Handy tmux settings

unbind-key -a
set -g prefix  C-b

# Auto scroll with mouse wheel or page up/down, but only if no other process took the screen (such as vi or less)
set -g mouse on
set -s set-clipboard off
bind -n PageUp         if-shell -F "#{alternate_on}" "send-keys PageUp" "copy-mode -e; send-keys PageUp"
bind -n PageDown       if-shell "test #{pane_in_mode} -gt 0 -o #{alternate_on} -gt 0" "send-keys PageDown"
bind -n WheelUpPane    if-shell -F "#{alternate_on}" "send-keys -M" "select-pane -t= \; copy-mode -e \; send-keys -M"
bind -n WheelDownPane  if-shell -F "#{alternate_on}" "send-keys -M" "select-pane -t= \;                 send-keys -M"

# Most commonly used combinations
bind c              new-window -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind d              detach-client
bind -n M-`         last-window
bind -n M-Left      previous-window
bind -n M-Right     next-window
bind PageUp         copy-mode -u

# Misc, useful mostly when changing tmux conf
bind ,              command-prompt -I "#W" "rename-window '%%'"
bind ':'            command-prompt
bind ?              list-keys
bind q              display-panes
bind r              source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display-message "Reloaded ~/.tmux.conf"
bind '~'            show-messages
bind -n C-S-Insert  kill-session -C                 # Clear alerts
bind t              clock-mode

#bind -n C-S-Home    send-keys 'cmatrix -u10' Enter  # Just for fun

# Pane splitting (I use this very rarely)
bind |              split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind -              split-window -v -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind !              break-pane

bind -n M-Up        select-pane -U
bind -n M-Down      select-pane -D
bind -n M-S-Up      select-pane -U
bind -n M-S-Down    select-pane -D
bind -n M-S-Left    select-pane -L
bind -n M-S-Right   select-pane -R

bind -n C-S-Up     resize-pane -U 2
bind -n C-S-Down   resize-pane -D 2
bind -n C-S-Left   resize-pane -L 2
bind -n C-S-Right  resize-pane -R 2

# Settings
set -g default-terminal screen-256color
set -g history-limit 100000
set -sg escape-time 0                       # Do away with esc/alt disambiguation
set -g visual-activity off
set -g status-keys vi
set -g base-index 1
set -g pane-base-index 1
set -g status-interval 60
setw -g alternate-screen on
setw -g xterm-keys on
set -gw xterm-keys on
setw -g mode-keys vi

# Minimalist status bar, current window highlighted, all others dim, git branch and uptime on bottom right
set -g allow-rename on
setw -g automatic-rename off
set -g set-titles off
setw -g monitor-activity on
setw -g aggressive-resize on
set -g status-justify left
set -g status-style none
set -g status-left ""
setw -g window-status-format '  #W  '
setw -g window-status-current-format '⊣ #W ⊢'
setw -g window-status-activity-style fg=red,bright
setw -g window-status-style fg=white,dim
setw -g window-status-current-style fg=green,bright
set -g status-right '#(/usr/bin/python3 ~/bin/shrinky.py tmux_status -p"#{pane_current_path}")'
# set -g status-right '#[fg=blue]#(uptime | egrep -o "up ([^,]+)")'
set -g status-right-length 30
#set -ga terminal-overrides ',xterm*:smcup@:rmcup@'

# Unicode delims:  ▏▕ «» ‹› ᚜᚛ ⁅⁆ ⊣⊢ ⸡⸠

This is my .tmux.conf.

Guiding principles:

• Minimal 1-line status bar, 3 colors used to indicate state of each window
  • bright: current window
  • dark red: some activity occurred in inactive window
  • dim: all other inactive windows
• Works the same on mac or linux (with a mac or PC keyboard), ie: keyboard keys ⌥ Option, Alt, or ⌘ Cmd can be used interchangeably (all referred to as the Meta key in tmux parlance)
• Meta + Left/Right moves between tmux windows
• Meta + Shift + Left/Right/Up/Down moves between panes (within same window)
• CTRL + Shift + Left/Right/Up/Down resizes panes

Make mouse work nicely with tmux on macOS:

Install tmux: brew install tmux

I use iTerm2 + tmux on macOS, with no UI tabs. It works great, including some nice mouse support.
I just start one tmux session, and use tmux windows exclusively. So, I configure iTerm2 in such a way that its own UI stuff get out of the way (at least on the Profile that I use for tmux).

This is roughly my setup in iTerm2 -> Preferences:

• -> Appearance -> check Hide scrollbars
• -> Profiles -> your profile -> Terminal tab:
  • Scrollback lines: 0 (this disables scrollback in iTerm2, we want tmux scrollback only)
  • check Save lines to scrollback in alternate screen mode
  • check Enable mouse reporting
  • uncheck Report mouse click and drags (unless you do want clicks passed through too, in that case you'll have to ⌥+click to select text to copy to clipboard)
• -> Profiles -> your profile -> Keys tab -> select +Esc for left/right ⌥ option key behavior
• You can use my linux-like keymap for iTerm2

With a tmux.conf similar to mine, you should now be able to scroll using the mouse wheel in tmux (but no scrolling history outside of tmux)

Starting tmux with a default set of tabs

You can easily start tmux with a predefined set of tabs open, with names and current working directory set... I use this for example:

• in iTerm2 -> Profiles -> your profile -> Send text at start -> /bin/bash ~/bin/start-tmux
• ~/bin/start-tmux example shown below

#!/bin/bash

[ ! -x "$(command -v tmux)" ] && echo "tmux not installed" && exit 1
[ -n "$TMUX" ] && echo "already in tmux" && exit 1

if ! tmux has-session -t main 2>/dev/null; then
  tmux new-session -d -s main -n first-window
  tmux new-window -n second-window -c ~/
  tmux new-window -n third-window -c ~/
fi
tmux attach-session -t main