bracket % M-C-f
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
pipe [<command>] [<prefix>]
pipe-no-clear [<command>] [<prefix>]
pipe-and-cancel [<command>] [<prefix>]
previous-matching-bracket M-C-b
previous-paragraph { M-{
previous-space B
previous-word b M-b
rectangle-on
rectangle-off
rectangle-toggle v R
refresh-from-pane r 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-backward-incremental
<for> C-r
search-backward-text <for>
search-forward <for> /
search-forward-incremental
<for> C-s
search-forward-text <for>
search-reverse N N
select-line V
select-word
set-mark X X
start-of-line 0 C-a
stop-selection
top-line H M-R
The search commands come in several varieties: ‘search-forward’ and
‘search-backward’ search for a regular expression; the ‘-text’
variants search for a plain text string rather than a regular
expression; ‘-incremental’ perform an incremental search and expect
to be used with the -i flag to the command-prompt command.
‘search-again’ repeats the last search and ‘search-reverse’ does
the same but reverses the direction (forward becomes backward and
backward becomes forward).
Copy commands may take an optional buffer prefix argument which is
used to generate the buffer name (the default is ‘buffer’ so
buffers are named ‘buffer0’, ‘buffer1’ and so on). Pipe commands
take a command argument which is the command to which the selected
text is piped. ‘copy-pipe’ variants also copy the selection. 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). ‘-no-clear’ variants do not clear
the selection.
The next and previous word keys skip over whitespace and treat
consecutive runs of either word separators or other letters as
words. Word separators can be customized with the word-separators
session option. Next word moves to the start of the next word,
next word end to the end of the next word and previous word to the
start of the previous word. The three next and previous space keys
work similarly but use a space alone as the word separator.
Setting word-separators to the empty string makes next/previous
word equivalent to next/previous space.
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 [-eHMqu] [-s src-pane] [-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). -H hides the position
indicator in the top right. -q cancels copy mode and any
other modes. -s copies from src-pane instead of
target-pane.
-e specifies that scrolling to the bottom of the history
(to the visible screen) should exit copy mode. While in
copy mode, pressing a key other than those used for
scrolling will disable this behaviour. This is intended to
allow fast scrolling through a pane's history, for example
with:
bind PageUp copy-mode -eu
A number of preset arrangements of panes are available, these are
called layouts. 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 [-abdP] [-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. With -a or -b, the window is
moved to the next index after or before (existing windows
are moved if necessary). If -d is given, the new window
does not become the current window. The -P option prints
information about the new window after it has been created.
By default, it uses the format
‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}.#{pane_index}’ but a
different format may be specified with -F.
capture-pane [-aepPqCJN] [-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. -N
preserves trailing spaces at each line's end and -J
preserves trailing spaces and joins any wrapped lines. -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 [-NrZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-K key-format] [-O
sort-order] [-t target-pane] [template]
Put a pane into client mode, allowing a client to be
selected interactively from a list. Each client is shown
on one line. A shortcut key is shown on the left in
brackets allowing for immediate choice, or the list may be
navigated and an item chosen or otherwise manipulated using
the keys below. -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 field
r Reverse 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 field: one of ‘name’, ‘size’,
‘creation’, or ‘activity’. -r reverses the sort order. -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 and -K a format for each shortcut key; both are
evaluated once for each line. -N starts without the
preview. This command works only if at least one client is
attached.
choose-tree [-GNrswZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-K key-format] [-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 tree. Each session,
window or pane is shown on one line. A shortcut key is
shown on the left in brackets allowing for immediate
choice, or the tree may be navigated and an item chosen or
otherwise manipulated using the keys below. -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
+ Expand selected item
- Collapse selected item
M-+ Expand all items
M-- Collapse all items
x Kill selected item
X Kill tagged items
< Scroll list of previews left
> Scroll list of previews right
C-s Search by name
m Set the marked pane
M Clear the marked pane
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
H Jump to the starting pane
O Change sort field
r Reverse sort order
v Toggle preview
q Exit mode
After a session, window or pane is chosen, the first
instance of ‘%%’ and all instances of ‘%1’ are 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 field: one of ‘index’,
‘name’, or ‘time’. -r reverses the sort order. -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 and -K a format for each shortcut key; both are
evaluated once for each line. -N starts without the
preview. -G includes all sessions in any session groups in
the tree rather than only the first. This command works
only if at least one client is attached.
customize-mode [-NZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-t target-pane]
[template]
Put a pane into customize mode, where options and key
bindings may be browsed and modified from a list. Option
values in the list are shown for the active pane in the
current window. -Z zooms the pane. The following keys may
be used in customize mode:
Key Function
Enter Set pane, window, session or global option
value
Up Select previous item
Down Select next item
+ Expand selected item
- Collapse selected item
M-+ Expand all items
M-- Collapse all items
s Set option value or key attribute
S Set global option value
w Set window option value, if option is for pane
and window
d Set an option or key to the default
D Set tagged options and tagged keys to the
default
u Unset an option (set to default value if
global) or unbind a key
U Unset tagged options and unbind tagged keys
C-s Search by name
n Repeat last search
t Toggle if item is tagged
T Tag no items
C-t Tag all items
f Enter a format to filter items
v Toggle option information
q Exit mode
-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 option information.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
display-panes [-bN] [-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 (unless -N is given) 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 '%%'". With -b, other commands
are not blocked from running until the indicator is closed.
find-window [-iCNrTZ] [-t target-pane] match-string
(alias: findw)
Search for a fnmatch(3) pattern or, with -r, regular
expression 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. -i makes the search ignore case. The
default is -CNT. -Z zooms the pane.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
join-pane [-bdfhv] [-l size] [-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 [-deZ] [-t target-window]
(alias: lastp)
Select the last (previously selected) pane. -Z keeps the
window zoomed if it was zoomed. -e enables or -d disables
input to the pane.
last-window [-t target-session]
(alias: last)
Select the last (previously selected) window. If no
target-session is specified, select the last window of the
current session.
link-window [-abdk] [-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 or -b the window is
moved to the next index after or before dst-window
(existing 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] [-f filter] [-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). -F specifies the format of
each line and -f a filter. Only panes for which the filter
is true are shown. See the FORMATS section.
list-windows [-a] [-F format] [-f filter] [-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.
-F specifies the format of each line and -f a filter. Only
windows for which the filter is true are shown. See the
FORMATS section.
move-pane [-bdfhv] [-l size] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: movep)
Does the same as join-pane.
move-window [-abrdk] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: movew)
This is similar to link-window, except the window at
src-window is moved to dst-window. With -r, all windows in
the session are renumbered in sequential order, respecting
the base-index option.
new-window [-abdkPS] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-F
format] [-n window-name] [-t target-window] [shell-command]
(alias: neww)
Create a new window. With -a or -b, the new window is
inserted at the next index after or before the specified
target-window, moving windows up if necessary; otherwise
target-window is the new window location.
If -d is given, the session does not make the new window
the current window. target-window represents the window to
be created; if the target already exists an error is shown,
unless the -k flag is used, in which case it is destroyed.
If -S is given and a window named window-name already
exists, it is selected (unless -d is also given in which
case the command does nothing).
shell-command is the command to execute. If shell-command
is not specified, the value of the default-command option
is used. -c specifies the working directory in which the
new window is created.
When the shell command completes, the window closes. See
the remain-on-exit option to change this behaviour.
-e takes the form ‘VARIABLE=value’ and sets an environment
variable for the newly created window; it may be specified
multiple times.
The TERM environment variable must be set to ‘screen’ or
‘tmux’ for all programs running inside tmux. New windows
will automatically have ‘TERM=screen’ added to their
environment, but care must be taken not to reset this in
shell start-up files or by the -e option.
