tmux.conf excerpt to toggle on/off session keybindings and prefix handling

toggle_keybindings.tmux.conf

bind -T root F12  \
  set prefix None \;\
  set key-table off \;\
  set status-style "fg=$color_status_text,bg=$color_window_off_status_bg" \;\
  set window-status-current-format "#[fg=$color_window_off_status_bg,bg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg]$separator_powerline_right#[default] #I:#W# #[fg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg,bg=$color_window_off_status_bg]$separator_powerline_right#[default]" \;\
  set window-status-current-style "fg=$color_dark,bold,bg=$color_window_off_status_current_bg" \;\
  if -F '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -X cancel' \;\
  refresh-client -S \;\

bind -T off F12 \
  set -u prefix \;\
  set -u key-table \;\
  set -u status-style \;\
  set -u window-status-current-style \;\
  set -u window-status-current-format \;\
  refresh-client -S
  
wg_is_keys_off="#[fg=$color_light,bg=$color_window_off_indicator]#([ $(tmux show-option -qv key-table) = 'off' ] && echo 'OFF')#[default]"

set -g status-right "$wg_is_keys_off #{sysstat_cpu} | #{sysstat_mem} | #{sysstat_loadavg} | $wg_user_host"

As an FYI, if you're on Ubuntu 16.04 (possibly only the mate desktop?) a terminal emulator called tilda uses the F12 key and intercepts it before tmux can.

I get a "bad style bg= fg=" message when I hit F12 using this. Im a tmux newbie.

I get a "bad style bg= fg=" message when I hit F12 using this. Im a tmux newbie.

You have to define the variables used with something like this :
#Variables
color_status_text="colour245"
color_window_off_status_bg="colour238"
color_light="white" #colour015
color_dark="colour232" # black= colour232
color_window_off_status_current_bg="colour254"

This is amazingly useful. Thank you!

Thank you!
I've been using tmux locally and remotely for a long time but avoiding nesting by opening a special tmuxless terminal window for my remote sessions. All the while wishing there was an elegant solution to "tmuxing while I tmux". This solution is great! such a simple idea. Looking forward to trying it out.

This is the one I have been looking for. Thanks for sharing!

To display the user/host in the status bar, needs the following from the original config:

wg_user_host="#[fg=$color_secondary]#(whoami)#[default]@#H"<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">`

I have 4-time nested tmux session (Because of my work, I have to ssh 3 time to move between networks). So do you have any idea to switch between the first and the last tmux? Or better if we can easily control each of them. Sorry for my bad English.

@Delt-A do you need to have a tmux session on every jump to your target network? couldn't you use something like https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/ssh-proxy-bastion-proxyjump to ssh directly into the target (using the others only as jumps) and then have one tmux session there?

Hi,
I've got 2 sessions - (outer) s1 and inside there is (inner) s2.
When I press F10 (got toggle key bound to F10) on the keyboard it works as expected, but trying to do the same in the script ('tmux send -t s1 F10') disables not the outer, but the innser session (s2 instead of s1).

Here's terminal output:

$ tmux send -t s1 F10 (disables s2)
$ tmux send -t s2 F10 (echoes below)
^[[21~%)

Any ideas how to make it work?

This is a minimal configuration for OFF mode (tmux 3.0a):

# Activate OFF mode
bind -n M-o \
    set prefix None \;\
    set key-table off \;\
    set status-style "fg=colour245,bg=colour238"

# Disable OFF mode
bind -T off M-O \
    set -u prefix \;\
    set -u key-table \;\
    set -u status-style

• setting the status-style is enough for my liking
• removing the client refresh seems to still work just fine for some reason
• using a different keybind to enable and disable OFF mode means you can now technically go arbitrarily deep with the TMUX nesting

@niqodea

This is a minimal configuration for OFF mode (tmux 3.0a):

wow man, this minimal setup is so good. appreciate

Hey all, I just released tmux-nested, a plugin that takes inspiration from this gist to support arbitrary levels of nesting. Check it out, it might be of interest!