How to disable mouse copy while keeping mouse scroll in tmux? - tmux

I'm running tmux via ssh on a linux (remote) machine from an iTerm2 on macOS.
I've configured .tmux.conf in order to get mouse wheel scrolling inside of tmux via the following:
set -g mouse on
This enables mouse wheel scrolling, copy to clipboard on mouse drag and others.
Can I keep mouse wheel scrolling but disable copy on mouse drag to clipboard at the same time?

Here is the best behaviour I was able to get from tmux so far
set -g mouse on
unbind-key MouseDown2Pane
unbind-key MouseDragEnd1Pane
bind-key -n MouseDown2Pane run "tmux set-buffer \"$(xclip -o -sel primary)\"; tmux paste-buffer"
bind-key -T copy-mode MouseDragEnd1Pane send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -sel primary -i"
set -g set-clipboard external

If you run tmux list-keys you should see lines like
bind-key -T root MouseDrag1Pane ...
depending on your version of tmux. You can add lines to your config file to unbind the ones you don't want, eg:
unbind-key -T root MouseDrag1Pane

When tmux has the mouse mode on (set -g mouse on), then in iTerm on macOS you can press the option key (= alt key) to temporary disable sending mouse events to the terminal application (and thus you can mark lines in the terminal as you are used to).
This also allows you to scroll back in your buffer to before you started tmux.

Related

tmux - Force repeat prefix key for every command

Right now my tmux keybindings are set such that prefix + h/j/k/l (i.e vim-style bindings) are used to move focus of the panes left/down/up/right. However, sometimes when I switch to a pane running vim and I immediately start navigating with h/j/k/l, I get stuck in "tmux mode" where it will continue switching panes instead of navigating in vim. I have similar issues when switching to a normal terminal pane and listing files (i.e by using "l"). To avoid this, I would like to force tmux to require the prefix key for every pane switch I do.
Is there a way to do this?
Edit:
In case its needed, here is my .tmux.conf
# Bind CTRL+a to the prefix button
set -g prefix C-a
unbind C-b
bind C-a send-prefix
bind a send-prefix
# Remove the delay of escape key
set -s escape-time 0
# Bind PREFIX + r to reload the .conf file
unbind r
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf
# Quick pane cycling
unbind ^A
bind ^A select-pane -t :.+
set -g base-index 1
setw -g pane-base-index 1
set-option -g default-shell "/bin/bash"
# List of tmux plugins
set -g #plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect'
# Plugin manager
run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'
# Enable mouse support on tmux
set -g mouse on
# Rebind the pane switching to vim-like shortcuts
bind -r k select-pane -U
bind -r j select-pane -D
bind -r h select-pane -L
bind -r l select-pane -R
unbind Up
unbind Down
unbind Left
unbind Right
unbind C-Up
unbind C-Down
unbind C-Left
unbind C-Right
# Set the tmux colors to default
set -g default-terminal screen-256color
This is being caused by your use of -r when creating the key bindings for h/j/k/l.
From the entry for bind-key in the tmux man page:
The -r flag indicates this key may repeat, see the repeat-time option.
And about the repeat-time option:
Allow multiple commands to be entered without pressing the prefix-key again in the specified time milliseconds (the default is 500). Whether a key repeats may be set when it is bound using the -r flag to bind-key. Repeat is enabled for the default keys bound to the resize-pane command.
Just drop the -r from those four commands to have it require the prefix key every time.
I disagree with #filbranden's assertion that "Requiring the prefix for every pane switch is the normal behavior". This demonstrably false: on a fresh install, you can create a window with two panes, type the prefix (C-b), and then jump between the panes as many times as you like by pressing arrow keys.
This answer on StackExchange seems correct. The feature that results in the prefix not being required is controlled by setting the option repeat-time. It is set to 500 by default (which is why the default behaviour is that the prefix is not required).
To disable this behaviour, simply add this line to your config:
set-option -g repeat-time 0