The -P option prints information about the new window after
it has been created. By default, it uses the format
‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}’ but a different format
may be specified with -F.
next-layout [-t target-window]
(alias: nextl)
Move a window to the next layout and rearrange the panes to
fit.
next-window [-a] [-t target-session]
(alias: next)
Move to the next window in the session. If -a is used,
move to the next window with an alert.
pipe-pane [-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 [-DLMRTUZ] [-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 columns (the default is
1); -x and -y may be a given as a number of lines or
columns or followed by ‘%’ for a percentage of the window
size (for example ‘-x 10%’). 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).
-T trims all lines below the current cursor position and
moves lines out of the history to replace them.
resize-window [-aADLRU] [-t target-window] [-x width] [-y height]
[adjustment]
(alias: resizew)
Resize a window, 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). -A sets the size of the largest session containing the
window; -a the size of the smallest. This command will
automatically set window-size to manual in the window
options.
respawn-pane [-k] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-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 or last
respawned 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.
The -e option has the same meaning as for the new-window
command.
respawn-window [-k] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-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 or last
respawned 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. The -e option has the same meaning as for
the new-window command.
rotate-window [-DUZ] [-t target-window]
(alias: rotatew)
Rotate the positions of the panes within a window, either
upward (numerically lower) with -U or downward (numerically
higher). -Z keeps the window zoomed if it was zoomed.
select-layout [-Enop] [-t target-pane] [layout-name]
(alias: selectl)
Choose a specific layout for a window. If layout-name is
not given, the last preset layout used (if any) is
reapplied. -n and -p are equivalent to the next-layout and
previous-layout commands. -o applies the last set layout
if possible (undoes the most recent layout change). -E
spreads the current pane and any panes next to it out
evenly.
select-pane [-DdeLlMmRUZ] [-T title] [-t target-pane]
(alias: selectp)
Make pane target-pane the active pane in its window. If
one of -D, -L, -R, or -U is used, respectively the pane
below, to the left, to the right, or above the target pane
is used. -Z keeps the window zoomed if it was zoomed. -l
is the same as using the last-pane command. -e enables or
-d disables input to the pane. -T sets the pane title.
-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, move-pane, swap-pane and swap-window.
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 [-bdfhIvPZ] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-l
size] [-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 option specifies the size
of the new pane in lines (for vertical split) or in columns
(for horizontal split); size may be followed by ‘%’ to
specify a percentage of the available space. 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. -Z zooms if the
window is not zoomed, or keeps it zoomed if already zoomed.
An empty shell-command ('') will create a pane with no
command running in it. Output can be sent to such a pane
with the display-message command. The -I flag (if
shell-command is not specified or empty) will create an
empty pane and forward any output from stdin to it. For
example:
$ make 2>&1|tmux splitw -dI &
All other options have the same meaning as for the
new-window command.
swap-pane [-dDUZ] [-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 and -Z keeps the window zoomed if it was
zoomed.
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. If -d is given, the new
window does not become the current window.
If -s is omitted and a marked pane is present (see
select-pane -m), the window containing the marked pane is
used rather than the current window.
unlink-window [-k] [-t target-window]
(alias: unlinkw)
Unlink target-window. Unless -k is given, a window may be
unlinked only if it is linked to multiple sessions -
windows may not be linked to no sessions; if -k is
specified and the window is linked to only one session, it
is unlinked and destroyed.
tmux allows a command to be bound to most keys, with or without a
prefix key. When specifying keys, most represent themselves (for
example ‘A’ to ‘Z’). Ctrl keys may be prefixed with ‘C-’ or ‘^’,
Shift keys with ‘S-’ 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
A command bound to the Any key will execute for all keys which do
not have a more specific binding.
Commands related to key bindings are as follows:
bind-key [-nr] [-N note] [-T key-table] key command [arguments]
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to command. Keys are bound in a key table.
By default (without -T), the key is bound in the prefix key
table. This table is used for keys pressed after the
prefix key (for example, by default ‘c’ is bound to
new-window in the prefix table, so ‘C-b c’ creates a new
window). The root table is used for keys pressed without
the prefix key: binding ‘c’ to new-window in the root table
(not recommended) means a plain ‘c’ will create a new
window. -n is an alias for -T root. Keys may also be
bound in custom key tables and the switch-client -T command
used to switch to them from a key binding. The -r flag
indicates this key may repeat, see the repeat-time option.
-N attaches a note to the key (shown with list-keys -N).
To view the default bindings and possible commands, see the
list-keys command.
list-keys [-1aN] [-P prefix-string -T key-table] [key]
(alias: lsk)
List key bindings. There are two forms: the default lists
keys as bind-key commands; -N lists only keys with attached
notes and shows only the key and note for each key.
With the default form, all key tables are listed by
default. -T lists only keys in key-table.
With the -N form, only keys in the root and prefix key
tables are listed by default; -T also lists only keys in
key-table. -P specifies a prefix to print before each key
and -1 lists only the first matching key. -a lists the
command for keys that do not have a note rather than
skipping them.
send-keys [-FHlMRX] [-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. All arguments are sent sequentially from
first to last.
The -l flag disables key name lookup and processes the keys
as literal UTF-8 characters. The -H flag expects each key
to be a hexadecimal number for an ASCII character.
The -R flag causes the terminal state to be reset.
-M passes through a mouse event (only valid if bound to a
mouse key binding, see MOUSE SUPPORT).
-X is used to send a command into copy mode - see the
WINDOWS AND PANES section. -N specifies a repeat count and
-F expands formats in arguments where appropriate.
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 [-anq] [-T key-table] key
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the command bound to key. -n and -T are the same as
for bind-key. If -a is present, all key bindings are
removed. The -q option prevents errors being returned.
The appearance and behaviour of tmux may be modified by changing
the value of various options. There are four types of option:
server options, session options, window options, and pane options.
The tmux server has a set of global server options which do not
apply to any particular window or session or pane. 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 a
set of pane options to each pane. Pane options inherit from window
options. This means any pane option may be set as a window option
to apply the option to all panes in the window without the option
set, for example these commands will set the background colour to
red for all panes except pane 0:
set -w window-style bg=red
set -pt:.0 window-style bg=blue
There is also a set of global window options from which any unset
window or pane options are inherited. Window and pane options are
altered with set-option -w and -p commands and displayed with
show-option -w and -p.
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 set -wq @foo "abc123"
$ tmux show -wv @foo
abc123
Commands which set options are as follows:
set-option [-aFgopqsuUw] [-t target-pane] option value
(alias: set)
Set a pane option with -p, a window option with -w, a
server option with -s, otherwise a session option. If the
option is not a user option, -w or -s may be unnecessary -
tmux will infer the type from the option name, assuming -w
for pane options. 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). -U unsets an option (like -u) but if the option
is a pane option also unsets the option on any panes in the
window. value depends on the option and may be a number, a
string, or a flag (on, off, or omitted to toggle).
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.
show-options [-AgHpqsvw] [-t target-pane] [option]
(alias: show)
Show the pane options (or a single option if option is
provided) with -p, the window options with -w, the server
options with -s, otherwise the session options. If the
option is not a user option, -w or -s may be unnecessary -
tmux will infer the type from the option name, assuming -w
for pane options. 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. -H includes hooks (omitted by default).
-A includes options inherited from a parent set of options,
such options are marked with an asterisk.
Available server options are:
backspace key
Set the key sent by tmux for backspace.
buffer-limit number
Set the number of buffers; as new buffers are added to the
top of the stack, old ones are removed from the bottom if
necessary to maintain this maximum length.
command-alias[] name=value
This is an array of custom aliases for commands. If an
unknown command matches name, it is replaced with value.
