I'm running a tmux session over at another machine through SSH. My ~/.tmux.conf looks as follows:
# set Ctrl-a as the default prefix key combination
# and unbind C-b to free it up
set prefix C-a
unbind-key C-b
Nothing fancy as you can see. I've made sure no remaining tmux sessions are running by using killall tmux as well as tmux kill-server. When starting up a new tmux session the prefix seems to be C-b, so my best guess is that my conf is not loaded. When using C-b + :source-file ~/.tmux.conf my prefix changes to C-a. Installed tmux through Yum, can't update it any higher with yum.
$ tmux -V
tmux 1.6
What is going on?
first of all, you have to make sure the .tmux.conf is located on your remote machine $HOME, not your local $HOME.
In the file, you can try this (explanation in comment):
unbind C-b
set -g prefix C-a # change prefix key to Ctrl-a as global opt, same as gnu screen
bind a send-prefix #send ^A, so that you can press ctrl-a a to send ctrl-a
BTW, you can compile and install new tmux to your local user without root permission.
because you forget bind send-prefix at the end of configuration. Add the following line and it will work out :)
bind-key C-a send-prefix
Related
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
I daily use tmux (2.5) on my laptop to work, and my tmux sessions have a starting directory which is the working directory I started the tmux session from. Every pane/window I open start with this starting directory as working directory.
I can change this starting directory, and this change would apply to the whole session.
But if I want to work on a different project with several panes, I could start a new window, but every pane I would open in it would start with the session's starting directory : I would have to cd to the new location for each pane which isn't practical.
If I need to work on several project/directories simultaneously, I can start a new terminal session, then cd to the relevant directory/project and start a new tmux session. That's not complicated.
But if I want to do the same thing on a server through ssh, I'd need to either :
open a new ssh session.
either embed my remote tmux sessions in an other tmux session.
Neither sounds practical to me, I'd prefer a single tmux session on the remote machine.
I think it would be more convenient to being able to start new window with its own starting directory location that would apply to any new pane opened in it. Is there a way to achieve this?
Edit :
I already tried the -c parameter of tmux new-window command.
But it doesn't assign its starting directory to the window created this way, it only applies this custom starting directory to the first pane created.
Any new pane opened in this window then uses the session's starting directory as default working dir (and not the path passed to tmux new-window).
This question is very similar to: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/12032/create-new-window-with-current-directory-in-tmux
It depends on your tmux version but the -c parameter does do the trick but it does not remember the setting. There used to be a default-path setting but that has been removed in version 1.9 unfortunately.
For newer versions you will need to pass along the -c in all cases (you can use an alias if you manually execute that command) or if you use key bindings you need to rebind the split/new window keys.
bind '"' split-window -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind % split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}"
bind c new-window -c "#{pane_current_path}"
To use a custom path instead of the current pane path, execute this command:
tmux setenv custom_path /home/whatever/some/path
Put this in your config:
bind '"' split-window -c "#{custom_path}"
bind % split-window -h -c "#{custom_path}"
bind c new-window -c "#{custom_path}"
Yes, it turns out the -c option to the new-window command is what you are looking for: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/12032/create-new-window-with-current-directory-in-tmux Also, this: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/101949/new-tmux-panes-go-to-the-same-directory-as-the-current-pane-new-tmux-windows-go
So either of tmux new-window -c $(pwd) or tmux new-window -c /path/to/dir inside your tmux session should do it.
Right now I use the following settings (in my local ~/.tmux.conf file) which allow me to use C-Space as my prefix key in my local tmux sessions and C-a as my prefix in my nested tmux sessions (i.e. through ssh):
Local .tmux.conf
unbind-key C-b
set -g prefix C-Space
bind-key -n C-a send-prefix
Remote .tmux.conf
set -g prefix C-Space
How can I map C-a+a in my nested session to go to the beginning of the line?
Just don't do
bind-key -n C-a send-prefix
# this binding sends prefix to internal tmux session.
# So when you press it, it invokes prefix mode on internal tmux
And everything should work fine.
Or if you really need to have C-a sending prefix
In remote .tmux.conf
# for C-a+a
bind-key a send-keys C-a
# for C-a+C-a
bind-key C-a send-keys C-a
I would like to bind CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (without prefix) to tmux functions, under minTTY/cygwin.
I have tried the following tmux configuration:
set-option -gw xterm-keys on
bind-key -n C-Tab next-window
bind-key -n "^[[1;5I" next-window # tmux doesn't recognize
bind-key -n "\e[1;5I" next-window # tmux doesn't recognize
If I hit CTRL+TAB after launching tmux, I get a bell sound. If I hit it after the tmux prefix, it prints 1;5I.
I am using minTTY 2.2.3 under cygwin/Babun. I have disabled minTTY's handling of this key combo via its options (SwitchShortcuts=no in .minttyrc).
For reference, CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB work for cycling screen windows with the following .screenrc:
bindkey "^[[1;5I" next
bindkey "^[[1;6I" prev
I got here because I bumped into the same issue.
tmux now supports custom key bindings via user-keys - since August 2017, so if you can build tmux yourself, or once a new tmux version is released, it's possible like so:
set -s user-keys[0] "\e[1;5I"
set -s user-keys[1] "\e[1;6I"
bind-key -n User0 select-pane -t+
bind-key -n User1 select-pane -t-
Note that you must use double quotes and not single quotes or else it won't interpret \e correctly.
At the time of writing the example in the manual uses single quotes - https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/1043 , though it's likely to be fixed soon.
When tmux opens, I would like it to use zsh instead of bash by default. How would I accomplish this?
From man tmux:
default-shell path
Specify the default shell. This is used as the login shell for new windows when the default-command option is set to empty, and must
be the full path of the executable. When started tmux tries to set a default value from the first suitable of the SHELL environment
variable, the shell returned by getpwuid(3), or /bin/sh. This option should be configured when tmux is used as a login shell.
So, in your tmux.conf:
# set shell
set -g default-shell /bin/zsh
and if you want you can add default command each time, when we start a new window:
# Retach userspaces
set -g default-command "reattach-to-user-namespace -l zsh"
You probably want zsh to be your default shell for most things, then (but this will not apply to cron). The following will make zsh your default shell, and you should then not need to tell tmux anything.
chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh
Note that some OSs still use /bin/zsh as the path to zsh.
If you prefer to set it individually for a session, but not for other (future) sessions, you can use
tmux new-session /bin/zsh \; set default-shell /bin/zsh