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Apr 2026 | 41 posts

tmux rename session

https://youtu.be/WRLRiQDjVIA

So you have been working on your tmux workflow, you’ve dropped a too many window workflow for scoping work that belongs together into separate sessions, but you cannot remember what session your work is in. If your diligent you have named your window when you created it, but sometimes its intent has changed or your were just plain too lazy at the time for the extra characters needed to name it. Don’t worry we can still give that session a descriptive name.

Let’s rename some sessions in the terminal.

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1 min read

tmux targeted session

https://youtu.be/5KE7Il7SOEk

This is something that I made up but use every single day, this is what keeps much of what is on my blog or my teams private work wiki going. I have a few very important directories that I have assigned directly to a hotkey for fast session switching.

bind -n M-i new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com "cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim" bind i popup -E -h 95% -w 95% -x 100% "tmux new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com 'cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim'" bind -n M-I popup -E "tmux new-session -A -s waylonwalker_com 'cd ~/git/waylonwalker.com/ && nvim'"

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tmux new-session

https://youtu.be/LbQNdCAUogE

This one starts a new chapter in our series that is going to open up a whole new set of workflow productivity options, understanding how the new-session command is a critical command in our adventure into tmux glory. This is going to open the door for some seriously game changing hotkeys and scripting.

# create a new session tmux new-session # create a new session detached tmux new-session -d # create a new session and name it tmux new-session -s me # create a new named session and attach to it if one exists tmux new-session -As me

1 min read

tmux detach

https://youtu.be/A1qx3tNKDdA

tmux detach is a handy tmux command that will quit your current session while keeping it running. The full name of the comamnd is detach-client, detach is a shorthand.

default keybinding

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tmux attach

https://youtu.be/JQ0yDCVu44E

attach is one of the most useful features of tmux. If you have no interest in tmux for pane and window management, you should use tmux for this. It can be a life saver if you ever get disconnected from the host machine or accidently close your terminal you can connect right back into the session you were just in using attach.

tmux attach

this command will simply attach back to tmux if you are ever disconnected

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tmux command line

https://youtu.be/SNu-4IrkjAs

So far we have covered a lot of tmux commands and how they map to keybindings but these same commands can be executed at the command line.

Let’s make a popup that displays our git status for 5s or until we close it manually. We can run the following command at the command line, in a split.

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tmux copy-mode

https://youtu.be/-ypY_-VmBKk

tmux copy-mode is a tmux mode that lets you scroll, search, copy, and jump your way through a pane. There are a ton of keybindings for copy-mode, the main ones you will need to know are / for searching down ? for searching up, n for next item, space for starting a selection, and enter to copy the selection. Arrow keys will be used for navigation unless you have specified vi mode, then it will be hjkl.

Default keybinding to get into copy mode is prefix+[.

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tmux join-pane

https://youtu.be/Vm5rRtcVXLw

Join-pane allows you to join panes that you have broken away from your window, or created in a different window to the window you want it in. As far as I know there is not a default keybinding for it.

Before you can join a pane you must first have a pane marked to join. Once you mark a pane, go back to the window you want to join it to and join-pane.

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tmux break-pane

https://youtu.be/ICL609F2xnc

Break-pane is a handy tmux command when your layout gets too cramped and you want to just move a split into its own window. Calling break-pane does exactly that, it creates a new-window for you and moves your currently selected split into that window

Default key binding for break-pane

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tmux zoom

https://youtu.be/Rn6mOarCQ-Y

Zooming into the current split in tmux is a valuable tool to give yourself some screen real estate. These days I am almost always presenting, streaming, or pairing up with a co-worker over a video call. Since I am always sharing my screen I am generally zoomed in to a level that is just a bit uncomfortable, so anytime I make a split it is really uncomfortable, being able to zoom into the split I am focused on is a big help, and also help anyone watching follow where I am currently working.

Default key bindings for zooming the current split

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tmux new-window

https://youtu.be/YRPZBv-iYyE

New window as it sounds makes new windows in tmux. Windows are kind of like tabs. They are another screen within your sessions that you can name and make new panes in.