For example, after:
set -s command-alias[100] zoom='resize-pane -Z'
Using:
zoom -t:.1
Is equivalent to:
resize-pane -Z -t:.1
Note that aliases are expanded when a command is parsed
rather than when it is executed, so binding an alias with
bind-key will bind the expanded form.
default-terminal terminal
Set the default terminal for new windows created in this
session - the default value of the TERM environment
variable. For tmux to work correctly, this must be set to
‘screen’, ‘tmux’ or a derivative of them.
copy-command shell-command
Give the command to pipe to if the copy-pipe copy mode
command is used without arguments.
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.
editor shell-command
Set the command used when tmux runs an editor.
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.
extended-keys [on | off | always]
When on or always, the escape sequence to enable extended
keys is sent to the terminal, if tmux knows that it is
supported. tmux always recognises extended keys itself.
If this option is on, tmux will only forward extended keys
to applications when they request them; if always, tmux
will always forward the keys.
focus-events [on | off]
When enabled, focus events are requested from the terminal
if supported and passed through to applications running in
tmux. Attached clients should be detached and attached
again after changing this option.
history-file path
If not empty, a file to which tmux will write command
prompt history on exit and load it from on start.
message-limit number
Set the number of error or information messages to save in
the message log for each client.
prompt-history-limit number
Set the number of history items to save in the history file
for each type of command prompt.
set-clipboard [on | external | off]
Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the
xterm(1) escape sequence, if there is an Ms entry in the
terminfo(5) description (see the TERMINFO EXTENSIONS
section).
If set to on, tmux will both accept the escape sequence to
create a buffer and attempt to set the terminal clipboard.
If set to external, tmux will attempt to set the terminal
clipboard but ignore attempts by applications to set tmux
buffers. If off, tmux will neither accept the clipboard
escape sequence nor attempt to set the clipboard.
Note that this feature needs to be enabled in xterm(1) by
setting the resource:
disallowedWindowOps: 20,21,SetXprop
Or changing this property from the xterm(1) interactive
menu when required.
terminal-features[] string
Set terminal features for terminal types read from
terminfo(5). tmux has a set of named terminal features.
Each will apply appropriate changes to the terminfo(5)
entry in use.
tmux can detect features for a few common terminals; this
option can be used to easily tell tmux about features
supported by terminals it cannot detect. The
terminal-overrides option allows individual terminfo(5)
capabilities to be set instead, terminal-features is
intended for classes of functionality supported in a
standard way but not reported by terminfo(5). Care must be
taken to configure this only with features the terminal
actually supports.
This is an array option where each entry is a colon-
separated string made up of a terminal type pattern
(matched using fnmatch(3)) followed by a list of terminal
features. The available features are:
256 Supports 256 colours with the SGR escape sequences.
clipboard
Allows setting the system clipboard.
ccolour
Allows setting the cursor colour.
cstyle Allows setting the cursor style.
extkeys
Supports extended keys.
focus Supports focus reporting.
margins
Supports DECSLRM margins.
mouse Supports xterm(1) mouse sequences.
overline
Supports the overline SGR attribute.
rectfill
Supports the DECFRA rectangle fill escape sequence.
RGB Supports RGB colour with the SGR escape sequences.
strikethrough
Supports the strikethrough SGR escape sequence.
sync Supports synchronized updates.
title Supports xterm(1) title setting.
usstyle
Allows underscore style and colour to be set.
terminal-overrides[] string
Allow terminal descriptions read using terminfo(5) to be
overridden. Each entry is a colon-separated string made up
of a terminal type pattern (matched using fnmatch(3)) and a
set of name=value entries.
For example, to set the ‘clear’ terminfo(5) entry to
‘\e[H\e[2J’ for all terminal types matching ‘rxvt*’:
rxvt*:clear=\e[H\e[2J
The terminal entry value is passed through strunvis(3)
before interpretation.
user-keys[] key
Set list of user-defined key escape sequences. Each item
is associated with a key named ‘User0’, ‘User1’, and so on.
For example:
set -s user-keys[0] "\e[5;30012~"
bind User0 resize-pane -L 3
Available session options are:
activity-action [any | none | current | other]
Set action on window activity when monitor-activity is on.
any means activity in any window linked to a session causes
a bell or message (depending on visual-activity) in the
current window of that session, none means all activity is
ignored (equivalent to monitor-activity being off), current
means only activity in windows other than the current
window are ignored and other means activity in the current
window is ignored but not those in other windows.
assume-paste-time milliseconds
If keys are entered faster than one in milliseconds, they
are assumed to have been pasted rather than typed and tmux
key bindings are not processed. The default is one
millisecond and zero disables.
base-index index
Set the base index from which an unused index should be
searched when a new window is created. The default is
zero.
bell-action [any | none | current | other]
Set action on a bell in a window when monitor-bell is on.
The values are the same as those for activity-action.
default-command shell-command
Set the command used for new windows (if not specified when
the window is created) to shell-command, which may be any
sh(1) command. The default is an empty string, which
instructs tmux to create a login shell using the value of
the default-shell option.
default-shell path
Specify the default shell. This is used as the login shell
for new windows when the default-command option is set to
empty, and must be the full path of the executable. When
started tmux tries to set a default value from the first
suitable of the SHELL environment variable, the shell
returned by getpwuid(3), or /bin/sh. This option should be
configured when tmux is used as a login shell.
default-size XxY
Set the default size of new windows when the window-size
option is set to manual or when a session is created with
new-session -d. The value is the width and height
separated by an ‘x’ character. The default is 80x24.
destroy-unattached [on | off]
If enabled and the session is no longer attached to any
clients, it is destroyed.
detach-on-destroy [off | on | no-detached]
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. If no-detached, the client is detached only if
there are no detached sessions; if detached sessions exist,
the client is switched to the most recently active.
display-panes-active-colour colour
Set the colour used by the display-panes command to show
the indicator for the active pane.
display-panes-colour colour
Set the colour used by the display-panes command to show
the indicators for inactive panes.
display-panes-time time
Set the time in milliseconds for which the indicators shown
by the display-panes command appear.
display-time time
Set the amount of time for which status line messages and
other on-screen indicators are displayed. If set to 0,
messages and indicators are displayed until a key is
pressed. time is in milliseconds.
history-limit lines
Set the maximum number of lines held in window history.
This setting applies only to new windows - existing window
histories are not resized and retain the limit at the point
they were created.
key-table key-table
Set the default key table to key-table instead of root.
lock-after-time number
Lock the session (like the lock-session command) after
number seconds of inactivity. The default is not to lock
(set to 0).
lock-command shell-command
Command to run when locking each client. The default is to
run lock(1) with -np.
message-command-style style
Set status line message command style. This is used for
the command prompt with vi(1) keys when in command mode.
For how to specify style, see the STYLES section.
message-style style
Set status line message style. This is used for messages
and for the command prompt. For how to specify style, see
the STYLES section.
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 client terminal 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 [off | on | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5]
Show or hide the status line or specify its size. Using on
gives a status line one row in height; 2, 3, 4 or 5 more
rows.
status-format[] format
Specify the format to be used for each line of the status
line. The default builds the top status line from the
various individual status options below.
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 | absolute-centre]
Set the position of the window list in the status line:
left, centre or right. centre puts the window list in the
relative centre of the available free space; absolute-
centre uses the centre of the entire horizontal space.
status-keys [vi | emacs]
Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line, for
example at the command prompt. The default is emacs,
unless the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables are set
and contain the string ‘vi’.
status-left string
Display string (by default the session name) to the left of
the status line. string will be passed through
strftime(3). Also see the FORMATS and STYLES sections.
For details on how the names and titles can be set see the
NAMES AND TITLES section.
