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Creating dedicated profile and override key mappings For example, when pressed, sequence of bytes 0x01 0x1b 0x5b 0x31 0x3b 0x35 0x41 is sent through the terminal to the running tmux instance.

How to set up iTerm2 profile to override key mappings to trigger analogue tmux actions This is 2nd part of tmux in practice post series.

Google here, Google there, after a while you grasp concepts like terminal multiplexing, windows, pane splitting, and understand tmux usage on remote machines to persist session state and survive abrupt disconnections.

At some point of time, you might wondering about tmux usage locally.

Given iTerm already can create multiple virtual windows inside a single physical window, can split, swap and resize panes, do I really need to use tmux on my local machine instead of iTerm When I was learning tmux, I had been returning to same question again and again.

So Ive decided to give it a try, and today I can share benefits and drawbacks with you.

Similar to tabs in iTerm, but you can give them a name A status line with system-wide information.

Includes CPU, memory, onlineoffline status, battery, user, host, and date time.

This which allows me to work in a distraction-free environment and also get extra 3 rows.

These previously were taken by OSX menu bar, iTerm window frame and iTerm tabs row.

When I run a long-running command in one pane, I can switch to another pane and be notified when no more output appears in previous pane for some interval iTerm has something similar, but its only about notifying you when execution returns to command prompt, and requires installing extra shell integration Redefined panes layouts.

Even-horizontal, even-vertical, main-horizontal, main-vertical and tiled Ability to switch between several per-project local tmux sessions to easily switch context If youre using tmux both locally and on remote machine, youd get the same familiar terminal environment When youre using tmux, you rely on iTerm2 unique features much less This makes it easier to migrate to a different terminal emulator, be it on same OS or another one (Linux) Drawbacks: tmux maintains its own scrollback buffer.

Its more difficult to access it and copy text than in iTerm (just scroll and select with mouse) If you copy text in tmux, its stored in tmux own buffer, and not shared with your OS clipboard by default.

To be 100 correct, sharing with system clipboard works in iTerm2, but just because it supports OSC 52 ANSI escape sequences that let application such as tmux to access and store data in clipboard.

Just try to copy text in tmux running in OSX default Terminal, which does not support OSC52 If youre already accustomed to iTerm keybindings, you need to learn and switch to tmux keybindings, which are cumbersome.

Instead of single keystroke like -, you need two keystoke s: pre fix followed by another key, mapped to specific tmux action.

Personally, I decided to go ahead with tmux and its features, and rely less on iTerm2 specific features.

Indeed, right now Im using iTerm just as a tunnel to tmux Issues with scrollback buffer and integration with OS clipboard are highly vital, that you can even decide to give up adopting tmux.

Override iTerm key mappings to trigger tmux action Today, lets see how we can use familiar iTerm keybindings while working in tmux environment.

The idea is to map keystrokes in iTerm to trigger tmux actions.

The easy way would be just to go to.tmux.conf and map tmux actions to those keybindings.

Split Terminal Code Above Will

For example, to resize pane in iTerm, we use, lets map the same keystroke in tmux in somewhat naive way: bind resize-pane -U However, the code above will not work because you cannot use in tmux keybindings, and SHIFT usage is also very limited.

And even it that was possible, iTerm would intercept that keystroke before.

Instead we setup new iTerm profile, and override key mappings to send pre-configured sequences of bytes, that will trigger corresponding action in tmux.

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