Terminal Multiplexing

When I open a Terminal session I am usually limited to doing one thing at a time, per terminal session, and if I close the terminal, what I was doing usually goes away. If I open a new terminal session, I start from scratch again. But the solution to this problem is terminal multiplexing. This allows me to have multiple “panes or windows” inside of one terminal window.

It also gives me the ability to detach from a session, and reattach later. This is particularly helpful when working on a remote server, since I can detach my multiplexing session, and then reattach to it, the next time I connect to the server.

there are several programs that can be used to have access to multiplexing.

One way is to install a terminal with built in multiplexing, like Terminator. This can usualy be found in my distributions software repository. The downside of this, is that it locks me in to the terminator program. I prefer to use another terminal application, and therefore I need another way to do this.

There are some different CLI applications I can use to add multiplexing to my chosen terminal. The two I will mention here are “Screen” and “Tmux”. they share alot of functionality, though “Tmux” seems to be the more advanced of the two, with automatic window renaming among other things.

Screen

NOTE: All commands need to be prefixed with the action key. By default, this is Ctrl+a Ctrl+a c new window Ctrl+a n next window Ctrl+a p previous window Ctrl+a ” select window from list Ctrl+a Ctrl+a previous window viewed

Ctrl+a S split terminal horizontally into regions Ctrl+a c to create new window there Ctrl+a | split terminal vertically into regions Requires screen >= 4.1 Ctrl+a :resize resize region Ctrl+a :fit fit screen size to new terminal size Ctrl+a F is the same. Do after resizing xterm Ctrl+a :remove remove region Ctrl+a X is the same Ctrl+a tab Move to next region

Ctrl+a d detach screen from terminal Start screen with -r option to reattach Ctrl+a A set window title Ctrl+a x lock session Enter user password to unlock Ctrl+a [ enter scrollback/copy mode Enter to start and end copy region. Ctrl+a ] to leave this mode Ctrl+a ] paste buffer Supports pasting between windows Ctrl+a > write paste buffer to file useful for copying between screens Ctrl+a < read paste buffer from file useful for pasting between screens

Ctrl+a ? show key bindings/command names Note unbound commands only in man page Ctrl+a : goto screen command prompt up shows last command entered

Tmux

NOTE: All commands need to be prefixed with the action key. By default, this is Ctrl+b

Ctrl+b c – create new window Ctrl+b n/p – move to next/previous window Ctrl+b 0-9 – move to window number 0-9 Ctrl+b l – move to previously selected window Ctrl+b f – find window by name Ctrl+b w – menu with all windows Ctrl+b & – kill current window Ctrl+b , – rename window

Ctrl+b % – split window, adding a vertical pane to the right Ctrl+b ” – split window, adding an horizontal pane below Ctrl+b q – show pane numbers (used to switch between panes) Ctrl+b o – switch to the next pane Ctrl+b left/right – move focus to left/right pane Ctrl+b up/down – move focus to upper/lower pane Ctrl+b ! – Break current pane into new window Ctrl+b x – Kill the current pane.

Ctrl+b d – detach the current client Ctrl+b ? – list all keybindings Ctrl+b ? – show tmux key bindings Ctrl+b [ – enter copy mode (then use emacs select/yank keys)

press CTRL-SPACE or CTRL-@ to start selecting text move cursor to end of desired text press ALT-w to copy selected text ] – paste copied text