📖 Guide

Tmux — Complete Reference

Comprehensive tmux cheat sheet covering sessions, windows, panes, copy mode, configuration, plugins, and common workflows.

68 commands across 9 categories

Session ManagementWindow ManagementPane ManagementNavigationCopy ModeConfigurationStatus BarPluginsCommon Workflows

Session Management

CommandDescription
tmux new -s name
Create a new named session
tmux ls
List all sessions
tmux attach -t name
Attach to a named session
tmux kill-session -t name
Kill a specific session
Ctrl+b d
Detach from current session
Ctrl+b $
Rename current session
tmux kill-server
Kill all sessions and the tmux server
Ctrl+b s
Show session picker (interactive list)
tmux new -s name -d
Create a new session in the background (detached)

Window Management

CommandDescription
Ctrl+b c
Create a new window
Ctrl+b ,
Rename current window
Ctrl+b &
Close current window (with confirmation)
Ctrl+b w
List all windows (interactive picker)
Ctrl+b n
Move to next window
Ctrl+b p
Move to previous window
Ctrl+b 0-9
Switch to window by number
tmux swap-window -t 0
Swap current window with window 0
Ctrl+b f
Find window by name

Pane Management

CommandDescription
Ctrl+b %
Split pane vertically (left/right)
Ctrl+b "
Split pane horizontally (top/bottom)
Ctrl+b x
Close current pane (with confirmation)
Ctrl+b z
Toggle pane zoom (fullscreen)
Ctrl+b {
Move current pane left
Ctrl+b }
Move current pane right
Ctrl+b Space
Cycle through pane layouts
Ctrl+b !
Convert pane into a new window
Ctrl+b q
Show pane numbers, then press number to switch

Copy Mode

CommandDescription
Ctrl+b [
Enter copy mode (scroll/select text)
q
Exit copy mode
Space
Start selection (in copy mode)
Enter
Copy selection and exit copy mode
Ctrl+b ]
Paste copied text
/
Search forward in copy mode
?
Search backward in copy mode
setw -g mode-keys vi
e.g. Add to ~/.tmux.conf for persistent vi bindings
Use vi-style keys in copy mode

Configuration

CommandDescription
Ctrl+b :
Open tmux command prompt
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
Reload tmux configuration
set -g mouse on
Enable mouse support (scrolling, clicking, resizing)
set -g base-index 1
Start window numbering at 1 instead of 0
set -g default-terminal 'screen-256color'
Enable 256-color support
set -g history-limit 10000
Set scrollback buffer size
set -sg escape-time 0
Remove delay after pressing Escape (useful for vim)
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf
e.g. Ctrl+b r will reload after adding this
Bind r to reload config

Status Bar

CommandDescription
set -g status on
Enable status bar
set -g status off
Disable status bar
set -g status-position top
Move status bar to top of screen
set -g status-interval 5
Set status bar refresh interval (seconds)
set -g status-style 'bg=black,fg=white'
Set status bar colors
set -g status-right "%H:%M %d-%b-%y"
Customize right side of status bar

Plugins

CommandDescription
git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm
Install TPM (Tmux Plugin Manager)
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
Add TPM to tmux.conf
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect'
Add tmux-resurrect (save/restore sessions across restarts)
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'
Add tmux-sensible (good default settings)
Ctrl+b I
Install plugins listed in tmux.conf (via TPM)
Ctrl+b U
Update all plugins (via TPM)

Common Workflows

CommandDescription
tmux new -s dev -d && tmux send-keys -t dev 'vim .' Enter
Create a detached session and run a command in it
tmux pipe-pane -o 'cat >> ~/tmux.log'
Log all output from current pane to a file
Ctrl+b : join-pane -t :1
Move current pane to window 1
tmux capture-pane -pS -1000 > output.txt
Capture last 1000 lines of pane output to file
tmux set synchronize-panes on
Send keystrokes to all panes simultaneously
tmux display-message -p '#S:#I.#P'
Print current session:window.pane identifiers

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