learntmux.dev
Task 1 of 8
Level 1 · BasicsOverview
  1. 1Start your first session
  2. 2The prefix key and new windows
  3. 3Find any key with the help list
  4. 4Run commands from the command prompt
  5. 5Detach and come back
  6. 6Read the session list and juggle sessions
  7. 7Split the window into panes
  8. 8Split with flags
  9. 9Move between panes
  10. 10Kill the server
  11. 11Challenge: morning on the build boxchallenge
Level 2 · IntermediateOverview
  1. 1Change the current window
  2. 2Rename the session and a window
  3. 3Kill a pane, a window and a session
  4. 4Zoom a pane
  5. 5Resize panes
  6. 6Apply window layouts
  7. 7Mark and swap panes
  8. 8Move and renumber windows
  9. 9Browse in tree mode
  10. 10Tag and kill from the tree
  11. 11Kick out a stale client
  12. 12Challenge: tidy a messy sessionchallenge
Level 3 · AdvancedOverview
  1. 1Copy text in copy mode
  2. 2Scroll, search the scrollback and paste
  3. 3Choose and delete buffers in buffer mode
  4. 4Name, save and load buffers
  5. 5Find a window by its content or name
  6. 6Use the mouse
  7. 7Break out, join and send keys
  8. 8Challenge: recover the secret from the logschallenge
Level 4 · ConfigureOverview
  1. 1Show, set and unset options
  2. 2Write the configuration file
  3. 3Add and remove key bindings
  4. 4Change the prefix key
  5. 5Customize the status line
  6. 6Formats and embedded styles
  7. 7Embedded shell commands
  8. 8Configure the pane border
  9. 9Use vi keys in copy mode
  10. 10Mouse copying behaviour
  11. 11Challenge: write your own tmux.confchallenge
Cheat sheet

Copy text in copy mode

Goal

A paste buffer holds the deploy key line.

Copy mode is the read-and-select mode for a pane’s screen and its scrollback. The pane freezes, and inside it no key needs a prefix:

C-b [
enter copy mode
arrows
move the cursor
C-a / C-e
jump to the start or end of the line
C-Space
start a selection (C-g drops it and stays)
M-w
copy the selection into a buffer and leave
q
leave without copying

The copied text becomes a paste buffer, ready for the next task.

Do this

Press C-b [.

The pane freezes and a position counter appears top right.

Press Up until the cursor is on deploy key: deploy-key-7f3a9c2e, then C-a.

The cursor sits at the start of that line.

Press C-Space, then C-e.

The line highlights from start to end.

Press M-w.

The highlight goes, copy mode ends, and the line is in a buffer.

How automatic buffers are kept

Buffers copied this way are automatic — buffer0, buffer1 and so on — and tmux keeps the last 50.

C-w copies exactly like M-w, but many browsers close the tab on C-w first, so M-w is the safer habit.

The keys above are emacs-style, the default. A vi-style table exists too, and the mode-keys option switches between them.

Stuck on this one?

This is a live terminal. Typing goes to the machine, including Tab. Press Shift and Tab together to move focus back out to the page.

A real terminal, in this tab

about 15 MB, once

session learn

Done when

not started
  1. Window 0 of session learn is in copy mode— not done yet
  2. A paste buffer contains the deploy key line— not done yet