How to rearrange panes in tmux?

Detailed Explanation

Rearranging panes in tmux allows you to customize your workspace layout for optimal productivity. There are several ways to move, swap, and rearrange panes to create your ideal setup.

Basic Pane Swapping

The simplest way to rearrange panes is to swap them with adjacent panes:

• Ctrl+b { - Swap the current pane with the previous pane
• Ctrl+b } - Swap the current pane with the next pane

You can press these key combinations multiple times to move a pane several positions.

Changing Layouts

tmux provides several predefined layouts that you can cycle through:

# Cycle through layouts
Ctrl+b Space

The available layouts include:

• even-horizontal - Panes arranged side by side, all the same width
• even-vertical - Panes stacked on top of each other, all the same height
• main-horizontal - One large pane at the top, smaller panes at the bottom
• main-vertical - One large pane on the left, smaller panes on the right
• tiled - All panes arranged evenly in a grid

To select a specific layout directly:

# Select a specific layout
Ctrl+b :select-layout main-vertical

# Or use the shorthand
Ctrl+b M-1  # main-horizontal
Ctrl+b M-2  # main-vertical
Ctrl+b M-3  # even-horizontal
Ctrl+b M-4  # even-vertical
Ctrl+b M-5  # tiled

Advanced Pane Swapping

For more precise control, use the swap-pane command:

# Swap panes by index
Ctrl+b :swap-pane -s 2 -t 3  # Swap pane 2 with pane 3

# Swap current pane with a specific pane
Ctrl+b :swap-pane -t 0  # Swap current pane with pane 0

# Swap with pane in a different window
Ctrl+b :swap-pane -s 1.2 -t 2.1  # Swap pane 2 in window 1 with pane 1 in window 2

In these commands:

• -s specifies the source pane (what you want to move)
• -t specifies the target pane (where you want to move it)
• If you omit -s, the current pane is used as the source

Moving Panes Between Windows

You can move a pane to a different window using the move-pane command:

# Move current pane to window 2
Ctrl+b :move-pane -t :2

# Move current pane to a specific window and pane position
Ctrl+b :move-pane -t mysession:2.1

# Move pane and create a new window if it doesn't exist
Ctrl+b :move-pane -t :+

# Join pane from another window to current window
Ctrl+b :join-pane -s :3.2  # Join pane 2 from window 3 to current window

Breaking Panes into New Windows

You can also break a pane out into its own window:

# Break current pane into a new window
Ctrl+b :break-pane

# Break with options
Ctrl+b :break-pane -n "new-window-name" -t 3  # Break into window index 3

Rearranging with Mouse

If mouse support is enabled, you can drag and drop panes to rearrange them:

# Enable mouse support
Ctrl+b :set -g mouse on

With mouse support enabled, you can:

• Drag a pane border to resize
• Drag the pane's border while holding Shift to reorder panes