tmux key binding: Window not found

Question

My problem is I can't make tmux key bindings to switch windows.

I'm running tmux terminal multiplexer on the FreeBSD server. tmux is started automatically for all remote logins using ~/.bash_profile:

if [ $TERM = "xterm" ]; then
   ( (tmux has-session -t remote && tmux attach-session -t remote) \
  || (tmux new-session -s remote) ) && exit 0
   echo "tmux failed to start"
fi

By default, tmux windows are switched using Ctrl+B 1, Ctrl+B 2 ...
I want to switch tmux windows using F1, F2 ...

So I added the following lines to ~/.tmux.conf:

bind-key -n F1 select-window -t :1
bind-key -n F2 select-window -t :2
bind-key -n F3 select-window -t :3
bind-key -n F4 select-window -t :4
bind-key -n F5 select-window -t :5
bind-key -n F6 select-window -t :6
bind-key -n F7 select-window -t :7
bind-key -n F8 select-window -t :8
bind-key -n F9 select-window -t :9

Now when I login and press F1, tmux says: "Window not found: :1". I've tried to change to bind-key -n F1 select-window -t remote:1, the error message is similar: "Window not found: remote:1".

Switching windows from command line works, both tmux select-window -t :1 and tmux select-window -t remote:1.

How can I make it work as a key binding?

Answer 1

Try checking for non-visible characters in your ~/.tmux.conf file. I am able to reproduce your symptoms when the bind-key lines end with a CR (i.e. DOS/Windows-style line endings).

If you use Vim to edit, check the fileformat with :set ff?. If it is set to dos, then you can fix the file with this command:

:set ff=unix|w

If fileformat was already set to unix, then inspect the individual lines; if there are CR characters there, they should show up as ^M.