byobu terminal multiplexer

Feb 16, 2016

Byobu (based on tmux) lets you switch easily between several programs in one terminal. I use it to have multiple terminals for a single ssh session. Its help page contains general information and useful table of key bindings. More details in Dustin blog.

One practical benefit of byobu is that it if your ssh session was interrupted you can resurrect byobu session with all the tabs/windows after reconnect. It's like  screen but with multiple tabs and windows. 

Another feature I like is that I can send a command to all the windows using Shift-F9 hotkey. That is even more attractive if you predefine one or several window sets to start byobu with.

In Mac improve bash prompt by call byobu-prompt and select Ctrl-A as escape key, then use combinations:

• Ctrl-A and then % for vertical split
• Ctrl-A and then | for horizontal split.
• For the help press: Ctrl-A and then ?