Provided by: tmux_3.0a-2ubuntu0.4_amd64 
NAME
tmux — terminal multiplexer
SYNOPSIS
tmux [-2CluvV] [-c shell-command] [-f file] [-L socket-name] [-S socket-path] [command [flags]]
DESCRIPTION
tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled
from a single screen. tmux may be detached from a screen and continue running in the background, then
later reattached.
When tmux is started it creates a new session with a single window and displays it on screen. A status
line at the bottom of the screen shows information on the 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.
-C Start in control mode (see the CONTROL MODE section). Given twice (-CC) disables echo.
-c shell-command
Execute shell-command using the default shell. If necessary, the tmux server will be started
to retrieve the default-shell option. This option is for compatibility with sh(1) when tmux
is used as a login shell.
-f file Specify an alternative configuration file. By default, tmux loads the system configuration
file from /etc/tmux.conf, if present, then looks for a user configuration file at
~/.tmux.conf.
The configuration file is a set of tmux commands which are executed in sequence when the
server is first started. tmux loads configuration files once when the server process has
started. The source-file 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 the same directory.
If the socket is accidentally removed, the SIGUSR1 signal may be sent to the tmux server
process to recreate it (note that this will fail if any parent directories are missing).
-l Behave as a login shell. This flag currently has no effect and is for compatibility with
other shells when using tmux as a login shell.
-S socket-path
Specify a full alternative path to the server socket. If -S is 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".
-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.
DEFAULT 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.
( Switch the attached client to the previous session.
) Switch the attached client to the next session.
, Rename the current window.
- Delete the most recently copied buffer of text.
. Prompt for an index to move the current window.
0 to 9 Select windows 0 to 9.
: Enter the tmux command prompt.
; Move to the previously active pane.
= Choose which buffer to paste interactively from a list.
? List all key bindings.
D Choose a client to detach.
L Switch the attached client back to the last session.
[ Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history.
] Paste the most recently copied buffer of text.
c Create a new window.
d Detach the current client.
f Prompt to search for text in open windows.
i Display some information about the current window.
l Move to the previously selected window.
n Change to the next window.
o Select the next pane in the current window.
p Change to the previous window.
q Briefly display pane indexes.
r Force redraw of the attached client.
m Mark the current pane (see select-pane -m).
M Clear the marked pane.
s Select a new session for the attached client interactively.
t Show the time.
w Choose the current window interactively.
x Kill the current pane.
z Toggle zoom state of the current pane.
{ Swap the current pane with the previous pane.
} Swap the current pane with the next pane.
~ Show previous messages from tmux, if any.
Page Up Enter copy mode and scroll one page up.
Up, Down
Left, Right
Change to the pane above, below, to the left, or to the right of the current pane.
M-1 to M-5 Arrange panes in one of the five preset layouts: even-horizontal, even-vertical, main-
horizontal, main-vertical, or tiled.
Space Arrange the current window in the next preset layout.
M-n Move to the next window with a bell or activity marker.
M-o Rotate the panes in the current window backwards.
M-p Move to the previous window with a bell or activity marker.
C-Up, C-Down
C-Left, C-Right
Resize the current pane in steps of one cell.
M-Up, M-Down
M-Left, M-Right
Resize the current pane in steps of five cells.
Key bindings may be changed with the bind-key and unbind-key commands.
COMMAND PARSING AND EXECUTION
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.
PARSING SYNTAX
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.
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 similar to single quotes in that the text inside is taken literally without any replacements but
this also includes line continuation. Braces can span multiple lines in which case a literal newline is
included in the string. They are designed to avoid the need for additional escaping when passing a group
of tmux or shell commands as an argument (for example to if-shell or pipe-pane). 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 "\n display -p 'brace-dollar-foo: }\$foo'\n"
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.
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
COMMANDS
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 /etc/passwd'
Will run:
/bin/sh -c 'vi /etc/passwd'
Additionally, the new-window, new-session, split-window, respawn-window and respawn-pane commands allow
shell-command to be given as multiple arguments and executed directly (without ‘sh -c’). This can avoid
issues with shell quoting. For example:
$ tmux new-window vi /etc/passwd
Will run vi(1) directly without invoking the shell.
command [arguments] refers to a tmux command, 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 /etc/passwd' \; split-window -d \; attach
CLIENTS AND SESSIONS
The tmux server manages clients, sessions, windows and panes. Clients are attached to sessions to interact
with them, either when they are created with the new-session command, or later with the attach-session
command. Each session has one or more windows linked into it. Windows may be linked to multiple sessions
and are made up of one or more panes, each of which contains a pseudo terminal. Commands for creating,
linking and otherwise manipulating windows are covered in the WINDOWS AND PANES section.
