An Introduction to tmux

Overview

Terminal multiplexer
Multiple terminals
Panes & windows
Maintains connections
Configurable
Easy to use!

Setup

Install tmux via package manager or download
Make ssh "keep alive" for all connections by adding this to ~/.ssh/config:

host *
  ServerAliveInternal 300
  ServerAliveCountMax 2

Session Control (command line)

$ tmux begins a new session
$ tmux ls lists available sessions
$ tmux attach attaches to a running session

The Prefix

Ctrl-b is the prefix combination. Press the Ctrl key AND the letter b at the same time. When inside a tmux session, the prefix is nearly always pressed before the shortcut key to trigger a command.

For example, to display a list of tmux commands, type: Ctrl-b ?

That means press Control and b together, release, then press ?

You can change the prefix, see the config section.

Window Control

Ctrl-b c creates a new window
Ctrl-b n next window
Ctrl-b p prior window
Ctrl-b w list windows

Pane Control

Ctrl-b " split pane horizontally
Ctrl-b % split pane vertically
Ctrl-b o next pane
Ctrl-b ; prior pane
Ctrl-b direction jump to pane
Ctrl-b Ctrl-o swap panes
Ctrl-b space arrange panes
Ctrl-b + direction change pane size
Ctrl-b ! pop a pane into a new window

Scrolling and copy/paste

Ctrl-b [ enter scroll mode
Ctrl-b esc exit scroll mode
Ctrl-space begin highlight for copy
Alt-w copy highlighted text
Ctrl-b ] paste text

Config Options

~/.tmux.conf is a plaintext file used by tmux for local config. If it doesn't exist, create it! This example config file shows some common options:

# set scroll history to 10,000 lines
set-option -g history-limit 10000

# modern encoding and colors
set -g utf8 on
set-window-option -g utf8 on
set -g default-terminal screen-256color

# unbind the prefix and bind it to Ctrl-a like screen
unbind C-b
set -g prefix C-a
bind C-a send-prefix

# use zsh instead of bash
set -g default-command /bin/zsh
set -g default-shell /bin/zsh

To reload your .tmux.conf within a tmux session, type: Ctrl-b : then source-file ~/.tmux.conf.

tmux has a lot of configuration options, here is advanced config example

Learning Resources

The official tmux website
The tmux man page is extensive. Read it in the terminal by typing the command man tmux
This youtube series by Jay LaCroix is a good introduction
This is another helpful introduction video for tmux
The Arch Linux tmux documentation goes deeper, covers advanced features
tmux - Productive Mouse-Free Development by Pragmatic Bookshelf is thorough introduction to tmux

License

Licensed under the FreeBSD (two clause) license.

dnmfarrell/tmux_introduction.md