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tmux(1) - phpMan
TMUX(1) BSD General Commands Manual TMUX(1)
NAME
tmux — terminal multiplexer
SYNOPSIS
tmux [-2lCquvV] [-c shell-command] [-f file] [-L socket-name] [-S socket-path]
[command [flags]]
DESCRIPTION
tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals to be created, accessed,
and controlled from a single screen. tmux may be detached from a screen and continue run‐
ning 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) connec‐
tion timeout) or intentional detaching (with the ‘C-b d’ key strokes). tmux may be reat‐
tached using:
$ tmux attach
In tmux, a session is displayed on screen by a client and all sessions are managed by a sin‐
gle server. The server and each client are separate processes which communicate through a
socket in /tmp.
The options are as follows:
-2 Force tmux to assume the terminal supports 256 colours.
-C Start in control mode (see the CONTROL MODE section). Given twice (-CC) dis‐
ables 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 com‐
patibility with sh(1) when tmux is used as a login shell.
-f file Specify an alternative configuration file. By default, tmux loads the system
configuration file from /etc/tmux.conf, if present, then looks for a user con‐
figuration 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, TMPDIR if it
is unset, or /tmp if both are unset. The default socket is named default.
This option allows a different socket name to be specified, allowing several
independent tmux servers to be run. Unlike -S a full path is not necessary:
the sockets are all created in the same directory.
If the socket is accidentally removed, the SIGUSR1 signal may be sent to the
tmux server process to recreate it.
-l Behave as a login shell. This flag currently has no effect and is for compat‐
ibility with other shells when using tmux as a login shell.
-q Set the quiet server option to prevent the server sending various informa‐
tional messages.
-S socket-path
Specify a full alternative path to the server socket. If -S is specified, the
default socket directory is not used and any -L flag is ignored.
-u tmux attempts to guess if the terminal is likely to support UTF-8 by checking
the first of the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LANG environment variables to be set for
the string "UTF-8". This is not always correct: the -u flag explicitly
informs tmux that UTF-8 is supported.
If the server is started from a client passed -u or where UTF-8 is detected,
the utf8 and status-utf8 options are enabled in the global window and session
options respectively.
-v Request verbose logging. This option may be specified multiple times for
increasing verbosity. Log messages will be saved into tmux-client-PID.log and
tmux-server-PID.log files in the current directory, where PID is the PID of
the server or client process.
-V Report the tmux version.
command [flags]
This specifies one of a set of commands used to control tmux, as described in
the following sections. If no commands are specified, the new-session command
is assumed.
KEY BINDINGS
tmux may be controlled from an attached client by using a key combination of a prefix key,
‘C-b’ (Ctrl-b) by default, followed by a command key.
The default command key bindings are:
C-b Send the prefix key (C-b) through to the application.
C-o Rotate the panes in the current window forwards.
C-z Suspend the tmux client.
! Break the current pane out of the window.
" Split the current pane into two, top and bottom.
# List all paste buffers.
$ Rename the current session.
% Split the current pane into two, left and right.
& Kill the current window.
' Prompt for a window index to select.
, Rename the current window.
- Delete the most recently copied buffer of text.
. Prompt for an index to move the current window.
0 to 9 Select windows 0 to 9.
: Enter the tmux command prompt.
; Move to the previously active pane.
= Choose which buffer to paste interactively from a list.
? List all key bindings.
D Choose a client to detach.
[ Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history.
] Paste the most recently copied buffer of text.
c Create a new window.
d Detach the current client.
f Prompt to search for text in open windows.
i Display some information about the current window.
l Move to the previously selected window.
n Change to the next window.
o Select the next pane in the current window.
p Change to the previous window.
q Briefly display pane indexes.
r Force redraw of the attached client.
s Select a new session for the attached client interactively.
L Switch the attached client back to the last session.
t Show the time.
w Choose the current window interactively.
x Kill the current pane.
{ Swap the current pane with the previous pane.
} Swap the current pane with the next pane.
~ Show previous messages from tmux, if any.
Page Up Enter copy mode and scroll one page up.
Up, Down
Left, Right
Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to the right of the cur‐
rent pane.
M-1 to M-5 Arrange panes in one of the five preset layouts: even-horizontal, even-
vertical, main-horizontal, main-vertical, or tiled.
M-n Move to the next window with a bell or activity marker.
M-o Rotate the panes in the current window backwards.
M-p Move to the previous window with a bell or activity marker.
C-Up, C-Down
C-Left, C-Right
Resize the current pane in steps of one cell.
M-Up, M-Down
M-Left, M-Right
Resize the current pane in steps of five cells.
Key bindings may be changed with the bind-key and unbind-key commands.
COMMANDS
This section contains a list of the commands supported by tmux. Most commands accept the
optional -t argument with one of target-client, target-session target-window, or
target-pane. These specify the client, session, window or pane which a command should
affect. target-client is the name of the pty(4) file to which the client is connected, for
example either of /dev/ttyp1 or ttyp1 for the client attached to /dev/ttyp1. If no client
is specified, the current client is chosen, if possible, or an error is reported. Clients
may be listed with the list-clients command.
target-session is the session id prefixed with a $, the name of a session (as listed by the
list-sessions command), or the name of a client with the same syntax as target-client, in
which case the session attached to the client is used. When looking for the session name,
tmux initially searches for an exact match; if none is found, the session names are checked
for any for which target-session is a prefix or for which it matches as an fnmatch(3) pat‐
tern. If a single match is found, it is used as the target session; multiple matches pro‐
duce an error. If a session is omitted, the current session is used if available; if no
current session is available, the most recently used is chosen.
target-window specifies a window in the form session:window. session follows the same rules
as for target-session, and window is looked for in order: as a window index, for example
mysession:1; as a window ID, such as @1; as an exact window name, such as mysession:mywin‐
dow; then as an fnmatch(3) pattern or the start of a window name, such as mysession:mywin*
or mysession:mywin. An empty window name specifies the next unused index if appropriate
(for example the new-window and link-window commands) otherwise the current window in
session is chosen. The special character ‘!’ uses the last (previously current) window, ‘^’
selects the highest numbered window, ‘$’ selects the lowest numbered window, and ‘+’ and ‘-’
select the next window or the previous window by number. When the argument does not contain
a colon, tmux first attempts to parse it as window; if that fails, an attempt is made to
match a session.
target-pane takes a similar form to target-window but with the optional addition of a period
followed by a pane index, for example: mysession:mywindow.1. If the pane index is omitted,
the currently active pane in the specified window is used. If neither a colon nor period
appears, tmux first attempts to use the argument as a pane index; if that fails, it is
looked up as for target-window. A ‘+’ or ‘-’ indicate the next or previous pane index,
respectively. One of the strings top, bottom, left, right, top-left, top-right, bottom-left
or bottom-right may be used instead of a pane index.
The special characters ‘+’ and ‘-’ may be followed by an offset, for example:
select-window -t:+2
When dealing with a session that doesn't contain sequential window indexes, they will be
correctly skipped.
tmux also gives each pane created in a server an identifier consisting of a ‘%’ and a num‐
ber, starting from zero. A pane's identifier is unique for the life of the tmux server and
is passed to the child process of the pane in the TMUX_PANE environment variable. It may be
used alone to target a pane or the window containing it.
shell-command arguments are sh(1) commands. These must be passed as a single item, which
typically means quoting them, for example:
new-window 'vi /etc/passwd'
command [arguments] refers to a tmux command, passed with the command and arguments sepa‐
rately, for example:
bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Or if using sh(1):
$ tmux bind-key F1 set-window-option force-width 81
Multiple commands may be specified together as part of a command sequence. Each command
should be separated by spaces and a semicolon; commands are executed sequentially from left
to right and lines ending with a backslash continue on to the next line, except when escaped
by another backslash. A literal semicolon may be included by escaping it with a backslash
(for example, when specifying a command sequence to bind-key).
