161–170 of 285 posts
Ctrl-a interferes with readline shortcuts. I've been using Ctrl- : nothing, as far as I know, binds to that. unbind C-b set-option -g prefix C-Space bind-key C-Space send-prefix
I gave up on it once I discovered https://zellij.dev/ Just even for how tab and panes are setup, and how it's good for scrolling and text selection with your mouse for copy pasting.
Once I discovered window managers and graphics, I stopped using half-baked features to emulate them in the terminal. I use tmux to reattach to programs after the network connection dies, and not really anything else. I would welcome a version of it that stripped out everything but that, and just replayed the last few pages of scrollback on reattach.
I gave up on it once I discovered https://zellij.dev/ Just even for how tab and panes are setup, and how it's good for scrolling and text selection with your mouse for copy pasting.
Once I discovered window managers and graphics, I stopped using half-baked features to emulate them in the terminal. I use tmux to reattach to programs after the network connection dies, and not really anything else. I would welcome a version of it that stripped out everything but that, and just replayed the last few pages of scrollback on reattach.
Mac WM is horrible, I use aerospace to make it tolerable
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I used tmux for a few years, until one day I discovered Zellij. With its significantly better UI and overall user experience, I was instantly convinced.
i tried both and i honestly... i didn't see anything different. i want tmux for three things: 1. easy splits 2. easy scrollback 3. being able to restart a session if my terminal dies given all that, tmux works exactly as expected. what are all these "significantly better ui and overall ux"?
I know I'd get used to them, but the key combos used by tmux seem very odd choices, even to someone who used to code on a real glass tty!
Another easy to use option is using byobu ( https://github.com/dustinkirkland/byobu ).
> Less awkward prefix keys > Probably the most common change among tmux users is to change the prefix from the rather awkward C-b to something that’s a little more accessible. I like the awkwardness of the default prefix key. I have almost never activated it by accident. > Intuitive Split Commands > Another thing I personally find quite difficult to remember is the pane splitting commands." to split vertically and %…
I am 100% in agreement with you. It takes all of 5 seconds to add:
unbind-key -T prefix C-b
set-option -g prefix C-s
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I change the color of the bar in every server I've set it up so I know absolutely where I am.
Aren't you going to run out of colors to pick?
Guys, did you know about tmux control mode? It tells the host terminal to treat tmux tabs as actual tabs in the terminal. That means that things like scrollback, tab navigation, copy paste, keyboard shortcuts, etc are all handled natively, and you can visually see all your tmux tabs! It doesn't have great support across all terminals, but it does work great in iTerm 2. Try `tmux -CC` in iTerm. For a tmux novice like…
this is the only reason i use a mac and in a decade no open source linux terminal has ever implemented this to my knowledge
I love tmux! It's perfectly usable! You only need a 400-line custom-built configuration file[1]! [1] https://doc.xn0.org/.tmux.conf Disclaimer: I am being silly but serious. tmux is absolutely not user-friendly out of the box. It is, however, extremely nice after an absurd amount of tweaking, which is either an endorsement or a damning, depending on your perspective.
# Mindless copy and paste command:
#
# # Standard Linux / GNU tools
# wget -O ~/.tmux.conf https://andrew-quinn.me/tmux-conf.txt
# curl -fsSL https://andrew-quinn.me/tmux-conf.txt -o ~/.tmux.conf
# busybox wget -q -O ~/.tmux.conf https://andrew-quinn.me/tmux-conf.txt
# [... many, many others]
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what does it add over screen which i don't even need to install?
If screen crashes you lose the sessions, Tmux maintains state. Screen does not have UTF8 support, tmux does. Otherwise just a bunch of more sane original defaults in tmux to make things much familiar. In 2026 if given a choice between screen and tmux to use/learn, most are going to go with tmux.
“‘-U’
Run screen in UTF-8 mode. This option tells screen that your terminal sends and understands UTF-8 encoded characters. It also sets the default encoding for new windows to ‘utf8’.”
— https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Invok...>
“Command: defutf8 state
(none) Same as the ‘utf8’ command except that the default setting for new windows is changed. Initial setting is on if screen was started with ‘-U’, otherwise off.”
— https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Chara...>