How to Enable Scrolling in Tmux Copy Mode

Introduction

This article provides an overview of using Tmux with iTerm2, a popular terminal emulator for macOS. Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that allows you to manage multiple terminal sessions from a single window.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure that you have the following:

• iTerm2: A terminal emulator for macOS (https://iterm2.com/)
• Tmux: A terminal multiplexer (usually installed by default on macOS)

Installing tmux-CC (iTerm2 Tmux Integration)

Tmux integration with iTerm2 is provided by the tmux-CC plugin. To install it, follow these steps:

1. Open iTerm2 preferences.
2. Navigate to the "Profiles" tab.
3. Select the profile you want to modify (or create a new one).
4. Go to the "Advanced" tab.
5. In the "Startup" section, check the box next to "Run shell script" and paste the following command:
# Install tmux-CC brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tmux-plugins/tpm/master/scripts/install_tpm.sh tpm install tmux-cc
6. Click "Add" and then "OK" to save the changes.

Configuring tmux-CC

After installing tmux-CC, you can customize its behavior by editing the configuration file:

For more information about available options, refer to the tmux-cc GitHub repository.

Using Tmux with iTerm2

Now that you have tmux-CC installed and configured, you can start using Tmux with iTerm2:

1. Launch a new Tmux session:
tmux new-session
2. Detach from the Tmux session:
Ctrl-b d
3. Attach to an existing Tmux session:
tmux attach

Scrolling within Tmux sessions

By default, scrolling within Tmux sessions is not supported in iTerm2. To enable scrolling, follow these steps:

1. Open iTerm2 preferences.
2. Navigate to the "Profiles" tab.
3. Select the profile you want to modify (or create a new one).
4. Go to the "Advanced" tab.
5. In the "Scrolling" section, select "Scrollback buffer" from the "Scrolling behavior" dropdown.

Resources

• Tmux: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki
• Tmux Plugin Manager: https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm
• tmux-cc: https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-cc