Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that lets you have multiple virtual terminals and also split windows and have multiple panes and tabs. Another nice feature is if you are connecting over SSH and using Tmux, Tmux can keep your session going even if you disconnect and re-connect later. An alternative to Tmux is GNU Screen.
In Debian, you can simple use the system package manager to install:
sudo apt install tmux tmux -V # Check version
To build from source, download sources from the Tmux GitHub Releases. Building is pretty simple, it has few dependencies and compiles quickly.
# Install buidl dependencies sudo apt install libevent-dev ncurses-dev build-essential bison pkg-config wget https://github.com/tmux/tmux/releases/download/3.1c/tmux-3.1c.tar.gz tar -zxf tmux-3.1c.tar.gz cd tmux-3.1c/ # Identify the options you want ./configure --help | less ./configure make ./tmux -V sudo make install # Optional
To initialize a tmux session, simply invoke tmux.
tmux
To get help information and a list of commands, use:
man tmux tmux --help tmux list-keys tmux list-commands # Within tmux press ''CTRL-b ?''
With mouse enabled, you can click between split windows and use the mouse to resize. You can also right click on panes and in the bottom left corner to switch windows and manage processes. It adds a lot of really nice functionality.
You must specify setw -g mouse on in a tmux conf file. For example:
# ~/.tmux.conf # Enable mouse set -g mouse on
# Then run tmux as normal tmux # OR to be explicit tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
When you start tmux, you are creating a “session”. You can have multiple sessions and they are identified by a number or a name.
# List active sessions tmux ls # Connect to last active session tmux attach # Connect to a session by its numeric ID tmux attach -t 0 # Create a new named session tmux new -s mysession # Create a new named session + run vim in detached mode tmux new -s mysession -d "vim" # Connect to a session by name tmux attach -t mysession
Once you are in a session and you want to disconnect,
# Use the shell command tmux detach # Or use the keybinds CTRL-b d
To kill a session, simply exit the shell like normal with exit or CTRL-d, or you can send a tmux command to kill the session.
# End a session by name tmux kill-session -t myapp
The top level object is a session. A session contains windows, and a window contains panes. Here are commands related to windows. Like most things in tmux, you can use the shell command, or the keybind.
tmux new-window tmux list-windows tmux select-window -t 1 tmux rename-window # Renames current window tmux split-window tmux split-window -h tmux swap-pane -\[UDLR\]
Most of these keybinds must be preceeded with the CTRL-b chord.
cw,&npl“%ALT-1ALT-2A pane is the lowest level of hierarchy in screen organizing. The top level is the session, then the session has windows, and a window is made up of panes.
Most of these need to be preceeded by CTRL-b followed by one of the following keybinds:
up/down/left/right arrowo;x!CTRL plus left/right/up/down arrowALT plus left/right/up/down arrow{ or }CTRL-o or ALT-o
You can use tmux send-keys to send keystrokes to a specific session.
All keys including functions, alt, home, page up, arrow keys, and even mouse actions can all be emulated. Here is a full list of keys from the source code of tmux: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/ec7f5305b1a6e5548f0769f988e76b01ec293dcc/key-string.c#L33-L100
# Send some vim commands to a session tmux send-keys -t mysession "i" "hello" Enter Escape ":w! test.txt" Enter
Every command is assumed to begin with the chord, which by default is CTRL-b. Press CTRL-b and then release before pressing the next action key.
CTRL-b [CTRL-b SPACE