The following commands are available to manage clients and sessions:
attach-session [-dErx] [-c working-directory] [-t target-session]
(alias: attach)
If run from outside tmux, create a new client in the current terminal and attach it to
target-session. If used from inside, switch the current client. If -d is specified, any other
clients attached to the session are detached. If -x is given, send SIGHUP to the parent process of
the client as well as detaching the client, typically causing it to exit. -r signifies the client
is read-only (only keys bound to the detach-client or switch-client commands have any effect)
If no server is started, attach-session will attempt to start it; this will fail unless sessions
are created in the configuration file.
The target-session rules for attach-session are slightly adjusted: if tmux needs to select the most
recently used session, it will prefer the most recently used unattached session.
-c will set the session working directory (used for new windows) to working-directory.
If -E is used, the update-environment option will not be applied.
detach-client [-aP] [-E shell-command] [-s target-session] [-t target-client]
(alias: detach)
Detach the current client if bound to a key, the client specified with -t, or all clients currently
attached to the session specified by -s. The -a option kills all but the client given with -t. If
-P is given, send SIGHUP to the parent process of the client, typically causing it to exit. With
-E, run shell-command to replace the client.
has-session [-t target-session]
(alias: has)
Report an error and exit with 1 if the specified session does not exist. If it does exist, exit
with 0.
kill-server
Kill the tmux server and clients and destroy all sessions.
kill-session [-aC] [-t target-session]
Destroy the given session, closing any windows linked to it and no other sessions, and detaching
all clients attached to it. If -a is given, all sessions but the specified one is killed. The -C
flag clears alerts (bell, activity, or silence) in all windows linked to the session.
list-clients [-F format] [-t target-session]
(alias: lsc)
List all clients attached to the server. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
If target-session is specified, list only clients connected to that session.
list-commands [-F format]
(alias: lscm)
List the syntax of all commands supported by tmux.
list-sessions [-F format]
(alias: ls)
List all sessions managed by the server. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
lock-client [-t target-client]
(alias: lockc)
Lock target-client, see the lock-server command.
lock-session [-t target-session]
(alias: locks)
Lock all clients attached to target-session.
new-session [-AdDEPX] [-c start-directory] [-F format] [-n window-name] [-s session-name] [-t group-name]
[-x width] [-y height] [shell-command]
(alias: new)
Create a new session with name session-name.
The new session is attached to the current terminal unless -d is given. window-name and
shell-command are the name of and shell command to execute in the initial window. With -d, the
initial size 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.
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.
refresh-client [-cDlLRSU] [-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 client and -F sets a comma-separated list of flags.
Currently the only flag available is ‘no-output’ to disable receiving pane output.
-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 client messages or server information. Any messages displayed on the status line are saved in
a per-client message log, up to a maximum of the limit set by the message-limit server option.
With -t, display the log for target-client. -J and -T show debugging information about jobs and
terminals.
source-file [-nqv] path ...
(alias: source)
Execute commands from one or more files specified by path (which may be glob(7) patterns). 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.
suspend-client [-t target-client]
(alias: suspendc)
Suspend a client by sending SIGTSTP (tty stop).
switch-client [-Elnpr] [-c target-client] [-t target-session] [-T key-table]
(alias: switchc)
Switch the current session for client target-client to target-session. As a special case, -t may
refer to a pane (a target that contains ‘:’, ‘.’ or ‘%’), in which case the session, window and
pane are all changed. 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).
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
WINDOWS AND PANES
A tmux window may be in one of two modes. The default permits direct access to the terminal attached to
the window. The other is copy mode, which permits a section of a window or its history to be copied to a
paste buffer for later insertion into another window. This mode is entered with the copy-mode command,
bound to ‘[’ by default. It is also entered when a command that produces output, such as list-keys, is
executed from a key binding.
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>] D C-k
copy-line [<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-left h Left
cursor-right l Right
cursor-up k Up
end-of-line $ C-e
goto-line <line> : g
halfpage-down C-d M-Down
halfpage-down-and-cancel
halfpage-up C-u M-Up
history-bottom G M->
history-top g M-<
jump-again ; ;
jump-backward <to> F F
jump-forward <to> f f
jump-reverse , ,
jump-to-backward <to> T
jump-to-forward <to> t
middle-line M M-r
next-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
previous-matching-bracket M-C-b
previous-paragraph { M-{
previous-space B
previous-word b M-b
rectangle-toggle v R
scroll-down C-e C-Down
scroll-down-and-cancel
scroll-up C-y C-Up
search-again n n
search-backward <for> ?
search-forward <for> /
search-backward-incremental <for> C-r
search-forward-incremental <for> C-s
search-reverse N N
select-line V
select-word
start-of-line 0 C-a
stop-selection
top-line H M-R
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 copied text is piped. 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 use space and the ‘-’, ‘_’ and ‘@’ characters as word delimiters by
default, but this can be adjusted by setting the word-separators session option. Next word moves to the
start of the next word, next word end to the end of the next word and previous word to the start of the
previous word. The three next and previous space keys work similarly but use a space alone as the word
separator.
