TMUX(1) General Commands Manual TMUX(1)

tmux —
terminal multiplexer

tmux [-vV] [-S socket-path] command [arguments]

tmux is a terminal multiplexer; it enables a number of terminals (or windows) to be accessed and controlled from a single terminal.

tmux runs as a server-client system. A server is created automatically when necessary and holds a number of sessions, each of which may have a number of windows linked to it. Any number of clients may connect to a session, or the server may be controlled by issuing commands with tmux. Communication takes place through a socket, by default placed in /tmp.

The options are as follows:

socket-path
Specify an alternative path to the server socket. The default is /tmp/tmux-UID, where UID is the uid of the user who invoked tmux.
Request verbose logging. This option may be specified multiple times for increasing verbosity. Log messages will be saved into tmux-client-PID.log and tmux-server-PID.log files in the current directory, where PID is the pid of the server or client process.
command [arguments]
This specifies one of a set of commands used to control tmux, and described in the following sections.

To create a new tmux session running vi(1):

$ tmux new-session vi

Most commands have a shorter form, known as an alias. For new-session, this is new:

$ tmux new vi

Alternatively, the shortest unambiguous form of a command is accepted. If there are several options, they are listed:

$ tmux n
ambiguous command: n, could be: new-session, new-window, next-window
$

Within an active session, a new window may be created by typing ‘^B’ (ctrl-B, known as the prefix key) followed by the ‘c’ key.

Windows may be navigated with: ‘^B 0’ (to select window 0), ‘^B 1’ (to select window 1), and so on; ‘^B n’ to select the next window; and ‘^B p’ to select the previous window.

A session may be detached using ‘^B d’ and reattached with:

$ tmux attach-session

Typing ‘^B ?’ lists the current key bindings in the current window; up and down may be used to navigate the list or ‘Q’ to exit from it.

tmux may be controlled from an attached client by using a key combination of a prefix, ‘^B’ (ctrl-B) by default, followed by a command key.

Some of the default key bindings include:

‘d’
Detach current client.
‘c’
Create new window.
‘n’
Change to next window in the current session.
‘p’
Change to previous window in the current session.
‘l’
Move to last (previously selected) window in the current session.
‘?’
List current key bindings.

A complete list may be obtained with the list-keys command (bound to ‘?’ by default). Key bindings may be changed with the bind-key and unbind-key commands.

tmux maintains a configurable history buffer for each window. By default, up to 2000 lines are kept, this can be altered with the history-limit option (see the set-option command below).

A tmux window may be in one of several modes. The default permits direct access to the terminal attached to the window. The others are:
output mode
This is entered when a command which produces output, such as list-keys, is executed from a key binding. The ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘page-up’ and ‘page-down’ keys or vi(1) style ‘j’, ‘k’, keys may be used to scroll the output up and down. The ‘q’ key will exit output mode.
scroll mode
This is entered with the scroll-mode command (bound to ‘=’ by default) and permits the window history buffer to be inspected. In addition to the commands supported by output mode, the left and right arrow keys, or ‘h’ and ‘l’, will scroll left and right.
copy mode
This is permits a section of a window or its history to be copied to the paste buffer for later insertion into another window. The navigation keys move the cursor around the window, scrolling as necessary. In addition, ‘^A’ and ‘^E’ move to the start and end of the line; the space key begins a selection; and the enter key or ‘^W’ copies the selection to the paste buffer and exits copy mode.

This mode is entered with the copy-mode command, bound to [‘’ by default.

This section contains a list of the commands supported by tmux. There are some flags shared by several commands; these are:
client-tty
Apply command to the client on the given tty. Clients may be listed with the list-clients command.
session-name
Apply command to the session named session-name. If it is omitted and tmux is invoked from a running tmux client, the session the containing client is connected to will be used; otherwise, if only one session exists, it is chosen, or if multiple sessions exist, an error is generated.

