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A Quick and Easy Guide to Tmux

78 points by behnamoh 4y ago

dboreham 4y ago
See also: https://tmuxcheatsheet.com/ https://tmuxcheatsheet.com/
user3939382 4y ago
I spent a few days deep diving on tmux, getting my config right. I’ve been using it for 5-6 years since then without having to learn anything further. Great ROI, highly recommended.
tony 4y ago
Good article. This was 2015 (!) A few years later, I released The Tao of tmux, available for free online: https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of-tmux/read https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of-tmux/read. Random: this is a lean, cross-platform program I've used in the status line for ages: https://github.com/thewtex/tmux-mem-cpu-load https://github.com/thewtex/tmux-mem-cpu-load tmux has been getting steady updates throughout the years: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/master/CHANGES https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/master/CHANGES. It's nice to see a program that does one thing well and gets such quality attention.
bananamerica 4y ago
Tmux is incredibly reliable and can even keep sessions between reboots with a plugin, to a certain extent.
- jftuga 4y ago
  Interesting. Which plugin?
  - noman-land 4y ago
    https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect combined with https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum is a game changer.
NERD_ALERT 4y ago
I’ve become a huge fan of tmuxinator. Incredible tool for defining templates for tmux. https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator
YouWhy 4y ago
tmux is a fantastic tool, but it tends to intimidate naive users. My way of reassuring them is telling that they only need to remember one key shortcut, namely Ctrl+B at once followed by "?" to get to the help screen. I can't say a lot of people around me end up using it, but must of them just don't need it that badly.
- noman-land 4y ago
  I ended up learning tmux out of necessity because I kept getting my processes killed when getting disconnected from ssh sessions. I don't know if I'd have the patience to stick with it otherwise. Now I just use it as my window manager in terminal even though I'm rarely sshing these days. I love it. Combined with tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum, which will persist sessions across restarts, and it's a total joy.
jftuga 4y ago
Here is my .tmux.conf [1]. This file also contains a basic tutorial. I set the PREFIX key to ctrl-a as it is more ergonomic. I also have a "mouse-mode" that can be toggled. When enabled, you can use the mouse to resize panes. [1] https://github.com/jftuga/universe/blob/master/tmux.conf https://github.com/jftuga/universe/blob/master/tmux.conf
e12e 4y ago
Any news/updates on tmux vs gnu screen? Last I looked (years ago) I couldn't find a compelling reason to switch from screen - are there any (that you find compelling)?
Jtsummers 4y ago
I dislike the default prefix key for both screen (C-a) and tmux (C-b) because they conflict with useful commands in emacs and the terminal (go to beginning of line, go back one character). I finally found C-j worked well for me (for both) because I very rarely want to use it directly so the occasional C-j C-j doesn't bother me much. I found only 4 alphabet characters that didn't seem to have a conflict with something I used often enough for it to be annoying: g, i, j, m. Tried each, settled on j because of comfort while typing. Also hitting C-g when I wasn't in tmux turned out to be annoying on some systems.
- bpanon 4y ago
  try ctrl-space
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    Emacs again, C-space sets the mark (used for selection and other things).
noman-land 4y ago
For anyone who's already using tmux and wants to persist their sessions across restarts, I cannot recommend tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum highly enough. https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum
dmtroyer 4y ago
save yourself a bunch of hassle learning another set of obscure commands and use the iTerm tmux integration. https://iterm2.com/documentation-tmux-integration.html https://iterm2.com/documentation-tmux-integration.html
- d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
  This was great to know, thanks! This actually also solved a problem I had where I wasn’t able to scroll back up in a tmux session.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
I like tmux but it’s really annoying that you can’t scroll back up, and you need a special shortcut to go into “copy mode” to do that. Maybe someone has a hack to make this more pleasant?

78 points by behnamoh 4y ago

See also: https://tmuxcheatsheet.com/ https://tmuxcheatsheet.com/

I spent a few days deep diving on tmux, getting my config right. I’ve been using it for 5-6 years since then without having to learn anything further. Great ROI, highly recommended.

tony 4y ago

Good article. This was 2015 (!) A few years later, I released The Tao of tmux, available for free online: https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of-tmux/read https://leanpub.com/the-tao-of-tmux/read. Random: this is a lean, cross-platform program I've used in the status line for ages: https://github.com/thewtex/tmux-mem-cpu-load https://github.com/thewtex/tmux-mem-cpu-load tmux has been getting steady updates throughout the years: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/master/CHANGES https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/master/CHANGES. It's nice to see a program that does one thing well and gets such quality attention.

bananamerica 4y ago

Tmux is incredibly reliable and can even keep sessions between reboots with a plugin, to a certain extent.

jftuga 4y ago
Interesting. Which plugin?
- noman-land 4y ago
  https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect combined with https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum is a game changer.

NERD_ALERT 4y ago

I’ve become a huge fan of tmuxinator. Incredible tool for defining templates for tmux. https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator

YouWhy 4y ago

tmux is a fantastic tool, but it tends to intimidate naive users. My way of reassuring them is telling that they only need to remember one key shortcut, namely Ctrl+B at once followed by "?" to get to the help screen. I can't say a lot of people around me end up using it, but must of them just don't need it that badly.

noman-land 4y ago
I ended up learning tmux out of necessity because I kept getting my processes killed when getting disconnected from ssh sessions. I don't know if I'd have the patience to stick with it otherwise. Now I just use it as my window manager in terminal even though I'm rarely sshing these days. I love it. Combined with tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum, which will persist sessions across restarts, and it's a total joy.

jftuga 4y ago

Here is my .tmux.conf [1]. This file also contains a basic tutorial. I set the PREFIX key to ctrl-a as it is more ergonomic. I also have a "mouse-mode" that can be toggled. When enabled, you can use the mouse to resize panes. [1] https://github.com/jftuga/universe/blob/master/tmux.conf https://github.com/jftuga/universe/blob/master/tmux.conf

e12e 4y ago

Any news/updates on tmux vs gnu screen? Last I looked (years ago) I couldn't find a compelling reason to switch from screen - are there any (that you find compelling)?

Jtsummers 4y ago

I dislike the default prefix key for both screen (C-a) and tmux (C-b) because they conflict with useful commands in emacs and the terminal (go to beginning of line, go back one character). I finally found C-j worked well for me (for both) because I very rarely want to use it directly so the occasional C-j C-j doesn't bother me much. I found only 4 alphabet characters that didn't seem to have a conflict with something I used often enough for it to be annoying: g, i, j, m. Tried each, settled on j because of comfort while typing. Also hitting C-g when I wasn't in tmux turned out to be annoying on some systems.

bpanon 4y ago
try ctrl-space
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  Emacs again, C-space sets the mark (used for selection and other things).

noman-land 4y ago

For anyone who's already using tmux and wants to persist their sessions across restarts, I cannot recommend tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum highly enough. https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum

dmtroyer 4y ago

save yourself a bunch of hassle learning another set of obscure commands and use the iTerm tmux integration. https://iterm2.com/documentation-tmux-integration.html https://iterm2.com/documentation-tmux-integration.html

d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
This was great to know, thanks! This actually also solved a problem I had where I wasn’t able to scroll back up in a tmux session.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

d4rkp4ttern 4y ago

I like tmux but it’s really annoying that you can’t scroll back up, and you need a special shortcut to go into “copy mode” to do that. Maybe someone has a hack to make this more pleasant?