Example tmux commands include:
refresh-client -t/dev/ttyp2
rename-session -tfirst newname
set-window-option -t:0 monitor-activity on
new-window ; split-window -d
bind-key R source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; \
display-message "source-file done"
Or from sh(1):
$ tmux kill-window -t :1
$ tmux new-window \; split-window -d
$ tmux new-session -d 'vi /etc/passwd' \; split-window -d \; attach
CLIENTS AND SESSIONS
The tmux server manages clients, sessions, windows and panes. Clients are attached to ses‐
sions to interact with them, either when they are created with the new-session command, or
later with the attach-session command. Each session has one or more windows linked into it.
Windows may be linked to multiple sessions and are made up of one or more panes, each of
which contains a pseudo terminal. Commands for creating, linking and otherwise manipulating
windows are covered in the WINDOWS AND PANES section.
The following commands are available to manage clients and sessions:
attach-session [-dr] [-c working-directory] [-t target-session]
(alias: attach)
If run from outside tmux, create a new client in the current terminal and attach it
to target-session. If used from inside, switch the current client. If -d is speci‐
fied, any other clients attached to the session are detached. -r signifies the
client is read-only (only keys bound to the detach-client or switch-client commands
have any effect)
If no server is started, attach-session will attempt to start it; this will fail
unless sessions are created in the configuration file.
The target-session rules for attach-session are slightly adjusted: if tmux needs to
select the most recently used session, it will prefer the most recently used
unattached session.
-c will set the session working directory (used for new windows) to
working-directory.
detach-client [-P] [-a] [-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.
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 [-a] [-t target-session]
Destroy the given session, closing any windows linked to it and no other sessions,
and detaching all clients attached to it. If -a is given, all sessions but the
specified one is killed.
list-clients [-F format] [-t target-session]
(alias: 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
(alias: lscm)
List the syntax of all commands supported by tmux.
list-sessions [-F format]
(alias: ls)
List all sessions managed by the server. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the
FORMATS section.
lock-client [-t target-client]
(alias: lockc)
Lock target-client, see the lock-server command.
lock-session [-t target-session]
(alias: locks)
Lock all clients attached to target-session.
new-session [-AdDP] [-c start-directory] [-F format] [-n window-name] [-s session-name] [-t
target-session] [-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 win‐
dow. If -d is used, -x and -y specify the size of the initial window (80 by 24 if
not given).
If run from a terminal, any termios(4) special characters are saved and used for new
windows in the new session.
The -A flag makes new-session behave like attach-session if session-name already
exists; in the case, -D behaves like -d to attach-session.
If -t is given, the new session is grouped with target-session. This means they
share the same set of windows - all windows from target-session are linked to the
new session and any subsequent new windows or windows being closed are applied to
both sessions. The current and previous window and any session options remain inde‐
pendent and either session may be killed without affecting the other. Giving -n or
shell-command are invalid if -t is used.
The -P option prints information about the new session after it has been created.
By default, it uses the format ‘#{session_name}:’ but a different format may be
specified with -F.
refresh-client [-S] [-t target-client]
(alias: refresh)
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 bar.
rename-session [-t target-session] new-name
(alias: rename)
Rename the session to new-name.
show-messages [-IJT] [-t target-client]
(alias: showmsgs)
Show client messages or server information. Any messages displayed on the status
line are saved in a per-client message log, up to a maximum of the limit set by the
message-limit session option for the session attached to that client. With -t, dis‐
play the log for target-client. -I, -J and -T show debugging information about the
running server, jobs and terminals.
source-file path
(alias: source)
Execute commands from path.
start-server
(alias: start)
Start the tmux server, if not already running, without creating any sessions.
suspend-client [-t target-client]
(alias: suspendc)
Suspend a client by sending SIGTSTP (tty stop).
switch-client [-lnpr] [-c target-client] [-t target-session]
(alias: switchc)
Switch the current session for client target-client to target-session. If -l, -n or
-p is used, the client is moved to the last, next or previous session respectively.
-r toggles whether a client is read-only (see the attach-session command).
WINDOWS AND PANES
A tmux window may be in one of several modes. The default permits direct access to the ter‐
minal attached to the window. The other is copy mode, which permits a section of a window
or its history to be copied to a paste buffer for later insertion into another window. This
mode is entered with the copy-mode command, bound to ‘[’ by default. It is also entered
when a command that produces output, such as list-keys, is executed from a key binding.
The keys available depend on whether emacs or vi mode is selected (see the mode-keys
option). The following keys are supported as appropriate for the mode:
Function vi emacs
Back to indentation ^ M-m
Bottom of history G M-<
Clear selection Escape C-g
Copy selection Enter M-w
Cursor down j Down
Cursor left h Left
Cursor right l Right
Cursor to bottom line L
Cursor to middle line M M-r
Cursor to top line H M-R
Cursor up k Up
Delete entire line d C-u
Delete/Copy to end of line D C-k
End of line $ C-e
Go to line : g
Half page down C-d M-Down
Half page up C-u M-Up
Jump forward f f
Jump to forward t
Jump backward F F
Jump to backward T
Jump again ; ;
Jump again in reverse , ,
Next page C-f Page down
Next space W
Next space, end of word E
Next word w
Next word end e M-f
Other end of selection o
Paste buffer p C-y
Previous page C-b Page up
Previous word b M-b
Previous space B
Quit mode q Escape
Rectangle toggle v R
Scroll down C-Down or C-e C-Down
Scroll up C-Up or C-y C-Up
Search again n n
Search again in reverse N N
Search backward ? C-r
Search forward / C-s
Start of line 0 C-a
Start selection Space C-Space
Top of history g M->
Transpose characters C-t
The next and previous word keys use space and the ‘-’, ‘_’ and ‘@’ characters as word delim‐
iters by default, but this can be adjusted by setting the word-separators session option.
Next word moves to the start of the next word, next word end to the end of the next word and
previous word to the start of the previous word. The three next and previous space keys
work similarly but use a space alone as the word separator.
The jump commands enable quick movement within a line. For instance, typing ‘f’ followed by
‘/’ will move the cursor to the next ‘/’ character on the current line. A ‘;’ will then
jump to the next occurrence.
Commands in copy mode may be prefaced by an optional repeat count. With vi key bindings, a
prefix is entered using the number keys; with emacs, the Alt (meta) key and a number begins
prefix entry. For example, to move the cursor forward by ten words, use ‘M-1 0 M-f’ in
emacs mode, and ‘10w’ in vi.
When copying the selection, the repeat count indicates the buffer index to replace, if used.
Mode key bindings are defined in a set of named tables: vi-edit and emacs-edit for keys used
when line editing at the command prompt; vi-choice and emacs-choice for keys used when
choosing from lists (such as produced by the choose-window command); and vi-copy and
emacs-copy used in copy mode. The tables may be viewed with the list-keys command and keys
modified or removed with bind-key and unbind-key. One command accepts an argument,
copy-pipe, which copies the selection and pipes it to a command. For example the following
will bind ‘C-q’ to copy the selection into /tmp as well as the paste buffer:
bind-key -temacs-copy C-q copy-pipe "cat >/tmp/out"
The paste buffer key pastes the first line from the top paste buffer on the stack.