The following commands are available:

[-d] [-s session-name]
(alias: attach)
Create a new client in the current terminal and attach it to a session. If -d is specified, any other clients attached to the session are detached.
key command [arguments]
(alias: bind)
Bind key key to command.
[-s session-name]
Enter copy mode.
[-c client-tty]
(alias: detach)
Detach the current client if bound to a key, or the specified client with -c.
[-s session-name]
(alias: has)
Report an error and exit with 1 if the specified session does not exist. If it does exist, exit with 0.
[-s session-name]
Destroy the given session, closing any windows linked to it and no other sessions, and detaching all clients attached to it.
[-i index] [-s session-name]
(alias: killw)
Kill the current window or the window at index, removing it from any sessions to which it is linked.
[-s session-name]
(alias: last)
Select the last (previously selected) window.
[-dk] [-i index] [-s session-name] source-name source-index
(alias: linkw)
Link the window at source-index in session source-name into the specified session. If index is specified and no window exists with that index, the window is linked at that index. If -k is given and a window exists at index, it is killed, otherwise an error is generated. If -d is given, the newly linked window is not selected.
(alias: lsc)
List all clients attached to the server.
(alias: lsk)
List all key bindings.
(alias: ls)
List all sessions managed by the server.
[-s session-name]
(alias: lsw)
List all windows.
[-d] [-n window-name] [-s session-name] [command]
(alias: new)
Create a new session with name session-name. The new session is attached to the current terminal unless -d is given. window-name and command are the name of and command to execute in the initial window.
[-d] [-i index] [-n name] [-s session-name] [command]
(alias: neww)
Create a new window. If -d is given, the session does not make the new window the current window. index and name are the index of the new window in the session and the name of the new window. command is the command to execute. If index is not specified, the first free index is used. If command is not specified, the default command is used.

The TERM environment variable must be set to “screen” for all program running inside tmux. New windows will automatically have “TERM=screen” added to their environment, but care must be taken not to reset this in shell start-up files.

[-s session-name]
(alias: next)
Move to the next window in the session.
[-s session-name]
(alias: paste)
Insert the contents of the paste buffer into the current window. Ignored unless executed via a key binding.
[-s session-name]
(alias: prev)
Move to the previous window in the session.
[-c client-tty]
(alias: refresh)
Refresh the current client if bound to a key, or a single client if one given with -c.
[-s session-name] new-name
(alias: rename)
Rename the session to new-name.
[-i index] [-s session-name] new-name
(alias: renamew)
Rename the current window, or the window at index if specifed, to new-name.
[-s session-name]
Enter scroll mode.
[-s session-name] index
(alias: selectw)
Select the window at index.
[-c client-tty] key ...
Send a key or keys to a window. Each argument key is the name of the key (such as ‘^A’ or ‘npage’ ) to send; if the string is not recognised as a key, it is sent as a series of characters. All the arguments are sent sequentially from first to last.
[-c client-tty]
Send the prefix key to a window as if it was pressed.
option value
(alias: set)
Set an option. Possible options are:
key
Set the current prefix key.
lines
Set the maximum number of lines held in window history. This setting applies only to new windows - existing window histories are not resized and retain the limit at the point they were created.
[on | off]
Show or hide the status line.
colour
Set status line foreground colour, where colour is one of: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white or default.
colour
Set status line background colour.
[any | none | current]
Set action on window bell. any means a bell in any window linked to a session causes a bell in the current window of that session, none means all bells are ignored and current means only bell in windows other than the current window are ignored.
command
Sets the command used for new windows (if not specified when the window is created) to command. The default is “exec $SHELL”.
[-i index] [-s session-name] source-name source-index
(alias: swapw)
This is similar to link-window, except the source and destination windows are swapped. It is an error if no window exists at index.
key
(alias: unbind)
Unbind the key bound to key.
[-i index] [-s session-name]
(alias: unlinkw)
Unlink the window at index. A window may be unlinked only if it is linked to multiple sessions - windows may not be linked to no sessions.

pty(4)

Nicholas Marriott ⟨nicm@users.sourceforge.net⟩
November 9, 2007 BSD