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What is the best default key binding for tmux and why if one sometimes uses emacs and sometimes uses vim (on Linux Mint 12)? Ctrl-b is OK, but that conflicts a bit with the bash shell and emacs.

justingordon
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7 Answers7

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I found a good answer in a related post: What's the least conflicting prefix/escape sequence for screen or tmux?

And I've gone with Ctrl-\. Below is my ~/.tmux-conf:

set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
set-window-option -g window-status-current-bg blue
set-window-option -g automatic-rename on
set-option -g status-keys vi
set-option -g history-limit 100000
set-option -g base-index 1
set-option -s escape-time 0
setw -g mode-mouse on
set-option -g mouse-select-pane on

# We won't worry about sending C-\ to any programs
# bind-key C-\ send-prefix

# hit C-\ twice to go to last window
bind-key C-\ last-window
bind-key b set-option status

bind-key / command-prompt "split-window 'exec man %%'"
# vim's definition of a horizontal/vertical split is reversed from tmux's
bind s split-window -v
bind v split-window -h

# move around panes with hjkl, as one would in vim after pressing ctrl-w
bind h select-pane -L
bind j select-pane -D
bind k select-pane -U
bind l select-pane -R

# resize panes like vim
bind < resize-pane -L 10
bind > resize-pane -R 10
bind - resize-pane -D 10
bind + resize-pane -U 10

# C-b is not acceptable, due to emacs, bash, and vim
unbind-key C-b
set-option -g prefix C-\
Community
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justingordon
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  • This doesn't work out of the box for Mac. I went back to Ctrl-a, and switched to vim bindings and evil-mode for emacs, so I don't hit ctrl-a anymore for beginning of line. – justingordon Jan 23 '13 at 05:57
4

I strongly prefer C-], which doesn't conflict with vi bindings, and conflicts with the default abort-recursive-edit binding in Emacs. I use that rarely enough, and in nasty enough circumstances, that typing it twice isn't a big drama.

Daniel Pittman
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1

I have been using Ctrl-/ for a while and haven't found to conflict with anything at least in vim/bash. I don't use emacs so I don't know if it conflicts with anything important in it.

Also a small note I believe I had to bind it to C-_ to get it to work since that is the actual key it sends.

Neg_EV
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  • C-\ and C-_ are definitely different characters; respectively, they are 0x1C “File Separator” and 0x1F “Unit Separator”. See the table in [Wikipedia’s ASCII control characters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#ASCII_control_characters). – Chris Johnsen Jan 26 '12 at 03:26
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I chose Ctrl+Alt+b, i.e.

unbind C-b
set -g prefix M-C-b
Andrew
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1

I use C-\. Note that you need to escape it with single quotes:

unbind-key C-b
set-option -g prefix C-'\'
Mahdi
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0

The best solution I've come across for this is using just `. The only place this causes me problems is pasting in code directly (with system buffers), otherwise it's the perfect solution. 

set -g prefix `
bind-key ` send-prefix
huntar
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0

Another good idea is to go for M-F3. It doesn't conflict with emacs and vi, the combinaison is rather convenient, is it' rather closed to the M-F2 and M-F1 used for run command and virtualdesktops menu.

[I'm using emacs, and starting some vim (inside emacs for now) and using linuxMint cinnamon for distro]

AdrieanKhisbe
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