The synopsis for the copy-mode command is:
copy-mode [-u] [-t target-pane]
Enter copy mode. The -u option scrolls one page up.
Each window displayed by tmux may be split into one or more panes; each pane takes up a cer‐
tain 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 verti‐
cally. 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 cre‐
ated.
A number of preset layouts are available. These may be selected with the select-layout com‐
mand or cycled with next-layout (bound to ‘Space’ by default); once a layout is chosen,
panes within it may be moved and resized as normal.
The following layouts are supported:
even-horizontal
Panes are spread out evenly from left to right across the window.
even-vertical
Panes are spread evenly from top to bottom.
main-horizontal
A large (main) pane is shown at the top of the window and the remaining panes are
spread from left to right in the leftover space at the bottom. Use the
main-pane-height window option to specify the height of the top pane.
main-vertical
Similar to main-horizontal but the large pane is placed on the left and the others
spread from top to bottom along the right. See the main-pane-width window option.
tiled Panes are spread out as evenly as possible over the window in both rows and columns.
In addition, select-layout may be used to apply a previously used layout - the list-windows
command displays the layout of each window in a form suitable for use with select-layout.
For example:
$ tmux list-windows
0: ksh [159x48]
layout: bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
$ tmux select-layout bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
tmux automatically adjusts the size of the layout for the current window size. Note that a
layout cannot be applied to a window with more panes than that from which the layout was
originally defined.
Commands related to windows and panes are as follows:
break-pane [-dP] [-F format] [-t target-pane]
(alias: breakp)
Break target-pane off from its containing window to make it the only pane in a new
window. If -d is given, the new window does not become the current window. The -P
option prints information about the new window after it has been created. By
default, it uses the format ‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}’ but a different format
may be specified with -F.
capture-pane [-aepPq] [-b buffer-index] [-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, other‐
wise to the buffer specified with -b or a new buffer if omitted. If -a is given,
the alternate screen is used, and the history is not accessible. If no alternate
screen exists, an error will be returned unless -q is given. If -e is given, the
output includes escape sequences for text and background attributes. -C also
escapes non-printable characters as octal \xxx. -J joins wrapped lines and pre‐
serves trailing spaces at each line's end. -P captures only any output that the
pane has received that is the beginning of an as-yet incomplete escape sequence.
-S and -E specify the starting and ending line numbers, zero is the first line of
the visible pane and negative numbers are lines in the history. The default is to
capture only the visible contents of the pane.
choose-client [-F format] [-t target-window] [template]
Put a window into client choice mode, allowing a client to be selected interactively
from a list. After a client is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the client pty(4) path
in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given,
"detach-client -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS
section. This command works only if at least one client is attached.
choose-list [-l items] [-t target-window] [template]
Put a window into list choice mode, allowing items to be selected. items can be a
comma-separated list to display more than one item. If an item has spaces, that
entry must be quoted. After an item is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the chosen item
in the template and the result is executed as a command. If template is not given,
"run-shell '%%'" is used. items also accepts format specifiers. For the meaning of
this see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is
attached.
choose-session [-F format] [-t target-window] [template]
Put a window into session choice mode, where a session may be selected interactively
from a list. When one is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the session name in template
and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "switch-client -t
'%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section. This com‐
mand works only if at least one client is attached.
choose-tree [-suw] [-b session-template] [-c window-template] [-S format] [-W format] [-t
target-window]
Put a window into tree choice mode, where either sessions or windows may be selected
interactively from a list. By default, windows belonging to a session are indented
to show their relationship to a session.
Note that the choose-window and choose-session commands are wrappers around
choose-tree.
If -s is given, will show sessions. If -w is given, will show windows.
By default, the tree is collapsed and sessions must be expanded to windows with the
right arrow key. The -u option will start with all sessions expanded instead.
If -b is given, will override the default session command. Note that ‘%%’ can be
used and will be replaced with the session name. The default option if not speci‐
fied is "switch-client -t '%%'". If -c is given, will override the default window
command. Like -b, ‘%%’ can be used and will be replaced with the session name and
window index. When a window is chosen from the list, the session command is run
before the window command.
If -S is given will display the specified format instead of the default session for‐
mat. If -W is given will display the specified format instead of the default window
format. For the meaning of the -s and -w options, see the FORMATS section.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
choose-window [-F format] [-t target-window] [template]
Put a window into window choice mode, where a window may be chosen interactively
from a list. After a window is selected, ‘%%’ is replaced by the session name and
window index in template and the result executed as a command. If template is not
given, "select-window -t '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the
FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is attached.
display-panes [-t target-client]
(alias: displayp)
Display a visible indicator of each pane shown by target-client. See the
display-panes-time, display-panes-colour, and display-panes-active-colour session
options. While the indicator is on screen, a pane may be selected with the ‘0’ to
‘9’ keys.
find-window [-CNT] [-F format] [-t target-window] match-string
(alias: findw)
Search for the fnmatch(3) pattern match-string in window names, titles, and visible
content (but not history). The flags control matching behavior: -C matches only
visible window contents, -N matches only the window name and -T matches only the
window title. The default is -CNT. If only one window is matched, it'll be auto‐
matically selected, otherwise a choice list is shown. For the meaning of the -F
flag, see the FORMATS section. This command works only if at least one client is
attached.
join-pane [-bdhv] [-l size | -p percentage] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: 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.
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 ses‐
sions to which it is linked. The -a option kills all but the window given with -t.
last-pane [-t target-window]
(alias: lastp)
Select the last (previously selected) 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 [-dk] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: linkw)
Link the window at src-window to the specified dst-window. If dst-window is speci‐
fied and no such window exists, the src-window is linked there. If -k is given and
dst-window exists, it is killed, otherwise an error is generated. If -d is given,
the newly linked window is not selected.
list-panes [-as] [-F format] [-t target]
(alias: lsp)
If -a is given, target is ignored and all panes on the server are listed. If -s is
given, target is a session (or the current session). If neither is given, target is
a window (or the current window). For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS
section.
list-windows [-a] [-F format] [-t target-session]
(alias: lsw)
If -a is given, list all windows on the server. Otherwise, list windows in the cur‐
rent session or in target-session. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS
section.
move-pane [-bdhv] [-l size | -p percentage] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: movep)
Like join-pane, but src-pane and dst-pane may belong to the same window.
move-window [-rdk] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: movew)
This is similar to link-window, except the window at src-window is moved to
dst-window. With -r, all windows in the session are renumbered in sequential order,
respecting the base-index option.
new-window [-adkP] [-c start-directory] [-F format] [-n window-name] [-t target-window]
[shell-command]
(alias: neww)
Create a new window. With -a, the new window is inserted at the next index up from
the specified target-window, moving windows up if necessary, otherwise target-window
is the new window location.
If -d is given, the session does not make the new window the current window.
target-window represents the window to be created; if the target already exists an
error is shown, unless the -k flag is used, in which case it is destroyed.
shell-command is the command to execute. If shell-command is not specified, the
value of the default-command option is used. -c specifies the working directory in
which the new window is created.
When the shell command completes, the window closes. See the remain-on-exit option
to change this behaviour.