Examples are:
#(sysctl vm.loadavg)
#[fg=yellow,bold]#(apm -l)%%#[default] [#S]
The default is ‘[#S] ’.
status-left-length length
Set the maximum length of the left component of the status
line. The default is 10.
status-left-style style
Set the style of the left part of the status line. For how
to specify style, see the STYLES section.
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 STYLES section.
status-style style
Set status line style. For how to specify style, see the
STYLES section.
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).
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.
Available 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 or largest session (see the window-size
option) for which it is the current window, rather
than the session to which it is attached. The
window may resize when the current window is
changed on another session; this option is good for
full-screen programs which support SIGWINCH and
poor for interactive programs such as shells.
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-option -wg 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.
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. If suffixed by ‘%’, this is a percentage
of the window size.
copy-mode-match-style style
Set the style of search matches in copy mode. For
how to specify style, see the STYLES section.
copy-mode-mark-style style
Set the style of the line containing the mark in
copy mode. For how to specify style, see the
STYLES section.
copy-mode-current-match-style style
Set the style of the current search match in copy
mode. For how to specify style, see the STYLES
section.
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 STYLES section.
monitor-activity [on | off]
Monitor for activity in the window. Windows with
activity are highlighted in the status line.
monitor-bell [on | off]
Monitor for a bell in the window. Windows with a
bell are highlighted in the status line.
monitor-silence [interval]
Monitor for silence (no activity) in the window
within interval seconds. Windows that have been
silent for the interval are highlighted in the
status line. An interval of zero disables the
monitoring.
other-pane-height height
Set the height of the other panes (not the main
pane) in the main-horizontal layout. If this
option is set to 0 (the default), it will have no
effect. If both the main-pane-height and
other-pane-height options are set, the main pane
will grow taller to make the other panes the
specified height, but will never shrink to do so.
If suffixed by ‘%’, this is a percentage of the
window size.
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 STYLES
section. 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-lines type
Set the type of characters used for drawing pane
borders. type may be one of:
single single lines using ACS or UTF-8 characters
double double lines using UTF-8 characters
heavy heavy lines using UTF-8 characters
simple simple ASCII characters
number the pane number
‘double’ and ‘heavy’ will fall back to standard ACS
line drawing when UTF-8 is not supported.
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
STYLES section. Attributes are ignored.
window-status-activity-style style
Set status line style for windows with an activity
alert. For how to specify style, see the STYLES
section.
window-status-bell-style style
Set status line style for windows with a bell
alert. For how to specify style, see the STYLES
section.
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 STYLES
section.
window-status-format string
Set the format in which the window is displayed in
the status line window list. See the FORMATS and
STYLES sections.
window-status-last-style style
Set status line style for the last active window.
For how to specify style, see the STYLES section.
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 STYLES section.
window-size largest | smallest | manual | latest
Configure how tmux determines the window size. If
set to largest, the size of the largest attached
session is used; if smallest, the size of the
smallest. If manual, the size of a new window is
set from the default-size option and windows are
resized automatically. With latest, tmux uses the
size of the client that had the most recent
activity. See also the resize-window command and
the aggressive-resize option.
wrap-search [on | off]
If this option is set, searches will wrap around
the end of the pane contents. The default is on.
Available pane options are:
allow-rename [on | off]
Allow programs in the pane to change the window
name using a terminal escape sequence (\ek...\e\\).
alternate-screen [on | off]
This option configures whether programs running
inside the pane may use the terminal alternate
screen feature, which allows the smcup and rmcup
terminfo(5) capabilities. The alternate screen
feature preserves the contents of the window when
an interactive application starts and restores it
on exit, so that any output visible before the
application starts reappears unchanged after it
exits.
pane-colours[] colour
The default colour palette. Each entry in the
array defines the colour tmux uses when the colour
with that index is requested. The index may be
from zero to 255.
remain-on-exit [on | off | failed]
A pane with this flag set is not destroyed when the
program running in it exits. If set to failed,
then only when the program exit status is not zero.
The pane may be reactivated with the respawn-pane
command.
synchronize-panes [on | off]
Duplicate input to all other panes in the same
window where this option is also on (only for panes
that are not in any mode).
window-active-style style
Set the pane style when it is the active pane. For
how to specify style, see the STYLES section.
window-style style
Set the pane style. For how to specify style, see
the STYLES section.
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.
Hooks are stored as array options, members of the array are
executed in order when the hook is triggered. Like options
different hooks may be global or belong to a session, window or
pane. Hooks may be configured with the set-hook or set-option
commands and displayed with show-hooks or show-options -H. The
following two commands are equivalent:
set-hook -g pane-mode-changed[42] 'set -g status-left-style bg=red'
set-option -g pane-mode-changed[42] 'set -g status-left-style bg=red'
Setting a hook without specifying an array index clears the hook
and sets the first member of the array.
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 -g 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-active Run when a client becomes the latest active
client of its session.
client-attached Run when a client is attached.
client-detached Run when a client is detached
client-focus-in Run when focus enters a client
client-focus-out Run when focus exits a client
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-focus-in Run when the focus enters a pane, if the
focus-events option is on.
pane-focus-out Run when the focus exits a pane, if the
focus-events option is on.
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 [-agpRuw] [-t target-pane] hook-name command
Without -R, sets (or with -u unsets) hook hook-name to
command. The flags are the same as for set-option.
With -R, run hook-name immediately.
show-hooks [-gpw] [-t target-pane]
Shows hooks. The flags are the same as for show-options.
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 the
following:
Pane the contents of a pane
Border a pane border
Status the status line window list
StatusLeft the left part of the status line
StatusRight the right part of the status line
StatusDefault any other part of the status line
The following mouse events are available:
WheelUp WheelDown
MouseDown1 MouseUp1 MouseDrag1 MouseDragEnd1
MouseDown2 MouseUp2 MouseDrag2 MouseDragEnd2
MouseDown3 MouseUp3 MouseDrag3 MouseDragEnd3
SecondClick1 SecondClick2 SecondClick3
DoubleClick1 DoubleClick2 DoubleClick3
TripleClick1 TripleClick2 TripleClick3
The ‘SecondClick’ events are fired for the second click of a double
click, even if there may be a third click which will fire
‘TripleClick’ instead of ‘DoubleClick’.
Each should be suffixed with a location, for example
‘MouseDown1Status’.
The special token ‘{mouse}’ or ‘=’ may be used as target-window or
target-pane in commands bound to mouse key bindings. It resolves
to the window or pane over which the mouse event took place (for
example, the window in the status line over which button 1 was
released for a ‘MouseUp1Status’ binding, or the pane over which the
wheel was scrolled for a ‘WheelDownPane’ binding).
The send-keys -M flag may be used to forward a mouse event to a
pane.
The default key bindings allow the mouse to be used to select and
resize panes, to copy text and to change window using the status
line. These take effect if the mouse option is turned on.
Certain commands accept the -F flag with a format argument. This
is a string which controls the output format of the command.
Format 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’; ‘##’ is
replaced by a single ‘#’, ‘#,’ by a ‘,’ and ‘#}’ by a ‘}’.
Conditionals are available by prefixing with ‘?’ and separating two
alternatives with a comma; if the specified variable exists and is
not zero, the first alternative is chosen, otherwise the second is
used. For example ‘#{?session_attached,attached,not attached}’
will include the string ‘attached’ if the session is attached and
the string ‘not attached’ if it is unattached, or
‘#{?automatic-rename,yes,no}’ will include ‘yes’ if
automatic-rename is enabled, or ‘no’ if not. Conditionals can be
nested arbitrarily. Inside a conditional, ‘,’ and ‘}’ must be
escaped as ‘#,’ and ‘#}’, unless they are part of a ‘#{...}’
replacement. For example:
#{?pane_in_mode,#[fg=white#,bg=red],#[fg=red#,bg=white]}#W .
