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Tmux Configurations

Tmux​

Tmux is my #1 goto when I fire up any terminal that I plan to spend more than 30 mins on. It also happens to be the default terminal for my VSCode terminal.

Standard Configuration​

set -g mouse on
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set-option -g default-command bash

set -g window-style 'fg=colour230,bg=colour235'
set -g window-active-style 'fg=colour230,bg=colour233'

set -g pane-active-border-style 'fg=colour237,bg=colour234'
set -g pane-border-style 'fg=colour232,bg=colour234'
set -g pane-border-format '###{pane_index} [ #{pane_tty} ] S:#{session_name} M:#{pane_marked} #{pane_width}x#{pane_height}'
set -g pane-border-status 'bottom' # off|top|bottom

bind-key x kill-pane

Features:

  • Mouse support so I don't need to remember any select pane or resize pane keyboard magic hotkeys and commands.
  • By default, tmux will enable colors on the screen.
  • In general I like to use a dark theme, therefore the window/pane backgrounds switch between varying levels of dark gray, but different enough that I can easily see when terminal is active.
  • I list some pane information at the bottom of each pane:
    • Pane Index (for when we don't have a mouse)
    • Pane Tty - Allows some fun hackery when capturing dumps or logging
    • Session - Allows me to be aware of what session I'm in when I need to reset my SSH connection for whatever reason.
    • An indicator of whether the pane is Marked or not. Tmux marks have bitten me a bunch in my workflow in the paste so I like to always be aware of its state.
    • Dimensions - For those times you want that exact 80x25 terminal pane. :)
  • I've added a special Ctrl-B, x to kill the current pane. I really don't use this.

Light Theme​

On the flip side, when I'm using a laptop or monitor outside, its often much better to have a light theme. This configuration does just that.

set -g mouse on
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set-option -g default-command bash

set -g window-style 'fg=colour237,bg=colour251'
set -g window-active-style 'fg=colour237,bg=colour231'

set -g pane-active-border-style 'fg=colour237,bg=colour234'
set -g pane-border-style 'fg=colour232,bg=colour234'
set -g pane-border-format '###{pane_index} [ #{pane_tty} ] S:#{session_name} M:#{pane_marked} #{pane_width}x#{pane_height}'
set -g pane-border-status 'bottom' # off|top|bottom

bind-key x kill-pane

Switching Themes:

If you're going to have multiple themes, you are going to want an easy way to switch between the two. For this I have a configs in my home directory set like the following:

lrwxrwxrwx  1 user user   31 Jan 1 2022 .tmux.conf -> .tmux.conf.dark
-rw-rw-r--  1 user user  509 Jan 1 2022 .tmux.conf.dark
-rw-rw-r--  1 user user  333 Jan 1 2022 .tmux.conf.light
-rwxrwxr-x  1 user user   80 Jan 1 2022 light.sh
-rwxrwxr-x  1 user user   79 Jan 1 2022 dark.sh

Then all I need to do is run light.sh or dark.sh to switch to the relevant theme.

light.sh:

#!/bin/sh
ln -sf ~/.tmux.conf.light ~/.tmux.conf
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

dark.sh:

#!/bin/sh
ln -sf ~/.tmux.conf.dark ~/.tmux.conf
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf