Tmux uses hotkey twice. The default first one is fixed to Ctrlb, and some common second hotkeys(1) are listed below.
| Second Hotkey | Description |
|---|---|
| : | Activate the command input mode, then you can use the commands listed in the Commands section of this page. |
| d | Detach the current client. |
| " | Split the current pane into two, top and bottom. |
| % | Split the current pane into two, left and right. |
| 0 - 9 | Select windows 0 to 9. |
| [ | Enter copy mode to copy text or view the history. |
| ] | Paste the most recently copied buffer of text. |
| c | Create a new window. |
| x | Kill the current pane. |
| & | Kill the current window. |
| f | Prompt to search for text in open windows. |
| , | Rename the current window. |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| set -g mouse on | Turn on mouse mode, in which you can switch the window grid or scroll the screen. |
| set -g default-terminal "screen-256color" | Change the color scheme to screen-256color, which is the default scheme for the Linux shell. |
| kill-session -t id/name | Kill the session specified by id or name. |
| source /path/to/tmux.conf | Apply /path/to/tmux.conf to the current tmux server. |
When the tmux server is started, tmux runs a file called .tmux.conf in the user's home directory. This file contains a list of tmux commands which are executed in order.
For example, add the following commands (2) to .tmux.conf, then reopen a new terminal and run tmux to start tmux server.