Crash course in Tmux
This is focused on getting a beginner quickly started with a shared tmux session.
Starting/Attaching tmux
Start a new session by running tmux alone.
$ tmux
Or a shared session.
$ tmux -S /tmp/shared.tmux
Attach to your default session.
$ tmux attach
Or attach to your shared session.
$ tmux -S /tmp/shared.tmux attach
Name your session.
$ tmux -S tmp/shared.tmux new-session -s mysession
Attach to named session.
$ tmux -S /tmp/shared.tmux attach -t mysession
List sessions.
$ tmux list-session
Share your session with others
Make the session file you specified with -S readable by a group. (Create the group first and add your users into it)
$ chgrp tmux /tmp/shared.tmux
Navigating tmux
Every command is prefixed by the prefix key which is ctrl-b by default. Shown here are default key bindings but you can also change them.
Exit tmux without killing it (detach)
This is probably the first thing you'll want to do.
- Prefix+d - d for detach.
Switch window
The windows are shown at the bottom numbered 0 to 9.
-
Prefix+n - Next window, cycle to the right.
-
Prefix+p - Previous window, cycle to the left.
Switch pane
The window might be split into panes, horizontally or vertically.
- Prefix+Arrow key - Move to the pane in the direction of the arrow key, up, down etc..
Zoom in on pane
- Prefix+z - Zooms in on the active pane. Again will zoom out. Or use another pane navigation command.
Tmux commands
To execute tmux commands you hit Prefix+: (colon) which starts the command prompt at the bottom of tmux, in the status bar.
Split window into pane
-
:splitw -v -p 50 - Split window vertically by 50%.
-
:splitw -h -p 50 - Split window horizontally by 50%.
Open new window
-
:neww - Open a new window.
-
:neww -n vim vim - You can also name a window with -n and execute a command in it as final argument.
Close a window
To close a window simply exit whatever is running in it, shell or program.
But you can also force a window closed.
- :killw - Kill the window.
Tips and tricks
That's it for the crash course but here are some tips from my own config.
Configure tmux in .tmux.conf
The default prefix key is awkwardly placed imo so I use Ctrl-f.
Put this into your ''$HOME/.tmux.conf'' file.
# Change prefix key to Ctrl-f
set-option -g prefix C-f
# Set window numbering starting at 1 instead of 0
set-option -g base-index 1
# Make active window more visible
set-window-option -g window-status-current-bg red
# Terminal history
set -g history-limit 9001