colorful tmux
An eye-candy, which makes tmux more usable, and matches my colorful bash prompt.
.bash.rc
I prefer tmux to try to reattach to a session before creating a new one, this bash alias changes the default behaviour:
# always try to reattach
alias tmux="tmux attach"
.tmux.conf
Here are the modifications to tmux, with comments:
The features I use the most have new keybindings allowing me to access them instantly.
# rebind default C-b to M-a (not conflicting with bash C-a)
unbind -n C-b
set -g prefix M-a
bind M-a send-key M-a
# use colors 256
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
# select pane
bind -n M-Left select-pane -L
bind -n M-Right select-pane -R
bind -n M-Up select-pane -U
bind -n M-Down select-pane -D
# split
bind C-Up split-window -bv
bind C-Down split-window -v
bind C-Left split-window -bh
bind C-Right split-window -h
# zoom-in pane (toggle)
bind Enter resize-pane -Z
# display panes
bind a display-panes
set -g display-panes-time 5000
# use mouse
set -g mouse on
# allow tmux attach to create new session if no existing
new-session
# refresh status every sec
set status-interval 1
# prevent apps from changing window names
set allow-rename off
# window rename
bind s command-prompt 'rename-window %%'
# eye-candy
set -g pane-border-bg colour0
set -g pane-border-fg colour238
set -g pane-active-border-bg colour0
set -g pane-active-border-fg colour226
set -g status-position top
set -g status-bg colour237
set -g status-fg colour247
set -g status-attr dim
set -g status-left ''
set -g status-right '#[bg=colour236] #[bg=colour235] #[bg=colour234] #[bg=colour233] %d/%m #[bg=colour232] %H:%M:%S '
set -g status-right-length 50
set -g status-left-length 20
set -g display-panes-active-colour colour226
set -g display-panes-colour colour238
After appling the above you will have yor tmux "escape" key mapped to Alt+A, which does not conflict with anything else I use and is still really easy to reach with one hand.
To split a window (into panes) you can hit Alt+A followed by Ctrl+ArrowKey (if you want the new pane to be on right from the current, hit Right ArrowKey).
Switching between panes is shorter, just Alt+ArrowKey. To resize pane: press down Alt, hit A, adjust the size with ArrowKey, release Alt.
Hit Alt+A followed by A to get some more info about the panes.
Hit Alt+A followed by S to rename the current window.
Hit Alt+A followed by Z to toggle zoom of the current pane (make it temporary fit the whole window).
It’s probably the best to have your own key bindings, but I hope this may be an inspiration.