The jump commands enable quick movement within a line. For instance, typing ‘f’ followed by ‘/’ will move
the cursor to the next ‘/’ character on the current line. A ‘;’ will then jump to the next occurrence.
Commands in copy mode may be prefaced by an optional repeat count. With vi key bindings, a prefix is
entered using the number keys; with emacs, the Alt (meta) key and a number begins prefix entry.
The synopsis for the copy-mode command is:
copy-mode [-Meu] [-t target-pane]
Enter copy mode. The -u option scrolls one page up. -M begins a mouse drag (only valid if bound
to a mouse key binding, see MOUSE SUPPORT). -e 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
Each window displayed by tmux may be split into one or more panes; each pane takes up a certain area of the
display and is a separate terminal. A window may be split into panes using the split-window command.
Windows may be split horizontally (with the -h flag) or vertically. Panes may be resized with the
resize-pane command (bound to ‘C-Up’, ‘C-Down’ ‘C-Left’ and ‘C-Right’ by default), the current pane may be
changed with the select-pane command and the rotate-window and swap-pane commands may be used to swap panes
without changing their position. Panes are numbered beginning from zero in the order they are created.
A number of preset layouts are available. These may be selected with the select-layout command or cycled
with next-layout (bound to ‘Space’ by default); once a layout is chosen, panes within it may be moved and
resized as normal.
The following layouts are supported:
even-horizontal
Panes are spread out evenly from left to right across the window.
even-vertical
Panes are spread evenly from top to bottom.
main-horizontal
A large (main) pane is shown at the top of the window and the remaining panes are spread from left
to right in the leftover space at the bottom. Use the main-pane-height window option to specify
the height of the top pane.
main-vertical
Similar to main-horizontal but the large pane is placed on the left and the others spread from top
to bottom along the right. See the main-pane-width window option.
tiled Panes are spread out as evenly as possible over the window in both rows and columns.
In addition, select-layout may be used to apply a previously used layout - the list-windows command
displays the layout of each window in a form suitable for use with select-layout. For example:
$ tmux list-windows
0: ksh [159x48]
layout: bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
$ tmux select-layout bb62,159x48,0,0{79x48,0,0,79x48,80,0}
tmux automatically adjusts the size of the layout for the current window size. Note that a layout cannot
be applied to a window with more panes than that from which the layout was originally defined.
Commands related to windows and panes are as follows:
break-pane [-dP] [-F format] [-n window-name] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-window]
(alias: breakp)
Break src-pane off from its containing window to make it the only pane in dst-window. If -d is
given, the new window does not become the current 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 [-aepPqCJ] [-b buffer-name] [-E end-line] [-S start-line] [-t target-pane]
(alias: capturep)
Capture the contents of a pane. If -p is given, the output goes to stdout, otherwise to the buffer
specified with -b or a new buffer if omitted. If -a is given, the alternate screen is used, and
the history is not accessible. If no alternate screen exists, an error will be returned unless -q
is given. If -e is given, the output includes escape sequences for text and background attributes.
-C also escapes non-printable characters as octal \xxx. -J joins wrapped lines and preserves
trailing spaces at each line's end. -P captures only any output that the pane has received that is
the beginning of an as-yet incomplete escape sequence.
-S and -E specify the starting and ending line numbers, zero is the first line of the visible pane
and negative numbers are lines in the history. ‘-’ to -S is the start of the history and to -E the
end of the visible pane. The default is to capture only the visible contents of the pane.
choose-client [-NZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-O sort-order] [-t target-pane] [template]
Put a pane into client mode, allowing a client to be selected interactively from a list. -Z zooms
the pane. The following keys may be used in client mode:
Key Function
Enter Choose selected client
Up Select previous client
Down Select next client
C-s Search by name
n Repeat last search
t Toggle if client is tagged
T Tag no clients
C-t Tag all clients
d Detach selected client
D Detach tagged clients
x Detach and HUP selected client
X Detach and HUP tagged clients
z Suspend selected client
Z Suspend tagged clients
f Enter a format to filter items
O Change sort order
v Toggle preview
q Exit mode
After a client is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the client name in template and the result executed
as a command. If template is not given, "detach-client -t '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of ‘name’, ‘size’, ‘creation’, or ‘activity’. -f
specifies an initial filter: the filter is a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list
is not shown, otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is ignored. -F
specifies the format for each item in the list. -N starts without the preview. This command works
only if at least one client is attached.
choose-tree [-GNswZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-O sort-order] [-t target-pane] [template]
Put a pane into tree mode, where a session, window or pane may be chosen interactively from a list.
-s starts with sessions collapsed and -w with windows collapsed. -Z zooms the pane. The following
keys may be used in tree mode:
Key Function
Enter Choose selected item
Up Select previous item
Down Select next item
x Kill selected item
X Kill tagged items
< Scroll list of previews left
> Scroll list of previews right
C-s Search by name
n Repeat last search
t Toggle if item is tagged
T Tag no items
C-t Tag all items
: Run a command for each tagged item
f Enter a format to filter items
O Change sort order
v Toggle preview
q Exit mode
After a session, window or pane is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the target in template and the
result executed as a command. If template is not given, "switch-client -t '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of ‘index’, ‘name’, or ‘time’. -f specifies an initial
filter: the filter is a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list is not shown,
otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is ignored. -F specifies the
format for each item in the tree. -N starts without the preview. -G includes all sessions in any
session groups in the tree rather than only the first. This command works only if at least one
client is attached.
display-panes [-b] [-d duration] [-t target-client] [template]
(alias: displayp)
Display a visible indicator of each pane shown by target-client. See the display-panes-colour and
display-panes-active-colour session options. The indicator is closed when a key is pressed or
duration milliseconds have passed. If -d is not given, display-panes-time is used. A duration of
zero means the indicator stays until a key is pressed. While the indicator is on screen, a pane
may be chosen with the ‘0’ to ‘9’ keys, which will cause template to be executed as a command with
‘%%’ substituted by the pane ID. The default template is "select-pane -t '%%'". With -b, other
commands are not blocked from running until the indicator is closed.
find-window [-rCNTZ] [-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.
The default is -CNT. -Z zooms the pane.
This command works only if at least one client is attached.
join-pane [-bdhv] [-l size | -p percentage] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: joinp)
Like split-window, but instead of splitting dst-pane and creating a new pane, split it and move
src-pane into the space. This can be used to reverse break-pane. The -b option causes src-pane to
be joined to left of or above dst-pane.
If -s is omitted and a marked pane is present (see select-pane -m), the marked pane is used rather
than the current pane.
kill-pane [-a] [-t target-pane]
(alias: killp)
Destroy the given pane. If no panes remain in the containing window, it is also destroyed. The -a
option kills all but the pane given with -t.
kill-window [-a] [-t target-window]
(alias: killw)
Kill the current window or the window at target-window, removing it from any sessions to which it
is linked. The -a option kills all but the window given with -t.
last-pane [-de] [-t target-window]
(alias: lastp)
Select the last (previously selected) pane. -e enables or -d disables input to the pane.
last-window [-t target-session]
(alias: last)
Select the last (previously selected) window. If no target-session is specified, select the last
window of the current session.
link-window [-adk] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: linkw)
Link the window at src-window to the specified dst-window. If dst-window is specified and no such
window exists, the src-window is linked there. With -a, the window is moved to the next index up
(following windows are moved if necessary). If -k is given and dst-window exists, it is killed,
otherwise an error is generated. If -d is given, the newly linked window is not selected.
list-panes [-as] [-F format] [-t target]
(alias: lsp)
If -a is given, target is ignored and all panes on the server are listed. If -s is given, target
is a session (or the current session). If neither is given, target is a window (or the current
window). For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
list-windows [-a] [-F format] [-t target-session]
(alias: lsw)
If -a is given, list all windows on the server. Otherwise, list windows in the current session or
in target-session. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
move-pane [-bdhv] [-l size | -p percentage] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: movep)
Like join-pane, but src-pane and dst-pane may belong to the same window.
move-window [-ardk] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: movew)
This is similar to link-window, except the window at src-window is moved to dst-window. With -r,
all windows in the session are renumbered in sequential order, respecting the base-index option.
new-window [-adkP] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-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.
-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 [-DLMRUZ] [-t target-pane] [-x width] [-y height] [adjustment]
(alias: resizep)
Resize a pane, up, down, left or right by adjustment with -U, -D, -L or -R, or to an absolute size
with -x or -y. The adjustment is given in lines or cells (the default is 1).
With -Z, the active pane is toggled between zoomed (occupying the whole of the window) and unzoomed
(its normal position in the layout).
-M begins mouse resizing (only valid if bound to a mouse key binding, see MOUSE SUPPORT).
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 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 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 [-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 [-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 [-DdeLlMmRU] [-T title] [-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. -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,
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 [-bdfhIvP] [-c start-directory] [-e environment] [-l size | -p percentage] [-t target-pane]
[shell-command] [-F format]
(alias: splitw)
Create a new pane by splitting target-pane: -h does a horizontal split and -v a vertical split; if
neither is specified, -v is assumed. The -l and -p options specify the size of the new pane in
lines (for vertical split) or in cells (for horizontal split), or as a percentage, respectively.
The -b option causes the new pane to be created to the left of or above target-pane. The -f option
creates a new pane spanning the full window height (with -h) or full window width (with -v),
instead of splitting the active pane.