Default key bindings for creating and navigating windows in tmux.

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tmux select-layout

https://youtu.be/F0mHnwTrNNc

When you get many splits going in tmux sometimes its time for a new layout. There are four layout strategies that I use, main-vertical, main-horizontal, even-vertical, even-horizontal. Almost always I am useing the main ones with mod plus a or mod plus shift a keybindings.

# Select Layouts #――――――――――――――――― bind -n M-a select-layout main-vertical bind -n M-A select-layout main-horizontal bind -n M-E select-layout even-vertical bind -n M-V select-layout even-horizontal

1 min read

clilinuxtmux

tmux resize-panes

https://youtu.be/hpFYE2LU7xc

Resizing panes in tmux can be quite difficult in default tmux, I use a set of keybingings to help resize panes in the rare occasions that I do need just a bit more space. I set the keybinding to the same as my split navigation bindings but shifted. They are very vim like (h,j,k,l).

# resize panes #――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― bind -n M-H resize-pane -L 2 bind -n M-L resize-pane -R 2 bind -n M-K resize-pane -U 2 bind -n M-J resize-pane -D 2

Most often when I need to resize panes I just grab the edge of the pane with my mouse. Yes the mouse, its not that often that I actually need to change the size of a pane.

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tmux choose-tree

https://youtu.be/79Y-kqAiMpw

Choose tree is a powerful tmux utility that provides a graphical interface to preview all sessions, windows, and panes, move between them kill them, move them and much more.

The default keybinding

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tmux prefix

https://youtu.be/BMkpbfhbkKM

The prefix key is an essential part of tmux, by default all of tmux’s key-bindings sit behind a prefix. This prefix is very similar to vim’s leader key. It is common for folks to change the default C-b (control b) to C-a or if they are a vim user something to match their vim leader key.

set -g prefix C-Space bind Space send-prefix

A few of the essential default key-bindings.

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tmux splitting panes

https://youtu.be/kzgyiHap1nQ

splitting panes is a core feature of tmux. It allows us to split the terminal vertically or horizontally into new panes.

bind -n M-s split-window -c '#{pane_current_path}' bind -n M-v split-window -h -c '#{pane_current_path}' bind -n M-X kill-pane

🗒️ note that ‘#{pane_current_path}‘will keep the split in the same directory as it’s parent, without this it will default to your home directory.

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tmux last session

https://youtu.be/RB87EEnnMnU

An ultimate productivity key-binding in tmux is one to switch to the last session. I use this to quickly get between sessions really quick. Often I am working and need to lookup a quick note, or copy something into my notes, then get back to where I was quickly.

bind -n M-b switch-client -l

I think of this hub and spoke model, and use last-session to quickly drive it.

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tmux floating popups

https://youtu.be/2ZqFDsJywt8

Tmux popups are actually floating windows that you can drag around the screen. They always open in the middle (by default) when you open them, no matter where you leave them.

Here are a couple of keybindings I use to open up popup windows.

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⭐ pysonDB pysonDB

Check out pysonDB by pysonDB. It’s a well-crafted project with great potential.

A Simple , ☁️ Lightweight , 💪 Efficent JSON based database for 🐍 Python. PysonDB-V2 has been released ⬇️

Incremental Versioned Datasets in Kedro

Kedro versioned datasets can be mixed with incremental and partitioned datasets to do some timeseries analysis on how our dataset changes over time. Kedro is a very extensible and composible framework, that allows us to build solutions from the individual components that it provides. This article is a great example of how you can combine these components in unique ways to achieve some powerful results with very little work.

What is Kedro

👆 Unsure what kedro is? Check out this post.

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⭐ PyCQA flake8

Just starred flake8 by PyCQA. It’s an exciting project with a lot to offer.

flake8 is a python tool that glues together pycodestyle, pyflakes, mccabe, and third-party plugins to check the style and quality of some python code.