The TERM environment variable must be set to “screen” for all programs running
inside tmux. New windows will automatically have “TERM=screen” added to their envi‐
ronment, but care must be taken not to reset this in shell start-up files.
The -P option prints information about the new window after it has been created. By
default, it uses the format ‘#{session_name}:#{window_index}’ but a different format
may be specified with -F.
next-layout [-t target-window]
(alias: nextl)
Move a window to the next layout and rearrange the panes to fit.
next-window [-a] [-t target-session]
(alias: next)
Move to the next window in the session. If -a is used, move to the next window with
an alert.
pipe-pane [-o] [-t target-pane] [shell-command]
(alias: pipep)
Pipe any output sent by the program in target-pane to a shell command. A pane may
only be piped to one command at a time, any existing pipe is closed before
shell-command is executed. The shell-command string may contain the special charac‐
ter sequences supported by the status-left option. If no shell-command is given,
the current pipe (if any) is closed.
The -o option only opens a new pipe if no previous pipe exists, allowing a pipe to
be toggled with a single key, for example:
bind-key C-p pipe-pane -o 'cat >>~/output.#I-#P'
previous-layout [-t target-window]
(alias: prevl)
Move to the previous layout in the session.
previous-window [-a] [-t target-session]
(alias: prev)
Move to the previous window in the session. With -a, move to the previous window
with an alert.
rename-window [-t target-window] new-name
(alias: renamew)
Rename the current window, or the window at target-window if specified, to new-name.
resize-pane [-DLRUZ] [-t target-pane] [-x width] [-y height] [adjustment]
(alias: resizep)
Resize a pane, up, down, left or right by adjustment with -U, -D, -L or -R, or to an
absolute size with -x or -y. The adjustment is given in lines or cells (the default
is 1).
With -Z, the active pane is toggled between zoomed (occupying the whole of the win‐
dow) and unzoomed (its normal position in the layout).
respawn-pane [-k] [-t target-pane] [shell-command]
(alias: respawnp)
Reactivate a pane in which the command has exited (see the remain-on-exit window
option). If shell-command is not given, the command used when the pane was created
is executed. The pane must be already inactive, unless -k is given, in which case
any existing command is killed.
respawn-window [-k] [-t target-window] [shell-command]
(alias: respawnw)
Reactivate a window in which the command has exited (see the remain-on-exit window
option). If shell-command is not given, the command used when the window was cre‐
ated is executed. The window must be already inactive, unless -k is given, in which
case any existing command is killed.
rotate-window [-DU] [-t target-window]
(alias: rotatew)
Rotate the positions of the panes within a window, either upward (numerically lower)
with -U or downward (numerically higher).
select-layout [-np] [-t target-window] [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.
select-pane [-lDLRU] [-t target-pane]
(alias: selectp)
Make pane target-pane the active pane in window target-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. -l is the same as using the last-pane command.
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 [-dhvP] [-c start-directory] [-l size | -p percentage] [-t target-pane]
[shell-command] [-F format]
(alias: splitw)
Create a new pane by splitting target-pane: -h does a horizontal split and -v a ver‐
tical split; if neither is specified, -v is assumed. The -l and -p options specify
the size of the new pane in lines (for vertical split) or in cells (for horizontal
split), or as a percentage, respectively. All other options have the same meaning
as for the new-window command.
swap-pane [-dDU] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: swapp)
Swap two panes. If -U is used and no source pane is specified with -s, dst-pane is
swapped with the previous pane (before it numerically); -D swaps with the next pane
(after it numerically). -d instructs tmux not to change the active pane.
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.
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.
KEY BINDINGS
tmux allows a command to be bound to most keys, with or without a prefix key. When specify‐
ing keys, most represent themselves (for example ‘A’ to ‘Z’). Ctrl keys may be prefixed
with ‘C-’ or ‘^’, and Alt (meta) with ‘M-’. In addition, the following special key names
are accepted: Up, Down, Left, Right, BSpace, BTab, DC (Delete), End, Enter, Escape, F1 to
F20, Home, IC (Insert), NPage/PageDown/PgDn, PPage/PageUp/PgUp, Space, and Tab. Note that
to bind the ‘"’ or ‘'’ keys, quotation marks are necessary, for example:
bind-key '"' split-window
bind-key "'" new-window
Commands related to key bindings are as follows:
bind-key [-cnr] [-t key-table] key command [arguments]
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to command. By default (without -t) the primary key bindings are modi‐
fied (those normally activated with the prefix key); in this case, if -n is speci‐
fied, it is not necessary to use the prefix key, command is bound to key alone. The
-r flag indicates this key may repeat, see the repeat-time option.
If -t is present, key is bound in key-table: the binding for command mode with -c or
for normal mode without. To view the default bindings and possible commands, see
the list-keys command.
list-keys [-t key-table]
(alias: lsk)
List all key bindings. Without -t the primary key bindings - those executed when
preceded by the prefix key - are printed.
With -t, the key bindings in key-table are listed; this may be one of: vi-edit,
emacs-edit, vi-choice, emacs-choice, vi-copy or emacs-copy.
send-keys [-lR] [-t target-pane] key ...
(alias: send)
Send a key or keys to a window. Each argument key is the name of the key (such as
‘C-a’ or ‘npage’ ) to send; if the string is not recognised as a key, it is sent as
a series of characters. The -l flag disables key name lookup and sends the keys
literally. All arguments are sent sequentially from first to last. The -R flag
causes the terminal state to be reset.
send-prefix [-2] [-t target-pane]
Send the prefix key, or with -2 the secondary prefix key, to a window as if it was
pressed.
unbind-key [-acn] [-t key-table] key
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the command bound to key. Without -t the primary key bindings are modified;
in this case, if -n is specified, the command bound to key without a prefix (if any)
is removed. If -a is present, all key bindings are removed.
If -t is present, key in key-table is unbound: the binding for command mode with -c
or for normal mode without.
OPTIONS
The appearance and behaviour of tmux may be modified by changing the value of various
options. There are three types of option: server options, session options and window
options.
The tmux server has a set of global options which do not apply to any particular window or
session. These are altered with the set-option -s command, or displayed with the
show-options -s command.
In addition, each individual session may have a set of session options, and there is a sepa‐
rate set of global session options. Sessions which do not have a particular option config‐
ured inherit the value from the global session options. Session options are set or unset
with the set-option command and may be listed with the show-options command. The available
server and session options are listed under the set-option command.
Similarly, a set of window options is attached to each window, and there is a set of global
window options from which any unset options are inherited. Window options are altered with
the set-window-option command and can be listed with the show-window-options command. All
window options are documented with the set-window-option command.
tmux also supports user options which are prefixed with a ‘@’. User options may have any
name, so long as they are prefixed with ‘@’, and be set to any string. For example
$ tmux setw -q @foo "abc123"
$ tmux showw -v @foo
abc123
Commands which set options are as follows:
set-option [-agoqsuw] [-t target-session | target-window] option value
(alias: set)
Set a window option with -w (equivalent to the set-window-option command), a server
option with -s, otherwise a session option.
If -g is specified, the global session or window option is set. The -u flag unsets
an option, so a session inherits the option from the global options. It is not pos‐
sible to unset a global option.
The -o flag prevents setting an option that is already set.
The -q flag suppresses the informational message (as if the quiet server option was
set).