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 [-dDU] [-s src-pane] [-t dst-pane]
(alias: swapp)
Swap two panes. If -U is used and no source pane is specified with -s, dst-pane is swapped with
the previous pane (before it numerically); -D swaps with the next pane (after it numerically). -d
instructs tmux not to change the active pane.
If -s is omitted and a marked pane is present (see select-pane -m), the marked pane is used rather
than the current pane.
swap-window [-d] [-s src-window] [-t dst-window]
(alias: swapw)
This is similar to link-window, except the source and destination windows are swapped. It is an
error if no window exists at src-window.
Like swap-pane, if -s is omitted and a marked pane is present (see select-pane -m), the window
containing the marked pane is used rather than the current window.
unlink-window [-k] [-t target-window]
(alias: unlinkw)
Unlink target-window. Unless -k is given, a window may be unlinked only if it is linked to
multiple sessions - windows may not be linked to no sessions; if -k is specified and the window is
linked to only one session, it is unlinked and destroyed.
KEY BINDINGS
tmux allows a command to be bound to most keys, with or without a prefix key. When specifying keys, most
represent themselves (for example ‘A’ to ‘Z’). Ctrl keys may be prefixed with ‘C-’ or ‘^’, and Alt (meta)
with ‘M-’. In addition, the following special key names are accepted: Up, Down, Left, Right, BSpace, BTab,
DC (Delete), End, Enter, Escape, F1 to F12, Home, IC (Insert), NPage/PageDown/PgDn, PPage/PageUp/PgUp,
Space, and Tab. Note that to bind the ‘"’ or ‘'’ keys, quotation marks are necessary, for example:
bind-key '"' split-window
bind-key "'" new-window
Commands related to key bindings are as follows:
bind-key [-nr] [-T key-table] key command [arguments]
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to command. Keys are bound in a key table. By default (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.
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 all key tables are printed. With -T only key-table.
send-keys [-HlMRX] [-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.
send-prefix [-2] [-t target-pane]
Send the prefix key, or with -2 the secondary prefix key, to a window as if it was pressed.
unbind-key [-an] [-T key-table] key
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the command bound to key. -n and -T are the same as for bind-key. If -a is present, all
key bindings are removed.
OPTIONS
The appearance and behaviour of tmux may be modified by changing the value of 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 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 setw -q @foo "abc123"
$ tmux showw -v @foo
abc123
Commands which set options are as follows:
set-option [-aFgopqsuw] [-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).
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. value depends on the option and may be a number, a string, or
a flag (on, off, or omitted to toggle).
Available server options are:
buffer-limit number
Set the number of buffers; as new buffers are added to the top of the stack, old ones are removed
from the bottom if necessary to maintain this maximum length.
command-alias[] name=value
This is an array of custom aliases for commands. If an unknown 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.
escape-time time
Set the time in milliseconds for which tmux waits after an escape is input to determine if it is
part of a function or meta key sequences. The default is 500 milliseconds.
exit-empty [on | off]
If enabled (the default), the server will exit when there are no active sessions.
exit-unattached [on | off]
If enabled, the server will exit when there are no attached clients.
focus-events [on | off]
When enabled, focus events are requested from the terminal if 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. The
default is 100.
set-clipboard [on | external | off]
Attempt to set the terminal clipboard content using the xterm(1) escape sequence, if there is an Ms
entry in the terminfo(5) 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-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 [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.
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. For how to specify style, see the STYLES section.
message-style style
Set status line message style. 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]
Set the position of the window list component of the status line: left, centre or right justified.
status-keys [vi | emacs]
Use vi or emacs-style key bindings in the status line, for example at the command prompt. The
default is emacs, unless the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables are set and contain the string
‘vi’.
status-left string
Display string (by default the session name) to the left of the 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. The default is ‘ -_@’.
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.
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.
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-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.
synchronize-panes [on | off]
Duplicate input to any pane to all other panes in the same window (only for panes that are not in
any special mode).
window-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
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. 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.
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.
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.
remain-on-exit [on | off]
A pane with this flag set is not destroyed when the program running in it exits. The pane may be
reactivated with the respawn-pane command.
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.
HOOKS
tmux allows commands to run on various triggers, called hooks. Most tmux commands have an after hook and
there are a number of hooks not associated with commands.
Hooks are stored as array options, members of the array are executed in order when the hook is triggered.
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-attached Run when a client is attached.
client-detached Run when a client is detached
client-resized Run when a client is resized.
client-session-changed Run when a client's attached session is changed.
pane-died Run when the program running in a pane exits, but remain-on-exit is on so the pane
has not closed.
pane-exited Run when the program running in a pane exits.
pane-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 [-agRu] [-t target-session] hook-name command
Without -R, sets (or with -u unsets) hook hook-name to command. If -g is given, hook-name is added
to the global list of hooks, otherwise it is added to the session hooks (for target-session with
-t). -a appends to a hook. Like options, session hooks inherit from the global ones.