tmux: switch pane without losing current zoom state

Is there a way to configure tmux to maintain its current zoomed/not zoomed state when switching panes? I can add a keybinding to automatically zoom after switching pane as follows:
bind-key -n C-l select-pane -t :.+\; resize-pane -Z
However this will zoom the new pane even if I was not previously zoomed. I would like to use the same keybinding to switch pane whether currently zoomed or not zoomed, and preserve the zoomed/not zoomed state.
Depending on your version of tmux you can try this binding:
bind-key -n C-l if-shell -F "#{window_zoomed_flag}" 'select-pane -t :.+; resize-pane -Z' 'select-pane -t :.+'
This worked for me on tmux 2.2. if-shell -F does not run a shell command but just expands the window_zoomed_flag to 0 or 1, and runs the first or second command sequence.

How to send a command to all panes in tmux?

I like to call :clear-history on panes with a huge scrollback. However, I want to script a way to send this command to all the panes in the various windows.
I know how to send a command to all the windows, courtesy of this question, but how do I send a command to all the panes of which window as well?
send-keys and synchronize-panes from the tmux manpage come to mind, but I'm not sure how to marry them together. But maybe there is a simpler way to do this.
Extra Observations:
Thinking about this a little bit, tmux list-panes -a seems to list all the panes in the current session. Pretty useful to start off with. Where do I go from here?
Have you tried following in tmux window with multiple panes
Ctrl-B :
setw synchronize-panes on
clear history
A bit late to the party but I didn't want to set and unset synchronize-panes just to send one command so I created a wrapper function around tmux and added a custom function called send-keys-all-panes.
_tmux_send_keys_all_panes_ () {
for _pane in $(tmux list-panes -F '#P'); do
tmux send-keys -t ${_pane} "$#"
done
}
I also create a wrapper around the tmux command to simplify calling this function (for convenience). The wrapper and the above code are all here.
This allows me to run tmux send-keys-all-panes <command> or tmux skap <command to send <command> to all panes.
Note that tmux is aliased to my wrapper function tmux_pp.
Update June 2019
Quick illustration on how to configure your own binding for synchronize panes.
Added the following into my tmux.conf (the comments certainly apply to my overall configuration):
# synchronize all panes in a window
# don't use control S, too easily confused
# with navigation key sequences in tmux (show sessions)
unbind C-S
bind C-Y set-window-option synchronize-panes
Now, I can toggle the ability to synchronize commands across multiple panes with <C-a><C-y>.
(Yes, I remapped the bind key to Ctrl a).
my tmux version is 1.9a, and this works for me, one key is enough for both on and off
bind-key X set-window-option synchronize-panes\; display-message "synchronize-panes is now #{?pane_synchronized,on,off}"
None of the above answers worked for me (tmux v2.3), but this did, from the bash command line:
for _pane in $(tmux list-panes -a -F '#{pane_id}'); do \
tmux clear-history -t ${_pane} ; done
A more generalized script, for tmux commands other than 'clear-history' would just replace that element with a parameter, eg. $1. Do be careful if you intend to write a script to handle a series of tmux commands, as "-t ${_pane}" will need to be applied to each.
Note that the -a parameter to tmux list-panes is required to cover all panes in all windows in all sessions. Without that, only panes in your current tmux window will be affected. If you have more than one tmux session open and only want to apply the command to panes within the current session, replace -a with -s (It's all in the tmux man page).
I haven't the mod points to comment directly on each of the above answers, so here's why they weren't working for me:
The problem that I had with #shailesh-garg 's answer was that the sync affected only commands issued within the panes, not tmux commands issued using Ctrl-B : which are outside the panes.
The three problems that I had with #kshenoy 's answer were that:
it sends keystrokes to within a pane, not to the tmux operation
of that pane, so for instance, if one had a bash shell running in
the pane and one used the script to send "clear-history", those
would be the keystrokes that would appear in the bash command-line.
A work-around would be to send "tmux clear-history" or to pre-pend
"tmux " to "$#", but I haven't edited the answer because of my other
problems with the answer;
I couldn't figure out how to send a
new-line character without literally breaking the line;
Even when I did that, sending "tmux clear-history" had no effect.
If you want to send your command to every pane in every window in every session, add this to your .bashrc:
send_command_to_every_pane() {
for session in `tmux list-sessions -F '#S'`; do
for window in `tmux list-windows -t $session -F '#P' | sort`; do
for pane in `tmux list-panes -t $session:$window -F '#P' | sort`; do
tmux send-keys -t "$session:$window.$pane" "$*" C-m
done
done
done
}
You can then use it like this:
send_command_to_every_pane source ~/.bash_profile
Change "$*" to "$#" if you want that behavior, but in my experience this is what you want.
tmux send-keys -t <session id> <command> C-m
Replace the "session id" and "command" accordingly.
This is my utility function to do it, only executing the command when there there is nothing running in the pane.
#!/bin/bash
_send_bash_command_to_session() {
if [[ $# -eq 0 || "$1" = "--help" ]] ; then
echo 'Usage: _send_bash_command_to_session $session_name what ever command you want: '
return
fi
input_session="$1"
input_command="${#:2}"
for _pane in $(tmux list-panes -s -t ${input_session} -F '#{window_index}.#{pane_index}'); do
# only apply the command in bash or zsh panes.
_current_command=$(tmux display-message -p -t ${input_session}:${_pane} '#{pane_current_command}')
if [ ${_current_command} = zsh ] || [ ${_current_command} = bash ] ; then
tmux send-keys -t ${_pane} "${input_command}" Enter
fi
done
}
tmux_set_venv() {
_current_session=$(tmux display-message -p '#{session_name}')
_send_bash_command_to_session ${_current_session} workon $1
}
Example targeting a session called dev, enabling a python virtualenv in all panes that are in bash or zsh, avoiding executing the command in panes with vim or any other executable:
_send_bash_command_to_session dev workon myvirtualenv
or easier to remember: to do it in the current session:
tmux_set_venv myvirtualenv
Find my configuration file with this function.
You can combine synchronize-panes and send-keys in a single shortcut to send commands to all the panes:
Predefined tmux command clear-history:
bind-key C set-option -w synchronize-panes on\; clear-history \; set-option -w synchronize-panes off
Prompt an arbitrary tmux command:
bind-key p command-prompt -p "Panes command: " "set-option -w synchronize-panes on; %% ; set-option -w -u synchronize-panes"
Prompt an arbitrary shell command:
bind-key p command-prompt -p "Panes command: " "set-option -w synchronize-panes on; send-keys %%\\n ; set-option -w -u synchronize-panes"
By default, byobu uses tmux as backend. It's a wrapper that make things much easier:
Shift+F9:
Ctrl+F9:
Shift+F1
Admittedly only semi-related, I found I could make the status background red when I toggle synchronize-panes so it's obvious when I switch back to a window with an unknown synchronize-panes state:
bind-key C-x setw synchronize-panes on \; set-window-option status-bg red \; display-message "pane sync on"
bind-key M-x setw synchronize-panes off \; set-window-option status-bg default \; display-message "pane sync off"