With -a, and if the option expects a string or a style, value is appended to the
existing setting. For example:
set -g status-left "foo"
set -ag status-left "bar"
Will result in ‘foobar’. And:
set -g status-style "bg=red"
set -ag status-style "fg=blue"
Will result in a red background and blue foreground. Without -a, the result would
be the default background and a blue foreground.
Available window options are listed under set-window-option.
value depends on the option and may be a number, a string, or a flag (on, off, or
omitted to toggle).
Available server options are:
buffer-limit number
Set the number of buffers; as new buffers are added to the top of the stack,
old ones are removed from the bottom if necessary to maintain this maximum
length.
escape-time time
Set the time in milliseconds for which tmux waits after an escape is input
to determine if it is part of a function or meta key sequences. The default
is 500 milliseconds.
exit-unattached [on | off]
If enabled, the server will exit when there are no attached clients.
focus-events [on | off]
When enabled, focus events are requested from the terminal if supported and
passed through to applications running in tmux. Attached clients should be
detached and attached again after changing this option.
quiet [on | off]
Enable or disable the display of various informational messages (see also
the -q command line flag).
set-clipboard [on | off]
Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the \e]52;...\007
xterm(1) escape sequences. This option is on by default if there is an Ms
entry in the terminfo(5) description for the client terminal. Note that
this feature needs to be enabled in xterm(1) by setting the resource:
disallowedWindowOps: 20,21,SetXprop
Or changing this property from the xterm(1) interactive menu when required.
Available session options are:
assume-paste-time milliseconds
If keys are entered faster than one in milliseconds, they are assumed to
have been pasted rather than typed and tmux key bindings are not processed.
The default is one millisecond and zero disables.
base-index index
Set the base index from which an unused index should be searched when a new
window is created. The default is zero.
bell-action [any | none | current]
Set action on window bell. any means a bell in any window linked to a ses‐
sion causes a bell in the current window of that session, none means all
bells are ignored and current means only bells in windows other than the
current window are ignored.
bell-on-alert [on | off]
If on, ring the terminal bell when an alert occurs.
default-command shell-command
Set the command used for new windows (if not specified when the window is
created) to shell-command, which may be any sh(1) command. The default is
an empty string, which instructs tmux to create a login shell using the
value of 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-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’ or a derivative of it.
destroy-unattached [on | off]
If enabled and the session is no longer attached to any clients, it is
destroyed.
detach-on-destroy [on | off]
If on (the default), the client is detached when the session it is attached
to is destroyed. If off, the client is switched to the most recently active
of the remaining sessions.
display-panes-active-colour colour
Set the colour used by the display-panes command to show the indicator for
the active pane.
display-panes-colour colour
Set the colour used by the display-panes command to show the indicators for
inactive panes.
display-panes-time time
Set the time in milliseconds for which the indicators shown by the
display-panes command appear.
display-time time
Set the amount of time for which status line messages and other on-screen
indicators are displayed. time is in milliseconds.
history-limit lines
Set the maximum number of lines held in window history. This setting
applies only to new windows - existing window histories are not resized and
retain the limit at the point they were created.
lock-after-time number
Lock the session (like the lock-session command) after number seconds of
inactivity, or the entire server (all sessions) if the lock-server option is
set. The default is not to lock (set to 0).
lock-command shell-command
Command to run when locking each client. The default is to run lock(1) with
-np.
lock-server [on | off]
If this option is on (the default), instead of each session locking individ‐
ually as each has been idle for lock-after-time, the entire server will lock
after all sessions would have locked. This has no effect as a session
option; it must be set as a global option.
message-command-style style
Set status line message command style, where style is a comma-separated list
of characteristics to be specified.
These may be ‘bg=colour’ to set the background colour, ‘fg=colour’ to set
the foreground colour, and a list of attributes as specified below.
The colour is one of: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white,
aixterm bright variants (if supported: brightred, brightgreen, and so on),
colour0 to colour255 from the 256-colour set, default, or a hexadecimal RGB
string such as ‘#ffffff’, which chooses the closest match from the default
256-colour set.
The attributes is either none or a comma-delimited list of one or more of:
bright (or bold), dim, underscore, blink, reverse, hidden, or italics, to
turn an attribute on, or an attribute prefixed with ‘no’ to turn one off.
Examples are:
fg=yellow,bold,underscore,blink
bg=black,fg=default,noreverse
With the -a flag to the set-option command the new style is added otherwise
the existing style is replaced.
message-limit number
Set the number of error or information messages to save in the message log
for each client. The default is 20.
message-style style
Set status line message style. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
mouse-resize-pane [on | off]
If on, tmux captures the mouse and allows panes to be resized by dragging on
their borders.
mouse-select-pane [on | off]
If on, tmux captures the mouse and when a window is split into multiple
panes the mouse may be used to select the current pane. The mouse click is
also passed through to the application as normal.
mouse-select-window [on | off]
If on, clicking the mouse on a window name in the status line will select
that window.
mouse-utf8 [on | off]
If enabled, request mouse input as UTF-8 on UTF-8 terminals.
pane-active-border-style style
Set the pane border style for the currently active pane. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option. Attributes are ignored.
pane-border-style style
Set the pane border style for paneas aside from the active pane. For how to
specify style, see the message-command-style option. Attributes are
ignored.
prefix key
Set the key accepted as a prefix key.
prefix2 key
Set a secondary key accepted as a prefix key.
renumber-windows [on | off]
If on, when a window is closed in a session, automatically renumber the
other windows in numerical order. This respects the base-index option if it
has been set. If off, do not renumber the windows.
repeat-time time
Allow multiple commands to be entered without pressing the prefix-key again
in the specified time milliseconds (the default is 500). Whether a key
repeats may be set when it is bound using the -r flag to bind-key. Repeat
is enabled for the default keys bound to the resize-pane command.
set-remain-on-exit [on | off]
Set the remain-on-exit window option for any windows first created in this
session. When this option is true, windows in which the running program has
exited do not close, instead remaining open but inactivate. Use the
respawn-window command to reactivate such a window, or the kill-window com‐
mand to destroy it.
set-titles [on | off]
Attempt to set the client terminal title using the tsl and fsl terminfo(5)
entries if they exist. tmux automatically sets these to the \e]2;...\007
sequence if the terminal appears to be an xterm. This option is off by
default. Note that elinks will only attempt to set the window title if the
STY environment variable is set.
set-titles-string string
String used to set the window title if set-titles is on. Character
sequences are replaced as for the status-left option.
status [on | off]
Show or hide the status line.
status-interval interval
Update the status bar every interval seconds. By default, updates will
occur every 15 seconds. A setting of zero disables redrawing at interval.
status-justify [left | centre | right]
Set the position of the window list component of the status line: left, cen‐
tre or right justified.
status-keys [vi | emacs]
Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line, for example at the
command prompt. The default is emacs, unless the VISUAL or EDITOR environ‐
ment variables are set and contain the string ‘vi’.
status-left string
Display string (by default the session name) to the left of the status bar.
string will be passed through strftime(3) and formats (see FORMATS) will be
expanded. It may also contain any of the following special character
sequences:
Character pair Replaced with
#(shell-command) First line of the command's output
#[attributes] Colour or attribute change
## A literal ‘#’
The #(shell-command) form executes ‘shell-command’ and inserts the first
line of its output. Note that shell commands are only executed once at the
interval specified by the status-interval option: if the status line is
redrawn in the meantime, the previous result is used. Shell commands are
executed with the tmux global environment set (see the ENVIRONMENT section).
For details on how the names and titles can be set see the NAMES AND TITLES
section. For a list of allowed attributes see the message-command-style
option.
