Why you should use tmux

tmux-example

Ever have a terminal die or lose an ssh connection while doing something important?

If you were using tmux, your shells and programs would still be running.

You also get cool tabs, screen splitting and a stupid bar with a clock on it!

Installing tmux

You’ll find it in nearly every package manager as tmux.

See here for more details: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/Installing

Install / configure your terminal font

Most tmux themes (the good looking ones) use glyphs that require a special font. If you haven’t already, download and install a patched font of your choosing here: https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#patched-fonts. Then configure your terminal to use that font.

The font in the screenshots is Fira Mono Nerd Font.

Updating tmux config

This is a reasonable default config. Write these contents to ~/.tmux.conf.

# uncomment below to use `zsh` or your favorite shell by default
#set-option -g default-shell /usr/bin/zsh

# enable truecolor mode
set -g default-terminal "xterm-256color"
set-option -ga terminal-overrides ",xterm-256color:Tc"

# change the prefix from C-b to C-a. these are the keys used by `screen`, so it's easier for converts.
make C-a the prefix
unbind-key C-b
set-option -g prefix C-a
bind-key   a send-prefix

# enable mouse. clicking tabs will work, if your terminal supports it.
setw -g mouse on

# bind space to "next window"
bind-key -r Space next-window
bind-key -r "C-Space" next-window

# set clock format
setw -g clock-mode-style 12

# bind 'r' to reload config
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display-message "Config reloaded..."

# install plugin stuff
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm'
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible'
set -g @plugin "arcticicestudio/nord-tmux"
run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'

Installing tmux plugins

First clone tpm, which manages the plugins.

git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm

Then tell tpm to install the plugins specified in the tmux config:

~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/bin/install_plugins

Optionally create a `mux` alias

This is a handy alias to start tmux; it will attach to an existing session if one exists, otherwise a new session will be created.

Add this to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

alias mux='tmux new -A -s jammy'

Replace the session name jammy with anything you like - it will be displayed in the lower left corner.

Running for the first time

Restart your terminal and run mux:

tmux-first-launch

Navigating `tmux` and shortcut keys

All tmux commands work by holding Ctrl and pressing a, followed by the desired shortcut letter.

c create a window (tab)
n or space move to next window
p move to previous window
, rename current window
r reload tmux.conf
I install plugins

Try creating a couple of windows, and cycling between them for practice. It only takes a few moments to figure out.

Other themes

Don’t like nord? There’s others. Here’s some alternatives:

Some plain color variations: https://github.com/jimeh/tmux-themepack
Gruvbox: https://github.com/egel/tmux-gruvbox
Dracula: https://github.com/dracula/tmux

Other tmux plugins

If a clock isn’t good enough for you, you can add more stupid stuff to tmux like battery power, cpu, temps, etc.

See tmux plugins here: https://github.com/tmux-plugins

Windows Terminal and WSL2

Here’s a neat trick to always open WSL2 with tmux using Debian as an example.

Open Settings in Windows Terminal
Click Add New Profile, copy from the existing Debian profile, and name it Debian (tmux)
Change the Command Line option to: wsl.exe -d Debian /usr/bin/tmux new -A -s WSL2
Optionally make it the new default terminal in Settings -> Startup