tmux.conf excerpt to toggle on/off session keybindings and prefix handling

toggle_keybindings.tmux.conf

bind -T root F12  \
  set prefix None \;\
  set key-table off \;\
  set status-style "fg=$color_status_text,bg=$color_window_off_status_bg" \;\
  set window-status-current-format "#[fg=$color_window_off_status_bg,bg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg]$separator_powerline_right#[default] #I:#W# #[fg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg,bg=$color_window_off_status_bg]$separator_powerline_right#[default]" \;\
  set window-status-current-style "fg=$color_dark,bold,bg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg" \;\
  if -F '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -X cancel' \;\
  refresh-client -S \;\

bind -T off F12 \
  set -u prefix \;\
  set -u key-table \;\
  set -u status-style \;\
  set -u window-status-current-style \;\
  set -u window-status-current-format \;\
  refresh-client -S
  
wg_is_keys_off="#[fg=$color_light,bg=$color_window_off_indicator]#([ $(tmux show-option -qv key-table) = 'off' ] && echo 'OFF')#[default]"

set -g status-right "$wg_is_keys_off #{sysstat_cpu} | #{sysstat_mem} | #{sysstat_loadavg} | $wg_user_host"

Hi,
I've got 2 sessions - (outer) s1 and inside there is (inner) s2.
When I press F10 (got toggle key bound to F10) on the keyboard it works as expected, but trying to do the same in the script ('tmux send -t s1 F10') disables not the outer, but the innser session (s2 instead of s1).

Here's terminal output:

$ tmux send -t s1 F10 (disables s2)
$ tmux send -t s2 F10 (echoes below)
^[[21~%)

Any ideas how to make it work?

This is a minimal configuration for OFF mode (tmux 3.0a):

# Activate OFF mode
bind -n M-o \
    set prefix None \;\
    set key-table off \;\
    set status-style "fg=colour245,bg=colour238"

# Disable OFF mode
bind -T off M-O \
    set -u prefix \;\
    set -u key-table \;\
    set -u status-style

• setting the status-style is enough for my liking
• removing the client refresh seems to still work just fine for some reason
• using a different keybind to enable and disable OFF mode means you can now technically go arbitrarily deep with the TMUX nesting

@niqodea

This is a minimal configuration for OFF mode (tmux 3.0a):

wow man, this minimal setup is so good. appreciate

Hey all, I just released tmux-nested, a plugin that takes inspiration from this gist to support arbitrary levels of nesting. Check it out, it might be of interest!

Folks interested in a shorter wg_is_keys_off might be interested in the following:

wg_is_keys_off="#{?#{==:#(tmux show-option -qv key-table),off},#[reverse]OFF,}"

I have 4-time nested tmux session (Because of my work, I have to ssh 3 time to move between networks).

Completely unrelated to tmux, but have you heard of the ProxyJump setting of OpenSSH, @Delt-A ?
For instance, if you have machines named Bastion, Firewall, and Gateway, and Devbox, you set it up ~/.ssh/config like this:

Host bastion
  Hostname bastion.mywork.com

Host firewall
  Hostname firewall.lan
  ProxyJump bastion

Host gateway
  Hostname gateway.inner
  ProxyJump bastion,firewall

Host devbox
  Hostname devbox.lan
  ProxyJump bastion,firewall,gateway

Now you should be able to connect any of these 4 hosts by name, just by typing ssh devbox or the like. I hope you have key-based authentication, so you won't have to type in your password 4 times. You can also override per-host port numbers or usernames, if needed.

If you need multiple sessions at the target machine, you could use tmux, or you could do SSH connection multiplexing. To enable, add this to ~/.ssh/config:

Host *
        ControlPath ~/.ssh/%C.sock
        ControlMaster auto
        ControlPersist 10m
        ServerAliveInterval 1
        ServerAliveCountMax 3

This plugin might be helpful too, it allows you to suspend the local Tmux session: https://github.com/MunifTanjim/tmux-suspend