Examples are:
#(sysctl vm.loadavg)
#[fg=yellow,bold]#(apm -l)%%#[default] [#S]
Where appropriate, special character sequences may be prefixed with a number
to specify the maximum length, for example ‘#24T’.
By default, UTF-8 in string is not interpreted, to enable UTF-8, use the
status-utf8 option.
status-left-length length
Set the maximum length of the left component of the status bar. The default
is 10.
status-left-style style
Set the style of the left part of the status line. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option.
status-position [top | bottom]
Set the position of the status line.
status-right string
Display string to the right of the status bar. By default, the current win‐
dow title in double quotes, the date and the time are shown. As with
status-left, string will be passed to strftime(3), character pairs are
replaced, and UTF-8 is dependent on the status-utf8 option.
status-right-length length
Set the maximum length of the right component of the status bar. The
default is 40.
status-right-style style
Set the style of the right part of the status line. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option.
status-style style
Set status line style. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
status-utf8 [on | off]
Instruct tmux to treat top-bit-set characters in the status-left and
status-right strings as UTF-8; notably, this is important for wide charac‐
ters. This option defaults to off.
terminal-overrides string
Contains a list of entries which override terminal descriptions read using
terminfo(5). string is a comma-separated list of items each a colon-sepa‐
rated string made up of a terminal type pattern (matched using fnmatch(3))
and a set of name=value entries.
For example, to set the ‘clear’ terminfo(5) entry to ‘\e[H\e[2J’ for all
terminal types and the ‘dch1’ entry to ‘\e[P’ for the ‘rxvt’ terminal type,
the option could be set to the string:
"*:clear=\e[H\e[2J,rxvt:dch1=\e[P"
The terminal entry value is passed through strunvis(3) before interpreta‐
tion. The default value forcibly corrects the ‘colors’ entry for terminals
which support 256 colours:
"*256col*:colors=256,xterm*:XT"
update-environment variables
Set a space-separated string containing a list of environment variables to
be copied into the session environment when a new session is created or an
existing session is attached. Any variables that do not exist in the source
environment are set to be removed from the session environment (as if -r was
given to the set-environment command). The default is "DISPLAY SSH_ASKPASS
SSH_AUTH_SOCK SSH_AGENT_PID SSH_CONNECTION WINDOWID XAUTHORITY".
visual-activity [on | off]
If on, display a status line message when activity occurs in a window for
which the monitor-activity window option is enabled.
visual-bell [on | off]
If this option is on, a message is shown on a bell instead of it being
passed through to the terminal (which normally makes a sound). Also see the
bell-action option.
visual-content [on | off]
Like visual-activity, display a message when content is present in a window
for which the monitor-content window option is enabled.
visual-silence [on | off]
If monitor-silence is enabled, prints a message after the interval has
expired on a given window.
word-separators string
Sets the session's conception of what characters are considered word separa‐
tors, for the purposes of the next and previous word commands in copy mode.
The default is ‘ -_@’.
set-window-option [-agoqu] [-t target-window] option value
(alias: setw)
Set a window option. The -a, -g, -o, -q and -u flags work similarly to the
set-option command.
Supported window options are:
aggressive-resize [on | off]
Aggressively resize the chosen window. This means that tmux will resize the
window to the size of the smallest session for which it is the current win‐
dow, rather than the smallest session to which it is attached. The window
may resize when the current window is changed on another sessions; this
option is good for full-screen programs which support SIGWINCH and poor for
interactive programs such as shells.
allow-rename [on | off]
Allow programs to change the window name using a terminal escape sequence
(\033k...\033\\). The default is on.
alternate-screen [on | off]
This option configures whether programs running inside tmux may use the ter‐
minal alternate screen feature, which allows the smcup and rmcup terminfo(5)
capabilities. The alternate screen feature preserves the contents of the
window when an interactive application starts and restores it on exit, so
that any output visible before the application starts reappears unchanged
after it exits. The default is on.
automatic-rename [on | off]
Control automatic window renaming. When this setting is enabled, tmux will
rename the window automatically using the format specified by
automatic-rename-format. This flag is automatically disabled for an indi‐
vidual window when a name is specified at creation with new-window or
new-session, or later with rename-window, or with a terminal escape
sequence. It may be switched off globally with:
set-window-option -g automatic-rename off
automatic-rename-format format
The format (see FORMATS) used when the automatic-rename option is enabled.
c0-change-interval interval
c0-change-trigger trigger
These two options configure a simple form of rate limiting for a pane. If
tmux sees more than trigger C0 sequences that modify the screen (for exam‐
ple, carriage returns, linefeeds or backspaces) in one millisecond, it will
stop updating the pane immediately and instead redraw it entirely every
interval milliseconds. This helps to prevent fast output (such as yes(1))
overwhelming the terminal. The default is a trigger of 250 and an interval
of 100. A trigger of zero disables the rate limiting.
clock-mode-colour colour
Set clock colour.
clock-mode-style [12 | 24]
Set clock hour format.
force-height height
force-width width
Prevent tmux from resizing a window to greater than width or height. A
value of zero restores the default unlimited setting.
main-pane-height height
main-pane-width width
Set the width or height of the main (left or top) pane in the
main-horizontal or main-vertical layouts.
mode-keys [vi | emacs]
Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in copy and choice modes. As with the
status-keys option, the default is emacs, unless VISUAL or EDITOR contains
‘vi’.
mode-mouse [on | off | copy-mode]
Mouse state in modes. If on, the mouse may be used to enter copy mode and
copy a selection by dragging, to enter copy mode and scroll with the mouse
wheel, or to select an option in choice mode. If set to copy-mode, the
mouse behaves as set to on, but cannot be used to enter copy mode.
mode-style style
Set window modes style. For how to specify style, see the
message-command-style option.
monitor-activity [on | off]
Monitor for activity in the window. Windows with activity are highlighted
in the status line.
monitor-content match-string
Monitor content in the window. When fnmatch(3) pattern match-string appears
in the window, it is highlighted in the status line.
monitor-silence [interval]
Monitor for silence (no activity) in the window within interval seconds.
Windows that have been silent for the interval are highlighted in the status
line. An interval of zero disables the monitoring.
other-pane-height height
Set the height of the other panes (not the main pane) in the main-horizontal
layout. If this option is set to 0 (the default), it will have no effect.
