Tmux tips and tricks

I'm a heavy tmux user. Mostly because of the way I launch and monitor my dev servers/compilers/transpilers while coding.

Configuring Tmux in a right way for your needs is really important if you want to have a distraction free workflow.

Better Tmux prefix

Prefix key is going to be the most used one. Setting it right is crucial. For me Meta-z combination works really well since both keys are easy to press and I don't use any other keybinds that can interfere with it.

# Better prefix
set -g prefix M-z
unbind C-b
bind M-z send-prefix

At some point you'll also face a situation when you need to use the prefix key in nested sessions, so let's handle that too by setting Meta-a as a keybind.

# Nested Tmux keybinds
bind-key -n M-a send-prefix

Use Meta+arrow keys without prefix key to switch panes.

bind -n M-Left select-pane -L
bind -n M-Right select-pane -R
bind -n M-Up select-pane -U
bind -n M-Down select-pane -D

Use shift+arrow keys to switch windows.

bind -n S-Left  previous-window
bind -n S-Right next-window

Vim user specific keybinds

You can skip this part if you don't plan on using Vi/Vim or their keybinds. Otherwise comments are pretty self-explainatory.

# Instant vim-mode change
set -s escape-time 0

# Enable modifier keys in vim
set-option -g xterm-keys on

# Use vi keybinds
setw -g mode-keys vi
set -g status-keys vi

Mouse support

Generally you shouldn't be using your mouse if you want to be extra productive but there are exceptions, so we'll set it up just in case:

# Mouse support
set -g mouse on
bind -n WheelUpPane   select-pane -t= \; copy-mode -e \; send-keys -M
bind -n WheelDownPane select-pane -t= \;                 send-keys -M

Copy mode keybinds

This snippet creates a vi-like experience in copy mode.

# Copy mode settings
unbind p
bind p paste-buffer
bind -Tcopy-mode v send -X begin-selection
bind -Tcopy-mode y send -X copy-selection

Increase the history size

# Bigger history
set -g history-limit 10000

Change pane/window counting index

If you prefer keeping 0-index pane/window for special purposes, this might come in handy.

# Start counting windows/panes from 1
set -g base-index 1
setw -g pane-base-index 1

Turn on the aggressive resize

When using the same session on multiple screens, you'll be limited by the smallest screen resolution on all screens. This can be mostly fixed by aggressive resize.

setw -g aggressive-resize on

Use a plugin manager

TPM is a really great way of managing Tmux plugins.

I'm personally using the following ones:

Tmux Resurrect to restore the session after rebooting
Tmux Copycat for regex based searches in copymode
Tmux net-speed to monitor network usage

##Plugins
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-copycat'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-net-speed'

##Plugin location
set-environment -g TMUX_PLUGIN_MANAGER_PATH '~/.dotfiles/tmux/plugins/'
##Init
run '~/.dotfiles/tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'