Scott Bailey

tmux

Sessions

Create a new session

tmux new -s mysession
  • new is an alias for new-session
  • -s is short for session-name

Attach to an existing named session

tmux a -t mysession
  • a is an alias for attach / attach-session
  • -t is short for target-session
  • -d may be used to detach other clients

Create (or attach) to a session

tmux new -AD -s test
  • Creates a new session with a default name
  • -A attempts to attach to an existing one if it exists
  • -D will disconnect existing clients

tmux commands

Common commands

There are different keyboard shortcuts once tmux has started.

Regular commands are accessed via tmux chord (ctrl+B) followed by the key-binding.

tmux console commands can be run using the tmux chord followed by :. (ctrl+B:)

Command Description
% Splits pane horizontally
Split pane vertically
up/down/left/right Moves pane focus in that direction
c Creates a new window (tab)
n Go to next tab
p Go to previous tab
z Toggles zooming the current tab
:detach-client -a Detaches all other session clients

Resize commands

Panes can be resized using the :resize-pane command. It accepts -U, -D, -L, -R followed by an account to resize the pane in that direction. For example:

:resize-pane -L 10
:resize-pane -U 20

Sometimes you can also press and hold ctrl+B+arrow to resize the pane in that direction.