If both the main-pane-height and other-pane-height options are set, the main
pane will grow taller to make the other panes the specified height, but will
never shrink to do so.
other-pane-width width
Like other-pane-height, but set the width of other panes in the
main-vertical layout.
pane-base-index index
Like base-index, but set the starting index for pane numbers.
remain-on-exit [on | off]
A window with this flag set is not destroyed when the program running in it
exits. The window may be reactivated with the respawn-window command.
synchronize-panes [on | off]
Duplicate input to any pane to all other panes in the same window (only for
panes that are not in any special mode).
utf8 [on | off]
Instructs tmux to expect UTF-8 sequences to appear in this window.
window-status-activity-style style
Set status line style for windows with an activity alert. For how to spec‐
ify style, see the message-command-style option.
window-status-bell-style style
Set status line style for windows with a bell alert. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option.
window-status-content-style style
Set status line style for windows with a content alert. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option.
window-status-current-format string
Like window-status-format, but is the format used when the window is the
current window.
window-status-current-style style
Set status line style for the currently active window. For how to specify
style, see the message-command-style option.
window-status-format string
Set the format in which the window is displayed in the status line window
list. See the status-left option for details of special character sequences
available. The default is ‘#I:#W#F’.
window-status-last-style style
Set status line style for the last active window. For how to specify style,
see the message-command-style option.
window-status-separator string
Sets the separator drawn between windows in the status line. The default is
a single space character.
window-status-style style
Set status line style for a single window. For how to specify style, see
the message-command-style option.
xterm-keys [on | off]
If this option is set, tmux will generate xterm(1) -style function key
sequences; these have a number included to indicate modifiers such as Shift,
Alt or Ctrl. The default is off.
wrap-search [on | off]
If this option is set, searches will wrap around the end of the pane con‐
tents. The default is on.
show-options [-gqsvw] [-t target-session | target-window] [option]
(alias: show)
Show the window options (or a single window option if given) with -w (equivalent to
show-window-options), the server options with -s, otherwise the session options for
target session. Global session or window options are listed if -g is used. -v
shows only the option value, not the name. If -q is set, no error will be returned
if option is unset.
show-window-options [-gv] [-t target-window] [option]
(alias: showw)
List the window options or a single option for target-window, or the global window
options if -g is used. -v shows only the option value, not the name.
FORMATS
Certain commands accept the -F flag with a format argument. This is a string which controls
the output format of the command. Replacement variables are enclosed in ‘#{’ and ‘}’, for
example ‘#{session_name}’. Some variables also have an shorter alias such as ‘#S’. ‘##’ is
replaced by a single ‘#’. Conditionals are also accepted by prefixing with ‘?’ and separat‐
ing 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 ses‐
sion is attached and the string ‘not attached’ if it is unattached. A limit may be placed
on the length of the resultant string by prefixing it by an ‘=’, a number and a colon, so
‘#{=10:pane_title}’ will include at most the first 10 characters of the pane title.
The following variables are available, where appropriate:
Variable name Alias Replaced with
alternate_on If pane is in alternate screen
alternate_saved_x Saved cursor X in alternate screen
alternate_saved_y Saved cursor Y in alternate screen
buffer_sample First 50 characters from buffer
buffer_size Size of the specified buffer in bytes
client_activity Integer time client last had activity
client_activity_string String time client last had activity
client_created Integer time client created
client_created_string String time client created
client_height Height of client
client_last_session Name of the client's last session
client_prefix 1 if prefix key has been pressed
client_readonly 1 if client is readonly
client_session Name of the client's session
client_termname Terminal name of client
client_tty Pseudo terminal of client
client_utf8 1 if client supports utf8
client_width Width of client
cursor_flag Pane cursor flag
cursor_x Cursor X position in pane
cursor_y Cursor Y position in pane
history_bytes Number of bytes in window history
history_limit Maximum window history lines
history_size Size of history in bytes
host #H Hostname of local host
host_short #h Hostname of local host (no domain name)
insert_flag Pane insert flag
keypad_cursor_flag Pane keypad cursor flag
keypad_flag Pane keypad flag
line Line number in the list
mouse_any_flag Pane mouse any flag
mouse_button_flag Pane mouse button flag
mouse_standard_flag Pane mouse standard flag
mouse_utf8_flag Pane mouse UTF-8 flag
pane_active 1 if active pane
pane_current_command Current command if available
pane_current_path Current path if available
pane_dead 1 if pane is dead
pane_height Height of pane
pane_id #D Unique pane ID
pane_in_mode If pane is in a mode
pane_synchronized If pane is synchronized
pane_index #P Index of pane
pane_pid PID of first process in pane
pane_start_command Command pane started with
pane_start_path Path pane started with
pane_tabs Pane tab positions
pane_title #T Title of pane
pane_tty Pseudo terminal of pane
pane_width Width of pane
saved_cursor_x Saved cursor X in pane
saved_cursor_y Saved cursor Y in pane
scroll_region_lower Bottom of scroll region in pane
scroll_region_upper Top of scroll region in pane
session_attached 1 if session attached
session_created Integer time session created
session_created_string String time session created
session_group Number of session group
session_grouped 1 if session in a group
session_height Height of session
session_id Unique session ID
session_name #S Name of session
session_width Width of session
session_windows Number of windows in session
window_active 1 if window active
window_activity_flag 1 if window has activity alert
window_bell_flag 1 if window has bell
window_content_flag 1 if window has content alert
window_find_matches Matched data from the find-window
window_flags #F Window flags
window_height Height of window
window_id Unique window ID
window_index #I Index of window
window_layout Window layout description
window_name #W Name of window
window_panes Number of panes in window
window_silence_flag 1 if window has silence alert
window_width Width of window
wrap_flag Pane wrap flag
NAMES AND TITLES
tmux distinguishes between names and titles. Windows and sessions have names, which may be
used to specify them in targets and are displayed in the status line and various lists: the
name is the tmux identifier for a window or session. Only panes have titles. A pane's
title is typically set by the program running inside the pane and is not modified by tmux.
It is the same mechanism used to set for example the xterm(1) window title in an X(7) window
manager. Windows themselves do not have titles - a window's title is the title of its
active pane. tmux itself may set the title of the terminal in which the client is running,
see the set-titles option.
A session's name is set with the new-session and rename-session commands. A window's name
is set with one of:
1. A command argument (such as -n for new-window or new-session).
2. An escape sequence:
$ printf '\033kWINDOW_NAME\033\\'
3. Automatic renaming, which sets the name to the active command in the window's active
pane. See the automatic-rename option.
When a pane is first created, its title is the hostname. A pane's title can be set via the
OSC title setting sequence, for example:
$ printf '\033]2;My Title\033\\'
ENVIRONMENT
When the server is started, tmux copies the environment into the global environment; in
addition, each session has a session environment. When a window is created, the session and
global environments are merged. If a variable exists in both, the value from the session
environment is used. The result is the initial environment passed to the new process.
The update-environment session option may be used to update the session environment from the
client when a new session is created or an old reattached. tmux also initialises the TMUX
variable with some internal information to allow commands to be executed from inside, and
the TERM variable with the correct terminal setting of ‘screen’.
Commands to alter and view the environment are:
set-environment [-gru] [-t target-session] name [value]
(alias: setenv)
Set or unset an environment variable. If -g is used, the change is made in the
global environment; otherwise, it is applied to the session environment for
target-session. The -u flag unsets a variable. -r indicates the variable is to be
removed from the environment before starting a new process.
show-environment [-g] [-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 environ‐
ment are prefixed with ‘-’.
STATUS LINE
tmux includes an optional status line which is displayed in the bottom line of each termi‐
nal. By default, the status line is enabled (it may be disabled with the status session
option) and contains, from left-to-right: the name of the current session in square brack‐
ets; the window list; the title of the active pane in double quotes; and the time and date.
The status line is made of three parts: configurable left and right sections (which may con‐
tain 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 win‐
dow list. By default, the window list shows the index, name and (if any) flag of the win‐
dows present in the current session in ascending numerical order. It may be customised with
the window-status-format and window-status-current-format options. The flag is one of the
following symbols appended to the window name:
Symbol Meaning
* Denotes the current window.
- Marks the last window (previously selected).
# Window is monitored and activity has been detected.
! A bell has occurred in the window.
+ Window is monitored for content and it has appeared.
~ The window has been silent for the monitor-silence interval.
Z The window's active pane is zoomed.
The # symbol relates to the monitor-activity and + to the monitor-content window options.
