March 2025
Intermediate to advanced
118 pages
3h 2m
English
Since your command-line programs run inside tmux, you need a way to tell tmux that the command you’re typing is meant for tmux and not for the underlying application. The Ctrl-b combination does just that. This combination is called the command prefix.
You prefix each tmux command with this key combination. To get a feel for how this works, open tmux again:
| | $ tmux |
Then, inside of tmux, press Ctrl-b, then press t. A large clock will appear on the screen.

It’s important to note that you don’t hold all these keys down together. Instead, first press Ctrl-b simultaneously, release those keys, and then immediately press ...
Read now
Unlock full access