Tmux is one of the most useful tool when it comes to using a linux terminal.

Tmux is a terminal multiplexer, it allows a user to access multiple terminals (or windows), each running a separate program, while providing a single screen to work on. Tmux is useful for running more than one command-line program at the same time, increasing productivity and the way you work.

To enable clipboard copy-paste on Tmux

Enabling mouse gives you options to clipboard and copy-paste from tmux window and Windows or Linux or MAC Clipboard. Let's look at how to enable copy-paste and mouse behaviour on tmux.

You can either run a command to activate it temporarily for that session by running

Prefix
:set -g mouse on

By default the prefix is Ctrl-B

Ctrl-B
:set -g mouse on

You can also make this a default behaviour of tmux, by adding the setting in ~/.tmux.conf-

set -g mouse on

After adding the above line to the configuration file, you can reload tmux conf-

tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

To disable clipboard copy-paste on Tmux

Disabling mouse gives you options to prevent the clipboard and copy-paste option inside the tmux window or pane.

You can either run a command to activate it temporarily for that session by running

Prefix
:set -g mouse off

By default the prefix is Ctrl-B

Ctrl-B
:set -g mouse off

You can also make this a default behaviour of tmux, by adding the setting in ~/.tmux.conf-

set -g mouse off

After adding the above line to the configuration file, you can reload tmux conf-

tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

If you are a vi or vim enthusiast, then you can enable vi-like copy paste behaviour on tmux as well.

I hope this tutorial for enabling or disabling mouse actions in tmux was useful. You can also check out the complete tmux cheatsheet of keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts.