tmux

Last updated: January 18, 2021

tmux is a tool that I use for keeping SSH sessions on remote servers running if I get disconnected, and for allowing me to have multiple “tabs” inside a single SSH connection (“windows” in tmux parlance). I know it can be used for a lot more than this, but I don’t spend enough time on the command line to make use of the more advanced capabilities.

Resources

• Getting started with tmux
• A tmux Crash Course
• Lei Mao’s tmux Tutorial
• tmux cheat sheet

Commands

• Vertically split window (create “bunk bed” panes): In theory you can do this with ctrl-b ", but on some systems this brings up a list of windows instead. Falling back to ctrl-b :split-window -v works.
• Killing current pane: In theory ctrl-b x is supposed to do this, but this doesn’t work on some systems. You can use ctrl-b :kill-pane -t1 where 1 is the pane number you want to kill.
• Convert current pane to window: ctrl-b !