I run Tmux in Vi mode. Vi-like navigation in copy mode works fine. However, I can't select any text. Neither v nor V switches to Vi-like text selecting mode.
What am I missing?
By the way, is it possible to display line numbers in copy mode?
P.S.: I'm running Tmux on Mac OS with Z shell
5 Answers
Short answer: space starts selection and enter copies.
For future reference, I got this from the tmux man page:
Function vi emacs Back to indentation ^ M-m Clear selection Escape C-g Copy selection Enter M-w Cursor down j Down Cursor left h Left Cursor right l Right Cursor to bottom line L Cursor to middle line M M-r Cursor to top line H M-R Cursor up k Up Delete entire line d C-u Delete to end of line D C-k End of line $ C-e Goto line : g Half page down C-d M-Down Half page up C-u M-Up Next page C-f Page down Next word w M-f Paste buffer p C-y Previous page C-b Page up Previous word b M-b Quit mode q Escape Scroll down C-Down or J C-Down Scroll up C-Up or K C-Up Search again n n Search backward ? C-r Search forward / C-s Start of line 0 C-a Start selection Space C-Space Transpose chars C-tUpdate: The tmux list-keys command will also list any custom key bindings you have.
You use space bar for the beginning of the selection and enter for the end.
copy:
- Ctrlb[
- Space
- Enter
paste:
- Ctrlb]
Upstream (2.4+) tmux changed how to bind for begin selection. To create a binding for what the OP is asking use -T and send-keys with -X:
# Use v to trigger selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi v send-keys -X begin-selection
# Use y to yank current selection
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi y send-keys -X copy-selection-and-cancelYou can also set up your .tmux.conf file by adding :
bind-key -t vi-copy 'v' begin-selection
bind-key -t vi-copy 'y' copy-selectionwhich will enable 'v' and 'y' to enter visual mode and copy, like in vim.
(Source)
4I find entering vi mode easily to be my bottleneck for which I use the following:
setw -g mode-keys vi
set-window-option -g mode-keys vi
unbind [
bind-key -n F2 copy-mode
