.tmux

Self-contained, pretty and versatile .tmux.conf configuration file.

The master branch targets tmux HEAD. You may want to use the 1.9 or 2.0 branch.

Features

• C-a acts as secondary prefix, while keeping default C-b prefix
• visual theme inspired by Powerline
• maximize any pane to a new window with <prefix> +
• mouse mode toggle with <prefix> m
• automatic usage of reattach-to-user-namespace if available
• laptop battery status
• optional highlight of focused pane (tmux 2.1+)
• configurable new windows and panes behavior (optionally retain current path)
• Facebook PathPicker integration if available
• Urlview integration if available

This configuration uses the following bindings:

• <prefix> C-c creates a new session
• <prefix> e opens ~/.tmux.conf.local with the editor defined by the $EDITOR environment variable (defaults to vim when empty)
• <prefix> r reloads the configuration
• <prefix> C-f lets you switch to another session by name
• <prefix> C-h and <prefix> C-l let you navigate windows (default <prefix> n and <prefix> p are unbound)
• <prefix> Tab brings you to the last active window
• <prefix> h, <prefix> j, <prefix> k and <prefix> l let you navigate panes ala Vim
• <prefix> H, <prefix> J, <prefix> K, L` let you resize panes
• <prefix> < and <prefix> > let you swap panes
• <prefix> + maximizes the current pane to a new window
• <prefix> m toggles mouse mode on or off
• <prefix> U launches Urlview (if available)
• <prefix> F launches Facebook PathPicker (if available)
• <prefix> Enter enters copy-mode
• <prefix> b lists the paste-buffers
• <prefix> p pastes from the top paste-buffer
• <prefix> P lets you choose the paste-buffer to paste from
• C-l clears both the screen and the history

Additionaly, vi-choice, vi-edit and vi-copy named tables are adjusted to closely match my own Vim configuration

Bindings for the vi-choice mode-table:

• h collapses the current tree node
• l expands the current tree node
• H collapes all the tree nodes
• L expands all the tree nodes
• K jumps to the start of list (tmux 2.0+)
• L jumps to the end of list (tmux 2.0+)
• Escape cancels the current operation

Bindings for the vi-edit mode-table:

• H jumps to the start of line
• L jumps to the end of line
• q cancels the current operation
• Escape cancels the current operation

Bindings for the vi-copy mode-table:

• v begins selection / visual mode
• C-v toggles between blockwise visual mode and visual mode
• H jumps to the start of line
• L jumps to the end of line
• y copies the selection to the top paste-buffer
• Escape cancels the current operation

The "maximize any pane to a new window with <prefix> +" feature is different from stock resize-pane -Z as it allows you to further split a maximized pane. Also, you can maximize a pane to a new window, then change window, then go back and the pane is still in maximized state in its own window. You can then minimize a pane by using <prefix> + either from the source window or the maximized window.

Mouse mode allows you to set the active window, set the active pane, resize panes and select switch to copy-mode to select text.

Installation

$ cd
$ rm -rf .tmux
$ git clone https://github.com/gpakosz/.tmux.git
$ ln -s .tmux/.tmux.conf
$ cp .tmux/.tmux.conf.local .

If you're a Vim user, setting the $EDITOR environment variable to vim will enable and further customize the vi-style key bindings (see tmux manual).

Configuration

While this configuration tries to bring sane default settings, you may want to customize it further to your needs. Instead of altering the ~/.tmux.conf file and diverging from upstream, the proper way is to edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file:

echo "set -g history-limit 10000" >> ~/.tmux.conf.local

You will also notice the default .tmux.conf.local file contains variables you can change to alter different behaviors. Pressing <prefix> e will open ~/.tmux.conf.local with the editor defined by the $EDITOR environment variable (defaults to vim when empty).

Enabling the Powerline like visual theme

Powerline originated as a status-line plugin for Vim. Its popular eye-cacthing look is based on the use of special symbols:

To make use of these symbols, there are several options:

• use a font that already bundles those: this is e.g. the case of the 2.010R-ro/1.030R-it version of the Source Code Pro] font
• use a pre-patched font
• use your preferred font along with the Powerline font (that only contains the Powerline symbols): this highly depends on your operating system and your terminal emulator
• patch your preferred font by adding the missing Powerline symbols: this is the most difficult way and is no more documented in the Powerline manual

Please see the powerline manual for further details.

