CODEWITHSUNDEEP
macostmux
Mad Wombat
Mad Wombat

Reputation: 15105

Configure mouse in tmux on OSX

It seems that mouse support changed in one of the recent versions of tmux and every article I am finding on the subject uses outdated settings. All I want to be able to do is use my mouse to scroll when in scroll mode and use it to copy/paste with the left button like it usually does in a terminal. Unfortunately, if I set set -g mouse on the copy/paste doesn't work and if I set it to off, scroll doesn't work. I am on OSX 10.12 Sierra if that makes a difference and I am using the default Terminal app.

Upvotes: 10

Views: 12246

Answers (7)

Titou
Titou

Reputation: 394

I've tried many different solutions but the only working (scrolling with mouse and possibility to copy/paste using usual CMD+C/V) for me was the one stated over here:

i.e. put this inside ~/.tmux.conf:

# macOS only
set -g mouse on
bind -n WheelUpPane if-shell -F -t = "#{mouse_any_flag}" "send-keys -M" "if -Ft= '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -M' 'select-pane -t=; copy-mode -e; send-keys -M'"
bind -n WheelDownPane select-pane -t= \; send-keys -M
bind -n C-WheelUpPane select-pane -t= \; copy-mode -e \; send-keys -M
bind -T copy-mode-vi    C-WheelUpPane   send-keys -X halfpage-up
bind -T copy-mode-vi    C-WheelDownPane send-keys -X halfpage-down
bind -T copy-mode-emacs C-WheelUpPane   send-keys -X halfpage-up
bind -T copy-mode-emacs C-WheelDownPane send-keys -X halfpage-down

# To copy, left click and drag to highlight text in yellow, 
# once you release left click yellow text will disappear and will automatically be available in clibboard
# # Use vim keybindings in copy mode
setw -g mode-keys vi
# Update default binding of `Enter` to also use copy-pipe
unbind -T copy-mode-vi Enter
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi Enter send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy"
bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send-keys -X copy-pipe-and-cancel "pbcopy"

then run tmux command source-file ~/.tmux.conf (by typing CTRL+B, followed by :)

Upvotes: 1

Kaushik
Kaushik

Reputation: 11

On OSX and tmux 3.0a with set -g mouse on in your tmux.conf, you can use ctrl-b [ then a mouse drag to select text. After which you should be able to paste with ctrl-b ].

Upvotes: 0

SpinUp __ A Davis
SpinUp __ A Davis

Reputation: 5531

One quick way to get copy-paste functionality back using the mouse is to disable "Mouse Reporting"; see the menu item View > Allow Mouse Reporting in Terminal.app. The default keyboard shortcut is ⌘ Command+r, so a possible workflow is:

  1. Hit ⌘ Command+r to toggle off mouse reporting.
  2. Highlight text with mouse as usual, copy with ⌘ Command+c, or paste with middle-click.
  3. Hit ⌘ Command+r to restore tmux's mouse functionality.

Alternatively, hold down the fn key to temporarily obtain the same functionality, as noted in the answer from @yaroslavpalamar.

Multi-pane solution

The comments pointed to an issue with this solution when using multiple panes. This requires a fix from within tmux, in order to simultaneously zoom the pane and allow copy/paste with the mouse. To do that, we can augment the solution pointed to by @MadWombat by adding the line below to the config.

In your ~/.tmux.conf file (or /etc/tmux.conf):

bind-key m set mouse \; resize-pane -Z

Then prefix+m is a toggle: hit it once to zoom the pane and allow copy/paste with the mouse, hit it again regain the former functionality. Note this works fine with a single pane as well -- the zoom part of the command has no effect in that case.

Upvotes: 17

yaroslavpalamar
yaroslavpalamar

Reputation: 418

In my case fn button + mouse works fine for text selection. After selection need to press cmd+c for copying and paste with cmd+v.

Upvotes: 10

Omar A
Omar A

Reputation: 445

Using the set -g mouse on as specified above works to use the mouse for scrolling.

On Linux the shift button works to allow the normal mouse selection and copy/paste, but on Mac it seems to be the Alt button, give that a try (it works for me using tmux on iTerm2).

Upvotes: 0

pfmaggi
pfmaggi

Reputation: 6476

tmux changed mouse behaviour moving from v2.0 to v2.1.

You can find more information reading tmux's github repository issue 145 description.

I don't use this anymore, but this fixed mouse handling for me after moving to v2.1:

# Handling mouse
set -g mouse on
# Fix Mouse Scrolling: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/145
bind -n WheelUpPane if-shell -F -t = "#{mouse_any_flag}" "send-keys -M" "if -Ft= '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -M' 'select-pane -t=; copy-mode -e; send-keys -M'"
bind -n WheelDownPane select-pane -t= \; send-keys -M

With this settings you can select using the mouse and the Option (alt) key and then use Cmd-C to copy the selection.

Upvotes: 5

Sardorbek Imomaliev
Sardorbek Imomaliev

Reputation: 15390

You can hold shift when selecting text this way it won't invoke copy and paste mode.

https://awhan.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/tmux-copy-paste-with-mouse/

you will notice that you are not able to select text at all. The solution is to use the shift key. Hold down the shift key and then left click and drag across the target text. If you want to now paste the selected text back in to xterm, you must also hold down the shift key and then middle click in order to paste the text. This is not mentioned in the tmux man pages so i do not think this is a tmux feature. guess this has something to do with xterm, but i m not sure.

https://superuser.com/questions/300060/tmux-and-text-selection-with-mouse-through-putty

Upvotes: 0

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