String 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’. ‘||’ and ‘&&’ evaluate
to true if either or both of two comma-separated alternatives are
true, for example ‘#{||:#{pane_in_mode},#{alternate_on}}’.
An ‘m’ specifies an fnmatch(3) or regular expression comparison.
The first argument is the pattern and the second the string to
compare. An optional argument specifies flags: ‘r’ means the
pattern is a regular expression instead of the default fnmatch(3)
pattern, and ‘i’ means to ignore case. For example:
‘#{m:*foo*,#{host}}’ or ‘#{m/ri:^A,MYVAR}’. A ‘C’ performs a
search for an fnmatch(3) pattern or regular expression in the pane
content and evaluates to zero if not found, or a line number if
found. Like ‘m’, an ‘r’ flag means search for a regular expression
and ‘i’ ignores case. For example: ‘#{C/r:^Start}’
Numeric operators may be performed by prefixing two comma-separated
alternatives with an ‘e’ and an operator. An optional ‘f’ flag may
be given after the operator to use floating point numbers,
otherwise integers are used. This may be followed by a number
giving the number of decimal places to use for the result. The
available operators are: addition ‘+’, subtraction ‘-’,
multiplication ‘*’, division ‘/’, modulus ‘m’ or ‘%’ (note that ‘%’
must be escaped as ‘%%’ in formats which are also expanded by
strftime(3)) and numeric comparison operators ‘==’, ‘!=’, ‘<’,
‘<=’, ‘>’ and ‘>=’. For example, ‘#{e|*|f|4:5.5,3}’ multiplies 5.5
by 3 for a result with four decimal places and ‘#{e|%%:7,3}’
returns the modulus of 7 and 3. ‘a’ replaces a numeric argument by
its ASCII equivalent, so ‘#{a:98}’ results in ‘b’.
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 five characters
of the pane title, or ‘#{=-5:pane_title}’ the last five characters.
A suffix or prefix may be given as a second argument - if provided
then it is appended or prepended to the string if the length has
been trimmed, for example ‘#{=/5/...:pane_title}’ will append ‘...’
if the pane title is more than five characters. Similarly, ‘p’
pads the string to a given width, for example ‘#{p10:pane_title}’
will result in a width of at least 10 characters. A positive width
pads on the left, a negative on the right. ‘n’ expands to the
length of the variable and ‘w’ to its width when displayed, for
example ‘#{n:window_name}’.
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’. Adding ‘p (’ ‘`t/p`’) will use
shorter but less accurate time format for times in the past. A
custom format may be given using an ‘f’ suffix (note that ‘%’ must
be escaped as ‘%%’ if the format is separately being passed through
strftime(3), for example in the status-left option):
‘#{t/f/%%H#:%%M:window_activity}’, see strftime(3).
The ‘b:’ and ‘d:’ prefixes are basename(3) and dirname(3) of the
variable respectively. ‘q:’ will escape sh(1) special characters
or with a ‘h’ suffix, escape hash characters (so ‘#’ becomes ‘##’).
‘E:’ will expand the format twice, for example ‘#{E:status-left}’
is the result of expanding the content of the status-left option
rather than the option itself. ‘T:’ is like ‘E:’ but also expands
strftime(3) specifiers. ‘S:’, ‘W:’ or ‘P:’ will loop over each
session, window or pane and insert the format once for each. For
windows and panes, two comma-separated formats may be given: the
second is used for the current window or active pane. For example,
to get a list of windows formatted like the status line:
#{W:#{E:window-status-format} ,#{E:window-status-current-format} }
‘N:’ checks if a window (without any suffix or with the ‘w’ suffix)
or a session (with the ‘s’ suffix) name exists, for example
‘`N/w:foo`’ is replaced with 1 if a window named ‘foo’ exists.
A prefix of the form ‘s/foo/bar/:’ will substitute ‘foo’ with ‘bar’
throughout. The first argument may be an extended regular
expression and a final argument may be ‘i’ to ignore case, for
example ‘s/a(.)/\1x/i:’ would change ‘abABab’ into ‘bxBxbx’.
In addition, the last line of a shell command's output may be
inserted using ‘#()’. For example, ‘#(uptime)’ will insert the
system's uptime. When constructing formats, tmux does not wait for
‘#()’ commands to finish; instead, the previous result from running
the same command is used, or a placeholder if the command has not
been run before. If the command hasn't exited, the most recent
line of output will be used, but the status line will not be
updated more than once a second. Commands are executed with the
tmux global environment set (see the GLOBAL AND SESSION ENVIRONMENT
section).
An ‘l’ specifies that a string should be interpreted literally and
not expanded. For example ‘#{l:#{?pane_in_mode,yes,no}}’ will be
replaced by ‘#{?pane_in_mode,yes,no}’.
The following variables are available, where appropriate:
Variable name Alias Replaced with
active_window_index Index of active window in session
alternate_on 1 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_cell_height Height of each client cell in
pixels
client_cell_width Width of each client cell in pixels
client_control_mode 1 if client is in control mode
client_created Time client created
client_discarded Bytes discarded when client behind
client_flags List of client flags
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_termfeatures Terminal features of client, if any
client_termname Terminal name of client
client_termtype Terminal type of client, if
available
client_tty Pseudo terminal of client
client_utf8 1 if client supports UTF-8
client_width Width of client
client_written Bytes written to client
command Name of command in use, if any
command_list_alias Command alias if listing commands
command_list_name Command name if listing commands
command_list_usage Command usage if listing commands
config_files List of configuration files loaded
copy_cursor_line Line the cursor is on in copy mode
copy_cursor_word Word under cursor in copy mode
copy_cursor_x Cursor X position in copy mode
copy_cursor_y Cursor Y position in copy mode
current_file Current configuration file
cursor_character Character at cursor in pane
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_client Name of client where hook was run,
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
last_window_index Index of last window in session
line Line number in the list
mouse_all_flag Pane mouse all flag
mouse_any_flag Pane mouse any flag
mouse_button_flag Pane mouse button flag
mouse_line Line under mouse, if any
mouse_sgr_flag Pane mouse SGR flag
mouse_standard_flag Pane mouse standard flag
mouse_utf8_flag Pane mouse UTF-8 flag
mouse_word Word under mouse, if any
mouse_x Mouse X position, if any
mouse_y Mouse Y position, if any
origin_flag Pane origin 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_bg Pane background colour
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_fg Pane foreground colour
pane_format 1 if format is for a pane
pane_height Height of pane
pane_id #D Unique pane ID
pane_in_mode 1 if pane is in a mode
pane_index #P Index of pane
pane_input_off 1 if input to pane is disabled
pane_last 1 if last pane
pane_left Left of pane
pane_marked 1 if this is the marked pane
pane_marked_set 1 if a marked pane is set
pane_mode Name of pane mode, if any
pane_path Path of pane (can be set by
application)
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 1 if pane is synchronized
pane_tabs Pane tab positions
pane_title #T Title of pane (can be set by
application)
pane_top Top of pane
pane_tty Pseudo terminal of pane
pane_width Width of pane
pid Server PID
rectangle_toggle 1 if rectangle selection is
activated
scroll_position Scroll position in copy mode
scroll_region_lower Bottom of scroll region in pane
scroll_region_upper Top of scroll region in pane
search_match Search match if any
search_present 1 if search started in copy mode
selection_active 1 if selection started and changes
with the cursor in copy mode
selection_end_x X position of the end of the
selection
selection_end_y Y position of the end of the
selection
selection_present 1 if selection started in copy mode
selection_start_x X position of the start of the
selection
selection_start_y Y position of the start of the
selection
session_activity Time of session last activity
session_alerts List of window indexes with alerts
session_attached Number of clients session is
attached to
session_attached_list List of clients session is attached
to
session_created Time session created
session_format 1 if format is for a session
session_group Name of session group
session_group_attached Number of clients sessions in group
are attached to
session_group_attached_list List of clients sessions in group
are attached to
session_group_list List of sessions in group
session_group_many_attached 1 if multiple clients attached to
sessions in group
session_group_size Size of session group
session_grouped 1 if session in a group
session_id Unique session ID
session_last_attached Time session last attached
session_many_attached 1 if multiple clients attached
session_marked 1 if this session contains the
marked pane
session_name #S Name of session
session_path Working directory of session
session_stack Window indexes in most recent order
session_windows Number of windows in session
socket_path Server socket path
start_time Server start time
version Server version
window_active 1 if window active
window_active_clients Number of clients viewing this
window
window_active_clients_list List of clients viewing this window
window_active_sessions Number of sessions on which this
window is active
window_active_sessions_list List of sessions on which this
window is active
window_activity Time of window last activity
window_activity_flag 1 if window has activity
window_bell_flag 1 if window has bell
window_bigger 1 if window is larger than client
window_cell_height Height of each cell in pixels
window_cell_width Width of each cell in pixels
window_end_flag 1 if window has the highest index
window_flags #F Window flags with # escaped as ##
window_raw_flags Window flags with nothing escaped
window_format 1 if format is for a window
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_linked_sessions Number of sessions this window is
linked to
window_linked_sessions_list List of sessions this window is
linked to
window_marked_flag 1 if window contains the marked
pane
window_name #W Name of window
window_offset_x X offset into window if larger than
client
window_offset_y Y offset into window if larger than
client
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_start_flag 1 if window has the lowest index
window_visible_layout Window layout description,
respecting zoomed window panes
window_width Width of window
window_zoomed_flag 1 if window is zoomed
wrap_flag Pane wrap flag
tmux offers various options to specify the colour and attributes of
aspects of the interface, for example status-style for the status
line. In addition, embedded styles may be specified in format
options, such as status-left, by enclosing them in ‘#[’ and ‘]’.
