TMUX - The Joy of Hack

There are times when I have to log into Linux systems that don’t have window managers. I have a single terminal window in which to work. With the help of tmux, I can have multiple virtual windows in my single window. Each window can be split into panes. I can also save sessions so that I can bring the environment back after I disconnect from the system and reconnect several days (or weeks or months) later. In this blog post I’ll share the most important tmux commands.

I don’t want to make a tmux tutorial. There are several really good ones out there (see below). Instead, what you see below is a cheatsheet for quick reference:

Starting

$ tmux
$ tmux new-session -s basic Create a session named basic
$ tmux new -s basic Create a session named basic

Sessions

__PREFIX__ d detach from our tmux session
$ tmux list-sessions or tmux ls List sessions
$ tmux attach Attach to our session
$ tmux new -s second_session -d Create a new session and detach it immediately
$ tmux attach -t second_session Attach to named session
$ tmux kill-session -t basic Kill session named basic
$ tmux new -s windows -n shell Create a session name “windows” and name the first window “shell”
__PREFIX__ s Select sessions. Use the right arrow to select specific windows
__PREFIX__ ( Switch to previous session
__PREFIX__ ) Switch to next session
__PREFIX__ $ Rename session

Windows

__PREFIX__ c Create a new window
__PREFIX__ , Rename window
__PREFIX__ n Next window
__PREFIX__ p Previous Window
__PREFIX__ 4 Go to window 4 (starting from 0)
__PREFIX__ f Find window by name
__PREFIX__ w Display a visual menu of window

Panes

__PREFIX__ % Split window vertically
__PREFIX__ " Split window horizontally
__PREFIX__ o Cycle through panes
__PREFIX__ UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT Move around the panes
__PREFIX__ Cntrl-UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT Resize pane. Repeatable
__PREFIX__ SPACE Cycle through default layouts
__PREFIX__ x Kill pane - useful if you can’t communicate with the process.

Command Mode

__PREFIX__ : Go into command mode
new-window -n processes "top" Create a new window named processes running top

Custom setups

tmux attach -t development Attach to session named development
tmux split-window -v -t development Split window in session named development
tmux new -s development -n machineOne -d Create session named development, name window machineOne and detach immediately
tmux send-keys -t development 'cd CocoaApps' C-m
tmux split-window -v -t development
tmux select-layout -t devlopment main-horizontal
tmux send-keys -t development:0.1 'emacs' C-m Open emacs in session devlopment, screen 0, window 1
tmux select-window -t development:1

Working with text

__PREFIX__ [ to enter copy mode, ESC to exit. Emacs bindings to select and copy. Vi mode also possible.

Workflow

__PREFIX__ z toggle pane zoom
: pipe-pane -o "log.txt" Toggle output piping to log.txt
: pipe-pane -o "cat >> ~/#W.log" \; display "Toggled logging to ~/#W.log" Toggle output piping to log.txt