learntmux.dev
Task 5 of 11
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

Customize the status line

Goal

The status line is at the top, red, and shows only %H:%M on the right.

Three options draw the bar:

status-position
top or bottom
status-style
a style, such as bg=red
status-right
a format string; %H:%M is the time

status-right replaces the whole right side; it does not add to it. The default is "#{=21:pane_title}" %H:%M %d-%b-%y — pane title, time, date — so setting it to just the time drops the other two. The % codes are the ones date uses.

Do this

Run open ~/.tmux.conf, add these lines, and save with Ctrl-S:

set -g status-position top
set -g status-style bg=red
set -g status-right '%H:%M'

Press C-b :, type source ~/.tmux.conf, Enter.

The bar jumps to the top, turns red, and its right end is just the time.

Writing styles

A style is terms separated by spaces or commas. fg= and bg= take a colour; bold, bright, underscore, reverse and italics stand alone.

Colours are the eight names, brightNAME, colour0 to colour255, or hex like #882244.

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. status-position is top— not done yet
  2. status-style includes bg=red— not done yet
  3. status-right is exactly %H:%M— not done yet