Turbo-charge your command-line workflow with Tmux
Tutorials – Tmux
Operate multiple terminal sessions in a single window.
Unless you're some kind of hard-core raw X Window System user who doesn't need to resize or move around any of your applications, chances are that you're running a window manager of some sort. This may be a standalone window manager like Fluxbox, a tiling variant like i3, or perhaps one that's part of a larger desktop environment, such as Xfce, KDE, or Gnome. Window managers are one of the most essential tools for our work – but can they actually be used in text mode?
Well, yes. It might sound a bit weird at first, given that the command line is all about typing and viewing text and doesn't have the same requirements as a pointy-clicky, frill-laden desktop environment. But consider the typical work you do at a Bash prompt: Do you have a single terminal running at maximum screen resolution? Unless you're still rocking a netbook, chances are you have multiple terminals in action at any one point, using your window manager to organize them.
Now, imagine you could leave your window manager out of this and do the work of organizing different sessions inside a single terminal window. This is what Tmux, the "terminal multiplexer" does – and it does it very well [1]. With Tmux, you effectively have a text-mode window manager available at the command line, so you can create different views (e.g., with a big main command-line view for your day-to-day work and smaller views next to it for monitoring logs or IRC channels).
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.