A style may be the single term ‘default’ to specify the default
style (which may come from an option, for example status-style in
the status line) or a space or comma separated list of the
following:
fg=colour
Set the foreground colour. The colour is one of: black,
red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white; if
supported the bright variants brightred, brightgreen,
brightyellow; colour0 to colour255 from the 256-colour set;
default for the default colour; terminal for the terminal
default colour; or a hexadecimal RGB string such as
‘#ffffff’.
bg=colour
Set the background colour.
none Set no attributes (turn off any active attributes).
acs, bright (or bold), dim, underscore, blink, reverse, hidden,
italics, overline, strikethrough, double-underscore,
curly-underscore, dotted-underscore, dashed-underscore
Set an attribute. Any of the attributes may be prefixed
with ‘no’ to unset. acs is the terminal alternate
character set.
align=left (or noalign), align=centre, align=right
Align text to the left, centre or right of the available
space if appropriate.
fill=colour
Fill the available space with a background colour if
appropriate.
list=on, list=focus, list=left-marker, list=right-marker, nolist
Mark the position of the various window list components in
the status-format option: list=on marks the start of the
list; list=focus is the part of the list that should be
kept in focus if the entire list won't fit in the available
space (typically the current window); list=left-marker and
list=right-marker mark the text to be used to mark that
text has been trimmed from the left or right of the list if
there is not enough space.
push-default, pop-default
Store the current colours and attributes as the default or
reset to the previous default. A push-default affects any
subsequent use of the default term until a pop-default.
Only one default may be pushed (each push-default replaces
the previous saved default).
range=left, range=right, range=window|X, norange
Mark a range in the status-format option. range=left and
range=right are the text used for the ‘StatusLeft’ and
‘StatusRight’ mouse keys. range=window|X is the range for
a window passed to the ‘Status’ mouse key, where ‘X’ is a
window index.
Examples are:
fg=yellow bold underscore blink
bg=black,fg=default,noreverse
tmux distinguishes between names and titles. Windows and sessions
have names, which may be used to specify them in targets and are
displayed in the status line and various lists: the name is the
tmux identifier for a window or session. Only panes have titles.
A pane's title is typically set by the program running inside the
pane using an escape sequence (like it would set the xterm(1)
window title in X(7)). Windows themselves do not have titles - a
window's title is the title of its active pane. tmux itself may
set the title of the terminal in which the client is running, see
the set-titles option.
A session's name is set with the new-session and rename-session
commands. A window's name is set with one of:
1. A command argument (such as -n for new-window or
new-session).
2. An escape sequence (if the allow-rename option is turned
on):
$ printf '\033kWINDOW_NAME\033\\'
3. Automatic renaming, which sets the name to the active
command in the window's active pane. See the
automatic-rename option.
When a pane is first created, its title is the hostname. A pane's
title can be set via the title setting escape sequence, for
example:
$ printf '\033]2;My Title\033\\'
It can also be modified with the select-pane -T command.
When the server is started, tmux copies the environment into the
global environment; in addition, each session has a session
environment. When a window is created, the session and global
environments are merged. If a variable exists in both, the value
from the session environment is used. The result is the initial
environment passed to the new process.
The update-environment session option may be used to update the
session environment from the client when a new session is created
or an old reattached. tmux also initialises the TMUX variable with
some internal information to allow commands to be executed from
inside, and the TERM variable with the correct terminal setting of
‘screen’.
Variables in both session and global environments may be marked as
hidden. Hidden variables are not passed into the environment of
new processes and instead can only be used by tmux itself (for
example in formats, see the FORMATS section).
Commands to alter and view the environment are:
set-environment [-Fhgru] [-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. If
-F is present, then value is expanded as a format. The -u
flag unsets a variable. -r indicates the variable is to be
removed from the environment before starting a new process.
-h marks the variable as hidden.
show-environment [-hgs] [-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. -h shows hidden
variables (omitted by default).
tmux includes an optional status line which is displayed in the
bottom line of each terminal.
By default, the status line is enabled and one line in height (it
may be disabled or made multiple lines 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.
Each line of the status line is configured with the status-format
option. The default is made of three parts: configurable left and
right sections (which may contain dynamic content such as the time
or output from a shell command, see the status-left,
status-left-length, status-right, and status-right-length options
below), and a central window list. By default, the window list
shows the index, name and (if any) flag of the windows present in
the current session in ascending numerical order. It may be
customised with the window-status-format and
window-status-current-format options. The flag is one of the
following symbols appended to the window name:
Symbol Meaning
* Denotes the current window.
- Marks the last window (previously selected).
# Window activity is monitored and activity has been
detected.
! Window bells are monitored and a bell has occurred
in the window.
~ The window has been silent for the monitor-silence
interval.
M The window contains the marked pane.
Z The window's active pane is zoomed.
The # symbol relates to the monitor-activity window option. The
window name is printed in inverted colours if an alert (bell,
activity or silence) is present.
The colour and attributes of the status line may be configured, the
entire status line using the status-style session option and
individual windows using the window-status-style window option.
The status line is automatically refreshed at interval if it has
changed, the interval may be controlled with the status-interval
session option.
Commands related to the status line are as follows:
clear-prompt-history [-T prompt-type]
(alias: clrphist)
Clear status prompt history for prompt type prompt-type.
If -T is omitted, then clear history for all types. See
command-prompt for possible values for prompt-type.
command-prompt [-1bFikN] [-I inputs] [-p prompts] [-t
target-client] [-T prompt-type] [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. With
-F, template is expanded as a format.
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. -k is like -1
but the key press is translated to a key name. -N makes
the prompt only accept numeric key presses. -i executes
the command every time the prompt input changes instead of
when the user exits the command prompt.