With -R, run hook-name immediately.
show-hooks [-g] [-t target-session]
Shows the global list of hooks with -g, otherwise the session hooks.
MOUSE SUPPORT
If the mouse option is on (the default is off), tmux allows mouse events to be bound as keys. The name of
each key is made up of a mouse event (such as ‘MouseUp1’) and a location suffix, one of 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
DoubleClick1 DoubleClick2 DoubleClick3
TripleClick1 TripleClick2 TripleClick3
Each should be suffixed with a location, for example ‘MouseDown1Status’.
The special token ‘{mouse}’ or ‘=’ may be used as target-window or target-pane in commands bound to mouse
key bindings. It resolves to the window or pane over which the mouse event took place (for example, the
window in the status line over which button 1 was released for a ‘MouseUp1Status’ binding, or the pane over
which the wheel was scrolled for a ‘WheelDownPane’ binding).
The send-keys -M flag may be used to forward a mouse event to a pane.
The default key bindings allow the mouse to be used to select and resize panes, to copy text and to change
window using the status line. These take effect if the mouse option is turned on.
FORMATS
Certain commands accept the -F flag with a format argument. This is a string which controls the output
format of the command. 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 third 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}’
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.
Prefixing a time variable with ‘t:’ will convert it to a string, so if ‘#{window_activity}’ gives
‘1445765102’, ‘#{t:window_activity}’ gives ‘Sun Oct 25 09:25:02 2015’. The ‘b:’ and ‘d:’ prefixes are
basename(3) and dirname(3) of the variable respectively. ‘q:’ will escape sh(1) special characters. ‘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} }
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
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_control_mode 1 if client is in control mode
client_created Time client created
client_discarded Bytes discarded when client behind
client_height Height of client
client_key_table Current key table
client_last_session Name of the client's last session
client_name Name of client
client_pid PID of client process
client_prefix 1 if prefix key has been pressed
client_readonly 1 if client is readonly
client_session Name of the client's session
client_termname Terminal name of client
client_termtype Terminal type of client
client_tty Pseudo terminal of client
client_utf8 1 if client supports utf8
client_width Width of client
client_written Bytes written to client
command Name of command in use, if any
command_list_alias Command alias if listing commands
command_list_name Command name if listing commands
command_list_usage Command usage if listing commands
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_pane ID of pane where hook was run, if any
hook_session ID of session where hook was run, if any
hook_session_name Name of session where hook was run, if any
hook_window ID of window where hook was run, if any
hook_window_name Name of window where hook was run, if any
host #H Hostname of local host
host_short #h Hostname of local host (no domain name)
insert_flag Pane insert flag
keypad_cursor_flag Pane keypad cursor flag
keypad_flag Pane keypad flag
line Line number in the list
mouse_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_bottom Bottom of pane
pane_current_command Current command if available
pane_current_path Current path if available
pane_dead 1 if pane is dead
pane_dead_status Exit status of process in dead pane
pane_format 1 if format is for a pane (not assuming the current)
pane_height Height of pane
pane_id #D Unique pane ID
pane_in_mode 1 if pane is in a mode
pane_index #P Index of pane
pane_input_off 1 if input to pane is disabled
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_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
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
selection_present 1 if selection started in copy mode
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_created Time session created
session_format 1 if format is for a session (not assuming the current)
session_group Name of session group
session_group_list List of 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_name #S Name 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_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_end_flag 1 if window has the highest index
window_flags #F Window flags
window_format 1 if format is for a window (not assuming the current)
window_height Height of window
window_id Unique window ID
window_index #I Index of window
window_last_flag 1 if window is the last used
window_layout Window layout description, ignoring zoomed window panes
window_linked 1 if window is linked across sessions
window_name #W Name of window
window_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
STYLES
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-format, by enclosing them in ‘#[’ and ‘]’.
A style may be the single term ‘default’ to specify the default style (which may inherit from another
option) 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).
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.
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.
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
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 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.
GLOBAL AND SESSION 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 [-gs] [-t target-session] [variable]
(alias: showenv)
Display the environment for target-session or the global environment with -g. If variable is
omitted, all variables are shown. Variables removed from the environment are prefixed with ‘-’.
If -s is used, the output is formatted as a set of Bourne shell commands.
STATUS LINE
tmux includes an optional status line which is displayed in the bottom line of each terminal.
By default, the status line is enabled 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:
command-prompt [-1Ni] [-I inputs] [-p prompts] [-t target-client] [template]
Open the command prompt in a client. This may be used from inside tmux to execute commands
interactively.
If template is specified, it is used as the command. If present, -I is a comma-separated list of
the initial text for each prompt. If -p is given, prompts is a comma-separated list of prompts
which are displayed in order; otherwise a single prompt is displayed, constructed from template if
it is present, or ‘:’ if not.
