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How to kill a tmux session?

Quick Answer

To kill a tmux session, use tmux kill-session -t session-name from outside tmux, or Ctrl+b :kill-session from within a session.

$ tmux kill-session -t session-name

Detailed Explanation

Killing tmux sessions allows you to close and clean up unwanted or stale sessions. This is different from detaching, as killing a session completely terminates all windows, panes, and processes running within that session.

Ways to kill a specific tmux session:

  • tmux kill-session -t session-name - Kill by session name
  • tmux kill-session -t 0 - Kill by session number
  • From within tmux: Ctrl+b then type :kill-session and press Enter

Finding session names/numbers:

Before killing a session, you may want to list all sessions to find the name or number: 

$ tmux ls
0: 1 windows (created Fri May 31 12:34:56 2025) [80x24]
dev: 2 windows (created Fri May 31 14:10:34 2025) [80x24]

Killing all tmux sessions:

  • tmux kill-server - Kills all sessions and the tmux server
  • killall tmux - System command to terminate all tmux processes

Killing session when attached:

If you're currently in a session you want to kill:

  1. Press Ctrl+b to enter command mode
  2. Type :kill-session and press Enter

Warning

Killing a session will terminate all processes running in it. Make sure to save your work before killing a session.

Pro Tip

To kill all sessions except the current one, use tmux kill-session -a. To kill all except a specific session, use tmux kill-session -a -t session-name.

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