How to customize tmux

• Customizing Tmux
• Navigating Tmux
  • Terminal to tmux.
  • Inside Tmux
    • Sessions
    • Windows
    • Panes
    • Buffers

With Tmux you can manage multiple sessions/terms & navigate quickly.

Customizing Tmux

Below is how you can customize tmux.

• Create ~/.tmux.conf if it does not exist.
• Enable 256 colors.

  
    # tmux display things in 256 colors
    set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
    #  enable terminal compability
    set-option -ga terminal-overrides ",tmux-256color-italic:Tc"
  
  

• Changing default prefix from Ctrl+b to Ctrl+a

  
    # unbind default prefix and set it to Ctrl+a
    unbind C-b
    set -g prefix C-a
    bind C-a send-prefix
  
  

• Add shortcut Ctrl+a r to apply tmux configuration while inside tmux session

  
    # reload config file
    bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display "Config Reloaded!"
  
  

• Add shortcut Ctrl+a | for vertical split, Ctrl+a - for horizontal split

  
    bind | split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"
    bind - split-window -v -c "#{pane_current_path}"
  
  

• Add shortcut Ctrl+a y to synchronize panes (meaning, if you have 2 or more panes in same window, you can send command to all panes at once)

  
    # synchronize all panes in a window
    bind y setw synchronize-panes
  
  

• To move between panes - left (Ctrl+a h) , down (Ctrl+a j), up (Ctrl+a k), right (Ctrl+a l).

  
    # pane movement shortcuts
    bind h select-pane -L
    bind j select-pane -D
    bind k select-pane -U
    bind l select-pane -R
  
  

• To move between windows - left (Ctrl+a Ctrl+h), right (Ctrl+a Ctrl+l)

  
    bind -r C-h select-window -t :-
    bind -r C-l select-window -t :+
  
  

• Enable mouse and vi mode

  
    # enable mouse support for switching panes/windows
    setw -g mouse on
    # set vi mode for copy mode
    setw -g mode-keys vi
  
  

• Copy & paste in vi mode and attach OS clipboard.

  
    # more settings to make copy-mode more vim-like
    unbind [
    bind Escape copy-mode
    unbind p
    bind p paste-buffer
    bind -Tcopy-mode-vi v send -X begin-selection
  
    # Buffers to/from Mac clipboard, yay tmux book from pragprog
    # Copy-paste integration
    set-option -g default-command "reattach-to-user-namespace -l zsh"
    bind -Tcopy-mode-vi y send -X copy-pipe "reattach-to-user-namespace pbcopy"
  
    # Update default binding of `Enter` to also use copy-pipe
    unbind -Tcopy-mode-vi Enter
    bind -Tcopy-mode-vi Enter send -X copy-pipe "reattach-to-user-namespace pbcopy"
    # Bind ']' to use pbpaste
    bind ] run "reattach-to-user-namespace pbpaste | tmux load-buffer - && tmux paste-buffer"
  
  

  Note: On MacOS, you need to install brew install reattach-to-user-namespace. For unix/windows use another program to handle this

• To quickly jump between panes - Ctrl+a a

  
    # to show all panes
    bind a choose-tree
  
  

  Note: by default, Ctrl+a w shows all windows in all sessions, but you need to go to each window to expand window. With above you will get all panes expanded.

• You can customize theme like below, create ~/.dotfiles/tmux/theme.sh and add below

  
    #### COLOUR
    tm_icon="🙈 🙉 🙊"
    tm_color_active=colour51
    tm_color_inactive=colour241
    tm_color_feature=colour198
    tm_color_music=colour41
    tm_active_border_color=colour51
  
    # separators
    tm_separator_left_bold="◀"
    tm_separator_left_thin="❮"
    tm_separator_right_bold="▶"
    tm_separator_right_thin="❯"
  
    set -g status-left-length 32
    set -g status-right-length 150
    set -g status-interval 5
  
    # default statusbar colors
    # set-option -g status-bg colour0
    set-option -g status-style fg=$tm_color_active,bg=default
    #set-option -g status-attr default
  
    # default window title colors
    set-window-option -g window-status-style fg=$tm_color_inactive,bg=default
    set -g window-status-format "#I #W"
  
    # active window title colors
    set-window-option -g window-status-current-style fg=$tm_color_active,bg=default
    set-window-option -g  window-status-current-format "#[bold]#I #W"
  
    # pane border
    set-option -g pane-border-style fg=$tm_color_inactive
    set-option -g pane-active-border-style fg=$tm_active_border_color
  
    # message text
    set-option -g message-style fg=$tm_color_active,bg=default
  
    # pane number display
    set-option -g display-panes-active-colour $tm_color_active
    set-option -g display-panes-colour $tm_color_inactive
  
    # clock
    set-window-option -g clock-mode-colour $tm_color_active
  
    tm_session_name="#[fg=$tm_color_feature,bold]$tm_icon #S"
    set -g status-left $tm_session_name' '
  
  

• You can use Tmux Plugin Manager to install tmux plugins, below are some interesting plugins.

  
    # List of plugins
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sessionist'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-copycat'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-prefix-highlight'
    set -g @plugin 'christoomey/vim-tmux-navigator'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-open'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect'
    set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum'
  
    set -g status-right "#{prefix_highlight}"
  
    # Initialize TMUX plugin manager (keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf)
    run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'
  
  

Navigating Tmux

Terminal to tmux.

• To create new session tmux new -s sesson-name
• To kill session tmux kill-ses -t session-name
• To re-attach to previous session tmux a. To specific session tmux a -t session-name
• To list all tmux sessions - tmux ls

  Inside Tmux

• Show all shortcuts ctrl + a ?
• Copy Mode ctrl + a ESC
• Command Mode ctrl + a :

  Sessions

• :new -s newsession to create new session
• ctrl + a ) go to next session
• ctrl + a ( go to previous session
• ctrl + a s show all sessions
• ctrl + a $ rename session
• ctrl + a d exit tmux session go back to terminal

  Windows

• ctrl + a c create new window
• ctrl + a , rename window
• ctrl + a & kill window
• ctrl + a ctrl + w display all sessions and windows
• ctrl + a ctrl + l move to next window in current session
• ctrl + a ctrl + h move to previous window in current session

  Panes

• ctrl + a | create vertical pane
• ctrl + a - create horizontal pane
• ctrl + a x kill pane
• ctrl + a space re-arrange panes
• ctrl + a ; toggle between panes
• ctrl + a o move to next pane
• ctrl + a l - move right, ctrl + a h - move left
• ctrl + a j move up, ctrl + a k move down
• ctrl + a z zoom to pane (toggle)
• ctrl + a ! convert pane to window
• ctrl + a f search all panes for given text

  Buffers

• ctrl + a # list buffers
• ctrl + a = list buffers to copy
• / to search in buffers
• : capture-pane capture visibile details in buffer
• :save-buffer buf.txt to save