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tmux

Tmux (and screen) is useful when you want to run a command on a remote machine that takes a long time to complete where you don’t want to keep the connection open during the whole command.

For instance you could start a torrent download on a remote machine, disconnect and then reconnect when the download is finished.

ssh user@machine
tmux
rtorrent <torrent file>   # Hit ^S to start, ^K to stop download, ^Q to exit
<C-b d>     # to disconnect from tmux session
exit        # from ssh connection

When you want to check the download you can attach to the same session again.

 ssh user@machine tmux attach [-t session]

When the torrent download is completed you can quit rtorrent and the ssh connection.

You can do a lot of other things with tmux. It support multiple sessions, windows and panes. If you want to enter a tmux command you first need to enter tmux command prompt. This is done by issuing : after the tmux prefix key C-b. In general you control tmux via single letter keybindings (e.g. C-b d) or via commands, by first entering tmux command prompt.

C-b :       # Enter tmux command prompt

In the command prompt you may for instance list all supported commands.

C-b : list-commands     # or lscm
q                       # To exit from list view

To exit from the current command enter q.

Other useful commands are.

Window managment …

Ctrl-b c # Create new window
Ctrl-b x # Delete current pane
Ctrl-b n # Move to the next window
Ctrl-b p # Move to the previous window
Ctrl-b l # Move to the previously selected window
Ctrl-b w # List all windows / window numbers
Ctrl-b <window number> # Move to the specified window number, the default bindings are from 0 – 9

Session management …

C-b : new-session     # Create new session (alias new)
C-b : kill-session    # Kill current session
C-b : list-session    # List all sessions (alias ls)
C-b : detach-client   # Detach client from sessions (alias detach). Also available via keybinding "C-b d"

Have fun with tmux!

References

• tmux(1)
• tmux article on undeadly
• tmux introduction
• nohup(1)