Like vi, emacs, and other mature Linux programs, tmux is extensible and allows third-party code (or plugins) to extend its features and capabilities. The plugins can be installed manually, or managed through a “plugin manager.” Tmux Plugin Manger (also known as “tpm”) is designed to automatically manage the tmux plugins. By adding few lines into your ~/.tmux.conf you can easily activate plugins and extend the power of tmux beyond its default offering.
Install tpm
1. First, we will clone tpm into ~/.tmux folder under the home folder
$ git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm
2. We add the following lines at the bottom of our ~/.tmux.conf
# List of plugins set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible' # Other examples: # set -g @plugin 'github_username/plugin_name' # set -g @plugin 'git@github.com/user/plugin' # set -g @plugin 'git@bitbucket.com/user/plugin' # Initialize TMUX plugin manager (keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf) run -b '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'
3. Finally, we reload tmux (also knows as “sourcing tmux”). If tmux is already running, type the following:
$ tmux source ~/.tmux.conf
That’s it!
Installing Plugins
- Add new plugin to
~/.tmux.conf
withset -g @plugin '...'
- Press
prefix
+ I (capital i, as in Install) to fetch the plugin.
You’re good to go! The plugin was cloned to ~/.tmux/plugins/
dir and sourced.
Uninstalling Plugins
- Remove (or comment out) plugin from the list.
- Press
prefix
+ alt + u (lowercase u as in uninstall) to remove the plugin.
All the plugins are installed to ~/.tmux/plugins/. A
lternatively you can find plugin directory there and remove it.
Example – Prefix highlighting plugin
The tmux plugin tmux-prefix-highlight provides a visual indicator in the tmux status bar when the tmux prefix key is pressed. The installation is extremely simple using the tmux Plugin Manager (TPM).
Installation
Add plugin to the list of TPM plugins by simply adding the line below to ~/.tmux.conf:
set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-prefix-highlight'
Finally, press prefix + I to install it.
Usage
Just add #{prefix_highlight}
to your left/right status bar by adding the line below to ~/.tmux.conf
set -g status-right '#{prefix_highlight} | %a %Y-%m-%d %H:%M'
The plugin can also be configured to show when copy mode is active; see the Configurations section of the online documentation.
Example – Nordify tmux
Nord is a theme that comes with a total of sixteen, carefully selected, dimmed pastel colors for a eye-comfortable, but yet colorful ambiance. It is inspired by the beauty of the arctic, the colors reflect the cold, yet harmonious world of ice and the colorfulness of the Aurora Borealis. Nord consists of four named color palettes providing different syntactic meanings and color effects for dark & bright ambiance designs.
Nord tmux is an arctic, north-bluish clean and elegant tmux theme. It is part of the ports that Nord offers to unify the appearance of your favorite applications.
Installation and Activation
Nord uses tmux plugins manager (tpm) to automatically download and activate Nord tmux. Once tpm is installed:
- add
set -g @plugin "arcticicestudio/nord-tmux"
to yourtmux.conf
(by default.tmux.conf
located in your home directory) - press the default key binding
prefix
+ I to fetch- and install the plugin