Then edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme variable:

tmux_conf_theme=powerline

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme are default and powerline.

Configuring the prefix indicator

To enable or disable the prefix indicator (whether the <prefix> key has been pressed), edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme_prefix variable:

tmux_conf_theme_prefix=enabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme_prefix are enabled or disabled (default).

Configuring the battery indicator

To enable or disable the battery indicator, edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme_battery variable:

tmux_conf_theme_battery=enabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme_battery are enabled (default) or disabled.

You can also customize the symbol used in the battery bar as well as their number by adjusting the tmux_conf_battery_symbol and tmux_conf_battery_symbol_count variables.

tmux_conf_battery_symbol=heart
tmux_conf_battery_symbol_count=5

The possible values for tmux_conf_battery_symbol are block (default) or block. The default number of symbol displayed is 10.

To customize the battery bar colors, adjust the tmux_conf_battery_palette variable. You can either specify a 'colour_full_fg,colour_empty_fg,colour_bg' colour triplet or one of the heat or gradient aliases. See tmux manual for colours definition:

The colour is one of: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, aixterm bright variants (if supported: brightred, brightgreen, and so on), colour0 to colour255 from the 256-colour set, default, or a hexadecimal RGB string such as #ffffff, which chooses the closest match from the default 256-colour set.

To use the heat palette for the battery indicator, use:

tmux_conf_battery_palette=heat

To use the gradient palette for the battery indicator, use:

#tmux_conf_battery_palette=heat

To disable the battery charging (⚡ U+26A1) / discharging (🔋 U+1F50B) status, adjust the tmux_conf_battery_status variable:

tmux_conf_battery_status=disabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_battery_status are enabled (defaut) or disabled.

Configuring the date and time

To disable the display of date and time, edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme_date and tmux_conf_theme_time variables:

tmux_conf_theme_time=disabled
tmux_conf_theme_date=disabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme_date and tmux_conf_theme_time are enabled (defaut) or disabled.

Configuring the username and hostname

To disable the display of username and hostname, edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme_username and tmux_conf_theme_hostname variables:

tmux_conf_theme_username=disabled tmux_conf_theme_hostname=disabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme_username and tmux_conf_theme_hostname are enabled (default) or disabled, or ssh.

When you set tmux_conf_theme_username or tmux_conf_theme_hostname to ssh, information is displayed only if you're inside an SSH session.

Configuring highlighting of the focused pane

To highlight the focused pane, edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local file (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_theme_highlight_focused_pane variable:

tmux_conf_theme_highlight_focused_pane=enabled

The possible values for tmux_conf_theme_highlight_focused_pane variable are disabled (default) or enabled.

This feature is only available from tmux 2.1.

Configuring new windows and new panes creation

To configure whether creating new windows and new panes retains the current path, edit the ~/.tmux.conf.local (<prefix> e) and adjust the tmux_conf_new_windows_retain_current_path and tmux_conf_new_panes_retain_current_path variables:

tmux_conf_new_windows_retain_current_path=false
tmux_conf_new_panes_retain_current_path=true

The possible values for tmux_conf_new_windows_retain_current_path and tmux_conf_new_panes_retain_current_path are true or false.

Accessing the Mac OSX clipboard from within tmux sessions

Chris Johnsen created the reattach-to-user-namespace utility that makes pbcopy and pbpaste work again within tmux.

To install reattach-to-user-namespace, use either MacPorts or Homebrew:

$ port install tmux-pasteboard

or

$ brew install reattach-to-user-namespace

Once installed, reattach-to-usernamespace will be automatically detected.

Using the configuration under Cygwin within Mintty

It is possible to use this configuration under Cygwin within Mintty, however support for Unicode symbols and emojis lacks behind Mac and Linux.

Particularly, Mintty's text rendering is implemented with GDI which has limitations:

• color emojis are only available through DirectWrite starting with Windows 8.1
• display double width symbols, like the battery discharging symbol indicator (U+1F50B) is buggy

As a consequence, under Cygwin, the battery charging (⚡ U+26A1) status indicator is rendered as a monochrome lightning bolt instead of a colorful emoji while the discharging (🔋 U+1F50B) one is simply disabled.

Also, to get the battery charging status indicator displayed properly, you have to use font linking. Open regedit.exe then navigate to the registry key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE–\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontLink\SystemLink and add a new entry for you preferred font to link it with the Segoe UI Symbol font.