Before the command is executed, the first occurrence of the string ‘%%’ and all occurrences of ‘%1’
are replaced by the response to the first prompt, all ‘%2’ are replaced with the response to the
second prompt, and so on for further prompts. Up to nine prompt responses may be replaced (‘%1’ to
‘%9’). ‘%%%’ is like ‘%%’ but any quotation marks are escaped.
-1 makes the prompt only accept one key press, in this case the resulting input is a single
character. -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.
The following keys have a special meaning in the command prompt, depending on the value of the
status-keys option:
Function vi emacs
Cancel command prompt Escape Escape
Delete 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
confirm-before [-p prompt] [-t target-client] command
(alias: confirm)
Ask for confirmation before executing command. If -p is given, prompt is the prompt to display;
otherwise a prompt is constructed from command. It may contain the special character sequences
supported by the status-left option.
This command works only from inside tmux.
display-menu [-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
R -x The right side of the terminal
P Both The bottom left of the pane
M Both The mouse position
W -x The window position on the status line
S -y The line above or below the status line
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 will choose that 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 [-aIpv] [-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.
-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.
BUFFERS
tmux maintains a set of named paste buffers. Each buffer may be either explicitly or automatically named.
Explicitly named buffers are named when created with the set-buffer or load-buffer commands, or by renaming
an automatically named buffer with set-buffer -n. Automatically named buffers are given a name such as
‘buffer0001’, ‘buffer0002’ and so on. When the buffer-limit option is reached, the oldest automatically
named buffer is deleted. Explicitly named buffers are not subject to buffer-limit and may be deleted with
delete-buffer command.
Buffers may be added using copy-mode or the set-buffer and load-buffer commands, and pasted into a window
using the paste-buffer command. If a buffer command is used and no buffer is specified, the most recently
added automatically named buffer is assumed.
A configurable history buffer is also maintained for each window. By default, up to 2000 lines are kept;
this can be altered with the history-limit option (see the set-option command above).
The buffer commands are as follows:
choose-buffer [-NZ] [-F format] [-f filter] [-O sort-order] [-t target-pane] [template]
Put a pane into buffer mode, where a buffer may be chosen interactively from a list. -Z zooms the
pane. The following keys may be used in buffer mode:
Key Function
Enter Paste selected buffer
Up Select previous buffer
Down Select next buffer
C-s Search by name or content
n Repeat last search
t Toggle if buffer is tagged
T Tag no buffers
C-t Tag all buffers
p Paste selected buffer
P Paste tagged buffers
d Delete selected buffer
D Delete tagged buffers
f Enter a format to filter items
O Change sort order
v Toggle preview
q Exit mode
After a buffer is chosen, ‘%%’ is replaced by the buffer name in template and the result executed
as a command. If template is not given, "paste-buffer -b '%%'" is used.
-O specifies the initial sort order: one of ‘time’, ‘name’ or ‘size’. -f specifies an initial
filter: the filter is a format - if it evaluates to zero, the item in the list is not shown,
otherwise it is shown. If a filter would lead to an empty list, it is ignored. -F specifies the
format for each item in the list. -N starts without the preview. This command works only if at
least one client is attached.
clear-history [-t target-pane]
(alias: clearhist)
Remove and free the history for the specified pane.
delete-buffer [-b buffer-name]
(alias: deleteb)
Delete the buffer named buffer-name, or the most recently added automatically named buffer if not
specified.
list-buffers [-F format]
(alias: lsb)
List the global buffers. For the meaning of the -F flag, see the FORMATS section.
load-buffer [-b buffer-name] path
(alias: loadb)
Load the contents of the specified paste buffer from path.
paste-buffer [-dpr] [-b buffer-name] [-s separator] [-t target-pane]
(alias: pasteb)
Insert the contents of a paste buffer into the specified pane. If not 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 [-a] [-b buffer-name] [-n new-buffer-name] data
(alias: setb)
Set the contents of the specified buffer to data. The -a option appends to rather than overwriting
the buffer. The -n option renames the buffer to new-buffer-name.
show-buffer [-b buffer-name]
(alias: showb)
Display the contents of the specified buffer.
MISCELLANEOUS
Miscellaneous commands are as follows:
clock-mode [-t target-pane]
Display a large clock.
if-shell [-bF] [-t target-pane] shell-command command [command]
(alias: if)
Execute the first command if shell-command returns success or the second command otherwise. Before
being executed, shell-command is expanded using the rules specified in the FORMATS section,
including those relevant to target-pane. With -b, shell-command is run in the background.
If -F is given, shell-command is not executed but considered success if 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 [-b] [-t target-pane] shell-command
(alias: run)
Execute shell-command in the background without creating a window. Before being executed, shell-
command is expanded using the rules specified in the FORMATS section. With -b, the command is run
in the background. After it finishes, any output to stdout is displayed in copy mode (in the pane
specified by -t or the current pane if omitted). If the command doesn't return success, the exit
status is also displayed.
wait-for [-L | -S | -U] channel
(alias: wait)
When used without options, prevents the client from exiting until woken using wait-for -S with the
same channel. When -L is used, the channel is locked and any clients that try to lock the same
channel are made to wait until the channel is unlocked with wait-for -U.