"tmux set -g mouse-mode on" not scrolling

To allow scrolling a tmux pane with a mouse, I put the following in my ~/.tmux.conf file:
set -g mouse-mode on
However, nothing changes. When I scroll, it still scrolls outside of tmux. Why is this?
So this option has been renamed in version 2.1 (18 October 2015)
From the changelog:
Mouse-mode has been rewritten. There's now no longer options for:
- mouse-resize-pane
- mouse-select-pane
- mouse-select-window
- mode-mouse
Instead there is just one option: 'mouse' which turns on mouse support
So this is what I'm using now in my .tmux.conf file
set -g mouse on
As #Graham42 noted, mouse option has changed in version 2.1. Scrolling now requires for you to enter copy mode first. To enable scrolling almost identical to how it was before 2.1 add following to your .tmux.conf.
set-option -g mouse on
# make scrolling with wheels work
bind -n WheelUpPane if-shell -F -t = "#{mouse_any_flag}" "send-keys -M" "if -Ft= '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -M' 'select-pane -t=; copy-mode -e; send-keys -M'"
bind -n WheelDownPane select-pane -t= \; send-keys -M
This will enable scrolling on hover over a pane and you will be able to scroll that pane line by line.
Source: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tmux-users/TRwPgEOVqho/Ck_oth_SDgAJ
Just a quick heads-up to anyone else who is losing their mind right now:
https://github.com/tmux/tmux/blob/310f0a960ca64fa3809545badc629c0c166c6cd2/CHANGES#L12
So that's just
:setw -g mouse
this should work:
setw -g mode-mouse on
then resource then config file
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
or kill the server
Paste here in ~/.tmux.conf
set -g mouse on
and run on terminal
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
As #Graham42 said, from version 2.1 mouse options has been renamed but you can use the mouse with any version of tmux adding this to your ~/.tmux.conf:
Bash shells:
is_pre_2_1="[[ $(tmux -V | cut -d' ' -f2) < 2.1 ]] && echo true || echo false"
if-shell "$is_pre_2_1" "setw -g mode-mouse on; set -g mouse-resize-pane on;\
set -g mouse-select-pane on; set -g mouse-select-window on" "set -g mouse on"
Sh (Bourne shell) shells:
is_pre_2_1="tmux -V | cut -d' ' -f2 | awk '{print ($0 < 2.1) ? "true" : "false"}'"
if-shell "$is_pre_2_1" "setw -g mode-mouse on; set -g mouse-resize-pane on;\
set -g mouse-select-pane on; set -g mouse-select-window on" "set -g mouse on"
Hope this helps
You can still using the devil logic of setting options depending on your current Tmux version: see my previous answer.
But since Tmux v1.7, set-option adds "-q" to silence errors and not print out anything (see changelog).
I recommend to use this feature, it's more readable and easily expandable.
Add this to your ~/.tmux.conf:
# from v2.1
set -gq mouse on
# before v2.1
set -gq mode-mouse on
set -gq mouse-resize-pane on
set -gq mouse-select-pane on
set -gq mouse-select-window on
Restar tmux or source-file your new .tmux.conf
Side note: I'm open to remove my old answer if people prefer this one
This line:
set -g mouse-mode on
in your ~/.tmux.conf file won't work.
For one thing, the proper setting is not mouse-mode, but mode-mouse.
Second, it only works on older versions of tmux (pre-version 2; you can run tmux -V to see what version you have, but you can also run man tmux to see if mode-mouse is a supported option).
And third, technically man tmux says to use the mode-mouse option with setw (set-window-option) and not with set (set-option), although I've seen it work with set (as well as setw).
These lines should work:
If your version of tmux is recent enough (that is, if tmux -V shows version 2 or newer), you can put this line in your ~/.tmux.conf file:
set-option -g mouse on
But if you use an older version of tmux, put these lines in your ~/.tmux.conf file:
set-window-option -g mode-mouse on
set-option -g mouse-resize-pane on
set-option -g mouse-select-pane on
set-option -g mouse-select-window on
Again, if you're not absolutely sure which line(s) to put in your ~/.tmux.conf file, run man tmux and search for mouse-mode, mouse-resize-pane, mouse-select-pane, and/or mouse-select-window. If you find them, then use those options (the ones for the older version of tmux).
Putting these lines in will allow you to use the mouse scroll wheel, it will allow you click on various panes to activate them, and it will allow you to resize panes just by clicking-and-dragging on their splitter separator.
You can also copy-and-paste using your mouse. However, you may notice that copying-and-pasting with your mouse may not work like it normally does on your console. To work around this, I've noticed that holding down the SHIFT key while using your mouse's copy/paste abilities makes them work normally again. (On MacOS, fn seems to work for me better than SHIFT.) Or you can learn tmux's approach to copy-and-pasting (which I do recommend).
A note on using tmux's native ability to copy/select/paste:
Personally, I feel that the vi keys make more sense to me than the default emacs keys (for example, it feels more natural to exit selection mode with vi mode's ENTER than with emacs mode's CTRL+w or ALT+w), so I have this in my ~/.tmux.conf file:
# For vi-like keys in copy/paste/selection mode:
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
However, I've noticed that on older versions on tmux, this line won't work, unless I've also included the line:
set-window-option -g mode-mouse on
Good to know: Occasionally, when you're using the mouse's scroll wheel, you'll discover that your pane/screen appears to be frozen or locked up (it won't respond to keyboard input), and it's not clear what to do to unlock it.
It's not locked up. You're likely in tmux's selection mode. To get out of it, try one of these:
Hit ENTER. (Will likely work in vi mode.)
Hit ALT+w. (Will likely work in emacs mode.)
Hit CTRL+w. (Will likely work in emacs mode.)
Hit META+w. (Will likely work in emacs mode.)
Hit Esc. (Will likely work in emacs mode.)
Hit q. (Will likely work in vi mode, and may work in emacs mode as well.)
Ultimately, you can try hitting:
CTRL+w     ENTER
or:
Esc     q
Chances are, that will put you back in the normal mode where your keyboard is responsive again.
Using the mouse with vim:
I've discovered that putting this line in my ~/.vimrc file:
:set mouse=a
seems to work well with tmux, better than this line:
:set mouse=r
I can't really explain the difference; if you're a vim user, try them out and see which setting works best for you.
If you need to test out these tmux options, you may find yourself editing your ~/.tmux.conf file, exiting tmux, and then restarting tmux. This can become a tedious process, so if you want some work-arounds, here are some options:
Option1: After editing (and saving) your ~/.tmux.conf file, run this command (while in tmux):
CTRL+B :source-file ~/.tmux.conf ENTER
This will immediately apply the new settings in your ~/.tmux.conf file into your current tmux session, without the need to restart tmux.
Option 2: If you're in a tmux session, you can turn on/off options temporarily just for that session by running commands like these at the Unix shell prompt:
tmux set-option -g mouse on
tmux set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
Option 3: You can also temporarily turn on/off options in a tmux session with:
CTRL+B :set-option -g mouse on ENTER
CTRL+B :set-window-option -g mode-keys vi ENTER
Good luck, and have fun using tmux !
Try this. It works on my computer.
set -g mouse on
Ctrl + B and then set mouse. -g is not needed anymore.

