Tmux for mere mortals

Tmux has liberated me from tiling window mangers. Not that I didn’t like those, but I occasionally have to work with macOS or default GNOME setups. And over the years I realised that I only need a terminal multiplexor to do terminal tiling for me, the rest of the windows are just fine to be full-screen in separate workspaces.

So, I ended up doing 80% of my work in terminals with tmux. But, the prefix thing? Pardonnez-moi, but usability matters. Pressing a chorded prefix hotkey only to press another chorded hotkey to perform a single action is clear nonsense.

With this in mind, I decided to customize my tmux to use only simple chorded hotkeys without a prefix for most common actions, and to make them easy to remember. Additionally, my goal was not to override anything in the default tmux configuration to be able to use default tmux as well, if I have to (i.e. when ssh’ed to some remote server). Finally, I wanted it to be similar in German/US keyboards, as well as work for MacBooks and regular laptops.

Here’s what I came up with:

Mod+1..9: switch windows from 1 to 9

Mod+, and Mod+.: switch to next/prev windows

Mod+HJKL or arrows: switch between panes

Mod+N: create new window

Mod+F: toggle full-screen

Mod+V: split vertically

Mod+B: split horizontally (“bisect”)

Mod+X: close pane

Mod+/: enter copy and scroll mode

Intuitive? Now, same hotkeys with Shift key are used to modify things:

Mod+< and Mod+>: move current window to the left/right

Mod+Shift+HJKL or arrows: move pane to the left/right/up/down

Mod+Shift+X: close window

Mod+Shift+R: rename window

That’s pretty much everything I ever needed from tmux. For other, less frequent actions I accept to use the default bindings, from time to time.

Additionally, I would like tmux to use my primary clipboard on all systems, so that I would only have to copy text with my mouse or keyboard selection. Resizing panes is also usable with a mouse.

As for the status bar, I’m not a big fan of being overloaded with information, so I only show window names there, or in the case then window has only an open shell - current directory name.

Nothing else.

Here’s the tmux.conf (or you may always have a look at my dotfiles for a newer version:

set-option -g default-terminal screen-256color set -g history-limit 10000 set -g base-index 1 set-option -g renumber-windows on set -s escape-time 0 bind-key -n M-n new-window -c "#{pane_current_path}" bind-key -n M-1 select-window -t :1 bind-key -n M-2 select-window -t :2 bind-key -n M-3 select-window -t :3 bind-key -n M-4 select-window -t :4 bind-key -n M-5 select-window -t :5 bind-key -n M-6 select-window -t :6 bind-key -n M-7 select-window -t :7 bind-key -n M-8 select-window -t :8 bind-key -n M-9 select-window -t :9 bind-key -n M-0 select-window -t :0 bind-key -n M-. select-window -n bind-key -n M-, select-window -p bind-key -n M-< swap-window -t -1 bind-key -n M-> swap-window -t +1 bind-key -n M-X confirm-before "kill-window" bind-key -n M-v split-window -h -c "#{pane_current_path}" bind-key -n M-b split-window -v -c "#{pane_current_path}" bind-key -n M-R command-prompt -I "" "rename-window '%%'" bind-key -n M-f resize-pane -Z bind-key -n M-h select-pane -L bind-key -n M-l select-pane -R bind-key -n M-k select-pane -U bind-key -n M-j select-pane -D bind-key -n M-Left select-pane -L bind-key -n M-Right select-pane -R bind-key -n M-Up select-pane -U bind-key -n M-Down select-pane -D bind-key -n "M-H" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -L; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-J" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -D; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-K" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -U; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-L" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -R; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-S-Left" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -L; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-S-Down" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -D; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-S-Up" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -U; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n "M-S-Right" run-shell 'old=`tmux display -p "#{pane_index}"`; tmux select-pane -R; tmux swap-pane -t $old' bind-key -n M-x confirm-before "kill-pane" bind-key -n M-/ copy-mode # Linux system clipboard bind -T copy-mode-vi Enter send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -in -selection clipboard" bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "xclip -in -selection clipboard" # macOS system clipboard #bind -T copy-mode-vi Enter send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy" #bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy" set -g mouse on set-option -g status-keys vi set-option -g set-titles on set-option -g set-titles-string 'tmux - #W' set -g bell-action any set-option -g visual-bell off set-option -g set-clipboard off setw -g mode-keys vi setw -g monitor-activity on set -g visual-activity on set -g status-style fg=colour15 set -g status-justify centre set -g status-left '' set -g status-right '' set -g status-interval 1 set -g message-style fg=colour0,bg=colour3 setw -g window-status-bell-style fg=colour1 setw -g window-status-current-style fg=yellow,bold setw -g window-status-style fg=colour250 setw -g window-status-current-format ' #{?#{==:#W,#{b:SHELL}},#{b:pane_current_path},#W} ' setw -g window-status-format ' #{?#{==:#W,#{b:SHELL}},#{b:pane_current_path},#W} ' # For older tmux: #setw -g window-status-format ' #W ' #setw -g window-status-current-format ' #W '

Now tmux feels like a regular desktop app and truly boosts the productivity in the terminal. What do you think?

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See also: How to configure zsh and more.