The window name is printed in inverted colours if an alert (bell, activity or content) is
present.
The colour and attributes of the status line may be configured, the entire status line using
the status-style session option and individual windows using the window-status-style window
option.
The status line is automatically refreshed at interval if it has changed, the interval may
be controlled with the status-interval session option.
Commands related to the status line are as follows:
command-prompt [-I inputs] [-p prompts] [-t target-client] [template]
Open the command prompt in a client. This may be used from inside tmux to execute
commands interactively.
If template is specified, it is used as the command. If present, -I is a comma-sep‐
arated list of the initial text for each prompt. If -p is given, prompts is a
comma-separated list of prompts which are displayed in order; otherwise a single
prompt is displayed, constructed from template if it is present, or ‘:’ if not.
Both inputs and prompts may contain the special character sequences supported by the
status-left option.
Before the command is executed, the first occurrence of the string ‘%%’ and all
occurrences of ‘%1’ are replaced by the response to the first prompt, the second
‘%%’ and all ‘%2’ are replaced with the response to the second prompt, and so on for
further prompts. Up to nine prompt responses may be replaced (‘%1’ to ‘%9’).
confirm-before [-p prompt] [-t target-client] command
(alias: 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 spe‐
cial character sequences supported by the status-left option.
This command works only from inside tmux.
display-message [-p] [-c target-client] [-t target-pane] [message]
(alias: display)
Display a message. If -p is given, the output is printed to stdout, otherwise it is
displayed in the target-client status line. The format of message is described in
the FORMATS section; information is taken from target-pane if -t is given, otherwise
the active pane for the session attached to target-client.
BUFFERS
tmux maintains a stack of paste buffers. Up to the value of the buffer-limit option are
kept; when a new buffer is added, the buffer at the bottom of the stack is removed. Buffers
may be added using copy-mode or the set-buffer command, and pasted into a window using the
paste-buffer command.
A configurable history buffer is also maintained for each window. By default, up to 2000
lines are kept; this can be altered with the history-limit option (see the set-option com‐
mand above).
The buffer commands are as follows:
choose-buffer [-F format] [-t target-window] [template]
Put a window into buffer choice mode, where a buffer may be chosen interactively
from a list. After a buffer is selected, ‘%%’ is replaced by the buffer index in
template and the result executed as a command. If template is not given, "paste-
buffer -b '%%'" is used. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
clear-history [-t target-pane]
(alias: clearhist)
Remove and free the history for the specified pane.
delete-buffer [-b buffer-index]
(alias: deleteb)
Delete the buffer at buffer-index, or the top buffer if not specified.
list-buffers [-F format]
(alias: lsb)
List the global buffers. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
load-buffer [-b buffer-index] path
(alias: loadb)
Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from path.
paste-buffer [-dpr] [-b buffer-index] [-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 from the stack.
When output, any linefeed (LF) characters in the paste buffer are replaced with a
separator, by default carriage return (CR). A custom separator may be specified
using the -s flag. The -r flag means to do no replacement (equivalent to a separa‐
tor of LF). If -p is specified, paste bracket control codes are inserted around the
buffer if the application has requested bracketed paste mode.
save-buffer [-a] [-b buffer-index] path
(alias: saveb)
Save the contents of the specified paste buffer to path. The -a option appends to
rather than overwriting the file.
set-buffer [-b buffer-index] data
(alias: setb)
Set the contents of the specified buffer to data.
show-buffer [-b buffer-index]
(alias: showb)
Display the contents of the specified buffer.
MISCELLANEOUS
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
clock-mode [-t target-pane]
Display a large clock.
if-shell [-b] [-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 speci‐
fied in the FORMATS section, including those relevant to target-pane. With -b,
shell-command is run in the background.
lock-server
(alias: lock)
Lock each client individually by running the command specified by the lock-command
option.
run-shell [-b] [-t target-pane] shell-command
(alias: run)
Execute shell-command in the background without creating a window. Before being
executed, shell-command is expanded using the rules specified in the FORMATS sec‐
tion. With -b, the command is run in the background. After it finishes, any output
to stdout is displayed in copy mode (in the pane specified by -t or the current pane
if omitted). If the command doesn't return success, the exit status is also dis‐
played.
wait-for [-L | -S | -U] channel
(alias: wait)
When used without options, prevents the client from exiting until woken using
wait-for -S with the same channel. When -L is used, the channel is locked and any
clients that try to lock the same channel are made to wait until the channel is
unlocked with wait-for -U. This command only works from outside tmux.
TERMINFO EXTENSIONS
tmux understands some extensions to terminfo(5):
Cs, Cr Set the cursor colour. The first takes a single string argument and is used to set
the colour; the second takes no arguments and restores the default cursor colour.
If set, a sequence such as this may be used to change the cursor colour from inside
tmux:
$ printf '\033]12;red\033\\'
Ss, Se Change the cursor style. If set, a sequence such as this may be used to change the
cursor to an underline:
$ printf '\033[4 q'
If Csr is set, it will be used to reset the cursor style instead of Cs.
Ms This sequence can be used by tmux to store the current buffer in the host terminal's
selection (clipboard). See the set-clipboard option above and the xterm(1) man
page.
CONTROL MODE
tmux offers a textual interface called control mode. This allows applications to communi‐
cate 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 out‐
put block consists of a %begin line followed by the output (which may be empty). The output
block ends with a %end or %error. %begin and matching %end or %error have two arguments: an
integer time (as seconds from epoch) and command number. For example:
%begin 1363006971 2
0: ksh* (1 panes) [80x24] [layout b25f,80x24,0,0,2] @2 (active)
%end 1363006971 2
In control mode, tmux outputs notifications. A notification will never occur inside an out‐
put block.
The following notifications are defined:
%exit [reason]
The tmux client is exiting immediately, either because it is not attached to any
session or an error occurred. If present, reason describes why the client exited.
%layout-change window-id window-layout
The layout of a window with ID window-id changed. The new layout is window-layout.
%output pane-id value
A window pane produced output. value escapes non-printable characters and backslash
as octal \xxx.
%session-changed session-id name
The client is now attached to the session with ID session-id, which is named name.
%session-renamed name
The current session was renamed to name.
%sessions-changed
A session was created or destroyed.
%unlinked-window-add window-id
The window with ID window-id was created but is not linked to the current session.
%window-add window-id
The window with ID window-id was linked to the current session.
%window-close window-id
The window with ID window-id closed.
%window-renamed window-id name
The window with ID window-id was renamed to name.
FILES
~/.tmux.conf Default tmux configuration file.
/etc/tmux.conf System-wide configuration file.
EXAMPLES
To create a new tmux session running vi(1):
$ tmux new-session vi
Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For new-session, this is new:
$ tmux new vi
Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is accepted. If there are several
options, they are listed:
$ tmux n
ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing ‘C-b c’ (Ctrl followed by
the ‘b’ key followed by the ‘c’ key).
Windows may be navigated with: ‘C-b 0’ (to select window 0), ‘C-b 1’ (to select window 1),
and so on; ‘C-b n’ to select the next window; and ‘C-b p’ to select the previous window.
A session may be detached using ‘C-b d’ (or by an external event such as ssh(1) disconnec‐
tion) 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 config‐
uration 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 inactiv‐
ity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh"
set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status
bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
SEE ALSO
pty(4)
AUTHORS
Nicholas Marriott <nicm AT users.net>
BSD April 16, 2024 BSD
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