> copy mode
tmux copy mode is a read-only browsing layer over a pane's scrollback: you enter it to page through output that has already scrolled offscreen, search for a string, and select and copy text into tmux's own paste buffers — all without a mouse. This category covers entering and quitting the mode, vi-style navigation and search, making a selection, and moving text between buffers and panes with capture-pane, paste-buffer, and the interactive buffer chooser.
// copy mode
17 commands: setw -g mode-keys vi: capture-pane: list-buffers: choose-buffer// faq
How do I scroll up in tmux to see earlier output?
Press the prefix (Ctrl+b) then [ to enter copy mode, then use the arrow keys or PageUp to move back through the scrollback; press q to return to the live shell. Pressing prefix then PageUp does both steps at once — it enters copy mode and scrolls up one page immediately.
How do I copy text in tmux to my system clipboard?
By default, pressing Enter on a selection in copy mode only writes to a tmux paste buffer, not the OS clipboard (set-clipboard defaults to `external`, which forwards apps' clipboard requests but doesn't emit tmux's own copies). To reach the system clipboard, set `set -g set-clipboard on` (requires a terminal that supports the OSC 52 escape) or rebind the copy key to pipe through pbcopy/xclip with copy-pipe.
Why don't vi keys work in tmux copy mode?
tmux uses emacs-style copy-mode keys by default unless mode-keys is set to vi. Add `setw -g mode-keys vi` to ~/.tmux.conf and reload it so g/G, /, ?, and Space behave as vi bindings; note tmux also auto-selects vi if $EDITOR or $VISUAL contains "vi".