How to discover and search tmux key bindings?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tips
prefix ? lists every key binding with a note. From the shell, list-keys prints the same table and list-commands gives the syntax and flags of every command.
Tag: shell
32 articles tagged with "shell"
2026
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How to run a tmux command from inside a session?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsprefix : opens the command prompt, where you type any tmux command without the leading tmux word. It is the interactive twin of the CLI, run against the server you are attached to.
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How to reload your tmux config without restarting?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipssource-file re-reads ~/.tmux.conf into the running server, so a changed setting takes effect without killing tmux. Bind it to a key to reload after every edit.
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How to reorganize a tmux layout?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipstmux ships five preset layouts. prefix Space cycles through them; select-layout
jumps straight to one, and select-layout tiled re-tiles a window into an even grid in one step. -
How to swap two tmux panes?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsswap-pane exchanges two panes without touching the layout: the cells stay exactly where they are, the panes trade places. prefix { and } swap the active pane with its neighbours.
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How to move a tmux pane to another session without restarting its process?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsjoin-pane and move-window accept a source in another session of the same server, and the process running in the pane is re-parented, not restarted. A server started in a throwaway session lands in your main workspace without going down.
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How to move a tmux pane with relative targets?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsRelative targets like down-of name a pane by its position, no index lookup. join-pane -h -s picks the pane below the active one and re-attaches it to the right: a stacked pair becomes side by side in one command.
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How to move a pane from one tmux window to another?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsjoin-pane detaches a pane from wherever it lives and re-attaches it as a split in the current window, processes included. break-pane does the exact opposite: it sends a pane off to its own window.
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How to mark a tmux pane and target it from anywhere?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsMark a pane with prefix m and the {marked} target resolves to it from any window or session. No more index juggling before a swap or a join: the mark is even the default source for both.
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How to target tmux windows with special tokens?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipstmux window targets accept special tokens for the first, last, previously active, next and previous windows, with one-character aliases. They keep scripts independent of actual index numbers.
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How to target the right tmux pane by number?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsA bare number in a tmux pane target means a pane of the current window when that pane exists, otherwise a whole window, and it flips silently. Qualify with window.pane, a pane id, or a window name.
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How to make tmux number windows and panes from 1?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsWindows and panes start at 0 by default, so the leftmost one sits under a key at the far end of the keyboard. Set base-index and pane-base-index to 1 in ~/.tmux.conf so key 1 selects the first one.
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How to select and copy text with the mouse in tmux?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsThe mouse is off by default. Add set -g mouse on to ~/.tmux.conf, then drag to select and copy into the tmux buffer. Hold Shift to fall back to the terminal's own selection.
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How to resize a tmux pane?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsUse resize-pane with -L/-R/-U/-D to push a border by N cells, or -x/-y to set an exact size. A resize only works when there is a neighbour to trade space with.
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How to zoom a tmux pane to fullscreen?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsPress prefix z to expand the active pane to the whole window, and prefix z again to restore the split. Nothing closes, it is a temporary toggle.
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How to jump back to the last active tmux pane?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsPress prefix ; to toggle focus between the current pane and the one you were on just before, the pane-level twin of prefix l for windows.
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How to move between tmux panes?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsUse prefix + arrows for directional focus, prefix o to cycle panes, and prefix q to overlay pane numbers and jump straight to one.
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How to get notified of activity or silence in a tmux window?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsUse monitor-activity to flag a window when output appears, or monitor-silence to flag it when output stops, so you can watch a long job from another window.
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How to stop tmux from renaming your windows?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipstmux renames windows after the running program by default. Turn automatic-rename off to keep the names you set.
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How to renumber tmux windows and close the gaps?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsRepack tmux window indexes to 0, 1, 2 with move-window -r, or set renumber-windows on to do it automatically.
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How to reorder tmux windows?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsSwap two tmux windows with swap-window, or move one to another index with move-window.
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How to navigate between tmux windows?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsMove between tmux windows with prefix n and p, and toggle the last two with prefix l.
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How to split a tmux window into panes?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsSplit a tmux window with split-window: -h puts panes side by side, -v stacks them top and bottom.
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How to control a nested tmux session (send the prefix to the inner one)?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsWhen one tmux runs inside another, forward the prefix with send-prefix to control the inner session.
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How to kill a tmux session, or the whole server?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsKill one tmux session, every session except one, or the whole tmux server.
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How to switch between tmux sessions without detaching?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsJump from one tmux session to another from inside tmux, without detaching and re-attaching.
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How to manage tmux clients (list, kick out, disconnect)?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsList who is attached to a tmux session, grab it back from another terminal, and detach other clients.
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How to rename a tmux session or window?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsRename a tmux session or window from the keyboard or the shell, and keep the name you typed.
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How to detach, list, and re-attach a tmux session?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsLeave a tmux session running in the background, list what is alive, and jump back in, from the keyboard or the shell.
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How to start a named tmux session with a window name and a directory?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsCreate a detached tmux session, name its first window, and start it in a chosen directory, all in one command.
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How to create or attach to a tmux session in one command?
• By Romain Dorgueil • In tipsA single idempotent tmux command that creates a session or attaches to it if it already exists. Perfect for scripts and shell startup files.