TERMINFO EXTENSIONS
tmux understands some unofficial extensions to terminfo(5):
Cs, Cr Set the cursor colour. The first takes a single string argument and is used to set the colour; the
second takes no arguments and restores the default cursor colour. If set, a sequence such as this
may be used to change the cursor colour from inside tmux:
$ printf '\033]12;red\033\\'
Smol Enable the overline attribute. The capability is usually SGR 53 and can be added to
terminal-overrides as:
Smol=\E[53m
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. The capability can typically be added to terminal-overrides as:
Smulx=\E[4::%p1%dm
Setulc Set the underscore colour. The argument is (red * 65536) + (green * 256) + blue where each is
between 0 and 255. The capability can typically be added to terminal-overrides as:
Setulc=\E[58::2::%p1%{65536}%/%d::%p1%{256}%/%{255}%&%d::%p1%{255}%&%d%;m
Ss, Se Set or reset the cursor style. If set, a sequence such as this may be used to change the cursor to
an underline:
$ printf '\033[4 q'
If Se is not set, Ss with argument 0 will be used to reset the cursor style instead.
Tc Indicate that the terminal supports the ‘direct colour’ RGB escape sequence (for example,
\e[38;2;255;255;255m).
If supported, this is used for the initialize colour escape sequence (which may be enabled by
adding the ‘initc’ and ‘ccc’ capabilities to the tmux terminfo(5) entry).
Ms Store the current buffer in the host terminal's selection (clipboard). See the set-clipboard
option above and the xterm(1) man page.
CONTROL MODE
tmux offers a textual interface called control mode. This allows applications to communicate with tmux
using a simple text-only protocol.
In control mode, a client sends tmux commands or command sequences terminated by newlines on standard
input. Each command will produce one block of output on standard output. An output block consists of a
%begin line followed by the output (which may be empty). The output block ends with a %end or %error.
%begin and matching %end or %error have two arguments: an integer time (as seconds from epoch) and command
number. For example:
%begin 1363006971 2
0: ksh* (1 panes) [80x24] [layout b25f,80x24,0,0,2] @2 (active)
%end 1363006971 2
The refresh-client -C command may be used to set the size of a client in control mode.
In control mode, tmux outputs notifications. A notification will never occur inside an output block.
The following notifications are defined:
%client-session-changed client session-id name
The client is now attached to the session with ID session-id, which is named name.
%exit [reason]
The tmux client is exiting immediately, either because it is not attached to any session or an
error occurred. If present, reason describes why the client exited.
%layout-change window-id window-layout window-visible-layout window-flags
The layout of a window with ID window-id changed. The new layout is window-layout. The window's
visible layout is window-visible-layout and the window flags are window-flags.
%output pane-id value
A window pane produced output. value escapes non-printable characters and backslash as octal \xxx.
%pane-mode-changed pane-id
The pane with ID pane-id has changed mode.
%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.
%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.
ENVIRONMENT
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.
FILES
~/.tmux.conf Default tmux configuration file.
/etc/tmux.conf System-wide configuration file.
EXAMPLES
To create a new tmux session running vi(1):
$ tmux new-session vi
Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For new-session, this is new:
$ tmux new vi
Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is accepted. If there are several options, they
are listed:
$ tmux n
ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing ‘C-b c’ (Ctrl followed by the ‘b’ key
followed by the ‘c’ key).
Windows may be navigated with: ‘C-b 0’ (to select window 0), ‘C-b 1’ (to select window 1), and so on; ‘C-b
n’ to select the next window; and ‘C-b p’ to select the previous window.
A session may be detached using ‘C-b d’ (or by an external event such as ssh(1) disconnection) and
reattached with:
$ tmux attach-session
Typing ‘C-b ?’ lists the current key bindings in the current window; up and down may be used to navigate
the list or ‘q’ to exit from it.
Commands to be run when the tmux server is started may be placed in the ~/.tmux.conf configuration file.
Common examples include:
Changing the default prefix key:
set-option -g prefix C-a
unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a send-prefix
Turning the status line off, or changing its colour:
set-option -g status off
set-option -g status-style bg=blue
Setting other options, such as the default command, or locking after 30 minutes of inactivity:
set-option -g default-command "exec /bin/ksh"
set-option -g lock-after-time 1800
Creating new key bindings:
bind-key b set-option status
bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
bind-key S command-prompt "new-window -n %1 'ssh %1'"
SEE ALSO
pty(4)
AUTHORS
Nicholas Marriott <nicholas.marriott@gmail.com>