-T tells tmux the prompt type. This affects what
completions are offered when Tab is pressed. Available
types are: ‘command’, ‘search’, ‘target’ and
‘window-target’.
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 q Escape
Delete from cursor to start of 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
With -b, the prompt is shown in the background and the
invoking client does not exit until it is dismissed.
confirm-before [-b] [-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.
With -b, the prompt is shown in the background and the
invoking client does not exit until it is dismissed.
display-menu [-O] [-c target-client] [-t target-pane] [-T title]
[-x position] [-y position] name key command ...
(alias: menu)
Display a menu on target-client. target-pane gives the
target for any commands run from the menu.
A menu is passed as a series of arguments: first the menu
item name, second the key shortcut (or empty for none) and
third the command to run when the menu item is chosen. The
name and command are formats, see the FORMATS and STYLES
sections. If the name begins with a hyphen (-), then the
item is disabled (shown dim) and may not be chosen. The
name may be empty for a separator line, in which case both
the key and command should be omitted.
-T is a format for the menu title (see FORMATS).
-x and -y give the position of the menu. Both may be a row
or column number, or one of the following special values:
Value Flag Meaning
C Both The centre of the terminal
R -x The right side of the terminal
P Both The bottom left of the pane
M Both The mouse position
W Both The window position on the status
line
S -y The line above or below the status
line
Or a format, which is expanded including the following
additional variables:
Variable name Replaced with
popup_centre_x Centered in the client
popup_centre_y Centered in the client
popup_height Height of menu or popup
popup_mouse_bottom Bottom of at the mouse
popup_mouse_centre_x Horizontal centre at
the mouse
popup_mouse_centre_y Vertical centre at the
mouse
popup_mouse_top Top at the mouse
popup_mouse_x Mouse X position
popup_mouse_y Mouse Y position
popup_pane_bottom Bottom of the pane
popup_pane_left Left of the pane
popup_pane_right Right of the pane
popup_pane_top Top of the pane
popup_status_line_y Above or below the
status line
popup_width Width of menu or popup
popup_window_status_line_x At the window position
in status line
popup_window_status_line_y At the status line
showing the window
Each menu consists of items followed by a key shortcut
shown in brackets. If the menu is too large to fit on the
terminal, it is not displayed. Pressing the key shortcut
chooses the corresponding item. If the mouse is enabled
and the menu is opened from a mouse key binding, releasing
the mouse button with an item selected chooses that item
and releasing the mouse button without an item selected
closes the menu. -O changes this behaviour so that the
menu does not close when the mouse button is released
without an item selected the menu is not closed and a mouse
button must be clicked to choose an item.
The following keys are also available:
Key Function
Enter Choose selected item
Up Select previous item
Down Select next item
q Exit menu
display-message [-aINpv] [-c target-client] [-d delay] [-t
target-pane] [message]
(alias: display)
Display a message. If -p is given, the output is printed
to stdout, otherwise it is displayed in the target-client
status line for up to delay milliseconds. If delay is not
given, the message-time option is used; a delay of zero
waits for a key press. ‘N’ ignores key presses and closes
only after the delay expires. The format of message is
described in the FORMATS section; information is taken from
target-pane if -t is given, otherwise the active pane.
-v prints verbose logging as the format is parsed and -a
lists the format variables and their values.
-I forwards any input read from stdin to the empty pane
given by target-pane.
display-popup [-BCE] [-c target-client] [-d start-directory] [-h
height] [-t target-pane] [-w width] [-x position] [-y
position] [shell-command]
(alias: popup)
Display a popup running shell-command on target-client. A
popup is a rectangular box drawn over the top of any panes.
Panes are not updated while a popup is present.
-E closes the popup automatically when shell-command exits.
Two -E closes the popup only if shell-command exited with
success.
-x and -y give the position of the popup, they have the
same meaning as for the display-menu command. -w and -h
give the width and height - both may be a percentage
(followed by ‘%’). If omitted, half of the terminal size
is used. -B does not surround the popup by a border.
The -C flag closes any popup on the client.
show-prompt-history [-T prompt-type]
(alias: showphist)
Display status prompt history for prompt type prompt-type.
If -T is omitted, then show history for all types. See
command-prompt for possible values for prompt-type.
tmux maintains a set of named paste buffers. Each buffer may be
either explicitly or automatically named. Explicitly named buffers
are named when created with the set-buffer or load-buffer commands,
or by renaming an automatically named buffer with set-buffer -n.
Automatically named buffers are given a name such as ‘buffer0001’,
‘buffer0002’ and so on. When the buffer-limit option is reached,
the oldest automatically named buffer is deleted. Explicitly named
buffers are not subject to buffer-limit and may be deleted with the
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 [-NZr] [-F format] [-f filter] [-K key-format] [-O
sort-order] [-t target-pane] [template]
Put a pane into buffer mode, where a buffer may be chosen
interactively from a list. Each buffer is shown on one
line. A shortcut key is shown on the left in brackets
allowing for immediate choice, or the list may be navigated
and an item chosen or otherwise manipulated using the keys
below. -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
e Open the buffer in an editor
f Enter a format to filter items
O Change sort field
r Reverse sort order
v Toggle preview
q Exit mode
After a buffer is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the buffer
name in template and the result executed as a command. If
template is not given, "paste-buffer -b '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort field: one of ‘time’, ‘name’
or ‘size’. -r reverses the sort order. -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
and -K a format for each shortcut key; both are evaluated
once for each line. -N starts without the preview. This
command works only if at least one client is attached.
clear-history [-t target-pane]
(alias: clearhist)
Remove and free the history for the specified pane.
delete-buffer [-b buffer-name]
(alias: deleteb)
Delete the buffer named buffer-name, or the most recently
added automatically named buffer if not specified.
list-buffers [-F format] [-f filter]
(alias: lsb)
List the global buffers. -F specifies the format of each
line and -f a filter. Only buffers for which the filter is
true are shown. See the FORMATS section.
load-buffer [-w] [-b buffer-name] [-t target-client] path
(alias: loadb)
Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from path.
If -w is given, the buffer is also sent to the clipboard
for target-client using the xterm(1) escape sequence, if
possible.
paste-buffer [-dpr] [-b buffer-name] [-s separator] [-t
target-pane]
(alias: pasteb)
Insert the contents of a paste buffer into the specified
pane. If not specified, paste into the current one. With
-d, also delete the paste buffer. When output, any
linefeed (LF) characters in the paste buffer are replaced
with a separator, by default carriage return (CR). A
custom separator may be specified using the -s flag. The
-r flag means to do no replacement (equivalent to a
separator of LF). If -p is specified, paste bracket
control codes are inserted around the buffer if the
application has requested bracketed paste mode.
save-buffer [-a] [-b buffer-name] path
(alias: saveb)
Save the contents of the specified paste buffer to path.
The -a option appends to rather than overwriting the file.
set-buffer [-aw] [-b buffer-name] [-t target-client] [-n
new-buffer-name] data
(alias: setb)
Set the contents of the specified buffer to data. If -w is
given, the buffer is also sent to the clipboard for
target-client using the xterm(1) escape sequence, if
possible. The -a option appends to rather than overwriting
the buffer. The -n option renames the buffer to
new-buffer-name.
show-buffer [-b buffer-name]
(alias: showb)
Display the contents of the specified buffer.
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
clock-mode [-t target-pane]
Display a large clock.
if-shell [-bF] [-t target-pane] shell-command command [command]
(alias: if)
Execute the first command if shell-command returns success
or the second command otherwise. Before being executed,
shell-command is expanded using the rules specified in the
FORMATS section, including those relevant to target-pane.
With -b, shell-command is run in the background.
