i m assuming that the tmux prefix is Control+b and that you have emacs style key bindings on
1) enter copy mode using Control+b [
2) navigate to beginning of text, you want to select and hit Control+Space
3) move around using arrow keys to select region
4) when you reach end of region simply hit Alt+w to copy the region
5) now Control+b ] will paste the selection
you can navigate the text using the emacs style navigation key
Control+p, Control+n, Control+f, Control+b etc.
Dan in the comments informs me that if you have vi style key bindings on then the following applies:
1) enter copy mode using Control+b [
2) navigate to beginning of text, you want to select and hit Space
3) move around using arrow keys to select region
4) when you reach end of region simply hit Enter to copy the region
5) now Control+b ] will paste the selection
To enable vi like cursor movement in copy mode put the following in your ~/.tmux.conf:
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
more over what ever you copy, you may dump that out in your terminal using
tmux show-buffer
and even save to a file(say, foo.txt) using
tmux save-buffer foo.txt
To see all the paste buffers try Control + b #. To dump out the varios buffers on to the terminal or file you may use
tmux list-buffers tmux show-buffer -b n tmux save-buffer -b n foo.txt
where n is the index of the paste buffer.
Awhan Patnaik 
tmux is really great, I’m using it too. However I have a problem when it comes to use emacs inside of tmux. Basically, I have shortcuts defined in my ~/.emacs as follows:
(global-set-key (kbd “M-1”) ‘bs-show)
(global-set-key (kbd “C-1”) ‘bs-show)
(global-set-key (kbd “”) ‘bs-show)
(global-set-key (kbd “M-“) ‘bs-show)
(global-set-key (kbd “C-“) ‘bs-show)
(global-set-key (kbd “S-“) ‘bs-show)
Generally I connect to linux box from Windows using putty. When emacs is running inside of tmux, the only first combination is working: “M-1” (Alt+1). For M- and C- emacs prints tilda “~”.
When emacs in running without tmux, 1st, 3rd and 4th shortcuts are working.
Is there any way to make other combinations working when inside of tmux? Is it tmux who prevents them to pass to emacs?
Oh, the parser has taken LT and GT signs away. Four last lines are bindings to F2: F2, M-F2, C-F2 and S-F2.
well i suspect that putty is to be blamed here … i use gnu/linux so i really don’t know about this … but i will try and reproduce the problems on a windows box and report back ….
i generally run emacs with X and rarely in a terminal … so i have had problems with copy paste between emacs and tmux. which i solve using a mouse π¦ … any selection with mouse is immediately available with the mouse middle click … so i use that but am not satisfied with it…
as for the parser taking away the LT and GT signs.. next time use the “
” tags when commenting in wordpress with code or commands.
Alt+w does not seem to work for me, it was so simple in screen.
that is strange. what terminal program r u using? xterm? urxvt? u can check if Alt key is sending the right code using xev …
It seems that I had another instance of tmux running, and creating new instances of tmux would inherit the config values from the running instance, instead of “re reading” the config file.
I am using xterm -class UXTerm -title uxterm -u8 -bg black -fg gray.
by the config file do you mean the config file for tmux or that of xterm? in case of tmux you can simply source the new config file (~/.tmux.conf) by
as for how u invoke xterm … i think its best to set all the corresponding values in ~/.Xresources that way when new instances of xterm are launched they will all have the same config.
however with tmux you don’t need to launch new instance of xterm.
simply launch xterm, then start tmux and then if u need a another terminal simply open a new window or pane in tmux
at least that is how i work.
u know what i had some problems with the Alt key when trying to use readline editing features at the command line so i had this in the ~/.Xresources
that really helped.
Selecting text, copying, pasting, none of this seems to work for me at all. I’m using tmux 1.6, Gnome Terminal 3.4.1.1
Ok my problem was that I have vim-style key bindings. So in translation:
1) enter copy mode using Control+b [
2) navigate to beginning of text, you want to select and hit Space
3) move around using arrow keys to select region
4) when you reach end of region simply hit Enter to copy the region
5) now Control+b ] will paste the selection
thanks. if you do not mind i will update the blog post with these instructions.
Go for it. It’s straight from the man page anyway π
Thank you! It took me forever to find someone stating that Ctl+Space starts text-selection, not just Space. Looks like I have emacs-style keybindings.
You are welcome π
How do I access and use multiple copy-paste buffers?
Also, is there a way to share this buffer with my operating system clipboard if i’m using putty?
Prefix + # will list all the paste buffers. Prefix + = will let you select which paste buffer to use.
On gnu/linux i use xclip or xsel to transfer content between tmux’s paste buffer and the OS clipboard. sorry can’t help you with putty.
[…] Copy paste in tmux […]
using tmux for a day or two now… Here is my problem.
I have split the screen into two vertical pane. On one pane I have a build going on which will put lot of logs on the pane & on the other window I am coding using vi. When there is lot of logs on the build pane, the control seems to ping pong between the panes. Because of this ping pong it becomes difficult to code on the other pane.
Do you know a solution for this.?
@sharath
sorry i have never faced this problem and frankly can’t suggest anything. sorry.
Thank you for this entry, especially the Vi-mode is very useful.
Great start…not quite there for me yet.
What is the Alt-W binding on a Mac?
Opt-W does not seem to do it for me.
fyi…I’m sshing into an ubuntu box using iTerm2 where I’m running tmux.
I figured it out. Per the manpage it is M-w. So, Esc-w does the trick for me!
Thanks again for the post.
thanks bru
thanks π
Arwhan a few excellent tmux resources on you blog, thanks! Suggestions for topics: macros; colour schemes ; tricks with ssh ; etc. ; maybe a short video with a seamless editing session: local to server, remote to server with cut and paste, mouse pasting; then shared session over ssh with read only “watching” of the terminal etc. (using various BSD OSX hosts and maybe even Linux π
Many many thanks for your comment. I feel pumped with excitement already. Am a bit busy with work at the moment but I will surely embark on this project. Many thanks for the encouragement π
This helped! Thanks π
thanks π
[…] εθοΌ http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/en/man1/tmux.1.html copy paste in tmux […]
For people used to work with the vim editor, apart of having vi style key bindings activated, many recommend to change a few keybindings to use the same keys as in vim for the copy/paste operations: ctrl-b + esc to start moving arround the text (with vim keys), v to start selecting text, y to copy it. Then ctrl-b + p to paste it. In your tmux.conf file:
setw -g mode-keys vi
unbind [
bind Escape copy-mode
unbind p
bind p paste-buffer
bind-key -t vi-copy ‘v’ begin-selection
bind-key -t vi-copy ‘y’ copy-selection
[…] am using tmux on ubuntu. I read this https://awhan.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/copy-paste-in-tmux/ for copy and paste inside tmux. But I would like to know how can I copy from TMUX terminal and […]