Tmux copy mode: how to create your own command?

I love Tmux and its copy mode with Vi commands, but I'm really annoyed by the fact that this mode is very far from being as efficient as real Vim.
For example, there is no keybinding to just copy a word (yw), I must always "go to the beginning of a word" "begin selection", "go to the end of the word" then "finish selection". A lot of operations when I just need to do yw in vim.
I searched a way to create my own "yw" command in Tmux copy mode. Chaining all the operations needed is a good idea, but a simple bind with commands separated by ; just doesn't work (similar thing works in non-copy mode). Is there something I miss? Or is the copy mode of Tmux just limited and not as scriptable as I need it to be?
I have this in my tmux conf:
# vi-style controls in copy mode
set-option -g status-keys vi
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
# v and y like vi in copy-mode
bind-key -t vi-copy 'v' begin-selection
bind-key -t vi-copy 'y' copy-selection
Now after going copy-mode i can easily select words by:
vw
And copy with
y
In tmux you have to select something to copy. There is nothing like copying in normal mode as you know from usual vi/vim commands. Unfortunately you can only use one key (like v or y) for every tmux argument.
You can find more about tmux's vi movement commands here: https://superuser.com/a/197272/57890
This appears to be a bug in the bind-key command when called with the -t option. I have filed a bug report at https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3533562&group_id=200378&atid=973262.
On upstream (2.4+) tmux version this got changed, in order to create a bindings for begin selection you need to use -T and send-keys with -X.
More info in tmux changelog.
Here my bindings for vi copy mode as an example:
# Bind `v` to trigger selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi v send-keys -X begin-selection
# Bind `y` to yank current selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi y send-keys -X copy-selection-and-cancel
# Rebind `mouse click + drag button release` to not jump away from context
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send-keys -X copy-selection
If you are using emacs copy mode, replacing copy-mode-vi with copy-mode should be enough.
There's a patch for tmux allowing to create procedures and bind any number of actions for 'mode' keystrokes: http://ershov.github.io/tmux/

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