If -F is given, shell-command is not executed but
considered success if neither empty nor zero (after formats
are expanded).
lock-server
(alias: lock)
Lock each client individually by running the command
specified by the lock-command option.
run-shell [-bC] [-d delay] [-t target-pane] [shell-command]
(alias: run)
Execute shell-command or (with -C) a tmux 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. -d waits for delay seconds before
starting the command. If -C is not given, any output to
stdout is displayed in view mode (in the pane specified by
-t or the current pane if omitted) after the command
finishes. If the command fails, 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.
When a tmux client detaches, it prints a message. This may be one
of:
detached (from session ...)
The client was detached normally.
detached and SIGHUP
The client was detached and its parent sent the SIGHUP
signal (for example with detach-client -P).
lost tty
The client's tty(4) or pty(4) was unexpectedly destroyed.
terminated
The client was killed with SIGTERM.
too far behind
The client is in control mode and became unable to keep up
with the data from tmux.
exited The server exited when it had no sessions.
server exited
The server exited when it received SIGTERM.
server exited unexpectedly
The server crashed or otherwise exited without telling the
client the reason.
tmux understands some unofficial extensions to terminfo(5). It is
not normally necessary to set these manually, instead the
terminal-features option should be used.
AX An existing extension that tells tmux the terminal supports
default colours.
Bidi Tell tmux that the terminal supports the VTE bidirectional
text extensions.
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\\'
Cmg, Clmg, Dsmg, Enmg
Set, clear, disable or enable DECSLRM margins. These are
set automatically if the terminal reports it is VT420
compatible.
Dsbp, Enbp
Disable and enable bracketed paste. These are set
automatically if the XT capability is present.
Dseks, Eneks
Disable and enable extended keys.
Dsfcs, Enfcs
Disable and enable focus reporting. These are set
automatically if the XT capability is present.
Rect Tell tmux that the terminal supports rectangle operations.
Smol Enable the overline attribute.
Smulx Set a styled underscore. The single parameter is one of: 0
for no underscore, 1 for normal underscore, 2 for double
underscore, 3 for curly underscore, 4 for dotted underscore
and 5 for dashed underscore.
Setulc, ol
Set the underscore colour or reset to the default. The
argument is (red * 65536) + (green * 256) + blue where each
is between 0 and 255.
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.
Sync Start (parameter is 1) or end (parameter is 2) a
synchronized update.
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 initialize colour escape
sequence (which may be enabled by adding the ‘initc’ and
‘ccc’ capabilities to the tmux terminfo(5) entry).
This is equivalent to the RGB terminfo(5) capability.
Ms Store the current buffer in the host terminal's selection
(clipboard). See the set-clipboard option above and the
xterm(1) man page.
XT This is an existing extension capability that tmux uses to
mean that the terminal supports the xterm(1) title set
sequences and to automatically set some of the capabilities
above.
tmux offers a textual interface called control mode. This allows
applications to communicate with tmux using a simple text-only
protocol.
In control mode, a client sends tmux commands or command sequences
terminated by newlines on standard input. Each command will
produce one block of output on standard output. An output block
consists of a %begin line followed by the output (which may be
empty). The output block ends with a %end or %error. %begin and
matching %end or %error have three arguments: an integer time (as
seconds from epoch), command number and flags (currently not used).
For example:
%begin 1363006971 2 1
0: ksh* (1 panes) [80x24] [layout b25f,80x24,0,0,2] @2 (active)
%end 1363006971 2 1
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-detached client
The client has detached.
%client-session-changed client session-id name
The client is now attached to the session with ID
session-id, which is named name.
%continue pane-id
The pane has been continued after being paused (if the
pause-after flag is set, see refresh-client -A).
%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.
%extended-output pane-id age ... : value
New form of %output sent when the pause-after flag is set.
age is the time in milliseconds for which tmux had buffered
the output before it was sent. Any subsequent arguments up
until a single ‘:’ are for future use and should be
ignored.
%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.
%pause pane-id
The pane has been paused (if the pause-after flag is set).
%session-changed session-id name
The client is now attached to the session with ID
session-id, which is named name.
%session-renamed name
The current session was renamed to name.
%session-window-changed session-id window-id
The session with ID session-id changed its active window to
the window with ID window-id.
%sessions-changed
A session was created or destroyed.
%subscription-changed name session-id window-id window-index
pane-id ... : value
The value of the format associated with subscription name
has changed to value. See refresh-client -B. Any
arguments after pane-id up until a single ‘:’ are for
future use and should be ignored.
%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.
When tmux is started, it inspects the following environment
variables:
EDITOR If the command specified in this variable contains the
string ‘vi’ and VISUAL is unset, use vi-style key
bindings. Overridden by the mode-keys and status-keys
options.
HOME The user's login directory. If unset, the passwd(5)
database is consulted.
LC_CTYPE The character encoding locale(1). It is used for two
separate purposes. For output to the terminal, UTF-8 is
used if the -u option is given or if LC_CTYPE contains
"UTF-8" or "UTF8". Otherwise, only ASCII characters are
written and non-ASCII characters are replaced with
underscores (‘_’). For input, tmux always runs with a
UTF-8 locale. If en_US.UTF-8 is provided by the
operating system it is used and LC_CTYPE is ignored for
input. Otherwise, LC_CTYPE tells tmux what the UTF-8
locale is called on the current system. If the locale
specified by LC_CTYPE is not available or is not a UTF-8
locale, tmux exits with an error message.
LC_TIME The date and time format locale(1). It is used for
locale-dependent strftime(3) format specifiers.
PWD The current working directory to be set in the global
environment. This may be useful if it contains symbolic
links. If the value of the variable does not match the
current working directory, the variable is ignored and
the result of getcwd(3) is used instead.
SHELL The absolute path to the default shell for new windows.
See the default-shell option for details.
TMUX_TMPDIR
The parent directory of the directory containing the
server sockets. See the -L option for details.
VISUAL If the command specified in this variable contains the
string ‘vi’, use vi-style key bindings. Overridden by
the mode-keys and status-keys options.
~/.tmux.conf Default tmux configuration file.
@SYSCONFDIR@/tmux.conf System-wide configuration file.
To create a new tmux session running vi(1):
$ tmux new-session vi
Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For new-
session, this is new:
$ tmux new vi
Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is
accepted. If there are several options, they are listed:
$ tmux n
ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing
‘C-b c’ (Ctrl followed by the ‘b’ key followed by the ‘c’ key).
Windows may be navigated with: ‘C-b 0’ (to select window 0), ‘C-b
1’ (to select window 1), and so on; ‘C-b n’ to select the next
window; and ‘C-b p’ to select the previous window.
A session may be detached using ‘C-b d’ (or by an external event
such as ssh(1) disconnection) and reattached with:
$ tmux attach-session
Typing ‘C-b ?’ lists the current key bindings in the current
window; up and down may be used to navigate the list or ‘q’ to exit
from it.
Commands to be run when the tmux server is started may be placed in
the ~/.tmux.conf configuration file. Common examples include:
Changing the default prefix key:
set-option -g prefix C-a
unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a send-prefix
Turning the status line off, or changing its colour:
set-option -g status off
set-option -g status-style bg=blue
Setting other options, such as the default command, or locking
after 30 minutes of inactivity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh"
set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status
bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
pty(4)
Nicholas Marriott <nicholas.marriott@gmail.com>
This page is part of the tmux (terminal multiplexer) project.
Information about the project can be found at
https://tmux.github.io/. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, send it to tmux-users@googlegroups.com. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/tmux/tmux.git⟩ on 2021-08-27. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the repository
was 2021-08-25.) If you discover any rendering problems in this
HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more
up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part
of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
BSD August 27, 2021 BSD
Pages that refer to this page: logind.conf(5), user_caps(5), pty(7)
|
HTML rendering created 2021-08-27 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface, maintainer of the Linux man-pages project. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
|