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Severin
Asked: 2014-06-13 00:46:03 +0800 CST

How to change key binding for Tmux

  • 772

I want to change the key binding in Tmux so I can use

Ctrl + Alt

instead of

Ctrl + B

This is my (unfortunately) not working try to do so.

unbind C-b
set -g prefix M-C

What's wrong with this? I thought I followed the documentation for the keys.

keyboard

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You do indeed have the correct syntax for changing the command prefix in tmux. But unfortunately you cannot use the combination Ctrl+Alt as a command prefix. Both Ctrl and Alt are only used in combination with other keys, but never alone and never with each other. For example,

    • C-b stands for Ctrl+B
    • M-n stands for Alt+N

    Your attempt to bind M-C actually means Alt+Shift+C (meta prefix with uppercase C). Similarly, C-M would mean Ctrl+Shift+M.

    In short, you have to combine Ctrl with some other key or Alt with some other key, not with each other.

    • 12