How to rename a tmux session or window?

• By Romain Dorgueil
tips tmux terminal shell productivity

Short answer

tmux rename-session -t old new   # rename a session
tmux rename-window new           # rename the current window

From inside a session, prefix $ renames the current session and prefix , renames the current window, each through a prompt.

Details

Names beat numbers once you run more than a couple of sessions: tmux attach -t api is easier to remember than guessing an index.

Rename a session with prefix $, which opens a prompt pre-filled with the current name. The shell form is tmux rename-session -t old new (short alias: tmux rename -t old new). The target -t is optional when you mean the current session.

Rename a window with prefix ,, again through a prompt. The shell form is tmux rename-window new, which acts on the current window by default; target another one with -t.

One side effect worth knowing: by default a window renames itself to follow the running program (automatic-rename on). The moment you rename a window by hand, tmux turns automatic renaming off for that window, so your chosen name stays put. If you want fixed names everywhere, set it globally:

setw -g automatic-rename off

Verified on tmux 3.2a.

Links & references