How do I reorder tmux windows?

Question

In screen, I can just type C-a :number 0 to move a window to the top of the window list and push all the other windows down one. What's the equivalent command sequence for tmux? I looked at the man page, but I'm finding it confusing on this point.

Answer 1

The swap-window command is closest to what you want.

"Prefix :" (that is "Ctrl-B :" by default) brings you to the tmux-command prompt. There you enter:

swap-window -s 3 -t 1

to let window number 3 and window number 1 swap their positions.

To move the current window to the top, do:

move-window -t 0

(if base-index is 0, as it is by default).

You can bind that command to a key (T for "top" for example) by adding the following to your ~/.tmux.conf:

bind-key T swap-window -t 0

Answer 2

The tmux equivalent to :number 42 is :move-window -t 42.

Answer 3

Adding to Gareth's answer, you can use the following key bindings

bind-key -n C-S-Left swap-window -t -1
bind-key -n C-S-Right swap-window -t +1

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Left (will move the current window to the left. Similarly right. No need to use the modifier (C-b).

Answer 4

Using swap-window to move to any id: [closest to screen's :number]

# window movement / renumbering like in screen's :number
bind-key m command-prompt -p "move window to:"  "swap-window -t '%%'"

[m for move --> hit prefix-m and enter say 3 . .to renumber window to 3]

Answer 5

You can implement an equivalent to screen's number command using an external shell script that chooses between swap-window and move-window. You can bind it to a key that way:

bind < command-prompt -p index "run-shell '~/.tmux.number.sh %%'"

---

~/.tmux.number.sh:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 1 -o -z "$1" ]; then
    exit 1
fi
if tmux list-windows | grep -q "^$1:"; then
    tmux swap-window -t $1
else
    tmux move-window -t $1
fi

Answer 6

I think you want to bind a new key combination to the 'choose-window' command.

I know you said you've already read the man page, but you should refer back to it. you need to modify your ~/.tmux.conf file to add a bind-key command.

Specifically, look at page 4 of the following.

tmux man page